Spokane Orphan Summit

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to speak about orphan care at any age at the Spokane Orphan Summit. I felt so humbled when I was asked to be on a panel to discuss how I've helped with orphan care. 

My mom and I had a great day spending time with other adoptive parents and even adoptees. We left with some very valuable information. Plus, we got some good books for little price!

We even received the ones below for free!

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has adopted, is considering adopting, knows someone who has adopted, or just wants to figure out what God's will for their life is. It not only addresses the orphan and widow crisis, but a hundred other things applicable to all Christians today.

At lunch, we sat at the table for international adoptions with South America. We waited and waited, but there was no one else out of two hundred and fifty people that had adopted from South America (unless they were sitting at a different table for some reason). Finally some missionaries to China who also have one (almost two!) Chinese daughters came and sat with us. Just the fellowship with other adoptive families was so valuable. It reminds us that we're not alone!

There were many booths representing different agencies for international, open, and foster adoptions. I have a whole bag full of brochures. One of the most powerful brochure I got was from Lifeline Children's Services. From it I found out that less than 1/10 of 1% of orphans will ever be adopted. Did you know that every 2.2 seconds (38,000 every day) are released from orphanages with no place to go, no family to help them, little education, and with barely any money? And about 75% will be involved in prostitution and trafficking for money just to survive, imprisoned, or dead within two years after being released. Most of these girls and boys are age sixteen when released from state care - my age. I can not imagine what they have to go through.
What I realized most after the conference was that I need to be more involved in care for the orphaned, widowed, poor, and oppressed. Right now I'm praying for what the next step may be.

While I was gone, guess who lost a tooth! I was so sad to miss it - it was her first tooth she lost since being home! She didn't want to put it under her pillow - even if she received a surprise in the morning. I think she was terrified of the thought of a strange fairy coming in and crawling under her pillow at night - silly girl.