Kelly and I attended our 3rd C4C conference and our mamas attended their 2nd C4C at the end of January. As I was flying into Knoxville to meet up with my mom to drive down to Atlanta for the conference, an ice storm hit and the sleet and freezing rain started to fall. We booked it out of Knoxville just in time to miss the frozen roads so that we could attend the retreat and made it safely just in time for the first session. We both would have hated to miss it.
But I'm not going to lie...part of me didn't want to attend my 3rd C4C as a "waiting mom" and since I was going to be a "waiting mom" again after still not receiving our referrals, I had mixed feelings about going to the conference at all. I guess I just wanted to have a pity party for myself and by myself. I'm so glad we made though because the encouragement I received from the Lord and from others was exactly the pick-me-up I needed to keep going strong.
My personal take-away from the conference was realizing in my efforts to not become Sarai (moving ahead of God's timing and plan for my life) that I've become Hagar (where am I going and how did I get here?). Through this study I now see like Hagar that even though my circumstances haven't changed (3 years-no referral), I am changed because Gods sees me and hears me where I am. God opened Hagar's eyes to the well that she couldn't see because she was overwhelmed by her circumstances. God has been faithful to open my eyes to the ways He is using me through this adoption journey and ways He wants to use me in the future too. I'm finding my "well", and that's my story these days.
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| Linda (Kyle's Mom), Kyle, Kelly, Terri (Kelly's Mom) |
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| Amazing Worship! |
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| Andrea introducing the PJ Party Panel |
Thank you to Andrea and the C4C team for putting on another amazing retreat! I know that putting on two conferences of this magnitude has got to be a major challenge, but all who attended were so blessed by your hard work!
A new concept that is being birthed our of C4C is the Mini C4C Retreats. Since so many mamas can't make it to the two conferences in GA each year due to many reasons including distance, cost, and the retreats filling up so fast, C4C is encouraging women who got to attend the big conference to take the DVD's and what they've experienced back home with them and put on mini-retreats in their home towns. I'm thrilled to announce that I am planning with my adoption care group, Loving God's Children, a Mini C4C for Tampa Bay! As soon as we have the date and place established, I'll post all the info for any adoptive mama, adoptive family member, adoptive support friend, or any woman interested in adoption to sign up and join us for this Mini C4C by the beach! It is going to be awesome!!!
Thanks for sharing!
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