Welcome to Memoirs of Hope!

Hi- thank you for being here! I am so excited and am really looking forward to sharing all of the amazing stories in future posts. I wanted to take the time in my first post to introduce myself and share my heart behind this blog.

My name is Sondra McKinney. I've been married to Marc for 14 years and we have two amazing, adorable, crazy children. As a family we like to make lots of memories- we like movie nights, hanging out in our backyard, hiking, playing games, and really, we just try to take the time to be together. I personally don't have a lot of hobbies; I do enjoy reading or listening to books. And the gift I feel like I've been blessed with is just being a people person! Oh- and just a heads up, I like to use exclamation marks. Sorry if that bugs you, but as I'm listening to myself write, the thought often ends with a ! Haha.

One thing about me, I love to share my life with people. Sometimes I may share a little too much, hah. But it's always just been how I've operated. I've always loved hearing people's stories or sharing my own. I am a believer that when you are open and honest, vulnerable, it opens the door and allows other people to also share what may be on their heart that might be more difficult for them to share.

As humans, it seems that we have learned that we need to keep the difficult parts of our life- or even the parts we see as ugly, too sensitive, or even too much- to ourselves. We've done a great job learning how to put on a face (even if we don't necessarily mean to), and letting people see what we think they want to see. Or maybe that's just been me...

I want to try and help break that down, and even if just slowly, allow people a chance to start to dismantle the walls around their hearts.

A little backstory. When I was living in New York City, I used to do video blogs. That was back in 2009! I wish I would have kept up with it. Anyway, I came across some of those blogs and since the pull to start this blog and interview people was arising in me again recently, I took finding those video blogs as a little sign. I still didn't do too much with it until just a couple of weeks ago, I found a note in my phone from August 5, 2019- and it had laid out exactly what I want to do with this blog! I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is like a definite push to just do the dang thing!" So here we are.

Another thing you should probably know from the very beginning is that I love Jesus with all my heart. Jesus is why I am here today, why I have a family, and why I am still married! Jesus has walked with me through the toughest times of my life, and I've seen Him walk through difficult times with others. This blog is to glorify God, my heavenly Father. To promote Him and His name. To share people's testimonies- because I know when I share mine, not one person on earth can debate me and tell me that my Jesus isn't real. You'll see that through the shared stories, a lot of the same attributes are woven through each one; Love, Joy, Peace, Comort, Healing, and Hope. Jesus- our Living Hope.

It's taken me awhile to start this blog. I've just been thinking about it for a long time. I've wanted it to be perfect. But I realized, nothing is ever perfect. I feel like the Lord spoke to me about what to do, and now I'm going to do it.

There will be a mixture of ways that the stories will be told. Some Just written on here, and some in video form on youtube. I love the written word and have always felt words and their meaning more when I read them versus listening. So I am excited to pair the written word with videos to bring inspiring and encouraging real life stories to you.

One last note as I introduce this blog. Another way I hope to use this platform is to share stories from people around us that may not feel like they have a voice. I want to give voice to the elderly in our midst, as I feel that they aren't always looked to, even though they carry loads of wisdom and life experience that you just can't have unless you've lived a long time. I also want to give a voice to the unhoused population. I have always had a heart for the homeless, as I feel that so often, people just pass by them and they aren't even treated like human beings. My hope in sharing their stories is to show people that everyone is human, and whether they are homeless due to unfortunate circumstances or their own bad choices, they are human and should be treated as such. I could go into a lot more on this topic, and I'm sure I will- but I will leave you with that for now. :)

Thank you, my fellow readers. Thank you for being here, for reading along, and I hope you'll continue on this journey with me!

Until next time,

Sondra