Julie Gumm - Author

Great orphan conference

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If you are passionate about the orphan there are two large “main” conferences each year. First is the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit, the second is Together for Adoption. The latter is going to be in Phoenix in October so you’ll hear plenty about that later this summer and fall. In fact I will personally hound all my friends until you sign up.

But I’m getting super excited for CAFO which is May 12-13 (so I’ll spend my birthday in airports) in Louisville, KY. Last year CAFO was my first orphan conference and I loved every bit of it. So much awesome worship and energy coming from like-minded people. Fantastic keynote speakers and so many great breakout sessions it’s hard to choose.

We’ve got a couple World Orphans staff people presenting breakouts and taking part in panel discussions related to what we do as an organization. Then I get to share about a personal passion of mine – creative fundraising for adoption.

Mark and I did our entire adoption debt free and I know that the cost is what holds a lot of people back from adopting. I want to help them understand that there are so many ways that you can raise funds. I don’t want dollar signs to stand in ANYONE’s way.

Registration is up and there’s tons more details on the web site.

Meeting My Online Peeps

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This fall I’ll be headed to Austin, TX to attend the Together for Adoption Conference where I get to be a featured blogger. Besides all the great content at the conference I’m super excited about meeting up with some online friends “in real life”. These is just a sample of some of the awesome gals I’m excited to hang with.

Brandi McElheny – This girl is like a fireball of passion, energy and prayer aimed at injustice. I’ve known her online for a couple of years but got to meet her at the CAFO Summit in April and then I got the opportunity to hang with her one night in June while in Colorado. She’s the real deal and a total blast!

Angel Weir – I “met” this girl online when researching Ethiopia adoptions. She had just been on a missions trip to Ethiopia, had one adopted daughter and another on the way. Then through her and her husbands work on the Red Letter Campaign we became friends. Imagine my delight when she was in Colorado at the same time I was and got to meet her at the aforementioned night as well. And now she’s paperchasing for an Ethiopian adoption.

Wendi Henry – Wendi and her husband Sam have a huge heart for orphans and started the micro-giving site HopeMongers. She’s another Colorado-dweller and was in on the fun girls night last month with Brandi & Angel. Totally excited to hang out with her again and get to know her better!

Amy Bottomly – Hooked up with this gal via Red Letters Campaign and got to design a web site for the book her and Josh wrote about their adoption “From Ashes to Africa“. Turns out she’s a John Brown University grad although I don’t think our paths crossed while there. They just brought home a darling daughter from Ethiopia (to join brother Silas) and I’m super excited to get to meet Amy in person.

Jody Landers – Found this beautiful gal a couple years ago when I was adoption blog stalking and have read her off and on since then. She’s a huge advocate/fundraiser for clean water (Water for Christmas). Jody pours out her heart on her blog and has walked through some extremely tough stuff in the last year and it has been such a privilege to read her honesty and be able to lift her up in prayer. I have probably only commented on her blog a couple of times so my behavior might be borderline stalkerish at T4A 🙂 But since she knows Brandi and Wendi hopefully they’ll vouch for my sanity!

Mary Ostyn (aka Owlhaven) – She’s got 10 kids from 3 countries – another blog I found in my early adoption journey. She’s a woman after my own frugal heart and her blog has tons of great ideas on saving money, great recipes and fun family stories. She’s written two great books as well – both in my personal library: “A Sane Woman’s Guide to Raising a Large Family” and “Family Feasts for Under $75 a Week“.

There are so many more, maybe I’ll have to save some for another post…