Sneak peek at what you voted for

I’ve got an obligation to the folks who clicked for us. And, you better believe I’m taking that seriously. Perhaps Dan Cruver should make a name tag up for me that says “Adoption Community Correspondent” or “Adoptive Parent Special Reporter.” I’d wear it with pride since I’m committed to sharing as much as I can with whoever wants to receive it.

Just take a sneak peek at some of what Mark and I will be receiving…

• A challenge from Jonathan Merritt, a widely published (A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars and Green Like God: Unlocking the Divine Plan for Our Planet)
  and respected teacher and faith and culture strategist. With a passion for the synergy of faith and culture, he’s teaching on how to mobilize the next generation to care for orphans. He’s going to flesh out the stats on this generation’s heart for issues of social justice, critique this generation for often being more cause centered than Christ centered, and then help us cast a vision for mobilizing them rightly. I can’t wait to meet him and have a feeling that this break-out could be a whole conference of its own.
• Pastor and Preacher Vermon Pierre, first generation in his family to be born in the U. S. with parents from Haiti, will share through his experience as a foster parent about transracial adoption. Recognizing that adoptive parents tend to approach transracial adoption one of two ways–we either over-emphasize race and live in turmoil, afraid we aren’t doing enough to honor our child’s ethnic heritage or we de-emphasize race and act as though it were completely unimportant now that our child is a part of our family. Pierre is going to teach on how the gospel shows us something different. As parents who celebrate our Chinese daughter’s heritage and work to do that in a way that is sensitive and appropriate to her, this one is gonna be good.
• Lavonne Dideon, one my personal cheerleaders who had all her kiddos routing for our video entry to get us to the conference, is going to be sharing as National Director of Orphan Sunday efforts this year how we can harness Orphan Sunday in our church to grow a heart for orphan care. 
• Chris Marlow, founder and director of Help End Local Poverty, is going to take on sharing about the pros and cons of short-term missions. As a couple committed to mission work, Mark’s looking forward to this one.
• Adoptive and foster mom, Dennae Pierre will be challenging us on how we can teach our children to “suffer well,” without a fear of suffering. She’s going to teach on a biblical perspective of suffering and talk about practical ways to teach our children to live out their stories within the context of all that is happening throughout human redemptive history. As parents desiring to both  encourage our children to have a heart for those who are in the midst of suffering as well as walk with our child who has suffered from losses, we are looking forward to hearing how we can use the gospel at their level to help them process the pain around them. 
• Jason Kovacs, pastor, cofounder of Together for Adoption, and Director of Ministry Development for The ABBA Fund…and father of 5 (4 through adoption), is going to speak to the men specifically in a break-out session simply entitled Men and the Fatherless. Mark’s ready to hear his challenge to man up; bring it on.
• Meanwhile, I’ll be hearing Jon Bergeron, Director of Hope for Orphans FamilyCare, and Robin Pennington, Cofounder of Hope for Orphans and Executive Director of Sparrow’s Home Adoptions, discuss why difficulties in adoption are the norm and how early supportive intervention by the Church can make all the difference. They won’t shy away from talking about the reality of disruptions and how the Church can come alongside families who are struggling. I really want to step up to this challenge.