This weekend, David and I were blessed with a gift to attend a Family Life Weekend to Remember marriage conference. We travelled to my parents' home so Elizabeth could stay with Grandma and Grandpa while we were at the conference. My parents went a step further and paid for a hotel room for us, so we could have the whole weekend to ourselves! The conference was a good reminder of how God sees men and women, marriage, and family. There were no earth shattering revelations for us, but it was nice to have affirmation and encouragement to continue to grow closer to God and each other.
One of the interesting things was that the speakers have all adopted children, and they are at different stages and have completely different stories. The husband and wife who spoke adopted four children, now grown. What touched me was they didn't even say they were adopted until the third day. The only reason we know they adopted was because the wife shared her experience with infertility. They are their children, and that is what is important--not how they joined the family.
The other speaker often has his wife with him, but they brought home a newborn the day before the conference. They already had eight children, born into the family. But they felt God calling, and adopted this new little one. It was amazing to see how attached and "in love" this father was already. Many would think that it wouldn't be as big of a deal for him, as he already has eight children, but his excitement and devotion was constantly evident.
A woman attending the conference spoke up the last day and said she is a birth mother, and hearing the stories from these two families really touched her! God is so good! Listening to chatter among the couples attending, it seemed like adoption has touched so many families in some way, and it was just amazing!
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