SPEAK UP!

One year ago we emerged from a difficult season and refocused our mission as a family and for this blog.

If I looked back on only our adoption journey for the past year, it would be easy to feel as though we've made very little progress. But God has been faithful to us and blessed our obedience beyond what I would have ever imagined last summer!

For starters, the orphan care ministry we started at our little ol' church plant church is blossoming into something amazing. What started as one of my many wild ideas has turned into a dedicated group of volunteers stretching themselves beyond their comfort zones to care for the fatherless in Louisville, in Southern Sudan and all over the world!

That's our pastor playing mini corn hole with a foster family.

From over 100 people attending our seminar in January, to the foster family picnic we hosted last month, God is doing big things with our little church. Our pastor and elders are behind it, and orphan care is part of our church DNA, not just a "program" going on on the side.

Our family has also been stretched as we hosted the first Safe Families placement in Kentucky this spring! It was one of the hardest and yet most beautiful things we have ever done as a family. At least one full post is on the horizon about our experience as a host family. Stay tuned.

I've learned a lot, cried a lot, complained a lot and rejoiced a lot this past year. It has been glorious and painful. But every day I feel God calling us to do more. Give more. Share more. Encourage more. Equip more. Speak up more.

At the Created for Care retreat in March, God began revealing to me that our story is important. As I listened to Carissa Woodwyk speak about our individual stories and their importance, not because they are about us, but because God is writing them for us, I realized that she is right.

Our crazy adoption story is not about us, neither is it for us to keep to ourselves. It is for Him. But in order for our story to be used by Him, we have to be willing to speak up.

I feel God leading me to more, starting with sharing our story. Not just on this blog but in small groups, seminars, conferences, over coffee and anywhere else someone will listen.

So there's a new page on the blog. Up top in the "menu" you'll now find a "Speaking" link. I would be honored to share with your women's group, youth group, college students, church leaders or orphan care and adoption team. Check out the link for topics I've spoken on in the past and please share it if you feel led.

I'm one of those weird people who actually enjoys public speaking. I've been doing it for my "day job" for over eight years now. But, sharing about the trials and heartaches and joys and blessings of my personal life, well that's a bit different.

I'm stepping it out in faith on this one. I'm expecting God to do big things because He says that when we are obedient, He will.