FSA

The FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) conference in Layton was AWESOME!  Spencer and I were able to get the education hours we needed for adoption certification, as well as meet some new friends.  It was fun to meet some blog friends in person as well!  It was fun having lunch with Brittany and Que.  I also got to chat with Jessa from Birthmothers 4 adoption, which was funny because we had e-mailed back and forth lots but didn’t make the connection right away. 
Sister Beck was the keynote speaker, and Spencer and I were excited to be able to meet her afterwards, shake her hand, and thank her for her comments.  We enjoyed all of the classes and learned a lot.  Perhaps some of our favorite things, however, were the panels.  It was so neat to hear things from the perspective of adoptees and birth parents.  We especially enjoyed the birthfather panel because you don’t get to hear the birthfather’s perspective as often. 
It felt so good to be surrounded by people who understood exactly what we were going through.  It was wonderful to see many families who had already been blessed by the miracle of adoption, both those who had placed and those who had adopted. 
I enjoyed it so much I really could go on forever, but I thought I’d just share two of my favorite “light bulb moments” if you will from the conference. 
1.   Someone made a comment during the class on infertility that Spencer and I have talked about and thought of many times since then.  This individual told the story of her adopted son’s baby blessing.  Their son was named after her father.  As her husband held their child in his arms to bless him he felt impressed to tell him that though he did not have his grandfather’s blood in his veins, blood is mortal.  COVENANTS are eternal. 
I love that!  Blood is mortal but covenants are eternal.  A few times people have wondered if we could love an adopted child as much as our own “because they aren’t our blood.”  The idea is absurd.  Our spouse’s aren’t related to us by blood, but that doesn’t stop us from loving our husbands and wives with all of our hearts.  Why should it be any different with a child?  The sealing power that will bind us together for eternity is more powerful than any earthly connection.  I had never really thought of it in that way.  
2. I never really have liked when the whole “multiply and replenish” commandment comes up in church or Sunday school.  Though we would love to have children, because we can’t, I have felt like I am not measuring up.  How can I fill the measure of my creation when I can’t have children?  Many times I have felt like I am not enough. 
During that same class on infertility, the presenter shared a scripture that I have probably read ten thousand times:
1 Nephi 3:7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I ^awill go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no ^bcommandments unto the children of men, save he shall ^cprepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
As many times as I had read this scripture, I had never thought of it in that way!  It was amazing to me that something I had read so often could take on such a new meaning in just a split second. 
The presenter then shared her experience in calling the temple to schedule a time for their baby to be sealed to them.  It was their third adoption, and the temple worker who scheduled the appointment remarked, “Your third adoption!  Congratulations, you are certainly doing your part to multiply and replenish the earth!”
It is so much more than having children, or even raising children.  I know that this can apply to everyone.  We can ALL make contributions, even though it is easy to feel like the good things we are doing aren’t enough, they are.
It was interesting that after learning so many wonderful things and feeling the spirit so strongly that Satan really attacked after the conference.  I had to really exercise faith and draw upon the things I learned and the spirit I felt. 
Isn’t that how it often goes?  Really powerful experiences are always followed by hard days.  But I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to attend.  We’re already excited for next year.