My Overthinking

Philly Area mom, Life forever changed by adoption

A Pulse-Racing Night {Together Called 2018 Registration}

You’d think that having done this 5 times before, I’d have it all figured out. I’d be all cool as a cucumber…hey, registration opens for Together Called Sunday. Yeah, no worries. It’ll be great. 

Maybe you don’t know me. You’re just someone out there in the world of the Internet on the other side of a screen of some sort who sees some of my mildly pretty pictures and thinks cool as a cucumber seems fitting.

It doesn’t. I’m about as cool as the hot pot of coffee I brew every morning with the perfectly measured mix of freshly ground decaf and regular beans.

So, while I was fighting a battle with jet lag this week (with said coffee as my primary weapon), I was far from cool as I prepped for registration for Together Called. I was the master of my to-do list until pretty much yesterday when I realized that registration opened in just a few hours.

When we hosted the very first one back in 2013, the anxiety made sense. We had never done it before, and we had just signed our names on the dotted line saying we’d be responsible for paying several times what our wedding cost regardless of what happened when we opened registration. But, we did it. And, it filled. Crazy. When we decided to host Together Called the Sequel and increase the room block by about 50%, the anxiety made sense. But, we did it. And, it filled. When we moved forward with doing it again the following year and moving to a bigger venue, the anxiety made sense. But, we did it. And, it filled. The year after that and the year after that…I really didn’t need to be anxious. The weekend blesses couples and, therefore, families. People come because they want that. They want the rest and connection that it offers.

Last night, before the link went live at 9pm, when I was posting reminders on Facebook and answering emails and cool as my hot coffee, maybe I should have just taken a deep breath and settled down a bit. I’m not sending out birthday party invitations to my 2nd grade class and hoping that everyone comes. I’m just following the crazy path He’s got us on right now which happens to include managing a marriage retreat for foster and adoptive couples. It’s not my deal; it’s His, and He’s invited a whole team of us to make it amazing not for any spotlight or accolades but for people to be blessed. And, that’s something that I can be pretty cool about.

Within an hour, the retreat reached about 70% capacity which means there’s still time for you to jump in if you’re interested. That would be so very cool.

Here’s the link to learn more.

 

 

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Spastic, Ataxic, Dyskinetic, and a whole lot of beautiful things

Training Day 2. I went in there not real sure how well this was going to go with hard words for our translator to translate and hard words for caregivers to understand.

All morning long, Erin taught through body language and our Chinese team member. The caregivers listened, taking copious notes and pulling their phones out to snap pictures of words on slides or Erin’s physical demonstrations. They interrupted her to ask questions to understand it all better or ask why things were true or why different stretches or treatments helped.

And, I pretty much sat stunned…and took a few pictures myself.

When we had gathered as a team early that morning, we prayed all about the training, praying specifically among lots of things that when specific children were brought into the training for Erin to model specific stretches and positioning, the child would be honored and somehow blessed by it. We didn’t know what that might look like, but we asked specifically for it. We knew that bringing a little treasure onto a mat in the center of the room with lots of people all around was a risky thing. When the little one’s ayi brought her in and laid her down with everyone gathered around the mat, the woman in charge got down too. In her good clothes, she got down on her knees and lowered her chest all the way down to the ground, prostrate on the floor. With her face only inches from the cheeks of the little one, she smiled and then started whispering “Yēsū ài nǐ. Yēsū ài nǐ. Yēsū ài nǐ. Yēsū ài nǐ” until that little girl inside a broken body smiled back. Honored and blessed. In front of everyone.

The planned 2-hour training ended up to be more like a 4-hour one which ended with us having a hard time even remembering our team time together that morning when someone had said she was worried about how this was all going to go.

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Power of Play

It’ll too elementary for them, the director told me ahead of time. I get that. I’m sure a whole lecture on child’s play sounded too simple on paper.

While often dismissed as “just fun,” play is the vital activity that children use to learn about and interact with their world…

But, he asked for a teacher to come. He asked specifically for early childhood education training. I think it will be good, I told him. And, these first trainings will give us an opportunity to work with you more so we know what kind of trainings might be most helpful next.

Brandi started, and her students were captivated. Play matters. It isn’t just to keep children busy. Play helps children grow, learn, understand, connect. I doubt it was all new to these women who spend their days and often nights in this place. But, that didn’t matter because I’m pretty sure that even the things they knew they had never heard defended like it was here.

They took notes. They took pictures of her PPT slides. And, they played. They actually played. They got down on the ground and built towers out of cups and hit shapes with fly swatters and matched up colored popsicle sticks. And, they teased each other and laughed and took pictures of each other that they posted on WeChat because that’s what friends do. And, they demonstrated exactly what Brandi was talking about.

It was simple. It was elementary. And, it was fun. And, it made everything a little bit friendlier and less official which is just how we like it.

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