Back in October we had dinner with several families from our agency and one of the moms, Andrea, talked about wanting to do a retreat for adoptive moms. She was hoping to get 25 moms to attend. I have just spent the last 72 hours with 250 of the most amazing women on the planet! Her small retreat turned into a huge gathering with amazing speakers, important adoption education, prayer and fellowship and created long-lasting friendships. The beautiful resort and yummy food was pretty fantastic too. Here is a (rather long) recap of the weekend.
On Friday morning I awoke at 4:00am to find our streets covered in snow. It has only snowed twice before in my almost 4 years in Austin so this was a pretty big deal for us. I was extremely nervous driving to the airport and managed to only lose control of the car twice. But by 5:45 I was at the airport and ready to board a plane with my adoptive mom friend, Ginny. We made it to Atlanta, rented a car and headed for the beautiful Lake Lanier resort.
Although we were exhausted from traveling we couldn't help but be excited to arrive at the retreat. We checked in and received nametags that listed our hometowns and had a flag showing which country we were adopting from.
Friday night we joined with the other women for dessert and worship. Imagine the positive energy of 250 women who have all been called to advocate for orphans!
On Saturday morning we had breakfast and worship as a group before heading to two breakout sessions. I decided to do two different sessions on attachment and bonding. This is such an important topic and I want to be as prepared as possible before Gayle comes home. I took pages and pages of notes and feel much more confident that I have a plan to form that bond.
Then we took a break for lunch and I was able to spend more time with other moms from our agency. It was amazing to finally meet people that I exchange emails with and whose blogs I read!
After lunch I attended a session on African haircare. It was literally standing room only as about 100 women listened intently and took notes on how to care for our children's hair. The speakers were hilariously funny and patient with all of our questions.
The next session I attended was a talk on HIV positive children and the link between orphans and the AIDS crisis. The speaker was an amazing woman named Susan Hillis. She is a doctor with the CDC and a mom of 10, the majority of whom are adopted. She spoke several times at the retreat and was one of the most uplifting, encouraging and honest women I have ever met. She didn't shy away from answering the tough questions and shared stories from her personal life.
We had more free time after that session and then got back together for dinner and worship. At dinner I was able to talk with more adoptive moms and hear more moving stories about how people were led to adoption.
These are the Texas adoptive moms
These are just a few of the ladies that were there from our agency
After dinner we watched a documentary film about orphans in Uganda. It was heartbreaking and, at times, hard to watch. I thought about how easy it is to just look away when you see things like this. And how vitally important it is that we don't.
On Sunday we got together for one last breakfast and worship. Andrea, the woman who had the amazing vision to create this retreat, spoke and received a standing ovation from the women in the room. It was not enough to thank her and all her volunteers and speakers for what they had done. I arrived at the retreat feeling empty and left feeling filled. There is just no other way to describe how I felt.
I made it back to Texas just before bedtime and there is nothing more fun than being tackled as soon as you walk in the door. I was so happy to be back with my kids and love on them a little before putting them to bed. I was also very grateful and appreciative of Jed's support in sending me to the conference.
A new week has begun and I hope it is a week of referrals and that we move a little closer to Gayle. But I also know I have the strength to wait as long as I have to.
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