Adoption Update

By Ashley Wells, on January 25th, 2012

After doing weekly adoption updates before my blogging break, it seems so long since I’ve given an adoption update!

We are moving forward!!! Praise the Lord we had our home visit yesterday and have finished nearly every paper needing to be filled out.

We still have a couple of things to do at our house, then we will have another quick home visit. We need to get CPR and First Aid certified (which will happen next month) and we need to finish all of our homework from our training classes (which will be getting done very soon!).

Here’s the really good news:

We should be licensed sometime next month!

That means that anytime after that we may receive a placement!

Prayer points:

Wisdom for when to accept a placement.
Quickness in receiving a placement.
We would love a placement of 3-4 children that are close to or already have their parental rights terminated.
Willingness to take a “risky” placement (parental rights not terminated) if it seems like a good fit.
Grace for the “fostering” season.
Guidance from the Lord for every decision we need to make
That the medically fragile state-wide training will be in the next few months

Thank you all for continuing with us on this journey!!! You can read more about our adoption journey and my adoption posts here.

*I will not be posting weekly adoption updates. However, I will update you on milestones through the rest of our process!

This Year’s Journey – Be Present

By Ashley Wells, on January 23rd, 2012

Well, after sharing my new mission for blogging…I never would have thought I would wait so long to post again. However, after nearly a week of being sick and then catching up to the world that continued to move, time went by quickly. Thank you for your continued patience and grace!

One focus.

One focus for 2012.

12 months. One focus. What will be?

I sit. I ponder. I look out the window with my cat next to me. I think. I pray. I wonder. What will it be?

I blink.

12 months flash before my eyes. It seems like yesterday when 2011 came into being. But yet, here I am ponder a new year, and all that it may hold.

Where does time go? How does it go by so quickly without me taking notice?

Source: piccsy.com via Ashley on Pinterest

I ponder the year ahead of me. I think about how I do not want it to go by so quickly.

How do I stop this fast moving world? How do I make time slow down for me to enjoy each moment?

I remember reading…how to live fully.

When you live fully you live with your eyes wide open. Taking in every moment. Not letting the moments go by in a blur so quickly that you don’t take notice.

Source: thewellnesswarrior.com.au via Ashley on Pinterest

What does the year 2012 hold for me? I do not know. But this I know, and I am going to hold it close to my heart:

The year 2012, is going to be a year of living in the present. Living in the now. Not letting a moment go by too quickly, but instead living life fully with eyes wide open, living today in the present.

Source: artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com via Ashley on Pinterest

Have you chosen a focus for the year? Maybe one word? Maybe a couple {like me}? I’d love to hear in the comments!

p.s. I’ve got an inspiration board forming for my focus, Be Present. The pictures from this post are all from it.

My Mission: Guilt-Free Blogging {and living}

By Ashley Wells, on January 5th, 2012

Note: I pray that you had a blessed holiday season! A lot has happened since I last wrote: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Celebration, and my Birthday! During this time, it was wonderful to not feel the pressure of keeping up with this space. I had time to prayerfully consider how to move forward on this site, if at all…I started this blog post in November. It conveys exactly how I feel right now.

I listen to her words at Replenish Your Soul. She shares honestly about how she learned to let go of high expectations she had placed on herself. These expectations were not commandments, or must-do items, or requirements by any means. Rather, these expectations were high standards she had placed on herself, without taking a second thought. These were things that created feelings of guilt when she didn’t perform how she would have liked or found time to do all that was on her to do list.

I type words into the chat box. I write that so much of the guilt I feel in the day to day is self-induced.

It comes from high expectations that are not expectations at all – rather desires.

It comes from making a freedom into a rule.

It comes from creating legalistic notions in my head.

I must cook dinner – homemade – every night.
I must keep my house sparkling clean.
I must jump back from a week-long cold and catch up on everything when hours.

Here’s another one.

I must blog at least three times a week.

Guess what?

I’m letting go of these faulty “requirements” that I have placed on myself.

Why, you ask?

