This past weekend I attended my church's annual women's retreat, and for once I really felt like I was supposed to be there. To be completely honest, I'm not always a big fan of the retreat. I love the idea of it, but it's not always enough. I went on it two years ago and did not really enjoy it. For some reason I didn't have much fun, and didn't get much out of it. That experience kept me from even considering going last year (although, even if I had wanted to, we actually were out of town that weekend for a wedding). Well, Cody pulled rank this year and turned in my payment the first day registration was open, so I didn't have much choice, lol. I was still very nervous about how my weekend would go, especially because my security blanket friends were not going to be there and I really didn't have anything to fall back on except a good book.
The weekend started off great by sharing the car ride down to the retreat with some amazing ladies that are in our church small group. It was nice getting to know them a little bit more, and sharing a great meal with them. I got to room with them as well, so it was nice to be around familiar faces.
Every women's retreat is laid out fairly the same. There is a large group meeting time with a guest speaker, some free time with some activities, and small groups that meet after the speaker speaks. I really feel like God kind of lined my group up for me this time. It was a mixture of a few people that I already knew, and a couple that I didn't. Well, out of the 3 people that I didn't know, one of them has adopted and one of them has been doing foster care for 7 years! (Her and her husband have also done some training through Project 1.27, so it was nice not to have to explain what it was to her.) There is also one girl that I already know who just started their home study for international adoption. I do not think that the ladies that set up the groups knew that there was this connection with most of us, but it was super cool. I'm very grateful that I now have someone with a lot of fostering experience to talk to, because where I am still very appreciative to have all the people that I know who are or have adopted, there is a big part of fostering that they just can't relate to without experiencing it themselves. Cody also had the opportunity to meet this lady's husband at a BBQ that he went to over the weekend. It's just crazy how all of this just lined right up for us.
I am thoroughly convinced that our church is a magnet for people who have done some sort of adoption related activity, even though I doubt the majority of them are even aware of how many people there are. I have a tiny inside window with Cody being on staff, he just has an opportunity to meet more people and hear their stories. There are at least 6-7 couples that I can think of off the top of my head, and I think I may have heard of 2-3 more. That is a pretty good number when our church isn't very big to begin with. I just love this tiny little community!!!
In addition to the foster care related stuff, I also had the opportunity to be there for a friend who is going through some possible infertility stuff as well. I know having a person to talk to about that stuff was huge for me and really helped me feel not as alone, so I really hope that I am able to help this person feel the same thing and that she would feel supported as well.
I'm very glad that Cody basically made me go on the retreat this year. Not only did I meet some great new people, get poured into and hopefully poured out of, but I also had a lot of fun!
UPDATE ON OUR JOURNEY AND PRAYER REQUESTS
We are getting closer to the home study! We had a little hiccup when we turned in our application to the program that we are working through (Project 1.27). They let me know that everything looked great, but I had missed a page. Oops!! Luckily, it was a page that did not need to be signed, so I just filled it out on the computer and was able to email it to them. I was informed that they had finalized their review of it and were mailing it back to us today. Once we get it we can officially turn it in to our foster care agency (Maple Star), and from what I understand our next step will be setting up our first home study meeting! I am both scared and feel peaceful about this process. It's an odd feeling, feeling two opposites at the exact same time.
Here are our prayer requests at this time. Some of them are a repeat of my last post, but still very valid. I'd like to ask you to pray that our home
study goes smoothly and quickly, that I would be thinking of less
"what-ifs" and be able to be more comfortable with going with the flow
of this process, and that Cody and I would be able to support each other
well through this process. I also need prayer about how to prioritize my time in order to get our apartment organized before the actual home visit. I'd also like prayer for how I can be there for the friend that I mentioned above- specifically that I wouldn't be too overbearing, but also wouldn't be absent when she needs someone, and that the right words would come out of my mouth.
I appreciate you all. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
