03 October 2011

Post-Adoptive Conference

Our bake sale was slated to end at 2:00 but since we still had customers we stayed until 3:00, then we boogied home, changed clothes and headed to a post-adoptive conference.

When we arrived we went to drop our children off in the childcare area and I stopped at the door to see the most AMAZING and beautiful picture! If I had had my camera I would have taken a picture. There in the room were children from all around the world, Korea, China, Urkraine, Russia, the U.S., Africa, and more! It was truly breathtaking! I loved seeing so many nations represented in one room! Beautiful!

Praise and worship was provided by the amazing and talented Billy and Cindy Foote...go get her No Double Yellow Line cd we have loved listening to it and it warms my heart to hear my four year old sing "Bring Our Children Home"! For the conference they had an amazing panel of adoptive families, all adopted older children (a few had adopted younger ones as well)including All Are Precious In His Sight (who bring wisdom on three bio children and seven almost nine adoptive children). On the panel was also a child psycologist and a family therapist who offered not only their own personal adoption experiences but also their professional experiences on issues families face after "the honeymoon" is over. You know, the ugly stuff no one tells you about and you think your prepared for things like attachment or lack there of, manipulation, grief, bonding, issues with your children already in home and their new sibling, discipline in a way that makes the adopted child still feel loved and so much more. Everyone highly recommended The Connected Child in case you were wondering for your own journey. They offered guidence, wisdom and hope that on the other side the difficult journey is SO worth it and the blessings far outweigh the tough times.

Each of these families fall within a 60 mile radius of our community and each want to be there to support those families who have just recently came home and are in the midst of the settling in phase and the one family who was there who is yet to come home with their older child (us)!

It was such an honor to be able to be a part of such a God blessed evening.

My husband and I drove home that evening feeling encouraged and blessed to have more insight on how to pray for this journey!

4 comments:

  1. So glad the conference was encouraging to you! I wish we could have gone with you. :)

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  2. God is so good and I love seeing what he is doing thru your family! Thank you for allowing us to walk this journey with you.

    ~S

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  3. I am so glad that you were able to go to this conference! The Connected Child is a great book. I'd say that Karyn Purvis' new video is a MUST for every adoptive family. It is so incredibly helpful.

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  4. I sooo wish you two ladies could have been there!

    Sarah, they talked about the video and there are several local people who are working on doing a family based Bible study off of it to coordinate with her study book!

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