Barefoot Faith Journey Blog Update

I mentioned in a previous post that I’m updating my blog. This blog has been going on for about ten years. I started this blog when we began our third adoption. Initially, it was more of a journal for me: something to remember, a place to keep my family updated on our adoption, etc. 

He has been home for ten years, and things have shifted quite a bit. We thought adopting again was not going to happen. I, we, were utterly content with our six children. There was much to work through with their trauma, but we were in a good flow.

Content is a 7 Letter Dirty Word

I mentioned, in prayer, that I was content with my family. That I no longer desired to bring children in through adoption. Honestly, I just wanted to focus on the healing that needed to happen with my kids from hard places. I returned to school to get my master’s in marriage and family therapy, shelf-cooking, cleaning, homeschooling, and things.

However, with God’s funny sense of humor, in November 2016, we (at 42 and 41 years old) began raising our great-nephew. He was 21 months old at the time. Hello Shock. Nice to meet you. I had a 21-month-old 7th child, and my 6th child was eight years old.

So, my blog stopped. I was busy beyond busy. Lots of things going on in that familial situation put everything on hold for me. Then, in June 2017, H got sick with Opsoclonus Myoclonus Syndrome. From then, my blog started back up a bit to process everything we were going through.

Keeping My Eyes Above the Waves

Since then, it has been hit and misses with when I write. I go in spurts of cooking, grief, trauma, life events, processing of everything, and a terrible season of suicide updates with lots of resources.

I’m trying to revamp what I want in my corner of the web. Yes, I still love Jesus, cheese, and cats. Also, I’m a huge adoption advocate but with a different perspective. I parent children from trauma, and we are muddling through that. There are moments when I’m considering getting my doctorate and going back to work. Cooking is not as much a passion though it is a necessity.

Sifting Through it All

I am going through the last ten years’ worth of posts, which is around 800 posts. There is a lot that I’m choosing to mark as private. Reflection has caused me to have a new set of eyes. I’m keeping them for my kids but not for the public.

There is a lot of SEO work that I’m doing, which is not my idea of fun, but it is necessary. You will never notice several things because it is on the blog’s backend. I’m taking all personal pictures of my kids and grandkids off of my blog. I don’t want to post any images without their permission. That goes for my social media stuff, as well. If you see a picture I might have missed, feel free to send me a message and let me know. I am also attempting (though probably going to fail) at taking my kids’ names off of here.

I want to share things in my journey that might relate to a lesson we have all learned through a parenting experience. Yet, I don’t have to attach a name to that story. I will forget and miss a post, but I will do my best.

PTSD Lockbox

For now, I’m reading a lot and learning a lot. I can process and refile something in my brain in the proper spot. I am working on going through my special “PTSD” lockbox, picking out memories or events, and writing about them so I can process them properly instead of keeping them locked away. I no longer want certain things to trigger me and cause a reactive response. If you work through those deep dark things, you can get them out of that lockbox and file them accordingly. When you do that, you no longer have a trauma response; you have a crappy life experience that no longer holds you captive.

So, bear with me. Subscribe if you want. If you do, you will get notifications in your email when I write something new. Be a guest blogger. I’m good with that as it is pertinent to my content. Give me book suggestions or ideas if there is something you want me to tackle. Ask if you have questions here, my email (barefootfaithjourney@gmail.com). You can also like and interact with my page on Facebook, Barefoot Faith Journey, Pinterest, or Instagram.