MARCH CREATED FOR CARE 2012

I attend the Created for Care Conference in Atlanta, GA this past weekend. Over 400 women attended the conference. Created for Care is a conference created for women who have a heart for adoption. It is designed to encourage, equip, and bring rest to adoptive families. I can definitely agree that I was encouraged about our adoption journey. I learned so much about the adoption process, met so many women that gave me tons of great information, and learned more about loving my family and myself so I would definitely agree that I feel more equipped. Now the rest....we stayed up WAY TOO LATE and had to get up WAY TOO EARLY, but the time spent sharing our hearts and laughing was worth all the fatigue!

I traveled with 5 other ladies from North MS: Meaghan Gordon(Starkville, MS-adopting from Ethiopia), Mimi Shaw(Oxford, MS-domestically adopted baby James 7 months ago), Meredith Merrier(Oxford, MS-adopting from Ethiopia), Jill Carpenter(Oxford, MS-adoptiong from South Korea), McCall Aldridge (Winona, MS-has compassion and concern for the orphans of Africa).

We had the best time! I really enjoyed getting to know these ladies. We all have different backgrounds, stories, and we are all at different places in our adoption journey; but we all bonded on our common compassion for the orphans around the world.

Attached is a video from the retreat. I had the joy of meeting many of these women.



If you did not get an opportunity to go to the retreat this year...you must make plans to go next year!

Spring Break 2012

We joined Brian on a business trip for Spring Break...it was a great time!!




Cathryn's first time to fly...

We had a blast at the Children's museum...so many fun things to do!


Beckett touching a Starfish



John Scott touching an Iguana



A bed of nails!

The beautiful Spring weather was a super blessing!

Adoption News Update

We received some adoption news last week...
We learned that South Korea has issued all of the Emmigration Permits (EPs) for the year. In other words, those families that were matched in Dec. 2011-current will not be considered for travel until 2013. We were sad about the news (we were hoping to have our little girl home around Christmas of 2012), but continue to find encouragement in the fact that God is in control, and He already knows how everything will work out...

We are still a "Waiting Family" - all our paperwork is complete and we are waiting to be "matched" with a child. We have been a "waiting family" for 6 months.

"Matched Families" - have been matched with a child and are waiting to travel...waiting for their EP.

We received this article via out Monthly Newsletter. It is very good at explaining S. Korean adoptions, timeframes, EPs, ect. The entire adoption process is confusing. This article was really helpful to me, and I hope it will be for you!

Adoption from Korea — Still Strong, Still Moving

Thanks for all your prayers and support. We will continue to keep you updated!