Created for Care: Getting Soaked

A couple weekends ago, I had my socks blessed right off at the

Created for Care retreat.  Andrea at Babe of My Heart organized this weekend and hoped for fifty adoptive mommas to attend.  In just a few days, 250+ women registered.  Truly, it was blessed from the beginning.  

We walked away from this trip rejuvenated in every sense of the word.  We stayed in a beautiful lodge away from home and all responsibilities.  We ate great meals, sipped on tea and munched on candy from a mini candy buffet.   

We laughed, talked and soaked up this precious, precious time.

Despite the cold, we took a little walk and caught a gorgeous sunset.

Mostly though, we soaked up wisdom and inspiration from a room full of truly beautiful women.  These were our people.  People who get us like nobody else can.  Everyone had a story to share of an adoption journey (or two, three or five).  They understand paperwork, red tape, and the pain involved with endless barriers between you and your child.  Most have families that get funny looks from strangers, and most are struggling with how to respond to prying questions asked in checkout lines.  All of these women are women of faith, who trust that God's plans for their families are much higher than their own.

These women have hearts that have been broken for orphans.  They are not indifferent.  They have adopted children of different races, children with HIV, children with attachment issues, children from traumatic backgrounds, and children with special needs.  They understand that adoption is a mix of beauty and loss, pain and joy.  They adopt more children than they ever planned to.  They give of their hearts, time and money to orphan related causes.  They open their hearts, surrender control, surrender their plans, and trust God with the rest. 

We participated in breakout sessions on topics like "African American Hair Care", "Talking with Your Child About Adoption" and

"Starting an Orphan Care Ministry at Your Church". 

We listened to speakers who reminded us that our circumstances are temporary, and that we serve a God who is higher, bigger and deeper than our messy lives, needs, fears and doubts.  I realized quickly that this was a refocusing that I had no idea how much I had needed.

We met new friends, and connected in person for the first time with friends whose blogs we have been following.

We were pampered.  We wore our pjs to a late night panel of adoptive moms who talked about attachment, talking to our kids about their birth mothers, finding time as a busy moms, and adopting children with HIV.  We ate popcorn and shed tears as we watched a video about orphaned children imprisoned in Uganda.

We got uncomfortable and learned how to move farther away from the middle with 147 Million Orphans, Sixty Feet and Into the Streets of Ethiopia.

We were informed, inspired, comforted, challenged and moved. We smiled at family photos that look like ours.  We shed tears as others shared their stories and the stories of orphans around the world.   We were encouraged to keep fighting for each other, for adoption, for our kids and for those orphans who will never find homes.  We were sponges soaking up blessings.