Summit VII

As some of you may know, Boz and I decided at the last minute to attend this year’s Orphan Summit in Louisville, KY!! Granted, we decided this AFTER it had already started, but we were able to make it for the 2nd day and it was so worth it!

There is nothing like being in a room full of people who are just like you. They get it. They’re doing something. Or want to do something. For that one day, adoption and orphan care was ALL we thought about! And it was fantastic. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always there, in the back of our minds. But that day, it was all we focused on. We were surrounded by other couples who had adopted, or like us, were waiting for the call. There were staff from churches who wanted to get an orphan care ministry started at their church. It was beautiful.

We woke up at 2:00 a.m. on Friday and tried to leave the house around 3:30a.m. ~ that didn’t work as well as we had hoped (perhaps we shoulda packed the night before!) and we ended up missing the whole worship part of the morning. LOL!! But we did make it for the general session so it worked out. When we pulled into the parking lot Katie Seevers was waiting for us as she and Jeff and saved seats for us!! It was so great seeing them again!!!

When we arrived Dennis Rainey was interviewing Luther Ellis (Luther Ellis was with the Detroit Lions for nine years and with the Denver Broncos for one year. He is a two time pro bowl selection, NCAA all American from the University of Utah. His nickname during his time in Detroit was "Pass Rushing Luther". He was given the title of “The Strongest Man in the NFL” by Muscle and Fitness Magazine.). As you can see, his resume is quite impressive! But what impressed us most was his heart and love for adoption. He and his wife have 11 kids!! 6 adopted and 5 the ‘old fashioned’ way! I can only imagine how fun it’d be growing up with that many brothers and sisters! But seriously, there’s something really cool about watching him and listening to him speak. You’d assume he’d have this ‘tough-guy’ attitude, but he doesn’t. He did on the field, but not off. Sitting there listening to him refer to orphans as “kisses from Heaven” just melts your heart.

Angela Minter was another speaker during the general session. This woman is a powerhouse! She is the president and CEO of Sisters for Life, which is an organization she started dedicated to defending the sanctity of life. She is out there daily on the sidewalk counselling young ladies outside the Abortion Mill. She also has a unique perspective on this, as she lost two babies this way. So she knows EXACTLY what these woman are going through and more importantly, knows what it’s like on the other side. As of today, there have been over 200 babies saved because of Sisters for Life! One thing she said that got in my head is how often she hears... “Adoption? I need to have this abortion because i could never give my baby away.” So Sad.

There were a few other speakers (maybe just one) then it was time for our first Breakout Session!!

Boz and i both chose to go to the PRACTICAL REALITIES of PARENTING CHILDREN from the HARD PLACES. It. Was. Incredible. We walked away with so much VALUABLE information!! The whole session was on parenting and ways to better understand the “how and why” of CONNECTING and CORRECTING strategies for children with trauma backgrounds. Sounded like this was a follow up to Dr. Karyn Purvis’ session from the day before. If this was the only session we got to then the whole thing would have been worth it! One nice thing about being first time parents is that we don’t have to ‘unlearn’ our parenting style (as we don’t have any!) in order to learn a new way of doing it. They (Michael and Amy Monroe) talked a lot on giving your children voice…. Choices & Compromises…. About never losing your COMPASSION for your child. Even if they’re home for years… it doesn’t matter. They came from a hurt place and you must never let your compassion expire. We got so much out of this session… I think I’ll write more on this at a later time. But until then.. here’s Karyn Purvis on Giving your Child Voice:


Gift 1: Give Your Child Voice from Tapestry on Vimeo.

The other sessions we went to were on Advocating as a Busy Mom…. Becoming a Multicultural/Multiracial Family… and Men and the Cause of the Fatherless. This post is becoming much longer than I planned..... so more on those sessions at another time. Plus, we’re still processing a lot.

So…. not only did we walk away with valuable information, but it also gave us a chance to meet up with friends!! During the dinner break our agency arranged for us all to get together at a local restaurant ~ which was incredible.

We were able to meet some of the staff from our agency (including Brian Luwis ~ the founder of AWAA! Can’t say enough about this man!). So it was great putting faces with names!! We also “officially met” about 5 other AWAA: Ethiopia families!! We’ve been talking to them for months on the Yahoo Group, Email and Facebook, but it was awesome to finally MEET IN PERSON!! We also met other adoptive families who were adopting from other countries, and that was just as great!! I really can’t say enough wonderful things about our agency. We were so blessed by them putting on this dinner for all of us! Not to mention the unexpected surprise of them picking up the tab!