first days. :)

We are off to a good start this week!

Abigail officially started Pre-K and Bethany started another year in the "Stars" class at her CDO!

I cant believe how big my girls have gotten...they look huge to me in these two pics. 

(mommy tears!)

Excited for what this year will bring and how they will both blossom...

Miscarriage Support Group

Today, Thrive Moms is launching online support groups for moms walking through different seasons of their lives...in the effort to build community and encouragement and a sense of belonging to all of us!

I was MORE than honored when Thrive Moms asked me to be the support group leader for moms who have gone through miscarriage. 

I have walked this road several times myself, and 

(as you all know), I think there is SUCH power in sharing our stories. 

And in finding others who have been though the same things.

Sharing life and the heartaches of our losses have brought so much healing to me.

It truly is amazing...once a woman shares her storry of miscarriage, it usually opens the door for other mamas to share their stories of loss too. I have seen this happen over and over, and have been told by others that the more they share, the more friends and women they find out have walked the same road.

(Did you know that 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage?! That's a lot y'all.
And that probably means you know at least one person who has been through it.)

As y'all know, I have not been a stranger to sharing my miscarriage stories here. It is something the Lord has asked me to do

(you can read more of my stories here)

And while I don't think sharing publicly is the most beneficial or comfortable for everyone (it has taken some stepping out of my own comfort zone too!)...

I DO believe that finding a community or at least 1 or 2 friends to walk through it with, who really understand...is so vital to healing.

That's why I think these groups are so great.  They are private closed Facebook groups where women can join and share life in a safe place.

I seriously cannot wait to see the fruit of what God does in these groups.

There will be some facilitated discussions and questions and prompts that I will lead, 

but my heart is that it will become a safe place of HOPE and PEACE for moms.

So, please pass this on...or join if you feel like it would benefit you or someone you know.

You can read more about it here, and sign up.

Or you can search on facebook for "Thrive Moms Support Groups - Miscarriage", and request to join the group.

Other groups that are offered right now include Working Moms, Death of a Child, Single Moms, Military Moms, Special Needs Moms, Infertility, and Adoptive Moms.

Don't walk these roads alone, y'all.

We need each other!

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Thrive Moms is an incredible website devoted to encouraging mothers along our journey...

in SO many ways. 

If y'all don't already follow them on social media, or know about their site, you seriously need to check them out.

{ Thrive Moms on Instagram, Thrive Moms on Facebook, Thrive Moms on Twitter }

honoring Kelli...

This weekend, I got to host a shower in my home for one of my close friends, Kelli.

Our friends Anne and Andrea did all the hard work of preparing the beautiful brunch, sending the invites, and orchestrating it all...

We were so excited to honor Kelli in the upcoming arrival of her son...

they will be be bringing him home from China within a month!!

Not only was it exciting to watch this mama of 2 girls (like me) open all BOY things, and to hear more of her story and the process they are in to being him home....it was just such a neat and different kind of baby shower, in the sense that this is for their adopted son, someone they already love and care for so much but have never even met.

Neat because they heard and obeyed the call of God on their life to adopt, and He is answering their prayers.

Just beautiful to witness, and I cannot wait to meet him so very soon!

If you want to follow more of her story and journey, she blogs here...go meet my sweet friend, yall.

The celebration was just perfect. 

Simple and elegant brunch, complete with mimosas and coffee.

Anne and Andrea even got some amazing party favors...blue-colored fortune cookies, and inside each one was Kelli's family verse, 1 John 4:19. 

(my Moms Club girls...could not do life here without them!)

So special.

Thanks for letting us honor you, Kel. We cannot wait to all walk this journey with you!!

i am being set free...

Words really can't explain how free I feel right now from all the influences Satan tries to take in my life.

Y'all know he is real, right?

You know he doesn't like it when we claim God's promises over our lives, right?

He is OUT to get us...he hates that we get the victory in the end, 

and will do anything and everything to take us out and take our eyes off Jesus and off our Father.

But this week...

I got delivered from some things that needed to flee back to Hell where they came from...

And I can physically feel the effects of it!

While I didn't have a disease that needed healing this time, I just feel clearer in my head.

The anxieties or different emotions that have come at me the last few years through grief and through mothering....those things took up space in my head.

And I feel like I have some of that "space" back now, if thats makes any sense

...it just feels more peaceful.

I honestly cant explain it to where you might understand.

It's just such a sweet gift from our Father who wants us to be FULLY FREE.