I do not want to let good things take the place of the greatest thing or even other great things.

I am a child of God.

I am a wife.

I am an expectant mother.

I must keep my priorities in line.

After announcing my blogging break, I look at my editorial calendar…instead of titles filling the spaces, it is blank.

White space…

White space that I will not be filling. It will stay empty.

I think of the “white space” in my life. The margin.

I must have margin. I need margin. I need time to breath.

Five weeks ago, I felt like I couldn’t breath. Everything had piled up too high. It was crushing me…

So, I took a break from blogging. I removed myself from many of my commitments. I drastically let go of these high expectations I had placed on myself and made into “law.” You see, my self-constructed “laws” were taking my life.

I took time to prayerfully consider what the Lord would want me to do. Where He would like me to spend my time, especially since my life will be changing so drastically in the coming months (with our children joining our home, hopefully!).

I knew what the Lord wanted me to do. He wanted me to set some new “laws” in place. Rules that I can follow that would allow me to keep my priorities in line. Rules that I can follow to make sure that I am putting first things first. Rules that I can follow to make sure that I am not living in guilt of what I should be doing instead of being content with what I am doing. Rules that show how I want to live.

Therefore, I have created some new expectations for myself, as it relates to my blog:

I am a child of God and I need to start my day in my Father’s presence. I will not blog before I read my Bible. I will not tweet my words before reading His Word.

I am a wife and my husband is more important than my ministry. I will not spend time furthering my writing ministry when Michael is home, unless we have previously agreed for me to write during a special and specific time.

I am a soon-to-be mother and my children need my time and energy more than my blog. I will not open my computer to write or participate in social media while my children are awake, in my presence, and desiring my attention.

My space at home is more valuable than my online space. I will not blog when the dishes are piling on the counter or laundry is piling dirty or needing to be folded.

My words are more meaningful when I don’t force them to come out. I will not blog, just to blog, just to fill my editorial calendar. I will only blog when I feel that I have something to say, not just to fill white space.

I want to live my life with my priorities in line. Although I love writing and blogging, I do not want my writing to interfere with my greater priorities.

I don’t want to spend my life in front of the computer screen while the world spins around me. I don’t want to spend my time writing about life instead of living my life.

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What will this look like? There may be more white space on this site, more days when I don’t have something to share. That may be because I don’t have something to say. Or that may be because my life needs me more. It will also mean that when I write, you can count on the fact that my other priorities are taken care of. You will not be taking away from my husband, my home, or my children.

I’m Taking a Break…

By Ashley Wells, on November 21st, 2011

I am taking the rest of the year off of blogging. No more blogging here until next year. This will also include our adoptions updates (But don’t worry, I will update you of any changes come January!). I need to take this time to refocus, pray for direction, and focus on living.

See you in 2012! May your Christmas Season be blessed!

You Can’t See It…But I’m Growing

By Ashley Wells, on November 18th, 2011

I love this weekly feature from The Gypsy Mama. For five minutes we write, unscripted, unedited. We just write. Then we link up and build community! Today’s topic is Grow.

Go.

Today as I read the topic of “Grow,” immediately I think about growth, physical growth. Not the getting taller part…The kind of growth that women experience as they are getting closer and closer to becoming a mother.

Most expectant mothers are experiencing growth as their womb expands and the life inside them is growing, therefore forcing their own body to grow and expand as well. It truly is a beautiful thing, the glowing of their face and the life being knit together within her frame.

Even though my stomach is not expanding as an expectant mother, my heart is growing more and more each day.

I’ve read this line, I think on jewelry, “Born in my Heart.” In terms of adoption, at least for me, this has been so true.

I don’t know my children’s names yet, I’m not sure how old they are, I’m not sure of the color of their skin, I don’t even know if I will have daughters or sons or both. However, none of that information is important for my heart to make space for them and for my love towards them to grow more each and every day.

Love is an interesting thing. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. I’ve never met them, but yet the distance between us is making my heart ache for them, out of love.

My love is growing. My heart is expanding. You can’t see it, but it’s there.