When we arrived at the resort Thursday, March 12th, one day before the masses would arrive, things were just starting to heat up. We were paying attention to it all——everyone was——but we were within the state guidelines for group gatherings (which at the time encouraged a limit of 250 people). Even still, we put extra safeguards in place for everyone’s comfort; we wanted to make sure people were safe and felt safe. A few attending couples cancelled, but not many, and all our speakers were still on board. Then, Friday morning, things escalated fast. In moments, we went from arranging raffles and alphabetizing name tags to an emergency board meeting in a storage closet where we made the hard decision to cancel. We knew that would mean a lot of disappointed people—many of whom were already en route from 15 different states; we cried over that. But, we knew the decision had to be made, and it has been confirmed over and over again since.

We are together called to live out our mission to care for caregivers no matter the cost. And, the people we are together called to serve are infinitely more important than any program we work so hard to offer.

Please take some time to click over to our Facebook group to admire the artwork and applaud the artists who would have been featured at an art show of sorts at Together Called 2020. After we had set them all up, we took them all down, then set them up once again so that we could take pictures of them. We wanted each artist to see them, and we wanted you to see them too.

Here’s a sneak peek at what we have planned in addition to hearing from Curt Thompson and Ross and Staci King.

Preconference Session Friday Afternoon: Building Connection and Making Parenting More Fun

Parenting any child can be stressful, but parenting children with special emotional needs can tax one’s emotional resources to the limit—and beyond. Even still, the deepest desire for most parents is to feel deeply connected with their child, whatever behavior or needs may exist. Theraplay was developed out of attachment-based methods for parent-child play and emotional engagement to meet that desire. Used in schools, therapy centers, and family therapy programs, Theraplay can bring fun and connection to family relationships through social connection play and practicing the principles of Structure, Engagement, Nurture, and Challenge with kids of varied ages and development. At this preconference workshop, you will be guided through games, practice exercises, and reflection moments designed to build your repertoire of parent-child connection skills…and maybe even parent-parent while we’re at it!

About the speakers:
Anne M. Coleman, PhD, & Rand Coleman, PhD, are the parents of two adopted children and one birth child. While living in Green Bay, WI, they provided emergency foster care to over 30 children in need. They eventually transitioned into long-term foster care, adopting a sibling pair who had emotional and attachment needs. Through the process, they learned and developed parenting strategies specific to youth with a history of trauma and having serious behavioral difficulty. Theraplay was integrated into their daily approach. Originally trained as a neuroscientist, Anne taught science courses for various programs, eventually becoming Chair of the Science Department at Cabrini University. While there, she conducted and published research on educational methods and on attachment therapy. She is now an Associate Dean at Rosemont College. Trained as a neuropsychologist, Rand has worked in both residential care and private practice. Clinical work in residential care focused on care for youth with Autism, while clinical work in private practice has been a combination of child evaluation and attachment-based therapy. Currently, he works at Cornerstone Therapy & Wellness in Malvern, PA.

Saturday Afternoon Breakout Sessions:

Big, Hard, Scary Things and the Brain

Some of our kids have been through so much in their short lives. Some of our kids have only known our family their entire lives. Some of our kids have never experienced a family before ours. All of these kids have trauma. Trauma sculpts the way our kids view the world and the way their brain interacts with life events. Using a hands-on, collaborative activity, this workshop will give you insight to how our children’s brains (and ours) work and are impacted by traumatic experiences and practical ways to help all the brains in your family.

About the speakers:
Michelle Catania is a licensed marriage and family therapist in Connecticut. She holds a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Southern Connecticut State University and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology with certification in Elementary Education from Franklin Pierce University. She has expertise in brain-based disorders including ADHD, Autism, and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. She was a preschool teacher for over 15 years and has children of her own, two biologically and one through special needs adoption. She was born and raised in San Diego, California but has grown to love the seasonal changes in New England where she lives with her husband and three children. She enjoys scrapbooking, hot chocolate, and playing in the snow. And, she loves her job where she can share her passion for Christ and her love for families.