My desire in this last week was for Him to take me DEEPER than my bound-up mind could wander,

like the lyrics to that song say.

And He did.

I am coming away with a deeper understanding of HOW I can be free to operate with the mind of Christ, like He desires to me. And being reminded about why it is so, so vital to my life. 

(1 Corinthians 2:14-16)

I am still processing so much.

This week wasn't just a "fix" and then Im done.

I have to pursue it, and walk it out.

...and I WANT to walk it out.

It's not about a religious heart or legalistic thinking about getting in the Word and checking it off a list.

It's about what my Daddy says to me and about me.

It's a new understanding that acknowledging what the scripture says about me, about who I am...

is actually so important to my life and my health!

This week was like drinking from a fire hydrant of truth.

so. much. truth.

I can't wait to share more as it comes...

So thankful for this time.

God is so good to us!

Being bold, Our time at Be In Health so far

seriously HOW do I explain what God is doing here?
and It is only Day 2.

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a few days ago, Parker and I kissed our girls goodbye and flew to Georgia for the week.
We are at a conference here called Be In Health.
We came here 5 1/2 years ago, when we were in throws of desperation due to lots of physical sickness I was dealing with. The premise of the conference is learning the spiritual roots of disease.
(I have blogged about our time before...when I was delivered from fear, and healed of Fibromyalgia.)

This time, I am hearing it all in a whole new light.
We didn't come for physical healing/insights to sickness for ourselves this time,
but more for freedom from spiritual bondages that Parker and I both deal with.
I have shared before that I struggle a lot with shame, and I know that is from the enemy,
so I am believing God for some deliverance from that this week!

Parker and I both feel the Lord readying our hearts for some major deliverance and freedom this week.
While I am the first to say that one conference or one thing is not the "answer"...
and that I believe God can heal and set people free anywhere and any way He wants to...
I can't help but say that this place, these teachings, are so so good.
Like just basic, scriptural stuff that we haven't ever learned or really meditated on and walked out.
Parker and I keep saying that we want everyone we know to come to this.

Even if you don't "believe" in healing and deliverance...
I am going to be bold and say that if you really understood God's word and what He says and promises for you...
you might just rethink your position.
I myself have believed God can heal for a long time, but just being reminded of the truth in His word is reinforcing WHY I believe it.
And why I NEED it.

Sick or not, it is truth taught in such a way to learn what God says in a deeper understanding,
and learn how to truly get rid of hindrances to believing Him and taking Him at His word!!
So that in turn, the freedom and healing CAN come.

I mean, wow yall.
It is like opening your heart to a water spout of truth,
and it being just dumped into you for 8 hours a day.
So, so needed as believers.

Just a few of the things I am learning and reflecting on already (and its day 2 of 5):
-The ability to recognize my Father as my FATHER, as unconditionally loving Daddy, is so huge.
-I have a LOT to repent of. My list is a lot longer than I realized it would be!!
This includes repenting from making agreements with Satan that keep me in patterns of thought that are NOT from the Lord, that do not bring life
...like realizing how much I listen and agree with the enemy when I fear being rejected
(a long time struggle of mine).
Because that is the opposite of truth.  I am loved, accepted, and blessed as a daughter of God!
-Re-learning that repentance isn't just something to be done for outward, "obvious" sin.
But that really, we all need to be aware of things to repent for all. the. time.
Ways of thinking, agreements with the enemy, different spiritual battles we each face.
Anything not of God, that we have believed or acted on, over believing HIM.
-The fight for my attentions and affections is so real. And it is not against flesh and blood....
*this is something I think many believers forget or have never even been taught...and it's right there in scripture, plain as day.*
"For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers of this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12
-recognizing that I truly desire to be CHANGED, and not just FIXED, if that makes sense.
Like I don't just want to not be plagued by detrimental ways of thinking, and I don't want to just be totally healthy... I want my whole life to reflect the truth of God that says I was MADE for FREEDOM. And that Jesus came to set me free.

I can't wait to share more as this week unfolds and God shows up.
And just a "warning"...as I get freed up from this fear of rejection, I'm proooobably gonna be sharing things a little more boldly here!!  :)
I am praising God for that.
Praising Him that He is going to release me from that fear so I can share His heart confidently.

Can not wait to see what God does this week.
And cant wait to share it!!

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Thanks y'all for those sweet friends covering us in prayer this week...
and thanks for listening to my heart here!