FSA Conference Part 1

(A phone pic before going into the conference the first day)

We have been back from the FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) conference in Denver, Colorado now for about five days. Each of those days I've been thinking.... how will we be able to put all that we've learned into words? Will it be possible to transfer the feelings we had there and the insight we gained into something people can read? First of all, this trip was met with a lot of outside opposition right from the beginning. I remember I was sitting at the FSA meeting in Omaha a couple months ago when it was announced and I immediately thought: 

I don't know how and I doubt it will really happen, but we just have to go to that meeting.

And oh boy there's been just a few things that have tried to stop us from going. But we were determined and so off we went. We left on a Thursday after I got off work and drove long into the night. Luckily some friends of ours from our BYU days are living not far from where the conference was and they so generously opened their home to us. They are also in medical school and we know he's going to be such a fantastic doctor. Anyway! So it was wonderful catching up with them and seeing their beautiful kids and being able to hop over to Aurora where the meetings were held. We had perfect weather the whole time we were actually in Denver. On the way there, a terrible storm, on the way back, temp dropped 30 degrees and more bad weather. But while we were there, perfection!

The first day we were pretty nervous but everyone made us feel welcome and included. Many of them were living in Colorado, were part of the same Colorado FSA chapter and knew each other. It was a huge surprise and comfort to me when I walked in and saw two people from our Omaha group that were there! Yahoo! That was such a treat. We got to hear from a couple who recently adopted their daughter. Their story was amazing and inspiring. It brought a beautiful spirit to the meeting and set the whole tone. They were actually set to go on a cruise in a couple days when they got the call they were chosen. So they cancelled the trip and became parents :) We also were part of a 'fatherhood' type discussion. In the birthing process in general it's easy to focus on the women's feelings, concerns, etc. But men have feelings too (of course) and they need to be remembered and respected. They also often express their emotions differently than women and some of the men were able to speak about that. It was good for me to hear the other perspective and I was glad we went to that class. 

We were also able to talk with a lot of couples who had already adopted. I know I say this a lot on here, but I really do need constant reminding that this happens. That it will work. That it could happen to us. No, that it will happen to us. I loved seeing all the kids running around. It's the way it's supposed to be and that's why it's hard to... be alone, just us. We have a great time together but we know people are missing and it's such a strange feeling. Anyway we got tips from people about how to network, what worked for them, who they went through etc. We heard a lot of people went through an organization called Parent Profiles. It's a site that lists adoptive couples for a monthly fee. At first we weren't really sure about it but we just keep hearing about it over and over so we are starting to pray about it and find out if it's right for us. I'll let you know :) 

Ok parts 2 & 3 coming up!