YAY!!! I'm super excited to share that the C4C 2012 Breakout Sessions are ready to share!!! Here's the low down on the session topics on the weekend! It's going to be SO refreshing...SO much fun...and just SO good to worship with so many of you in 2012!!! I'm once again anticipating what the Lord wants to do during this next retreat! Get excited!!! It's going to be AMAZING!
***Friday sessions will not be recorded. If you can’t decide--all Saturday breakouts will be recorded and available for purchase.
Friday, 01/27/2012 Breakout Session 1 4:30 - 5:30pm
Pick one of the breakouts to attend following registration & Check-In on Friday...
Blogger Panel sharing Using Your Blog as Ministry with Lovelyn (Moments with Love), Missy (It’s Almost Naptime), Kristi (We love our Lucy), Lara (The Farmers Wife Tells All), Gwen and Suzanne (147 Million Orphans)
African American Haircare with African American Hair Stylist Nisia Murray and her lovely Regan assisting (Come learn about different hair textures, hair products and simple styles) Get ready to laugh and be entertained by Nisia--and of course...there will be time for lots of Q&A at the end!
Photography 101 with professional photographers Shannon Holden and Tammy Dugger. Come learn and be inspired by Shannon of Shannon Holden Photography and her sidekick Tammy Dugger. Shannon’s work is published in boutiques, catalogs, online publications and “Professional Photographer” magazine. Tammy, a former professional photographer, will be tag-teaming this session with Shannon. For mom’s who don’t have time to take photography classes--this will be a real treat!
Creative Quiet Time - It's time to change our minds and routines for our quiet times with God.With the physical and emotional demands of parenting, not to mention the lack of alone time, how can we satisfy our spiritual needs? The Good News is that God has a plan to meet all your needs and it's all about His love and desire to be with you. Come hear and experience new ways to increaseyour personal intimacy with the Lord and share some of your discoveries, too! (Jenni Means)
FUNdraising Your Adoption - Come be inspired in different ways to fund your adoption. Martha Cook of Promise686 will be sharing how their organization supports local adoptions through grants and how your church can potentially do this too. Also hear from ministries who are here to simply assist families with ways to fundraise, and find out how to get going with creative fundraising with their ministries!
Saturday, 1/28/2012 Breakout Session 2 2:00 - 3:30pm
News about HIV & Orphans and Realistic Expectations in Adoption - Dr. Susan Hillis, HIV research scientist, will be sharing news about HIV concerning orphans in today’s world. Then hear from Suzanne Mayernick (one of the 147 Million Orphans mom) and hear her personal journey of saying yes to HIV adoption.
Orphans in the U.S. - Domestic Adoption , Open Adoption, Foster Care & Foster-to-Adopt - Aimee Powell (wife to Mac Powell of Third Day) will be sharing their family’s journey through domestic adoption. This session will also talk about needs in the US--as well as different domestic topics including open adoption, foster care and foster-to-adopt. Angie Gue, an adoptive mom, with three very beautiful open adoptions will be sharing insight on how to trust the Lord through the twists and turns in open adoption--and how beautiful it really can be.
Yes, you CAN do this! Encouraging and Equipping Moms for Post-Adoption Success - We wait and wait and wait--and then we bring our new one home...and many times find ourselves tired, feeling unequipped and not connected to our child. Come be encouraged by Cris Peters with practical steps and ways to get through the first days, weeks and months--and ultimately create a strong foundation for your family to grow together on. This is a perfect session for mom’s waiting, close to referral or newly home.
Empowered to Connect (Session 1)- Adoption from the Inside Out - One of the most often overlooked aspects of the adoption and foster care journey is the need for parents to turn the focus on themselves in terms of dealing with their own past hurts and losses, looking honestly and realistically at their motivations and expectations and learning what it means to be “fully present” with their children. “Adoption from the Inside Out” — is necessary if parents are to help their children experience healing and transformation. This process requires that parents be willing to look back and make sense of their own past, look forward and honestly examine their motivations and expectations, in order to be free in each and every moment to be “fully emotionally present” with their children to help them heal and become all that God has created them to be. (Amy Monroe with Empowered to Connect)
The Joys and Challenges of Parenting a Child with Special Needs - This breakout session is led by two moms with two very different but amazing special needs adoption journeys. Come be encouraged and inspired from Emily Alexander and Gwen Oatsvall--how their journeys began, how the unexpected has changed their families and how blessed they feel as they continue to trust the Lord through this ever-changing and miraculous journey. (Practical Q&A time at the end)
Nurturing Your Marriage There is no greater blessing we can give our children than a strong marriage. And yet many of us find that the ongoing issues of adoption can sometimes actually diminish intimacy and communication with our husbands. In this session we will be encouraged as wives and women to love our husbands well amidst the competing demands of mothering. (Beth Templeton)
Saturday, 1/28/2012 Breakout Session 3 3:45 - 5:15pm
Empowered to Connect (Session 2) - Attachment & Practical Realities of Connecting While Correcting - Adoptive and foster parents realize that connection is essential to help their children develop trust, heal, and grow. But they know that correction (i.e., discipline) is also important. This session will focus on practical insights and strategies for parents who want to better understand the “how and why” of connecting and correcting. Using a variety of everyday situations for parents of children of all ages, this session will illustrate the principles and strategies developed and taught by Dr. Karyn Purvis, co-author of The Connected Child. (Amy Monroe) [This session follows the 1st Empowered to Connect session well--but they also stand alone. We do recommend buying the track to both of these sessions if you are a pre-adoption family and are unable to attend both sessions. ]
Helping Your Child Know and Experience God Our heart's desire as mothers is to see our children walking full of faith in a love relationship with God. We will explore ways to create an atmosphere and culture where it is natural for our children to encounter Jesus, to know their Heavenly Father, and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. We will learn ways to help us hear God as parents and to help our children hear the voice of God for themselves. This is a real key to break the orphan spirit and come fully into our identity as sons and daughters of the Lord
When Your Quiver is Full, But Your Heart Longs to Love More: Becoming an Orphan Advocate Right Where You Are - Come learn how you can get involved and be used greatly to serve orphans right where you are RIGHT now! Come hear from different ministries that all began through adoption families, and learn how you can join them and use your gifts to serve orphans all over the world.
“I Drive a Bus” - Get ready to laugh and enjoy this session with some of our favorite bus-driving adoption mommas and how they they thrive as they grow. Come hear how they not only survive but thrive as a growing family. The laundry, the homework, sports, date night (really--a date night?!), romance (really--that too?), connecting with each child and loving their mommy callings. You are in for a real treat and this session--just might be OFF the record with these ladies giving you information they’d never blog about;-) (147 moms, Emily Alexander, Joy Portis & Kristi Johnson)
Parenting In Grace - What does the Good News of God's Unmerited Favor look like in our homes? How does it affect and inform how we parent? Does an understanding of the difference between Law and Grace cause us to parent differently than our worldly neighbors? Let's take a look at how we can love our precious children according to the gospel, bringing forth LIFE into every area of these lives entrusted to our care.
Practical Advice for Parents in Wisdom and Revelation - An interview with Shelly Owens and Susan Hillis on practical parenting your biological and adopted children. This interview session was a no-brainer for us after we heard how Shelly was impacted from a mommy/coffee interview with practical parenting with Susan Hillis. So impactful--we want to share it with each of you! We so often hear teaching on how to deeply love and connect with our children. In this session, the day-to-day is painted for you--giving you practical nuggets learned from this mom of 10 to take home and apply right now with your family.
