Reserve Your Seat Today!

Christmas Retreat & Invisible Hurts Fundraiser

Join us for a beautiful and joy-filled Christmas retreat designed especially for the women who for a lifetime have spent so much of the holiday season caring for everyone else.

For a special fundraiser price of just $199, you’ll enjoy an entire day created to help you step away from the shopping, wrapping, cooking, planning, decorating, caregiving, and endless responsibilities of the season—and simply be cared for yourself.

From the moment you arrive, you’ll be surrounded by gorgeous Christmas decorations, beautiful holiday music, warm hospitality, and the company of wonderful women.

Your day will include breakfast, lunch, Christmas desserts and specialty holiday beverages, along with coffee and tea throughout the day. Wine will also be available to order for those who would like it.

We’ll enjoy Christmas music and a festive sing-along accompanied by piano, fun games, raffles, meaningful table discussions, shopping with special vendors, laughter, friendship, and plenty of little surprises throughout the day.

Every guest will receive a beautiful Christmas gift bag along with a specially created Christmas Companion Retreat Guide & Journal filled with reflections, encouragement, activities, recipes, and pages you can return to throughout the holiday season.

This gathering is also a fundraiser supporting the continued mission and growth of Invisible Hurts and the work we are doing to create meaningful retreats, resources, community, and encouragement for women navigating the many different seasons of life.

Christmas can be wonderfully joyful, but it can also carry grief, loneliness, family struggles, disappointment, exhaustion, or memories of Christmases that look very different from the one we once imagined. There is room for all of that here.

Our hope is that for one beautiful day, you can set down what you carry.

Come be pampered.

Come eat something delicious without preparing it yourself.

Come listen to beautiful Christmas music.

Come laugh, sing, talk, shop, play, reflect, and make new friends.

Come enjoy Christmas without having to be the one making Christmas magical for everyone else!

And at the end of the day, we hope you leave feeling lighter, refreshed, encouraged, blessed, and reminded that you are worthy of being cared for, too!

A beautiful Christmas experience, a meaningful gift to yourself, and a wonderful way to help us continue creating spaces where women feel seen, supported, encouraged, and never alone.

🎄For those who may not have the resources to register, you can also sponsor someone to attend!

 From Overwhelmed to Overflowing

From Overwhelmed to Overflowing is a retreat for women who are tired of feeling as though they are supposed to keep every ball in the air—beautifully, calmly, and without ever dropping one.

Whether you are raising children, caring for aging parents, supporting a spouse, building a career, managing a household, helping grown children, navigating relationships, volunteering, running a business, or simply trying to keep your own life moving forward, the expectations placed on women can feel endless.

We are so often the ones remembering the appointments, anticipating everyone’s needs, keeping the calendar, creating the holidays, managing the home, and quietly holding so many emotional and practical pieces together.

And when you add chronic illness, ADHD, exhaustion, grief, hormonal changes, caregiving, financial pressure, major life transitions, or simply the realities of being human, even ordinary responsibilities can begin to feel overwhelming.

This retreat is not about becoming a more perfect homemaker, more productive woman, or more impressive version of yourself. It is about finding gentler, more realistic ways to manage what matters—so that your home, your schedule, and your responsibilities begin to support your life instead of consuming it.

Throughout the day, we will explore practical systems for meal planning, weekly routines, household management, paperwork, appointments, celebrations, personal responsibilities, and all of those invisible tasks that so often live in our heads. We’ll talk about simplifying, creating rhythms that actually fit your personality and season of life, and letting go of the pressure to do everything the way someone else says it “should” be done.

The goal is not perfection. The goal is more breathing room, greater confidence, and the ability to move through your days with more grace and peace.

We will also welcome a special surprise guest speaker who will share practical wisdom about decluttering, organization, and creating systems that work with the way you naturally function—not against it.