Olivia Dimmig has been a registered nurse working in public health since 2016. She has experience caring for families via the Nurse-Family Partnership home visiting program which empowers vulnerable, first-time moms to transform their lives and create better futures for themselves and their babies. And, she is the newest addition to The Sparrow Fund team! Aspects of her work that most excite her are fostering maternal-child engagement, empowerment, and resilience. She and her husband Brent live in Phoenixville, PA with their infant daughter.

Building Family Connections Through Theraplay

Children drive each other crazy, and then they gang up on the parents—or at least it can feel that way! Put that energy and emotional intensity to good purpose through use of Theraplay principles and activities. Developed as a method of helping youth with Autism or behavioral dysregulation disorders, Theraplay has grown into one of the most used attachment-based therapy programs around the world. Easy to learn, fun, socially interactive activities can give children an experience of safety, connection, and emotional engagement with each other and with caregivers. Activities can be adapted for classrooms, family vacations, one-on-one nurture moments, and facilitating sibling connection. Come ready to practice numerous individual and group Theraplay games, insuring you take away immediately applicable skills in addition to head knowledge.

About the speakers:
Anne M. Coleman, PhD, & Rand Coleman, PhD, are the parents of two adopted children and one birth child. While living in Green Bay, WI, they provided emergency foster care to over 30 children in need. They eventually transitioned into long-term foster care, adopting a sibling pair who had emotional and attachment needs. Through the process, they learned and developed parenting strategies specific to youth with a history of trauma and having serious behavioral difficulty. Theraplay was integrated into their daily approach. Originally trained as a neuroscientist, Anne taught science courses for various programs, eventually becoming Chair of the Science Department at Cabrini University. While there, she conducted and published research on educational methods and on attachment therapy. She is now an Associate Dean at Rosemont College. Trained as a neuropsychologist, Rand has worked in both residential care and private practice. Clinical work in residential care focused on care for youth with Autism, while clinical work in private practice has been a combination of child evaluation and attachment-based therapy. Currently, he works at Cornerstone Therapy & Wellness in Malvern, PA.

Loving the Broken People of a Broken System

Most people sign on as foster parents with an enthusiasm to care for vulnerable children. But, what about when those children are difficult to love? And–even more challenging–what about all of the other broken people in the broken system? This workshop will explore biblical encouragements, real-life experience, and practical strategies for engaging with and, ultimately, loving biological parents, social workers, judges, and other foster parents.

About the speaker:
Jamie Finn is the biological, adoptive, and foster mother of 4-6 children. When she’s not homeschooling, changing diapers, playing Pokemon, making slime, and singing “Let it Go,” she spends her time encouraging, equipping, and serving foster and adoptive parents. She is the host of the Real Mom Podcast and the author of Foster the Family Blog which is read by 100,000 people each month and has been featured in over 20 online and print publications. Jamie serves as the director of Foster the Family, a nonprofit which seeks to encourage and support foster and adoptive families, mobilize the church and community for foster care and adoption, and advocate for vulnerable children. Jamie and her middle school sweetheart and husband of 14 years, Alan, live in New Jersey with their children.

Coregulation: The Key to Attachment Parenting

Parenting is hard. Parenting in adoption is harder. Parenting through attachment trauma can seem almost impossible. Coregulation offers a tool that parents can implement both for their own regulation as well as for their children. Come to explore both the science behind coregulation and the art of implementing coregulation. This breakout will involve experiential learning, giving you opportunity to practice techniques during the session as well as learn about specific resources that can be helpful to children of all ages.

About the speaker:
Rachel Harrison, LCPC, NCC is a therapist and owner of the practice Trauma Specialists of Maryland with two locations in Frederick, Maryland. She is also a trainer of therapists, offering training in working with adoptive families, attachment and EMDR Therapy. She is an Approved Consultant with EMDRIA, consulting on cases with therapists across the country who are doing both trauma and attachment work with clinical populations. Rachel is an adjunct faculty member of Hood College, teaching courses in the graduate Clinical Counseling program. She has worked with adoptive families for 21 years in the clinical setting but also has “real-life experience” raising 2 adopted boys of her own. Rachel has a passion for treating trauma and for improving attachment between parents and their children.

