FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) Conference

What a great weekend!  We, Mark's parents Doug and Lori, and Mark and I, have all been here in Nauvoo, IL since yesterday for an FSA Conference.  Yesterday we arrived around 1:30 pm after driving for about 5 1/2 hours from Omaha, (while Lori taught me how to knit, thanks Lori!).  First off we checked into the Hotel Nauvoo, a great place to stay by the way, and then we got dressed for the temple and headed over to the Nauvoo temple to go through an endowment session.  I forgot how beautiful it is!  I haven't been to this temple since I received my own endowment at the Nauvoo temple in 2002.  For those reading this who don't know what an endowment is, it is where we participate in a sacred ceremony where we make eternal covenants with our Heavenly Father.

After the temple session we went to an FSA picnic where we met some of the other adoptive parents.  So many cute kids there!  After quickly eating some dinner we went to the Nauvoo Rendezvous, pics I will post later, since they are on Mark's phone.  It was a pretty funny show put on by senior missionaries of the church.  (The church being the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)  After the rendezvous we went to Walmart to get some allergy medication that I had forgotten to bring with me, and a game for moments when we don't have anything else to do, which are rare.  We got Blokus, by the way, and it is a very fun and challenging game!

This morning we started our morning early by going to eat breakfast at Grandpa John's.  Really good food, at a pretty reasonable price.  We then headed over to the church where we had the classes about adoption.  It was started by a great talk from the keynote speaker, the regional manager of the LDS Family Services Rick Hill.  We were lucky to have Mark's parents with us so that they could attend some of the classes that we were missing, as they had 2 simultaneously each hour.

One of the greatest things that I learned from the conference is that while we are putting so much energy into creating/expanding our family, to remember "us".  To remember that we are already a family, and that my relationship with Mark is the most important, and that this time without children is just as important as the time we will have with children, because our family isn't  destination, but a journey.

After the conference we did a little shopping at the fun shops here in Nauvoo, and then came home for a little snoozer.  We haven't been getting much sleep at night.  And now we are ready for some more fun!  I am sad that the conference is over, though, because I learned so much, and there were so many people there that we could really relate to because they were going through the similar challenges that we were.  We didn't stand out as the barren couple like we usually do, but fit in with everyone else who were creating their families through the marvelous miracle of adoption!  More to come on our weekend in Nauvoo...

Done!

Mark is finally done!  He passed all of his finals, so on he moves to rotations.  We are so excited!  We want to thank everyone for the prayers on our behalf.  We know they made a great difference in how Mark performed on his finals.  Thank you!