Created for Care Conference

Last Friday I flew up to Atlanta to attend the Created for Care Conference with my BFF Kelly, who is also adopting from Ethiopia. Andrea Young, another adoptive mommy who used ACGI (Kelly's adoption agency) for the adoption of her son from Ethiopia, felt God's call to organize a retreat for adoptive moms. She originally prayed for 25 women to attend...which within a couple of days turned into a conference for 250 women! Her blog Babe of My Heart is very popular in the adoption world. Andrea's blog posts are so encouraging for adoptive families in every stage of the adoption process as she shares her real life with Jesus, her hubby, 3 biological kids, and her little Isaac from Ethiopia. Her post on Christmas Eve about missing your future child(ren) made me cry because she was able to put into words what I was feeling in my heart. Kelly signed us up for the conference and I am so glad that she did!

Here is Andrea introducing Kara Portilla of Into the Streets of Ethiopia who shared an amazing story about her adopted daughter. She encouraged all of the waiting on referral mommas, including Kelly and I, that although we don't know where our children are, God does and He is taking care of them until He gives them to us to love and care for. She said that her adopted daughter told her that Jesus told her that her mom was coming to get her from Ethiopia before they had ever met...that Jesus reassured this little orphan girl that He had a mommy just for her and she is coming to take you home! Wow.

Kelly and I before we cried off all of our makeup...we laughed alot and cried even more over the weekend. The Lord knew how much I needed this weekend to get away with my dearest friend, be encouraged, and hear from Him. I received some personal bad news a couple of days before I left for the conference and God reminded me over and over last weekend that the timing of the conference was no surprise to Him, and He knew how much I needed it well before I did. I arrived at the conference physically drained, mentally fatigued, and emotionally spent. The worship at the conference was *amazing* and I was so glad for the opportunity to worship with other adoptive moms and praise God even though life wasn't feeling so great at the moment.

Here's the best pic I could get of Andrea with her Isaac...isn't he cute?!? Another awesome surprise at the conference was getting to meet several other Gladney moms...some had their babies home already, many were waiting for referrals with me, and a few had just started the paperwork. I sat down at my assigned table the first night for dessert and immediately recognized a few faces from my blog-stalking of other Gladney families and then we all put the pieces together and realized that our agency and country were in common. So cool!

A highlight of the weekend was the African-American haircare workshop. Kristi Johnson, otherwise known as Lucy Lane's mom, shared with us her tips for managing LL's hair. She cracked me up. She basically said that if you want to use all-natural products on your child's hair, you might not want to listen to her lecture....that just made me laugh, I'm not an all-natural woman either, Kristi! And, LL's hair is awful cute-love the hair accessories!

Next, Miss Nisia gave us the facts on caring for our children's hair and told us all of the "country" things not to do to our child's hair-she cracked me up too...as you can she, Miss Nisia was preaching it! Miss Nisia also taught me something I didn't know about swimming pools...she said that chlorine can turn an African-American person's hair red, so salt-water swimming pools are best for our babies...I felt like God whispered in my ear, "See, Kyle, I knew you needed a salt-water system for your pool years before I moved you to Fl and called you to adopt...I've got it all under control and I have a plan for you!" Wow, again.

We heard from several talented speakers over the weekend. I particularly enjoyed Dr. Susan Hillis. One of the first things out of her mouth was "I love math"...I'm a math nerd, too, and I knew that she and I would get along great! Her math challenge to the attendees was to mulitply our families x 100...to motivate enough families to adopt that 100 additional orphans will be placed with forever familes. I'm going to work on that since my husband says that we can't bring them all home;) She also challenged us to "Laugh, Let it Go, and Look Up" as "we take what we have and put it in Jesus' hands to multiply as we go". She spoke on Jesus' feeding of the 5,000 and pointed out that sometimes the Lord takes away or leaves out what we need so that He can provide it for us...and, Wow, again...just what I needed to hear from Him.

Amy Monroe gave her family's testimony of adoption in a general session and shared how to talk with your children about adoption during a breakout session. I took away so much wisdom from her and A Christian's Guide to The Connected Child that she cowrote with her husband, Michael Monroe, and Dr. Karyn Purvis. So kind of them to bless us with such a useful gift!

Really, I could go on and on about how AWESOME the conference was and how much these women ministered to my heart. I'll be there next year unless I'm in ET!

