This article talks about the Families Supporting Adoption Conference that was held August 10-11 at the U of U Institute Building. I had been excited to go to this conference all summer. I love hearing other family's stories about their adoptions, and learning new information about adoption too. It was nice to meet new people and I ran into some friends we made at a adoptive couples retreat in April. I think overall it was good to know we aren't alone in our fertility struggles, and reassuring to know that we can still be and have happy, healthy, eternal families.
I attended 4 breakout classes. One on open vs. closed adoption, one all about birth conditions and the genetic health of the baby and birth parents, one about finding joy in our journey, and the last one about transracial adoption. I'm the gal that says I would love to be a forever college student (and sometimes I feel like I am--ha ha). I just love learning--it's that simple. I learned so much at these classes from helping your adopted children identify with their race and culture (the transracial class), and how we can stay happy while we feel like we're waiting for our "Turn" to have our family.
In the class I went to about finding joy in our journey to adoption, we saw a clip of a talk that Elder Holland (an apostle in the LDS church) gave. Though it wasn't specifically about adoption, it was about finding hope and believing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not giving up. (this video is an excerpt from his talk, watch it, you'll cry=)
Here is my favorite quote from his talk:
"Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until Heaven. But for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come." Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
I loved the whole talk, and of course bawled while reading it again when I got home that night. It really is true though, the blessings will come. It will be alright in the end.