But this conversation will go beyond tidy closets and labeled bins. We’ll explore how to make your home a place you genuinely want to be: through warmly lit corners, thoughtfully created little spaces, meaningful objects, comforting routines, and simple touches that make everyday life feel more peaceful and beautiful. You will leave not with a list of everything you need to fix, but with inspiration, tools, and permission to create a life and home that feel manageable, welcoming, and truly your own.

The Gift of Friendship

Tea, Treasures & Timeless Relationships

There is something deeply healing about being surrounded by women who truly know your heart.

In a world where so many women feel isolated, overwhelmed, or disconnected, this elegant afternoon is an invitation to slow down, breathe deeply, and celebrate one of God’s greatest gifts—the gift of genuine friendship.

Whether you come with your closest friend or arrive on your own, you’ll be welcomed into an atmosphere filled with beauty, laughter, encouragement, and heartfelt connection.

If you come alone, don’t worry. One of the greatest joys of this event is watching women who arrive as strangers leave feeling like old friends.

From the moment you arrive, you’ll be surrounded by beautiful décor, uplifting music, thoughtful details, exquisite desserts, specialty coffees, handcrafted teas, and delightful signature beverages—all carefully planned to create an atmosphere where you feel loved, celebrated, and wonderfully pampered.

One of the most anticipated moments of the day will be a heartfelt conversation featuring Judee’s seven dearest lifelong friends. Seated together at a beautifully decorated head table, these remarkable women will share the story of friendships that have spanned decades.

Together they’ll reflect on how they first met, the countless memories they’ve shared, the seasons of joy and sorrow they’ve walked through together, and the lessons they’ve learned about loyalty, forgiveness, faithfulness, laughter, and choosing to remain present in one another’s lives.

Their stories are genuine.

They are deeply moving.

And, at times, wonderfully hilarious.

Their friendship is living proof that some of life’s greatest blessings aren’t found in accomplishments or possessions—but in the women who faithfully stand beside us through every season of life.

You’ll also enjoy a beloved guest speaker affectionately known as “The Queen of Bedford,” whose warmth, wisdom, and delightful sense of humor will leave you smiling long after the day is over.

During the afternoon you’ll create a beautiful keepsake to take home, receive thoughtfully chosen gifts, enjoy meaningful conversations around your table, and experience countless moments designed to refresh your heart and remind you that you were never meant to do life alone.

This is more than a tea.

It is a celebration of friendship.

A celebration of laughter.

A celebration of shared memories.

A celebration of the women who pray for us, encourage us, cry with us, cheer us on, and quietly remind us that we never have to walk through life’s joys or sorrows by ourselves.

Come expecting to laugh.

Come expecting to be encouraged.

Come expecting to leave feeling refreshed, deeply loved, and wonderfully pampered.

Most of all, come expecting to discover—or perhaps rediscover—that some of life’s greatest treasures aren’t things at all.

They’re the friendships that God places in our lives and the women who become family along the way.

Reserve your place early and join us for an unforgettable afternoon celebrating friendship, faithfulness, laughter, and the priceless gift of belonging.

Rediscovering Jesus

Rediscovering Jesus is a retreat for women who may still believe, may be questioning, may have stepped away from church, or may simply be unsure what they believe anymore.

For some, Jesus was never taken very seriously in the first place.

For others, faith once felt deeply important, but over time disappointment, confusion, hurt, unanswered prayers, or difficult experiences made it harder to know what to trust. This retreat is not about judging where anyone is spiritually.

It is about creating a safe, thoughtful space to look again.

Sometimes what people have experienced in the name of Christianity has made Jesus difficult to see clearly. Churches can fail people. Leaders can misuse authority. Scripture and doctrine can be interpreted in ways that create fear, shame, control, or exclusion rather than freedom and healing.

Religious systems can become more concerned with rules, appearances, power, or conformity than with compassion and truth. When those experiences become associated with God, it is understandable that someone might begin to wonder whether Jesus is truly trustworthy—or whether He resembles the version of Him they were given.

There are also quieter reasons faith can become difficult. Prayers that seem to go unanswered. Promises that feel distant. Seasons of suffering that make us wonder where God is. Questions about whether He is really good, whether He sees us, and whether He is present in the parts of life that hurt the most.

