It’s hard to believe that it was about 7 years ago that this whole thing was birthed originally. Imagine a long table at a cafe with maybe 12 women gathered around it. There was lots of laughter and so much heart, so much intention. How could we join arms to serve moms through adoption better. That was our mission that Sunday evening. We talked grand ideas and dreams as a faithful brain trust. When the last mug was set down and the last chair pushed in, we were resolved to do something very different than what we thought we might be doing. We needed something for marriages not for women alone. Serving a community of mamas would be good; but intentionally building marriages would be best.
That’s how Together Called started. Just a handful of women who wanted to serve and wanted their own marriages to be served as well. We all wanted what we thought Together Called could offer. We wanted space to reconnect with our husbands. We wanted to have someone stand before us and speak to our weariness and remind us that God has called us to pour ourselves out. We wanted to hear that He is pleased with us despite our own messages of incompetence.
That just doesn’t get old. We don’t grow out of needing that.
I guess that’s why we’re still doing this thing. I’m so glad we are.
“How many more of these do you think you have in you?” someone asked me that this past weekend. It was a good question, and one I didn’t answer quickly. We’re in a different place than we were 7 years ago. Our babies were still babies then. Now, we’re closer to an empty nest than we are midnight feedings. Mark and I are in a different place than we were 7 years ago. We were still figuring things out for the first time then, everyday learning about what godly trauma-informed parenting looks like. I guess we’re still figuring that out now as everyday is a first. But, the foundation is firm with years of practice. We love Together Called now for different reasons now than we did in the beginning. But, we do still love it.
I don’t know how many more of these we have in us. We’ll keep going as long as we feel together called to it. For now, we do. Together called to provide space even if for only a few days for married couples caring for kids from hard places to laugh, reconnect with each other, experience the joy of community, reignite hope even in the darkest places, be challenged to be intentional in their families and in their marriages.
We are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect story of bringing good into our lives, for we are His delight, His people who have been together called to a glorious purpose.
{my paraphrase of Romans 8:28}
