Adoption and Foster Care Conference

Here's a shout out to my church for another job well done for the Adoption/Foster Care community. 

Just a little over ten years ago, God stirred the idea of adoption in our hearts, but we had no idea where to start. We attended an adoption/foster care conference held at our church, met and talked with several agencies while there, attended informational sessions regarding the steps involved and how to handle the overwhelming financial aspects, and officially started our process that very day. 

Of course, nothing ended up looking like what we'd envisioned, hoped, or planned, just like I heard from many others at yesterday's conference. But it was the day we knew we heard God say, "You're child is already out there waiting for you. What are you waiting for?"

The adoption conference at my church has proved beneficial at every stage of adoption--with all the information I needed to finally take that step of faith and obedience to start the process, with tips on how to handle a newly adopted child at home, and even now with tips to use as an adoptive parent with a post-high school child whose background signficantly affects the choices they may make as a young adult. Yesterdy I attended a session on adopting a teenager, a session on helping your child self-regulate in order to make better choices in any stage of life, and yet another session on how to keep your cool and train your body how to handle stressful situations (good for both the parent and the child). This year's conference also focused in on the birth parents and their perspective. 

I've never walked away feeling disappointed. And, of course, I love any opportunity to share our adoption story with whoever God puts in my path. There's something special about spending a day with other adoptive parents who have experienced similar things in life, or to spend it with people who just need that encouragement and inspiration to help them take that step of faith toward opening their heart and home to a child that doesn't have that love and stability of their own. 

I am so grateful to be part of a church that not only has a heart for adoption and foster care to help people get started, but who also knows and addresses the need to continue that support after the child has already entered the home. 

Our Colombian miracle(s)

Eight years ago, the word Kidsave made me want to hide under a rock and never come out. I'd followed the stirring in my heart to meet two Colombian children coming to the United States with Kidsave, loved them with everything in me, spent every penny we had to adopt them, only to be left empty-handed, broken-hearted, guilt-ridden, and absolutely humiliated.

I just couldn't even begin to fathom why God let us hear about Kidsave, why my heart stirred to meet those kids, why our paths ever had to cross, and why they still ended up without a family. Why did He let me love me love them and then not let them come home.?

Yeah, you know my story by now. And you also know that God did have plans for those kids, for us and for their older brother, too, who didn't get to come to the United States with them. God was writing a story far grander than I could have imagined, a story He's still writing.

Through our loss came so many opportunities and blessings. Three trips to Colombia, countless friends in Colombia, two books (technically three), an adopted son, a trip to Spain forever connecting two families, a failed adoption grief support group, a writing/speaking ministry, three siblings connected and in touch with one another, and a testimony that makes my heart bulge with gratitude. And those are just the blessings on my side. There are countless more from their perspective. Plus our experience led to many positive changes in the whole Summer Miracles program.

Now here we are, eight years later, no longer hiding under a rock in humiliation, but standing on it, ready to advocate for the next child given the opportunity to come here in search of the family God has already chosen for them. It was an absolute honor to sit down with Kidsave (for the first time) just a week ago with my photo books in hand to show them all the good that came out of our story.

I am so thankful for Kidsave giving my son, and his sister, a chance to come to the United States, and I am so thankful that we followed the stirring in our hearts to meet them. No, they didn't end up together. But if we had not loved and pursued them both, we may not have sought to reunite them years later. The story would have fallen short. It was all part of a beautiful plan.

Kidsave is now preparing a new group of kids to come to the United States this summer to experience life with a family and to hopefully help them meet their forever family. And guess what? They're hoping to bring at least 5-7 of them (or more) to the Dallas/Fort Worth area--if enough families will step up to host them in their home.

If you are in the DFW area and have a heart to possibly adopt an older child or at least have the space and resources to host one of them (or a few of them), please check out this website with several pictures already posted of some of the kids coming. Kidsave Summer Miracles program

Please feel free to share this post or the website, as well, to anyone else you might know that may be interested. If you know my son, Juan, you know what a happy, fun-loving "boy" he is. Imagine his life if he'd never had the chance to come here and meet us, the family God prepared him for and prepared for him.

I look forward to working with the DFW Summer Miracles program this summer in any way I can. God allowed me to travel the world last summer, so I felt the need to stay home this year. How exciting to know that a little piece of Colombia will be coming here.

If God is stirring something in your heart, don't ignore it. We're so glad we didn't. It wasn't (isn't) easy. But it's worth it.