About The Blog

Here starts a new adventure. After playing hide-and-seek with God for about three years, I’ve finally stopped trying to win. It really is an impossible game to win when you’re playing against the God Who Sees. During those years, He has kept nudging me to write my story. My argument was, “Who would want to read my story?” His answer has given me a different perspective.

One day, as I sat in my room spending time with Jesus, His answer came to me. He answered with a question, as He often does. He asked, “If only one person’s life is changed because of your story, would it be worth it?”

That day, after He spoke to me, I started a note in my phone to keep track of different ideas I have of things to write about. The first note I wrote says, “If God wants me to write, I will write. So what if I only reach one person? If I reach them and it changes them the way God intended, my job is complete.”

So here I am, writing for that one person, praying I am able to trust God will work everything else out.

My story is partially health related, partially a love story, partially real life, and all about God’s love and grace. How do we find God in the hard places of life? What about in the good parts? And the spaces in between? Why do we have these little interruptions and what can we learn from them?

My hope and goal is that my writing will be real. It’s about life. It’s about faith. It’s about encouraging others and helping them know they aren’t alone on this crazy ride. Maybe you can relate to my life, maybe you can’t. My prayer is that whether you relate or not, you can be encouraged and led closer to God through the words I write.

About Me

I am not a professional. I haven’t gone to college. I was homeschooled alongside my three siblings my whole life. I go to a small church. I live in a small town. I work as an administrative assistant at a church five minutes from where I live with my wonderful husband, Andrew.

In June of 2016, I was diagnosed with invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (meaning, in simple terms, I have fungus growing in my lungs). A few days later, I was diagnosed with adrenal insufficiency as well (meaning my body doesn’t create cortisol, a stress hormone). Eight months after I started taking medications for the fungal infection, I found myself in a hospital room with a collapsed lung. Three hospital stays and one surgery later, I was down half of a lung, but found the love of my life.

I’ve always found that I see God’s goodness much more in the hard times than in the good times. I know I would not appreciate Andrew as much as I do if he hadn’t come into my life during such a hard season. He puts me and my health concerns above all else, taking off days from work to drive me to appointments, spending a lot of money on my medications, encouraging me to not work in stressful workplaces (I’ve worked retail for over four years), and even setting up this blog for me to do what God is calling me to do.

I know my journey isn’t finished yet, but I have hope that someday my life won’t be quite so messy.

About the Name

Purely Hoping isn’t just wishing for something in vain. It’s not an unrealized dream. It’s not something out of reach or unrealistic.

A few years ago, someone dear to me passed away. At his funeral, it was revealed there was a note in his Bible stating, “Hope = divine certainty”. Since that day, I think about hope differently. As a Christian, hope is something that is attainable. I can hope, have divine certainty, that one day this whole mess of a life will make sense.

The word “hope” is a word that has followed me through my life. Hope is what keeps me going when life looks bleak. When those little (or big) inconveniences start breaking down my walls of hope, I can have faith and hope in God. He will take care of me and build me back up again, stronger than before.

The blog name is also a play on my name. My first name is Katherine, which means “pure” and my middle name is Nadene, meaning “hope”.

This is my journey. I am purely hoping.