This retreat will make room for those questions without rushing to silence them or offering easy answers. Doubt, disappointment, and curiosity are welcome here.

The purpose of Rediscovering Jesus is simply to offer an opportunity to encounter Him with fresh eyes—apart from the expectations, disappointments, personalities, and systems that may have become attached to His name.

Together, we will look more closely at the way Jesus treated people, what He actually taught, who He welcomed, how He responded to the hurting, and what His life reveals about the heart of God. The invitation is not to force yourself back into a belief system, but to consider one question with openness: 

What if Jesus is kinder, safer, more compassionate, and more for you than you have been led to believe?

Motherhood Is a Circus

Retreat & Book Launch!

If you’ve ever felt like you’re juggling too many balls, putting out fires, walking a tightrope, cleaning up impossible messes, and wondering if anyone notices all that you do…

Welcome to the circus.

Motherhood is one of life’s greatest blessings, but it is also one of its greatest adventures.

It is joyful, exhausting, unpredictable, messy, hilarious, heartbreaking, and wonderfully rewarding—sometimes all before breakfast.

Join Judee for a one-of-a-kind day filled with laughter, encouragement, inspiration, and heartfelt connection as she celebrates the release of her long-awaited book, Motherhood Is a Circus.

With her signature warmth, humor, and heartfelt storytelling, Judee shares the surprising ways God uses the everyday chaos of MOTHERHOOD to shape not only our children—but us.

Just as every act in a circus has a purpose, every season of motherhood—even the messy, noisy, exhausting, and completely unexpected moments—becomes an opportunity for God to develop patience, flexibility, faithfulness, humility, self-control, confidence, self-control, humor, hospitality, and unconditional love within our hearts.

This won’t be a day filled with pressure to become the “perfect mom.”

Instead, it will be a day filled with laughter, grace, encouragement, and the comforting reminder that God is faithfully at work in both you and your children.

Throughout the day you’ll laugh at stories that sound remarkably like your own, enjoy meaningful discussions with other moms, and discover creative ideas for making the most of your children’s growing-up years.

You’ll leave with practical ways to preserve family memories, celebrate everyday moments, and intentionally create keepsakes that your children—and someday your grandchildren—will treasure for generations.

One of the greatest gifts of this retreat is the women you’ll meet.

There is something incredibly refreshing about spending a day surrounded by mothers who understand forgotten lunches, sleepless nights, overflowing laundry baskets, toddler tantrums, teenage drama, overflowing calendars, and the beautiful unpredictability of family life.

You’ll laugh together.

You may even cry together.

But most of all, you’ll leave knowing you are not alone.

And because every circus should be fun, you’ll enjoy whimsical circus-themed desserts, delightful surprises throughout the day, opportunities to make wonderful memories, and plenty of laughter as we celebrate motherhood together.

Whether you’re the mom of toddlers, teenagers, grown children, or somewhere in between, you’ll walk away feeling refreshed, encouraged, and reminded that while you’re busy raising your children…

Come celebrate the release of Motherhood Is a Circus and discover that even in the midst of the beautiful chaos…

God is writing a masterpiece.

We can’t wait to welcome you beneath the Big Top!

Because while motherhood may sometimes feel like a circus…it may also become the greatest show your heart will ever know.

Facing Forward: Finding Hope After Divorce

Divorce is so much more than the ending of a marriage.

It often brings the loss of dreams, identity, routines, friendships, financial security, family traditions, and the future you believed you were building.

Many women experience overwhelming anxiety, depression, insomnia, panic attacks, grief, difficulty concentrating, and even physical illness as their minds and bodies struggle to process profound emotional trauma. Everyday decisions can suddenly feel overwhelming, and the future may seem frightening and uncertain.

For many women, there is another burden that is rarely talked about.

Along with the grief comes shame.

In some families, communities, and especially in some faith communities, women who have experienced divorce may feel judged, misunderstood, or somehow “less than.”

