I MOPS because I was a mom with a toddler, a marriage looking at its tomb, and a freshly emptied womb. I was 12 weeks pregnant when I lost my second baby and gained a depression that started on my bathroom floor – birthed a pain and emptiness I didn’t know I had laying inside of me. Waiting for friends I didn’t have and love I couldn’t find – hating myself, my husband … God. He was no friend of mine.

I reached out to my HOA Facebook page typing into what I didn’t know was a prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Who art in Facebook land, send help. SOS. Lifeline … Hello? Is it me you’re looking for?

I didn’t know it at the time; Jesus answered me by way of Kacie (angel and Grecian sassy pants) who was the coordinator at the time. She invited me into MOPS. I was nervous, scared. I was pretty sure that Satan LIT UP inside of me … I wasn’t a believer and my family wasn’t following that path either. Would I be welcome, really? Oh well, I came anyway.

My experience here has been one adventure that I didn’t know I needed and I never saw myself going on. It was random porch drops, support through my oldest daughter’s sensory processing diagnosis; it was “I didn’t see you at church this weekend, we missed the girls,” and “How is your husband?” It was “let us love you through fixing my marriage;” it was applause when I was baptized and “walking in the newness of life” with me.

MOPS is “let me pray for you;” it is my daughter teaching me what she learned about Jesus on Sunday morning, because I need to know the stories, too! MOPS is loving my family through my youngest possibly having hearing loss and starting therapy for her own special set of needs and anxieties. MOPS is watching my husband being baptized and loving him through that completely! MOPS is loving my family through trials and errors just where we are and helping us when the growing pains feel too tight and difficult.

MOPS helped change the trajectory of my family! I MOPS because Jesus saw me laying on the floor with a broken heart and he mopped me up, squeezed out the dirt from inside of me, and dipped me in clean water. I MOPS because I want to be the hands that do that for others. I want to give coffee, lend ears and give hugs that maybe last too long because I’m not great at using my words. At least with a hug, you’re going to KNOW I love you! With MOPS I realized I want to be a good mother because He is a good father and a gracious God who doesn’t waste the pain and mistakes of your past … but uses them to help fill the buckets of others.

– A MOPS Mom