When Two Worlds Collide

The greatest times of conflict in relationships often arise when one person’s history intersects with another person’s history. Parenting is no different. Some of the toughest moments in parenting occur when our child’s history and beliefs collide with our history, motivations, and expectations. In this breakout, the Norths will help you understand the impacts of hard places on our children and how compassion and empathy should be the appropriate responses to their expressed needs. At the same time, we will walk you through how your own histories and experiences inform how you respond to your children.Our individual histories (both ours and our children’s) inform where we are but do not have to determine how our story as a family develops together.

About the speakers:
Ryan and Kayla North are experts on childhood trauma and its impact on children and adults. They spent 10 years as resource parents over which time they cared for 30 different children and adopted 4 who joined their 2 bio kids. They are both TBRI Practitioners and served as Lead Trainers for Empowered to Connect. Kayla is the Executive Director of Tapestry, a nonprofit that supports and equips churches with the tools and resources needed to help the families they serve. They are cofounders of One Big Happy Home and, together, have developed training materials for churches, schools, and parents educating them on trauma and its impacts. You can hear them on The Empowered Parent Podcast and read their writing on Empowered to Connect and at One Big Happy Home.

SPECIAL THANKS TO GOULDEY WELDING & FABRICATIONS, THE JOY BUILDERS, MADISON ADOPTION ASSOCIATES, REECE’S RAINBOW, AND ADAM REIMERS.

Since the start, God has used our annual marriage retreat Together Called in remarkable ways that only He can do to meet each one of us right where we are. After 8 years of this thing, we are no longer surprised by it; we come with expectation of it.

Together Called may still be 7 months away, but our leadership team is already filled with great expectation for every husband and wife who will join us there as well as for ourselves. Of course we are. We trust you will be too when you hear about who is joining us this time as our keynote speaker and our worship leaders.

We have been longtime fans of our keynote speaker Curt Thompson. Curt Thompson, M.D., is a psychiatrist in private practice in Falls Church, Virginia, and the author of two of our favorite books, The Soul of Shame and Anatomy of the Soul. With an expertise in integrating psychiatry, how we are wired, and spiritual formation, Curt often speaks with the desire to provide opportunities to reflect on, understand, and experience their faith in fresh, trustworthy ways. Leaders in the adoption community have recognized how much he has to offer families with children who have had hard starts and caregivers who may have come from hard starts themselves. He has taught and served as a resource for foster and adoptive families through organizations such as CAFO, Empowered to Connect, Tapestry, Show Hope, and the National Council for Adoption. In addition to all his professional work, Curt serves as an elder at Washington Community Fellowship, a Mennonite church in Washington, DC. He and his wife Phyllis, who we are delighted to have join us with him, are the parents of two grown children.

We’ve also been fans of our worship leaders Ross and Staci King since they joined us at Together Called 2016. Ross and Staci have been married since 1998 and have been making music together even longer than that. They met in 1997 when they were both a part of the Breakaway Ministries worship team at Texas A&M, quickly fell in love, and sealed the deal. In the 20-plus years they’ve been together, they planted a church, adopted 4 kids, traveled the country leading worship and doing concerts, and have had plenty of adventures. They currently live just south of Nashville, TN where Staci homeschools their children and Ross continues his career writing songs, producing music in his studio, and leading worship. They feel together called to help regular people have honest conversations about real things. And, since they still love singing together and do so as often as they can, we are thrilled to have them back for their third Together Called.

Now aren’t you filled with great expectation too?

Registration for Together Called 2020 will open in early October. Make sure you join our mailing list to be reminded of it. But, we need corporate and/or personal sponsors in place to make it happen. If you own a business and are interested in caring for caregivers with us or want to be a part of supporting foster care and adoption by supporting the moms and dads in it, email us. We’d love to tell you more about why we need you and what sponsorship looks like.

Only a couple more weeks! Here’s a sneak peek at what we have planned in addition to hearing from Peter Greer of HOPE International and Ross and Staci King.