They may wonder where they belong, worry about what others think, or carry guilt for circumstances that were never entirely within their control.

Instead of receiving the support they desperately need, they may find themselves feeling isolated during one of the most painful seasons of their lives.

It takes courage to attend a retreat like this.

It takes courage to admit your heart has been broken.

It takes courage to walk into a room filled with women you have never met.

But something beautiful happens when you arrive.

Very quickly, you realize you are surrounded by women who understand.

Women who know what it’s like to grieve the loss of a marriage, struggle through sleepless nights, worry about finances, navigate co-parenting, question their identity, and wonder what the future holds.

Women who understand the loneliness, the uncertainty, and the overwhelming task of rebuilding a life they never imagined having to rebuild.

You no longer have to explain your pain.

You’re finally in a room where people simply understand.

Whether your divorce was unexpected, unwanted, or ultimately necessary for your safety and well-being, this retreat is designed to help you find your footing again.

Together we’ll explore the emotional roller coaster of grief, rebuilding confidence, navigating practical decisions, setting healthy boundaries, managing life after divorce, and rediscovering who you are beyond your pain.

We’ll also address the very real challenges divorce often brings, including financial changes, parenting concerns, relationship dynamics, and learning to embrace a future that may look different than the one you originally planned.

Most importantly, you’ll discover that healing doesn’t happen in isolation.

There is incredible strength in being surrounded by women who truly understand your journey and who can remind you that you are not alone.

You will leave with renewed hope, practical tools, meaningful friendships, and the confidence to move forward one step at a time.

Because while divorce may become part of your story…

It does not have to define the rest of your life.

 Love That Never Gives Up

Love That Never Gives Up is a retreat created especially for mothers raising children with special needs, chronic illnesses, developmental differences, behavioral challenges, mental health struggles, or other circumstances that require an extraordinary level of care.

These mothers often carry responsibilities that are invisible to everyone else: appointments, therapies, school meetings, medications, paperwork, advocacy, sleepless nights, constant worry, and the emotional weight of wondering what the future will hold.

So much of their energy goes toward making sure their child is supported, understood, protected, and loved that there is very little left for themselves..

There can also be a deep loneliness in this kind of motherhood. Friends may not fully understand. Family members may offer advice without realizing how complicated everyday life can be. Other mothers may casually talk about milestones, independence, school, dating, college, or adulthood in ways that quietly break your heart.

Even when you adore your child exactly as they are, it is still possible to grieve the life you imagined, feel exhausted by the life you are living, and carry enormous guilt for having those feelings at all. This retreat will make room for the whole truth of that experience.

Throughout the day, mothers will be given permission to exhale. We will talk about advocacy without losing yourself, caring for a child while also caring for your own body and heart, managing fear about the future, navigating marriage and family relationships, dealing with judgment and misunderstanding, finding support, and releasing the impossible expectation that a good mother should somehow be endlessly strong. There will be space for honest conversation, encouragement, practical resources, rest, laughter, tears, and connection with women who may understand things that rarely need to be explained.

Most of all, this retreat is meant to remind these mothers that they matter too. Their needs are not selfish. Their exhaustion does not mean they love their child any less. They do not have to have every answer, fix every problem, or carry the future alone.

Sometimes one day of being cared for, listened to, strengthened, and surrounded by women who truly understand can be an enormous gift. Love That Never Gives Up is about celebrating the fierce, tender, complicated love these mothers give every day—and making sure some of that love is finally poured back into them.

Forever Loved: Walking Through Grief With Hope and Grace

Forever Loved is a retreat for anyone walking through the ache of loss. Grief can come after the death of a spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend, or other deeply loved person, but it can also be stirred by the loss of a relationship, a home, a role, a dream, a season of life, or the future you thought you would have.

No two losses are exactly the same, and no two people grieve in exactly the same way. This retreat will offer a compassionate place to acknowledge what has changed, what still hurts, and what it means to carry love forward when life looks very different than it once did.

