It’s a boy!

If you’ve followed this blog for the past ten years or so, you’ll have seen the journey of my life, recipes included. From adventures with Frito Lay and Kenmore, to a very different journey of a calling to care for modern day orphans.

My days used to consist of dropping kids off to school, and returning home to spend hours uploading and editing photos, writing posts and returning to the kitchen; creating and photographing recipes to share with my beloved readers. And, finally, cleaning up flour and batter in time for dismissal.

Those were the days.

Then, life happened. And, I was abruptly reminded that there are, in fact mean people out there, and honestly -I was taken aback… and I no longer had the zeal to share things when there was such ugliness lurking and stalking my blog. I retreated into the safety of life behind closed doors and away from screens.

Enter into a new chapter: We became foster parents. Which, I did share in minor detail here, as well as the gifts of adoption that transpired from our acts of servanthood. While we were foster parents, multiple aspects of our life were under the microscope, and we had a revolving door of random visitors almost daily. Add in doctors appointments (which seemed to always lead to additional specialist visits) and therapy appointments, and homeschooling my 7th grader: I barely had time to make dinner, and that was it.

And now: a new season emerges for our family.

We have adopted a boy.

After years of princesses, glitter, tea parties and polished nails… we are emerging into a new season yet to be described… but for now; we are embracing our family. Our official family with no wonder or worry at what the future holds. With fostering, you have that. You’re a family today, but tomorrow who knows.

Maybe God had prepared our hearts in advance for that with my estranged stepdaughter.

It stings regardless.

What I do know: God prepared me in advance for our journey. You have to dig deep in earlier posts for the reasons why, however today- some stories aren’t worth repeating; the past is exactly that.

THE PAST.

Now I’m here to embrace this new season. I have two little girls, one big girl and a precious little boy that I get to be mom to. And, this- my little blog, my once called “other baby”. Food blogs have certainly changed through the years. I’m not even sure if people read them or if it’s just the hater/stalkers that really bring in the traffic. Nowadays, I don’t care.

This blog brought me happiness, despite the ugly people out there.. I received more love email than hate; and why on earth would I let ugliness rule over love?! That’s insane. Ehhh. Hindsight for you. Sometimes, it’s good to turn around to get a clear picture of what you’re leaving behind- other times, it can turn you into a pillar of salt.

So- my advice: be aware of what you’re turning back to look at, is it giving you hindsight or is it slowing your pace? Or is it stopping you in your tracks?

Nobody moves ahead by looking behind them.

Today I’m moving ahead, embracing my four kids, and my food blog. I’ll be returning here more often to share my adventures, sometimes there will be a recipe or a craft, or a bit of chaos that will make you chuckle… either way, I hope to bring a little love and inspiration to your day.

See you very soon.