Preconference Session Friday Afternoon: Better Together

Parenting vulnerable children can often bring relationship problems to the surface. We can blame those issues on our kids, or we can recognize that we need to work through our histories while growing in relationship with our spouse. In this workshop, we will look at the covenant of marriage that God designed, what we bring to the relationship, and why we might be struggling to stay connected spiritually, emotionally, and physically to our spouse. We will discuss how we can collaborate in our parenting, communicate with each other effectively, and address conflict as we parent kids with a trauma history. We’ll be better together when we are living in harmony and headed in the same direction.

About the speakers:
Ryan and Kayla North are experts on childhood trauma and its impact on adults and children. Personally, they spent 10 years as resource parents over which time they cared for 30 different children and adopted 4 who joined their 2 bio kids. They are both TBRI trained practitioners and served as Lead Trainers for Empowered to Connect. They currently lead Tapestry Family Ministry, a nonprofit in Dallas, TX that supports and equips churches and families with tools and resources to wrap around and bring hope and healing to adoptive and foster parents, children, and their families. You can hear them on The Empowered Parent Podcast and read their writing on Empowered to Connect, the Today Show Parenting team, and at One Big Happy Home.

Saturday Afternoon Breakout Sessions:

Holy Devotions: Notes to my Brothers and Sisters

We can approach our relationship with God in a way that looks a lot like how we approach our relationships with the people around us. We know it’s important and wonder if we are doing all we should. We want a how-to manual so we can tick the box and know we did enough. We want to stock our shelves with tools to help us because we need it. Maybe we mistake hard work or service for deep connection. In this session, Kelly will share parts of her own spiritual journey and how she moved forward from devotions motivated by a desire for self-improvement to dynamic times of connection with God that overflow into her connection with others. Come ready to learn and practice a way to engage with God through His word using your head and your heart.
About the speaker:
Kelly Raudenbush, MA cofounded The Sparrow Fund with her husband Mark in 2011. She also is a therapist at the Attachment & Bonding Center of PA specializing in coming alongside foster and adoptive families. Kelly has a particular interest in (a) engaging and empowering parents who are struggling in their attachment to their children, (b) helping parents walk with their children as they process their hard stories, (c) encouraging couples in their pursuit of each other and unity in parenting, and (d) empowering orphanage staff in China to foster connection with children and each other. Mark and Kelly have been married for 20 years this year and have four children, one of whom joined their family through adoption from China as a toddler in 2010. You may want to check out her Instagram where she shares her daily notes to her daughter which are a part of her relational connection both with her daughter and God.

Let’s Start Now: Cultivating a Relationship That Prepares You for Adult Relationships With Your Kids

Do you wonder how you are going to get through the teen years? Can you imagine enjoying your children as adults? Join Jeff and Cheryl in this session as they share their own experiences–successes, failures, and lessons learned as they transitioned their four children to adulthood–as well as a mindset and practical tools to help set the stage today for thriving relationships with your children as they grow into adulthood (however old your children are now).
About the speakers:
Jeff and Cheryl Nitz bring both professional and personal experience as they offer insights, challenges, and encouragement to families whom God has brought together through adoption. Jeff is the Chief Operating Office at Patrick Henry Family Services in Virginia and the former Sr. Vice President of Adoption & Family Services for Bethany Christian Services. Cheryl is an Associate Professor at Liberty University as well as the Founder and Director of the Attachment & Bonding Center of PA, specializing in working with families impacted by adoption, trauma, and attachment challenges. But, Jeff and Cheryl often say their best education has come from being parents to their four kids (two of whom came to the family through adoption) and grandparents to four. Most importantly, Jeff and Cheryl are presenting as fellow sojourners—sharing with other adoptive parents the joys and challenges and lessons learned and deeply committed to fostering a fun, growing, supportive marriage in the midst of chaos.