Grief has a way of touching every part of us. It can affect sleep, concentration, faith, energy, relationships, appetite, memory, and even our sense of identity.

Some days may feel almost normal, while others can bring a wave of sadness without warning. There is no perfect timeline for healing, and there is no need to rush yourself into “moving on.”

Together, we will explore what it can mean to move forward while still honoring the depth of what, and who, has been lost.

This retreat will also make room for remembering. We will talk about meaningful ways to memorialize and honor the person you loved through traditions, keepsakes, letters, photographs, recipes, music, charitable acts, memory boxes, gardens, celebrations, storytelling, and other personal rituals that keep their influence and love woven into your life.

Remembering does not mean staying stuck in the past. It can be a beautiful way of allowing love to 

continue to have a place in the present.

Most of all, Forever Loved is about discovering that grief and hope can exist side by side. Healing does not mean forgetting, and finding joy again does not diminish the importance of the person or life you lost.

This day will be about comfort, connection, reflection, gentle practical tools, and finding small ways to begin looking toward the future while carrying precious memories with you. The goal is not to leave grief behind, but to learn how to live alongside it with greater tenderness, peace, and grace.

The Waiting Garden:The Heart of an Estranged Mother

Estrangement from an adult child can leave a mother carrying questions that never seem to stop. She may replay the last conversation, wonder what she could have done differently, revisit years of memories, and imagine what she would say if she were suddenly given another chance.

When a child has blocked contact completely, the grief can feel especially painful—there may be no way to call, text, check in, or even know what is happening in their life.

There is also the constant uncertainty of not knowing what to do next. Should she reach out or give space? Apologize again or stop explaining? Hold onto hope or begin accepting that things may not change soon?

Birthdays, holidays, family gatherings, grandchildren, and ordinary everyday moments can all become reminders of a relationship she deeply misses.

The Waiting Garden was created to help mothers carry this season differently. Through guided reflection, meaningful conversation, practical tools, faith, and the support of other women who truly understand, we will explore how to quiet the rumination, release some of the guilt and self-blame, respect boundaries without abandoning hope, and prepare emotionally for possible future contact in a healthy way.

Most of all, this retreat is about learning that your life does not have to remain frozen while you wait. You can continue loving your child deeply while also tending to your own heart, rebuilding joy, strengthening your faith, and creating a meaningful life in the present.

The waiting may still be part of your story—but it does not have to be the whole story.

Grieving the Life You Planned:Finding New Direction on a Journey Never Chosen

Grieving the Life You Planned is a retreat for women whose lives have been permanently changed by an accident, injury, major illness, chronic condition, or other health challenge they never expected.

Sometimes the hardest part is not only what happened to the body, but what happened to the future you imagined. Plans change. Roles change. Energy changes. Independence may change. Even your sense of identity can shift. This retreat will create space to acknowledge those losses honestly without allowing them to become the whole story of who you are.

We will talk about the very real grief that can come with living in a body or life that no longer functions the way it once did, while also making room for possibility. The goal will not be to minimize pain, force positivity, or pretend that everything happens for a reason.

Instead, we will explore what it can look like to build a meaningful life within new limitations, changing circumstances, and unexpected realities. There is still room for joy, purpose, creativity, love, growth, and hope, even when life has taken a very different shape.

A special focus of the retreat will be rediscovering passion and purpose. Together, we will explore interests, dreams, work, service, creativity, relationships, and pursuits that can still be meaningful with all things considered.

Sometimes a former passion can be adapted.
Sometimes a completely new one emerges.

We will look at ways to identify what still lights something up inside you and how to pursue it realistically, gently, and without comparing your life to what it used to be or to what someone else is able to do.

We will also create room for community, connection, and shared wisdom. Living with illness or lasting injury can be incredibly isolating, especially when others do not fully understand the daily adjustments involved.

This retreat will allow women to share resources, practical ideas, helpful services, coping strategies, tools, and things that have genuinely made life easier for them. Grieving the Life You Planned is not about giving up on the life you wanted. It is about discovering that even when the path changes dramatically, your story is still unfolding—and there may still be meaningful, beautiful directions ahead.

