C4C

This year I returned to created 4 care with two great girls.  We headed out on Thursday afternoon and figured we would stop on the other side of Chattanooga, but before we knew it, we had talked our way to Atlanta!


We woke up Friday morning and headed to IKEA. 

 

After some fun shopping, we headed toward the conference.  I debated not taking the two days off that I asked for in January for this conference, but decided I needed to soak this weekend in and be around these mama's. 

What a great year to be with all of the Korean adoptive mama's!  This weekend came off the heels of the new requirements and before we had heard the good report of the change (again) in travel.  So, to say the least, it was really good to be surrounded by all these mama's who get it! 

Here are 6 of us holding our phones with pictures of our kids that we are waiting to bring home.  Before this picture, all the mama's above put us in the center of a circle and prayed for our hearts and our children.  This process is hard, but with so many unknowns, it is even harder.  I can be fine with waiting, but I am really needing an end goal in sight!

This year at the conference, I learned about loving our kids BIG.  I truly felt like instead of learning a ton of adoptive info as far as parenting Olivia, but that I learned to keep loving Easton BIG and praying for him to come home.  I feel like the strategies they talked about I already do.  I am not bragging by any means, because goodness knows this girl can always learn!  I think I use them because I have had so many different trainings with education stuff and being in the teaching world.  I have had my fair share of difficult kiddos in the classroom so I have used several of those calming techniques that they talked about at one of our nightly sessions.   
We watched the movie stuck and watching that and seeing these parents fight for three years to get their child home just confirmed that we are in this!  It also confirmed that we are so lucky that even though we are waiting, our children are in a clean, loving environment and not in a baby bed with no mattress or limited food. 
Overall I walked away from that weekend feeling blessed.  Blessed to get to meet up with a roomful of amazing mama's who I talk to throughout the year on facebook.  Meeting up with mama's who know what this wait is and get the unknowns of adoption was the best part of the weekend.  I can't wait for C4C next year!!