Nurturing Care

The primary casualty of trauma is the brain. Every other negative outcome is because our brains have been impacted by abuse (physical, emotional, sexual), neglect (physical, emotional), and other adverse experiences. These experiences cause the brain to get miswired, and it is only through nurturing care, patience, and the presence of a caring, available caregiver that we can change the wiring of the brain and experience profound levels of healing. In this breakout session, Ryan and Kayla North will show parents how to incorporate fun activities that build trust such as feeding, role play, and games into a family nurture group in order to foster better connection and begin to rewire the brain for healing.
About the speakers:
Ryan and Kayla North are experts on childhood trauma and its impact on adults and children. Personally, they spent 10 years as resource parents over which time they cared for 30 different children and adopted 4 who joined their 2 bio kids. They are both TBRI trained practitioners and served as Lead Trainers for Empowered to Connect. They currently lead Tapestry Family Ministry, a nonprofit in Dallas, TX that supports and equips churches and families with tools and resources to wrap around and bring hope and healing to adoptive and foster parents, children, and their families. You can hear them on The Empowered Parent Podcast and read their writing on Empowered to Connect, the Today Show Parenting team, and at One Big Happy Home.

Sensory Processing: What You as Parents Need to Know

We have 8 senses to learn and grow. You may know the “Big 5”–taste, smell, hearing, touch, and sight. But, we also have proprioception, vestibular, and interoception senses to make sense of our own bodies and the world we live in. All children can have challenges processing the breadth of messages they take in through those 8 senses. And, it can be very hard for us as parents to differentiate what is a behavioral issue and what is a sensory processing issue. In this session, Jamie will teach us how to understand our sensory systems, how to integrate sensory rich activities into everyday life in a way that works for your family, and how trauma may impact all of it.
About the speaker:
Jamie Wilkins is an accomplished Occupational Therapist specializing in pediatric care across multiple settings. Her clinical expertise is focused on children and adolescents with autism and sensory integration. She loves to share knowledge to her community and teach other therapists in classroom settings nationally. She earned her Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy from West Virginia University. She currently lives in Texas with her husband, 3 children, and black lab.

Teaching Our Kids About Sex…Without Passing Out

When it comes to teaching your kids, whether biological, adopted, or fostered about sex, there is no one more qualified than you. That’s right–you! But, most of us feel ill-equipped, awkward, maybe even terrified. The voices in our head ask, “When? Where? How?” And we beg, “Oh please, Jesus, may this cup pass from us?” In this breakout, together, we will explore the when, where, and how, which will equip us to move through the awkward and empower us to have courageous conversations with our kids . . . without passing out. Course requirements: An open heart and a sense of humor.
About the speaker:
Carolyn Ruch is an author, speaker, child advocate, and founder of the Rise and Shine Movement. But, her role as mother to seven children (three biological, one adopted, and three foster) is where she’s had her most joyous successes and her most painful failures. Carolyn enjoys serving as God calls from 30 years of parenting and over a decade of prevention training. She joins parents in the trenches as she seeks to equip and empower parents to protect and guard their children.

Since the start, we’ve had speakers for our annual marriage retreat Together Called who God has used in remarkably ways that only He can do to speak the words we really need to hear. I’m not sure why we still feel surprised by it 7 years into this thing.

Not this time.

Together Called may still be 7 months away, but our team is filled with great expectation. We trust you will be too when you hear about who is joining as this time as our keynote speaker and our worship leader.

We have been longtime fans of our keynote speaker Peter Greer. Peter is President and CEO of HOPE International, a global Christ-centered organization strengthening families through job creation throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Prior to joining HOPE, Peter worked internationally as a microfinance advisor in Cambodia and Zimbabwe, and managing director of Urwego Community Bank in Rwanda. Pretty neat, right? He is a graduate of Messiah College and received a master’s in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School, is a well known speaker, and has coauthored over 10 books, including Mission Drift which was been widely acclaimed and selected for an award from Christianity Today. More important than his professional role is his role as husband to Laurel and dad to Keith, Lilianna, and Myles as well as a foster parent.

We’ve also been fans of our worship leaders Ross and Staci King since they joined us at Together Called 2016. Since 1995, Ross has been a full-time working musician. For most of that time, his primary work has been writing music, leading worship, and recording/performing. He currently writes for a publisher called Simpleville Music out of Nashville, TN and is working on a new record that we can’t wait to come out (though we admit that our King favorite is an oldie called Hallelujah for the Cross). He and Staci are parents via adoption to two boys and two girls who we’re hoping inherent the music making biz.

