Jennifer Saake

I, Jennifer Saake , stumbled into the online world in my mid-early 20s, around 1995 or '96. As you may have noticed, I've been fairly quiet this past couple of years. Here's why. After processing my own journey online for so long, last year I sort of ran out of words and went into public hibernation. As I prepare to once again start fresh in an attempt to plunge back into the blogosphere, here's my backstory, divided into about 10 sub-headings so than you can skim topics. (Many of the headings are linked to more detailed pages.): Infertility, Miscarriages, Adoption Losses Three years in, our infertility and loss journeys became lived out in the public eye, as God allowed me the incredible privilege of interacting with tens of thousands of other grieving women, both through  Hannah's Prayer Ministries  and then, a decade later, with the publication of  my first book , Hannah's Hope: Seeking God's Heart in the Midst of Infertility, Miscarriage, & Adoptio...

As I looked up dates for this week, I realized that it was EXACTLY two years ago this coming Saturday, on December 10, 2020, when I watched Susan Heck's " A Call to Scripture Memory " - https://youtu.be/WVvPtTCni1E - and asked God if it would be possible for me to commit ONE short book of the Bible to memory by January 1, 2022? I was intrigued by the "brain training" aspect of the concept, deeply convicted of the spiritual benefits of this idea, and incredibly sincere in my desire to hide God's Word in my heart. I was also cynical and skeptical that it would be remotely possible for me, with such extensive memory incapability after strokes had wiped out so much of my brain, hitting memory centers hard!  I flipped through my Bible and felt satisfied that I should try the book of Jude since I figured it must be the shortest book, at only a single chapter comprised on just 25 verses. I didn't  know my Bible  well enough to realize that there are four books ...

This day, 10 years ago, was just another early October morning. I was a busy, thankful, mini-van-driving, homeschooling mom of 3 long-awaited miracles. My first book had been published almost 6 1/2 years prior. I was juggling teaching, crafts, homeschool co-op, library time, play dates for the kids, and coffee dates and phone calls with my own friends. The holidays were quickly approaching, plans and lists were being made: the calendar was starting to fill with fall and winter performances and events, as was my gift collection closet, with the clearance items I had been stashing away since day-after-Christmas sales the prior year.  Decorations were being made and set around the house. Pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and apple smells filled the air. Grocery store trips were built around meal plans I hoped my family would find delicious, but could also be prepared with my limited culinary skillset, budget, and time/energy. Oh, and occasionally I would even manage to scrub a toilet or two! T...

Every Sunday morning finds my alarm going off 1-3 hours earlier than it does on any other day of the week. My health  demands much sleep, but my heart so craves speaking Life and Truth to the Bride of Christ, that C. and I guard of our weekly book workshopping hour fiercely and have found Sunday mornings before church, to be the best consistent fit for both of our schedules. So C. greets me at her door at 7am every Sunday.  [Update, Late October, 2024:  About a year ago, a family crisis in C.'s life necessitated the end of our writing partnership. After taking most of this year to prayerfully reconsider the project, I have begun this book again and am meeting regularly with my pastor for input and now attempting to writing solo, starting over with chapter 1. Honestly, if a publishable book is the final outcome, it will only be because God choose to enable my injured brain to achieve something beyond my natural capabilities. I'm leading this post on my blog for background ...

Any updates to this post will be found at  JenniferSaake.blogspot.com/p/hannahs.html From 1992-2006, Rick and I prayed for children. We spent more than a decade seriously entrenched in the daily struggles of infertility, demanding costly emotional, medical, and financial investments. We opened our hearts to thirteen children we longed to parent. We grieved ten babies we did not get to raise (miscarriages and adoption losses). We've experienced the indescribable joy of parenting three living miracles. Since 1996, I've participated in a variety of online forums and platforms, first using pseudonyms related to  Hannah , then  over the past two decades, as  @InfertilityMom . I  founded  Hannah's Prayer Ministries  in 1994 , and authored   Hannah's Hope: Seeking God's Heart in the Midst of Infertility, Miscarriage, and Adoption Loss  in 2005. Please  enjoy  a free pdf version of the book introduction, my personal infertility / loss story...

JenniferSaake   spring 2019 I grew up on the mission field, spending 7 years in Japan. (No, I did not learn more than a very few words of the language.) While I moved about 17 times in childhood, most recently I lived in Northern Nevada, 45 minutes from Lake Tahoe, for over two decades. We moved to Arizona in 2019. I can touch my nose with the tip of my tongue and can pick up items with my toes. There were 6  Jennifer s in my first grade class in the the late 1970s. Find out more on the  Saake Pronunciation Guide .                                                                                                    Our journey to parenthood took the long path of infertility, miscarriage, and adoption loss that I've briefly reco...