Betrayal Trauma: You Don’t Have to Carry This Alone

The discovery of betrayal can turn your life upside down  

Whether you’ve experienced infidelity, pornography addiction, emotional affairs, deception, or other forms of relational betrayal, the pain can feel overwhelming.

 
Many women describe it as one of the most traumatic experiences of their lives.

If you’re considering attending this retreat, you may also be feeling something else…

Hesitation.

You may wonder if you really belong here. You may feel embarrassed to admit what you’ve been living through, or fear that others won’t understand your story.

Those feelings are completely normal.

But something beautiful happens when women arrive.

Very quickly, they realize they are surrounded by other women who have walked a similar road. The shame begins to lift. The isolation starts to disappear. For the first time in a long time, many women find themselves in a room where they don’t have to explain why they’re hurting.

They simply know.

There is incredible healing that happens when someone looks into your eyes and says,

“I’ve been there too.”

Betrayal often convinces us to withdraw, to hide our pain, and to carry it alone. Yet healing rarely happens in isolation. We were created for connection, and some of our deepest healing comes when compassionate people walk beside us through the darkest seasons of our lives.

During this retreat, you’ll experience a safe, confidential environment where you can breathe, process your story, receive practical tools, and begin moving from surviving to healing.

Through guided discussions, reflection, and opportunities for personal growth, you’ll discover that while betrayal may have changed your story, it does not have to define your future.

You don’t have to pretend you’re okay.

You don’t have to have all the answers.

You don’t even have to know what comes next.

You simply have to take the next step.

If you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and longing for a place where you can finally exhale, we would be honored to welcome you.

Healing begins when you realize you no longer have to walk this journey alone.

Come exactly as you are. You’ll be welcomed by women who understand.

The Next Chapter: The Best Is Yet To Come!

When your children are grown and beginning lives of their own, the transition can be far more emotional than you ever expected.

For years, so much of your identity may have been wrapped around being needed—raising children, managing a home, attending activities, solving problems, celebrating milestones, and caring for everyone around you.

Then suddenly the house is quieter, the routines change, and you may find yourself asking a surprisingly difficult question: Who am I now?

Even women who are incredibly proud of their children and excited for their independence can experience loneliness, sadness, uncertainty, or a sense that an enormous chapter of their own life has quietly ended.

This season can also bring other transitions into sharper focus.

Marriage may feel different without children at the center of the household. Friendships may have changed. Aging parents may require more attention. Careers may be winding down—or perhaps there is finally room to pursue work you once dreamed about.

Your body may be changing, your priorities may be shifting, and you may find yourself remembering the woman you were before motherhood and wondering where she went.

You may have experienced the blessing of becoming a grandmother!

Some women are grieving the years that passed too quickly, while others are realizing they have spent decades caring for everyone else without ever discovering what truly brings them joy.

But this chapter can also hold extraordinary freedom.

There may be dreams you placed on a shelf years ago, places you still want to go, things you want to learn, relationships you want to strengthen, causes you want to serve, or gifts inside you that have been waiting for room to grow.

Reinventing yourself does not mean abandoning the woman you have been—it means carrying everything motherhood has taught you into a new season and asking what you would like the years ahead to become..

There can be adventure, creativity, deeper friendships, renewed romance, meaningful work, ministry, travel, laughter, purpose, and a kind of confidence that often comes only after living enough life to finally know what matters.

The Next Chapter retreat is designed to give women the time and space to explore all of this together.

Through guided reflection, meaningful conversations, practical exercises, vision-building, encouragement, faith, and connection with other women entering their own seasons of change, we will begin imagining what comes next—not from a place of fear, but from possibility.

You will have an opportunity to remember parts of yourself you may have forgotten, discover new dreams, identify what you want more—and less—of in your life, and begin creating a vision for the woman you still want to become.

Your children growing up does not mean your story is winding down. It may simply mean you finally have room to discover just how much of your story is still waiting to be written.