Categories
adoption personal

A Future and a Hope Conference

I attended and helped greet at an adoption conference this weekend with Olivia.

There were three main sessions and a panel:

  1. Kristin Wong spoke on God’s heart for adoption from Ephesians 1
  2. Julie Kouri presented myths to adoption and highlighted the basic adoption process
  3. Jason Kovacs shared some insight on funding for adoption through organizations like the Abba Fund.
  4. The panel consisted of a number of families who had adopted, including a family and a birth mother who had an open adoption.

Here is a link to Jason Kovacs’ recap of the conference.

I’ve definitely wrestled for awhile about adoption, but God finally brought me to a place of peace and excitement aboutthe potential of pursuing His heart in this way.  Pray for us as we consider pursuing adoption as a family, and that God would make clear His timing for us.

Additionally, it has been a blessing to see the Lord use Olivia to lay a great foundation for foster and adoption ministry at The Austin Stone.  I pray that God will use us as a church to change the face of Austin and the world through adoption.

By Todd Engstrom

Although I was raised in the church and had a knowledge of God, I didn’t embrace Jesus until I heard gospel preached and lived out by some Young Life leaders. God has proven faithful and good to me since that day, even in great suffering and loss. I have learned to treasure Romans 8:28 as a wellspring of hope and truth.

God has blessed me with an amazing wife (Olivia), three sons (Micah, Hudson and Owen) and a daughter (Emmaline). Growing up in the northwest, the thought never crossed my mind that I would have four children who are native Texans. Despite landing in the south, I still watch Notre Dame games with my children every Saturday in hopes they will land at my alma mater.

3 replies on “A Future and a Hope Conference”

Amen to changing the face of Austin and the world through adoption! Praise God for how He is at work and how He is using Olivia and others already in the church!

God can definitely use you in this way to tremendously change a child’s life~ I should know! I was one of those children 🙂

That is awesome! Have you and Steve considered adoption at all? Also, if you are interested in serving in adoption ministry at The Stone, Olivia is putting some things together right now…

Leave a Reply to Brittany PetersonCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.