long overdue blog post

Seven weeks ago, Chris and I entered onto a new mission field...one called foster parenting. I have been relucatant to do any blogging about the whole experience because of confidentialty and out of fairness to the children and their bio parents. But, I have realized that writing can be very therapeutic and for that reason, here I am blogging.
First let me say, foster parenting is not as "easy" as I ever thought it would be. Now, don't get me wrong, I never thought it would be easy. But we have come across challenges that I never even thought of. I have felt emotions that, in all of my 27 years, I have never felt before. I have felt more emotionally spent and physically exhausted then I have in a long time. Working full time and parenting is tough....I have so much more respect for moms now that I've been through the ringer.
Things have gotten substantially better over the past few weeks but let me tell you, the first few weeks were more than rough. I had a hard time adjusting to my life being "interrupted". I had a lot of selfish pity parties where I thought, "when will my life be back to normal?" Until one night when I was having another breakdown. Chris looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "Don't you realize these kids just need a home? Just need to be loved?" That put things into perspective for me. This whole process is not about me...it's about the children. It's about two little kids that, right now, don't have parents that can take care of them. So, God has entrusted them to us for a little while. Of course, I still have my moments. When shoes are being thrown at the television or a child is screaming "NO" in my face, it's hard to remember that this is what we're being called to do right now. But, for everything there is a season, and right now in the Wrights household, this is the season to love on two little children and see where the Lord will take us from here.

Celebrating Baby Fain

Two weeks ag0 (yes, I'm a little behind on my blogging) we had a baby shower for one of my closest friends, Christie. She is having a baby girl, due on November 6th. I have been SO excited about this shower for quite some time and had so much fun planning it. I also loved making the cake- a giraffe theme since she's having giraffes in baby girl's nursery! We had a luncheon at Deacon Tower Grille (if you've never been there, you have got to check it out- it's fabulous!). Here are some pictures from the occasion. Sadly, I didn't get a picture myself with the mommy-to-be!

Christie with sweet baby Jeffery! So glad he joined us :)

Christie with another momma in the HES Department, Jordan!

I just can't wait to meet sweet baby girl Fain!!

butterfly cake

Let me just take a quick minute and post a few pictures of the cake I made last weekend. I tried out a new chocolate cake recipe that I really liked. The cake was chocolate (obviously) with pink buttercream and fondant decorations. The birthday girl requested blue butterflies but I added in a few other colors to give it a little extra pizzazz! Enjoy!

thankful

I haven't blogged much lately. Or at least about anything of real importance. These past few weeks have been a roller coaster. I have experienced the whole gamut of emotions for a lot of reasons and I can't quite articulate what I'm feeling. So, that's really not what this blog post is about. What I do want this post to be about is just how thankful I am for my support systems in life.

First of all, my husband. Sometimes I feel just downright sorry for him, having to deal with me. But he handles it beautifully. Sometimes he just sits and listens, sometimes (ok just one time) he buys me flower, sometimes he sends me encouraging texts at work, and sometimes (he would not admit this) he even cries with me.

My parents have been my rock through my whole life. I honestly don't know what I'd do without them. Today they called me and just listened to me cry through the phone for 30 minutes. The crazy thing was that I had something on my mind that I had not mentioned to them before and when I told them about it my dad said "we've already been praying for you about that". They just knew, crazy. Their encouragement (even from 900 miles away) means the world to me.

I have some pretty awesome friends too. I often have a hard time talking about my feelings because I just can never find the right words. So, I tend to stuff my emotions inside until I feel like I'm going to burst. But, the girl friends that God has placed in my life in NC have always provided a listening ear when I needed one and for that I am very thankful.

I am going through a time in my life where I know the Lord is refining me for the future. I know that someday all the crazy emotions and tears I have been shedding will be used for His glory. There are certainly moments (a lot of them) when my worry takes over but right now I am just learning to take deep breaths and baby steps.