Now aren’t you filled with great expectation too?

Registration for Together Called 2019 will open in early October. Make sure you join our mailing list to be reminded of it. But, we need corporate and/or personal sponsors in place to make it happen. If you own a business and are interested in caring for caregivers with us or want to be a part of supporting foster care and adoption by supporting the moms and dads in it, email us. We’d love to tell you more about why we need you and what sponsoring looks like.

In less than 3 weeks now at our 6th annual Together Called retreat, we will hear and learn from Jeffrey and Katherine Reed during the keynote sessions while Philip and Jessica Morlan of Seeds Family Worship lead us in worship. We’ll also be blessed by a number of other people sharing throughout the weekend. Here’s a sneak peek at who will be sharing what!

Friday Pre-Conference: Becoming One by Overcoming Daily Conflicts
We all long for connection and fun and oneness with our spouse. In fact, that was God’s idea too! Even moreso, we have big ideas about the kind of family we want to provide to our children and ways we together want to impact the world. But daily differences and conflicts can nibble away at our sense of connection and common purpose. Join Jeff and Cheryl as they share some of their own journey as adoptive parents and offer practical ideas about how to navigate differences and foster a fun, growing, intimate marriage.

About the speakers:
Jeff and Cheryl Nitz bring both professional and personal experience as they offer insights, challenges, and encouragement to families whom God has brought together through adoption. Jeff is the former Sr. Vice President of Adoption & Family Services for Bethany Christian Services and is currently the Chief Operating Office at Patrick Henry Family Services in Virginia. Cheryl is a therapist and the Director of the Attachment & Bonding Center of PA, specializing in working with families impacted by adoption, trauma, and attachment challenges. She also currently serves as an Associate Professor at Liberty University. But, Jeff and Cheryl often say their best education has come from being parents to their four kids (two of whom came to the family through adoption) and grandparents to four. Most importantly, Jeff and Cheryl are presenting as fellow sojourners—sharing with other adoptive parents the joys and challenges and lessons learned and deeply committed to fostering a fun, growing, supportive marriage in the midst of chaos!

All About Sensory Processing: What You As Parents Need to Know – Christine Achenbach 
The relationship between sensory processing disorders in our children, meaning challenges they have processing sensory messages coming from the environment in a smooth and efficient manner, and attachment is complicated and not completely understood. However, we know children with hard starts are at an increased risk for developing sensory processing disorders. In this session, Christine Achenbach, SPD export, will help guide you to be able to recognize symptoms of SPD in your children, discern when and how to get outside help, and explore potential resources and strategies that work for your family to manage sensory integration challenges.

About the speaker:
Christine Achenbach, MEd, OTR/L, is the academic fieldwork coordinator in the Elizabethtown College Occupational Therapy Department and the sole proprietor of Chris Achenbach’s Therapeutic Services, LLC. She has clinical experience with children and adults and with a variety of diagnoses over her 30 year career. Her specialty is sensory integration /sensory processing disorder. She’s partnered with Bethany Christian Services and ATTACh for parent and professional training. She guides master’s OT students through their graduate projects in the area of SPD and trauma. In 2017, she joined About Child Trauma whose mission is to educate about the impact of trauma in children. Chris is the parent of a grown biological son and has fostered a daughter who had SPD/trauma concerns.

Fostering a Collaborative Partnership With Your Tween/Teen – Sage Windemaker
As parents, we desire and are divinely called to come alongside our children to help them figure out who they are. But, it’s no easy task to strike a balance everyday between providing wise influence and empowering our children to make good choices that are congruent with who they are. In this workshop, Sage will introduce you to the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions approach from Dr. Ross Greene that helps caregivers focus less on modifying kids’ behaviors and more on partnering with kids to solve the problems behind behaviors. This nonadversarial approach allows our children the opportunity to participate in solving the problems that affect their lives and guides us on how to do it in a way that fosters the most desirable human instincts.

