Together For Them Adoption Conference

Eighteen months ago my husband and I started something of an interesting adventure. I had been doing a lot of reading and you know reading can really open your eyes and mind and get you in trouble. I knew there was something unsatisfying about our lifestyle of luxury and comfort. There was a gut feeling inside me that following Jesus meant life should be about something more than building wealth.

Our friends, the Cordes family, sent us a letter explaining their plans to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia. They also mentioned starting a life group at our church focused on the care of orphans. My reaction was to go “all in” with them but Mike gave me a lot of push back. I was reading Radical, by David Platt, and started talking about altering the way we live, especially in terms of money, but my husband had no idea where I was coming from. I convinced him to join the new life group and even host it at our house so that he couldn’t make excuses to bail if he hated it. He knew I wanted to adopt or foster but he was happy with our family as is.

We met some awesome people in our new group, 1:17, and read book after book about God’s heart for the orphan, for the desperately poor and hungry, for the widow and the outcast. We watched as God did amazing things to help raise funds towards bringing orphans into forever families. We prayed together, served together, ate and laughed together and even mourned together. Eight families made plans to adopt and one made plans to start fostering. We celebrated as two families brought their sons home and prayed fervently as several others encountered lengthy delays and have had to wait much longer than expected.

This weekend we have an exciting opportunity to nurture and maybe even grow our little community with a heart for unwanted kids. Alliance 1418, the network of Houston area churches with adoption, foster care and orphan care ministries that we belong to, is sponsoring a first of it’s kind conference here in Katy. The Together For Them conference will be an incredible opportunity to learn first hand about all the ins and outs of the adoption process, the foster care system, caring for orphans, and how to parent your adopted kids once they’re home. There are some fantastic speakers and there will be a great time of worship as well. Lunch is included with the small cost of $10 per family.

Author: Sarah

Mom of three. Triathlete. View all posts by Sarah