In Holding On to Hope, Nancy Guthrie writes:

We had Hope for 199 days. We loved her. We enjoyed her richly and shared her with everyone we could. We held her during seizures. Then we let her go.

The day after we buried Hope, my husband said to me, "You know, I think we expected our faith to make this hurt less, but it doesn't." Our faith gave us an incredible amount of strength and encouragement while we had Hope, and we were comforted by the knowledge that she is in heaven. Our faith keeps us from being swallowed by despair.

But I don't think it makes our loss hurt any less.

Early on in my journey, I said to God, "Okay, if I have to go through this, then give me everything. Teach me everything you want to teach me through this. Don't let this incredible pain be wasted in my life!"

God… allows good and bad into our lives and we can trust him with both.… Trusting God when the miracle does not come, when the urgent prayer gets no answer, when there is only darkness, —this is the kind of faith God values most of all….

I believe that the purpose of Hope's short life, and my life, was and is to glorify God.