Moms Away Retreat ? a relaxing weekend | Rowan Family Tree

Massages, chocolate, delicious meals, a wine tasting, dancing in the living room, crying on each other shoulders, deep discussions about children, light discussions about everything else, and jokes about the pool boy? These were all part of our retreat this weekend.

This past weekend I joined 16 other mothers to retreat and relax and rejuvenate. We met at Silver Star mountain, at a huge house tucked away on a hillside. The purpose of our retreat was to be with other mothers who have adopted children, to relax and rejuvenate, and to refresh ourselves for the work of being an adoptive mother.

Between the 17 of us, we have 73 children. Of course, I am a light weight in this crowd. ?Only two kids? That?s easy compared to some of my peers. Some of some of the ladies have eight, nine, 11 children. Lots of the mothers deal with issues typical to adoption such as attachment and birth family issues. But there are so many special needs children represented and some of those women facing bigger challenges than I do really appreciated being able to talk to other mothers with the same challenges.

Myself, I got a lot out of the weekend. First of all, I did not bring anything except for my cell phone, and my parents blissfully did not call me. So I got a nice break from work and technology. ?But I also got a chance to learn from some very experienced mothers and really accomplished women. ?I picked up some ideas for the future as the children grow and also got to share some of the successes that we have had. These successes, you don?t even realize until you share them as an example for someone else.

Mostly, I met really nice ladies. ?Some of these women I had met before adoption camping trip in Fintry. But at that camp I was sort of the odd woman out. Most of the women from Vernon all knew each other and I felt a lot like an outsider. But this retreat was a mixture of women from Vernon, Williams Lake, Kelowna, Liloet, Oregon and other places? and I fit right in.

You know, overall I have a pretty easy time with my girls. We don?t have any trauma issues? We have had some attachment challenges but those were quite minor compared to what other people face. We also don?t have any special needs in our family so far and the girls are overall bright, easy to deal with, and very easy to care?for children. I guess when I sit and listen to the stories from women such as these, I realize that the challenges that we face in our family?are related to the juggles that we have to do.

I think the main family challenges we face are related to all the things going on in our lives: starting a business, both parents working full-time, children being active in clubs, volunteering for various charities and having an active group in of fmaily and friends. Really our challenge is that we have full and rich lives. Even though I don?t sleep very much most nights, we truly are blessed with the richness. That?s not to say that the families I met are not the same? I guess I am just putting?our challenges in the perspective that most of our challenges are not adoption-related and?more related to?our lifestyle.

Anyway I?had a rejuvenating, relaxing time. Jason comes home tonight for two days and that he will be off again for two weeks. Thank goodness my parents have been helping me out and took care of the children this weekend. And thank goodness that Jason is going to take the girls to Creston for the second week of his?next visit!

Thanks for a lovely time moms, and thanks to my mom and dad for taking care of my kids. I will be back next year. And I will host a wine tasting?again!

PS: I am using voice recognition software to type my posts now, so forgive the wierd errors as I train-up my phone!!

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