Nurturing Hearts Through Nature
Our little farm sanctuary has been a huge blessing and has brought so much tangible joy and healing to our family and especially to our Gianna. She came home to our family from China at age 2 with a 1/2 heart and we will never be the same after experiencing her love and bravery and miracles. She teaches us all about our Living Hope.
In her too brief (yet full) 6 1/2 years of life, she endured 6 open heart surgeries, meningitis, seizures, a brain bleed, and countless hospital admissions. There were many times that she had to be so courageous and her spirit did experience deep medical trauma and anxiety, however she found such peace and calm And joy with her cuddly creatures and her colorful gardens. You could always find her with a chicken under her arm, cuddling a kitten or bottle-feeding her baby goat. In fact after realizing how our little farmette had brought so much healing and peace to our whole family… that Spring of 2018, we decided to allow this blessing to overflow into the community to bring others to our farm (who needed joy) so their hearts could experience the peace that God’s creation brings. It was a beautiful Miracle to watch the vision of Morning Glory Farm Friends unfold. However, weeks later Our world suddenly crashed. We unexpectedly walked the valley of tragedy and grief when Jesus took our precious Gianna home April of 2018. It felt like our world lost its sunshine. But as we know, God wasn’t done. His stories never end in ashes… Life always wins. And He is the one who calls us out of the darkness and into the light.
After a long pause of our therapy farm ministry over the last 4 years, we felt God calling us back out to allow Him to use our deepest pain to rebirth this ministry into a new goodness of love and LIFE for others who also need healing. We knew He was doing a new thing.
We know, without a doubt, that God has used this gift of Gia’s farm to bring balm to our own hearts these past 4 years while walking the darkest seasons of life and so we desire to share that Blessing and joy with others who need it most.
It is our hope to open our little special farm, our wildflower garden and all our furry friends back up to guests (of all ages) again, by appointment, who need an extra special dose of joy, animal bonding, nurturing and comfort!
As we all know, our world has experienced a great deal of grief, trauma, and anxiety these last couple years and so we are more convinced than ever that there’s such a need for a healing balm for troubled hearts.
It is just so wonderful how God gave all of us the amazing gift of HIS creation to bring smiles, joy and light!
Personally, we have seen the benefits of nature and animal therapy with our own family first hand as we have experienced deep loss and trauma.
Our amazing God designed our very bodies to respond to His gifts of creation in powerful healing ways. In fact, research indicates that interaction with animals and nature can temporarily affect the release of various neurotransmitters in the brain. Oxytocin levels (linked with bonding) and dopamine levels (involved in the reward-motivation system) are increased, while cortisol levels (an immunosuppressant associated with stress) are decreased. Isn't that simply amazing! So, literally just being around these precious animals and gardens, out in HIS beautiful creation, can nurture your heart and soul!
So, Just like our Gianna’s life, God is continuing to grow our ministry from the seed of her life. And our vision for this newest branch (under GiasHope.org ) is for GIA'S Hope Farm Friends to be a therapy farm to help nurture hearts through nature and bring joy to others through sharing the love of Jesus through the gift of His creation.
We will also have opportunities to travel to you and bring our farm friends for special bonding visits to those who want some sweet time for animal cuddles.
We specifically hope to serve the communities of disabled, special needs, grieving, marginalized, broken and foster/adoption, widows, and cancer fighters, and anyone who needs an extra dose of JOY!
It is our hope that GIA'S Hope Farm Friends, will not only nurture hearts here at home, but also help to nurture the hearts and grow hope for the vulnerable ones around the world. Though our hearts Deeply miss Our Gianna, it’s such joy to our hearts to watch God multiply her miracles and we look forward to eternity with her.
Our hearts are filled with so many ideas to bring God’s love and light to those who need it most. Best of all, all donations to the farm will go directly towards specific initiatives at Giashope.org to care for the broken, hurting, poor, and orphaned around the world through ministries that we partner with.
It is our hope that GIA'S Hope Farm Friends, will not only nurture hearts here at home, but also help to nurture hearts and grow hope for the vulnerable ones around the world.
We pray God uses our little therapy farm to move mountains!
Please feel free to email me at [email protected] for more information on our newest care ministry initiative, or if you would like to donate to this newest mission of Hope at GiasHope.org! Stay tuned as we share more farm surprise joys and upcoming events soon.
