Welcome!!! {and some back story}

credit Hayley Moss Photography

My name is Ashley and I am so excited to welcome you to this space! 

Above you will see my family, a little over a year ago (November 2013) when we adopted our four children. What a journey we entered when we said yes that April day in 2012 on the phone to our foster care worker. A journey that has included some of the most beautiful as well as some of the most difficult days of my life.

I have been praying over this space and this community (and YOU!) for over six months now. That's the length of this back story.

Actually, it probably really starts about six and a half years ago when I entered the blogging world. I felt so alone in my journey through infertility. I didn't know anyone else who was struggling. I started a blog hoping to find a way to connect with others who were struggling too.

Throughout my years blogging, God has been creating in me a passion for telling my story and connecting with others, for His glory, so that we know we are not alone. We have each other, and we have Him, no matter what we face.

This past summer (2013), I felt God urging me to continue seeking to encourage people online, all over the world, but to also start being more intentional about seeking to encourage women close to me. Women who can gather together in real life and not simply reach out over the internet but reach out their hands to each other. I prayed for God to show me a way to fulfill this new mission.

Then I went on a retreat. The leadership teams for the homeschool cooperative organization I am a part of, come together once a year to have intentional time together and plan for the year ahead. What I realize now that I hadn't realized then was that I had never gotten away by myself since becoming a mother (or with my husband...ahem, I'm working on that too!). 

The one-night retreat wasn't anything spectacular, I mean we were doing work. Yet, as I removed myself from my everyday life, and mothering responsibilities (oh yeah, and I didn't have to cook or clean either!), I was able to breathe a little more slowly, observe my surroundings a little more intentionally, and receive refreshment a little easier.

As I drove home from this retreat I became aware that this is what foster and adoptive moms need. 

We need the space to rest and relax and be able to have life breathed back into us.

Mothering is hard. Many times we give, and give, and give, and give some more. We can become so weary in this calling.

Raising kids from difficult places can certainly be challenging. The circumstances we find ourselves in can leave us running on empty and feeling alone and inadequate.

We need each other. We need hope.

And we need to be refueled for this great Kingdom work of mothering.

This is why I am starting this community. This is why I am working with a team of women to bring an event to life for you! 

I picture a woman I have been many times, weary and slouched over in exhaustion. She needs a place to RUN to. A place where she can come with an empty cup, and leave with it overflowing. By God's grace, we hope to create a place like that. When you receive our weekly e-mail or attend our retreat, we hope that you have been refreshed, encouraged, and reminded of the great hope you have in Christ. Hope that makes you stand a little taller and breathe a little easier. Hope that reminds you that you are not alone.

You are invited into this space. You are welcomed here.