And here Kelly and I are after we cried off all of our makeup...I was even more physically drained (we stayed up late!) and emotionally spent, but spiritually filled...praise God.

Trip to LexVegas

Isaac and I flew up to Lexington, KY, to visit family and friends and the UK wildcats two weekends ago. We spent that Friday night with Isaac's family, catching up with his parents, Abby (#5 of the Treesh kids) and Jonathan, and of course, Grandma Treesh. We enjoyed spending quality time and relaxing with them. Thanksgiving was great, but so rushed and chaotic, so it was nice to just chill...and Grandma's new meds made her alot easier to be around, too...thanks, Donna (Gabe, #3 Treesh kid's soon-to-be wife) for the recommendations for Grandma's new dementia-drugs!

Saturday after realizing that the UK shirt that Isaac had packed for himself was so short that it looked like a midriff-top on him and I splattered blueberry juice all over my only UK shirt, we headed into town to stock up on new UK gear to wear that afternoon to Rupp Arena.

It was great to be back at Rupp, but kinda sad to not be sitting in the student section anymore and having to pay 15 times the cost for a ticket!!!

UK played UGA that Saturday, and we were expected for the Cats to redeem themselves...

At halftime when they announced that the jump rope girls where there to perform, I was so excited! I know, that sounds so nerdy, but these girls' talent is so amazing to watch and while we were in school I always looked forward to the halftime when they would perform. It was a nice surprise for me to get to see them perform again.

The score should have been a bigger spread, but a W is a W...we are hoping that our team plays harder in the SEC tournament since we have tickets for March in CATlanta, and I thought our UK regular season tickets were expensive!

After the game, we met up with our friends Mark and Traci, Greg and Marci and their little boy Emerson, Andy and Dana, and Jason for dinner at this great Mexican restaurant that we call Rincon even though it has been renamed in recent years. The wait for a table was long, but worth it, and it was so fun to meet up with our friends. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of all of us!

Sunday morning we hopped in the car with Mark and Traci and headed over to Louisville, KY, to see Josh and Kelly and Hallie. We ate breakfast at Wild Eggs and enjoyed the food and our company....Mark, Isaac, and Josh were happy to be back together again.

Hallie wanted a picture with her daddy...she had had surgery a couple of days before and was so sweet to flash us the big bandage across her cute little belly. Then, she pulled out her daddy's iPad, unlocked it with the stroke of her little finger, and starting clicking away to get to her game, amazing!...I love that kid! Later on Hallie gave Isaac a big kiss at breakfast and he was smiling about it the rest of the day.

Kelly, me, and Traci...it was so good for the three of us to be together even though it was only for a couple of hours. The past year, and really even now, has been really hard on the three of us and it has been even harder being apart from one another during the tough times. Thank goodness for cell phones, but it is not the same as a hug and face-to-face time spent with your best friends.

All of us went to Kelly and Josh's church that morning after breakfast, and I finally got to see the "adoption wall" that Kelly has been telling me about...and I want one at my church, too! Here's the Johnsons' picture over Africa. At church we also ran into the Melbers, a family we knew from when Isaac worked at Jonathan Creek over 2 summers in college. They have adopted three kids since we last saw them, and their newest addition to their family happens to be an "Isaac" from Ethiopia. Little Isaac said to my Isaac when introduced, "Hey, my name's Isaac too!" So sweet to reconnect with them.

The "adoption wall" was a huge map of the world with all of the adoptive families' pictures. The pictures also note where the families are in the adoption process so that other church members can pray more specifically for these families. So cool...looks like they made need to get a bigger map eventually, but that would be a good problem!

One of Isaac's main goals while in Lexington was to eat his favorite Pineapple Chicken Fried Rice at Mai Thai. Mark and Jan, and Abby and Daniel joined us on his quest. This restaurant used to be across from the PA school and hospital and at lunchtime it was packed. Since the hospital construction started, the old Mai Thai was torn down to make room for a parking garage...they really did pave over Isaac's pineapple paradise and built a parking lot! So, we had to drive to the other side of town to find the new Mai Thai, but it was worth it and alot easier to find a table.

Isaac could not wait to dig-in and he cleaned his plate...I had my usual Chicken Massuman Curry, yum.

Thanks to our family and friends for spending time with us, now it's your turn for a visit to sunny Florida where you don't need a winter coat this time of year!