March Retreat Breakouts...AN UPDATE!

***We have TWEAKED and even ADDED a few breakouts for the March 2012 C4C Retreat! Please read below to learn more about each breakout that will be offered. We do ask that you ONLY attend the breakout sessions that you sign up for as we are assigning rooms by number of attendees and some rooms at the resort will only hold certain numbers. If you want to keep the same breakouts you registered for--please go ahead and sign up for them again to help us keep all the registration forms in one place! We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for taking the time to sign up again!

***ALSO Breakout Session leader bios to follow for you to get to know some of the C4C team before the weekend!

Friday, March 23, 2012 Breakout Session - 4:00 - 5:30pm

African American Haircare with African American Hair Stylist Nisia Murray and her lovely Regan & adoptive mom Erica Shubin. (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.

Adoption Mom Panel - Join in the fun as we ask questions about how these moms prepared, adjusted and pressed helping them thrive throughout the years of adjusting as a growing adoption family. When you sign up, if you choose to attend this session you can submit a few questions you would like to have answered too! Join us as Andrea Young (C4C mom and “Babe of My Heart” blog) asks our panel of adoption moms with Gwen Oatsvall (147 Million Orphans Mom), Beth Templeton (Hope at Home), Amy Monroe (Empowered to Connect/Tapestry), Aimee Powell (Third Day wife & adoptive mom), Shelly Owens (Sixty Feet & “Good to be Crazy” blog), Cris Peters (C4C Breakout Session Leader)

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 increase your personal intimacy with the Lord and share some of your discoveries, too! (Jenni Means)

Support 101 - Are you attending this year’s Created for Care retreat with your friend or family member simply to support them on this new journey in their life? IF SO--then this breakout session is for YOU! Come here from April Carlock and other adoption family support as they share ways you can better support your friend or family member adopting before, during and after they’re home! Come here as they confess what they wish they would have done, what they know they did well and how you can be a greater support to helping other families thrive after they are home! This is ALSO a calling--and a very important role that you, too, can play and educate others in also!

FUNdraising Your Adoption - Come be inspired in different ways to fund your adoption! Join Kelly Putty of Ordinary Hero as she shares unique and fun ways to raise money for your adoption AND how Ordinary Hero can also help. Kelly will be sharing how their organization supports adoptions through grants and learn about the other ministries also at C4C are available to help you too!


Saturday, March 24, 2012 Breakout Session 2 1:30 - 3:00pm

Holistic Orphan Care: Becoming an Orphan Advocate Right Where You Are. Just like the lyrics of Sara Groves' song, "I saw what I saw and I can't forget it", so many of us want to know- now what? What do we do now that we know? And how do we truly carry out the call of James 1:27 to serve orphans in their distress? Join adoption moms and other ministry leaders who have begun ministries modeled after that call as we discuss ways that empower, rehabilitate and provide relief to orphans around the world. We will discuss holistic models, how-tos of international ministry and ministry through your home church. Led by Kara Portillo of Into The Streets of Ethiopia, April Carlock of Wiphan Care Ministries and Traci Weldie of Safe Families

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 adoption mom Amy Levy and hear her personal journey of saying yes to HIV adoption--a stories that will encourage you and bless you as an every day family followed the Lord on this beautiful journey of adoption.

“Identity, Adoption and Racism: What America taught me about me” - This interactive session will help individuals explore what it means to be a person of color and be an adoptee in America, and how both impact one’s identity. This session will be both interactive and informative and develop a greater awareness of the challenging and sensitive reality for those who may look a little different from the average American. Join Carissa Woodwyk as she shares and teaches from her personal experience as a Korean-born adoptee.

Yes, you CAN do this! Encouraging and Equipping Moms for Post-Adoption Success - We wait and wait--and then we bring our new one home, many times findig 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.

Adoption from the Inside Out - Empowered to Connect Session 1 -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 Gwen Oatsvall and Teresa Grimes--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, 3/24/2012 Breakout Session 3 3:30 - 5:00pm

Attachment & Practical Realities of Connecting While Correcting - Empowered to Connect Session 2 - 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. ]

Adoption in the U.S. - Domestic Adoption , Open Adoption, Foster Care & Foster-to-Adopt with Aimee Powell, Jennifer Schiltz and Angie Gue. - Aimee Powell (wife to Mac Powell of Third Day) will share their family’s journey in domestic adoption. Jennifer Schiltz will be sharing her journey through foster care and fostering 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. 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.

Helping Your Child Know and Experience God with Jenni Means and Andrea Young - 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 anatmosphere 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. The second part of the session will focus on practical things you can do with your children to encourage them in their walks with the Lord. If you are in the middle of a time of WAITING--what better way to spend this time before new transitions begin than pressing into Jesus together.

“I Drive a Bus”: Thriving as a Growing Family - Get ready to laugh and enjoy this session with some of our favorite bus-driving adoption mommas and how 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 mom Gwen Oatsvall, Third Day wife and mom Shannon Anderson, Andria Parker, Amie Swaddling (www.lovethemhome.com) & Colleen Jobe from Wild Olive (www.myuglycouch.com)

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. This session is led by Beth Templeton of “Hope at Home”.

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.

Fasten Your Sweet Belt: Older Child Adoption Adopting an older child comes with its distinct challenges but equally rewarding joys. If God is calling you to older children who wait, don’t be afraid! This session will explore the unique aspects of cleaving an older child into your family. Using personal stories and testimonials from older adoptees, we will discuss what it is like for the adoptee and the parents. Come learn what a beautiful miracle can happen when you open your home and heart to an older child who has prayed for you to come. Jodi is the author of "Fasten Your Sweet Belt: 10 Things You Need to Know About Older Child Adoption."

Hanging Tough: Seeking God in a Difficult Season with Traci Weldie - As pre-adoptive moms we hear all about things like RAD, FASD, PTSD, ODD, ADHD and our heads swirl. And while we prepare by reading and talking to other moms, we really never think OUR chosen child that God has clearly led us to will have any of these. But then, you realize he does. Now what? Where do we turn? How do we get through this? Come hear from fellow adoptive moms who are living with RAD, ODD, PTSD, ADHD and listen to their stories of encouragement and hope.


***We will send out the NEW REGISTRATION LINK to each attendee this weekend--so check your inbox! IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE IT--AND you are already registered for the MARCH retreat--you may go ahead and let us know your choices by filling out the FORM AT THIS LINK.

We are SO excited to serve you amazing mommas in March and can't WAIT to meet so many of you very soon!

Blessings!

Andrea & the C4C team!