Super Sloans: Created for Care 2013

Lake Lanier Islands Legacy Lodge

Oh, how the weekend at Created for Care was exactly what my mama heart needed. Bright and early Friday morning, my sweet friends Jewel (McRoberts Clan) and Camille (Embracing the Odyssey) loaded up our Pilot and headed off for Atlanta.

From the moment we stepped into the beautiful Legacy Lodge at Lake Lanier Islands Resort, you could literally feel God's presence in that place. Sweet Andrea Young (Babe of My Heart) and her amazing C4C team have spent hours planning and praying for the weekend to be a source of encouragement and restoration for the 450 adoptive and foster mamas that were there. Their amazing attention to detail did not go unnoticed by me. But even more, was God's amazing attention to detail over the weekend was such a sweet comfort to my heart. He showed up in the small details and in the big ones too over the course of the 3 days.

Roomies: Jewel, Paula, Jenny, and Camille

Jewel, Jenny, Camille, and I shared a beautiful room (not that we were in it much - the C4C team seems to be against sleep!) and as God would orchestrate it: all four of us are currently adopting older children. This was not the case when we signed up in the fall, but God knitted our hearts together with the same passion for the waiting children.

Main sessions were filled with Worship and incredible speakers that spoke to the crowd, but I am certain that God had them speaking straight to my heart!

There is something so incredible about worshipping with
450 mamas with the same heartbeat for the orphan.

The lyrics to the songs that we sang spoke to me in a new way when singing them with the thought of the orphan in mind. Our God really is "Mighty to Save" and I pray to "Let Me See Redemption Win"!

The main sessions were led by incredible women with passion for healing and connection for adoptive families, encouraging us during the wait and hard seasons, and to grow us more deeply with the Father. It's amazing how in sitting in a room with so many women and just feel how God is speaking directly to you. God certainly had a message for me this weekend. Our last session on Sunday morning was led by a dear friend of mine, Tona Ottinger (http://tonaottinger.com). Tona lives here in Memphis and I can pretty much call her anytime I want. Funny that God took us to Atlanta for her to deliver a word that I so desperately needed to hear. Tona spoke on Hagar and boy howdy did she get every little nugget out of that passage of Scripture! God spoke right into me that He sees me. I often fail to remember that He sees me too. I seem to remember that He sees my children and my husband, and that He sees the orphan in their distress, but I forget that He sees me. Often times, I feel like I'm not worthy to be seen by the One who created the universe.

The breakout sessions were fantastic too; God crammed so much wisdom and nuggets of truth in every little ounce of the weekend. Running on practically no sleep for three days and soaking up every bit that God has for me over the weekend, I found myself so exhausted on Sunday, but so full of encouragement and new truths that He wanted me to hear.

One of the coolest things about Created for Care is that the founder, Andrea Young, is how we found out about sweet Viktors! I had to hug her neck and tell her how much I appreciated her helping lead us to our boy. I met several moms at C4C that knew about Viktors and our journey because of Andrea. Many have been praying for our journey and it was such a blessing to be able to connect with them.

As if this is not reason enough to go to C4C - they
are certainly working it! ;-)

There were actually FIVE Latvia mamas at Created for Care this time too. All of our kiddos have been hosted through New Horizons and now we're bringing those kiddos home! A couple of us are hosting this summer too while working their adoption at the same time. I just find it fascinating how God orchestrated this. We registered for this conference back in the fall, and had no idea we'd be adopting kiddos from Latvia and we all ended up at C4C at the same time (there was also a January retreat).

Latvia Moms at C4C March 2013

I came home Sunday night both refreshed and encouraged, yet totally exhausted too! I sure am glad to be back home with my people. A huge shout out to the most amazing hubby in the world who held the fort down while I was gone.