Carlina White is reunited with her family after being kidnapped 20 years ago from a New York Hospital. Carlina White’s family “never lost hope” that she would return.

In 1987, Carlina White was kidnapped from her hospital bed, just 19 days old.

The story terrified New Yorkers and and sowed doubt and worry into the hearts of expectant mothers. Some might even have said, “I hope that doesn’t happen to me.” But that’s not real hope.

Real hope is Carlina White‘s grandma who said, “One day she will come back.”

Today was that day.

Carlina White became suspicious of her identity when she applied for a drivers license, but had no birth certificate. This led her to a missing children’s database and a photo that looked like her.

Carlina White is now reunited with her biological family–against the staggeringly low chances that this would ever happen.

Hope is a powerful force. Hope is more than emotion or state of mind.
Hope is not the watered-down concept we have now where we say things
like, “I hope that doesn’t happen to me.”

Hope lives.

Today, there are few families who understand that better than the family of Carlina White.

Hope is what sustains us when everything else fails. Hope is what is in the eyes of children who long for rescue or food or school.

Hope seems to thrive when the poverty of our circumstances rips away our other security blankets. In the absence of anything, hope still lingers. Sometimes it is as quiet as a whisper.

This concept of hope fascinates me because I have seen it again and again and again in the unlikeliest of places. Those who hope are rewarded.

What hopes stir in your heart?