May You Bloom & Grow Forever

About a year ago, I felt the thing.

The nudge, the voice, the gut tug that bothers me until I pay it any mind. The voice often scares me, I have no idea what it will get me in to, but I now know that the absolute best things come when I submit to God and humbly do what ultimately—He is telling me to do. I listened when it told me my husband was the one, I listened when I finally opened my computer and started writing my book, I listened when it told me to walk away from my job and turn the next year of my life into one of searching and fighting for women’s health.

So, there I was standing in my kitchen waiting for my coffee to brew. I scanned my home which now breathed very different air with my son occupying our space and hearts. Toy Story was playing for the seventeenth time that week as the morning light poured in from our front door—casting my favorite shade of gold across our house. And I was still getting to know our boy, and certainly getting to know myself as a Mama.

I closed my eyes for a deep breath and stretch to get ready for our day and that’s when I saw it. On my inhale I saw women, flowers, stories, laughter, and food.

On my exhale I saw the inside of a church I only had stood in once before. Huh? What was that?

I had just lost my sixth baby.

I had just met our son and become a mother to a toddler overnight.

I had just left my job.

I had absolutely zero business daydreaming of an event. But as it turns out, it wasn’t my business, it was His. I also had zero, time, energy, or money. But again, God isn’t exactly worried with such things.

The dreams and urges followed me for eight whole months. I would hold them close to my heart and try not to get excited over something that I considered impossible.

Who would come?

How can I do this?

No one would care.

Exactly eight months later, I stood in the same spot of my kitchen, this time pouring myself a glass of wine when I sent my friend, Anna a message. Anna is beautiful.

She is classy, capable, funny, and one of those people who shoots it straight—even if her voice shakes. I knew that Anna would tell me if my urgent dreams were a good idea, and I knew that if she could, she would help me.

She told me she had felt the same tug for a while and that she was in.

That same week, I reached out to my friend Taylor. Taylor has a kind spirit and a servant’s heart, and she uses those gifts as an event planner. “Well, my Lord”, I thought. We will need a real event planner to pull this off. And before I knew it, my friend Alicia sent me a text.

“Bailey, I know this will sound so crazy. Please don’t think I’m crazy. I was doing a devotion and having my prayer time last night when God laid it on my heart that I will be on your team.”

I told her I wasn’t sure I had a team, but with that text—I did. We were on our way.

The four of us used our contacts, time, talents, and our love for women to pull off what would become the first annual Bloom & Grow Spring Event.

Taylor Henderson, Alicia Atkinson, Bailey Henry, & Anna Ables

Photography by Mary Leslie Pajarillaga

The location, food, beverages, flowers, and door prizes poured in without much effort on our parts. God moved everything we needed right to our front steps.

And I was worried we wouldn’t be able to pull it off!

Now we needed speakers.

I needed women who had been through hell and back to share their stories with others to show that women are the most resilient creatures God ever breathed into existence. We are strong, we are powerful, and we are better together.

Kate, Jill, & Cori.

Kate Jacobs, Cori Ely, & Jill Fitzgerald.

Photography by Mary Leslie Pajarillaga

Three women who I’ve loved since I met them. They all had incredible stories. They had each been through hell and back. And they all knew how to tell their stories with humor, grace, and to give glory to the Lord we humbly serve.

Within just a few weeks we had a venue, menu, speakers, door prizes, and hopeful attendees. Now all we needed was a name. God, what would we call this thing?

You know how sometimes a random song just jumps in your ear and you can’t shake it until you listen to it? That is what happened to me. Three mornings in a row, I woke up with Edelweiss on my mind. Edelweiss from The Sound of Music.

You can’t get more random than that. But of course, I couldn’t shake it, so I went to Google to see if I was missing something. And I was. In all my years of watching The Sound of Music with my mother I’d never known that Edelweiss is a flower that grows on the Swiss Alps.

This white flower symbolizes noble purity and it only blooms from July to September after facing the harshest winters. Each winter, they are covered in feet of snow, and you’d think they would never come back. After being buried beneath snow and ice for months it would seem impossible for their July return.

But they always come back.

Photography by Mary Leslie Pajarillaga

Blossom of snow, may you bloom and grow

Bloom and grow forever

That’s us, y’all. Women. We come back.

No matter the winter, the harshness of a season, the weight we are buried under for months on end, we always come back. We bloom when it’s our season, and we will always have our season.

The first annual Bloom & Grow Spring Event was a dream. One that we will bring to fruition for years to come. Because we always come back to bloom.

All my love,

Bailey

*If you have any questions regarding The Bloom & Grow coming to your town or church, please email Bailey Henry at hellobailey.henry@gmail.com