About the speaker:
Sage Windemaker is a licensed clinical social worker based in Kennett Square, PA. Her experience includes providing post adoption counseling support to families though Chester County Children Youth and Families, recruiting training and supporting therapeutic foster parents in her role within the therapeutic foster care program at Child and Family Focus, directing the Kennett Square office of The Peacemaker Center, a community-based outpatient mental health center, and now continuing her work with children, couples, and families in private practice. Sage is passionate about working with her clients from a holistic perspective and draws upon a broad range of techniques and therapeutic modalities including trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction, expressive and play therapies, and therapeutic yoga skills. Sage is also a wife to her husband Dylan and mother to two little girls, Emsley and Ivy.

Walking Alongside: Helping Our Kids Process Their Stories and Ultimately Discover Healing and Forgiveness – Cheryl Nitz
It can be so difficult to talk with children about traumatic events in their history (abandonment, neglect, physical/sexual abuse, parental drug use, sibling loss, disrupted placements). How do we balance tenderness with honesty? How do we minister to them and help them move on? How do we decide what to tell, when, and how much? Come learn tools and principles to help children process emotions and beliefs, develop healthy attachments, and ultimately heal.

About the speaker:
Cheryl Nitz, ACSW, LCSW has worked in the field of adoption and foster care for over 30 years. In 1997, she began specializing in working with families impacted by adoption, trauma, and attachment challenges and is now a therapist and the Director of the Attachment & Bonding Center of PA where she and her staff are committed to joining with parents to help their children find hope and healing through the love and security their families provide. In addition to her
professional experience, she also currently serves as an Associate Professor at Liberty University. However, Cheryl often says her best education has come from being a parent with her husband to their four kids (two of whom came to the family through adoption) and grandparent to four. She presents as a fellow sojourner, sharing with other adoptive parents joys and challenges and lessons learned both in the trenches at the Nitz home and from the families with whom she has had the privilege of working.

Strengthening Your Core: Embracing Your Brokenness as Adoptive/Foster Dads – Jeff Nitz
One of the most difficult aspects of being a dad to kids from hard places is that they can reveal just how broken and helpless we are. As men, we naturally want to fix problems. But, what do we do when we not only can’t fix our kids or our families, but ourselves as well? The counter-intuitive and honest answer is the one that leads us through humility to wholeness and the experience of freedom. In this session, Jeff Nitz will capture some of the key concepts from The Sparrow Fund’s Recharge men’s retreat. For those who didn’t attend, come learn what you missed. If you attended, come for a refresh of Recharge!

About the speaker:
Jeff has spent the past 30 years working in the field of child welfare social work with experience in foster care, residential treatment, foster care adoption, international and domestic infant adoption as well as Safe Families For Children. He is the former Sr. Vice-President of Adoption and Family Services for Bethany Christian Services and is currently Chief Operations Office at Patrick Henry Family Services in Virginia. Jeff has been married for over 30 years to his college sweetheart, Cheryl, and counts her as his very best friend. Together, they are the parents of four adult children ages 24 to 38, two of whom came to the family through adoption. As a licensed clinical social worker, he also enjoys serving with his wife in providing counsel and sharing lessons God has taught them to couples who are struggling in their marriage.

Real Self-Care: Moving Towards Wholly and Holy Living – Kelly Raudenbush
Self-care is more than making sure you schedule a night out with friends. Real self-care involves the work of exploring how your own history impacts who you are today and how you see the world. It involves paying attention to those messages you have playing on repeat in your head and discerning what is good and what is true. In this session just for women, Kelly will share her own journey of real self-care and provide an opportunity for you to either begin your own journey or go deeper in discovering who you are, why that matters, and how God wants to meet you there.

About the speaker:
Kelly Raudenbush, MA cofounded The Sparrow Fund with her husband Mark in 2011. She also is a therapist at the Attachment & Bonding Center of PA specializing in coming alongside foster and adoptive families. Kelly has a particular interest in (a) engaging and empowering parents who are struggling in their attachment to their children, (b) helping parents walk with their children as they process their hard stories, (c) encouraging couples in their pursuit of each other and unity in parenting, and (d) empowering orphanage staff in China to foster connection with children and each other. Mark and Kelly have been married for 20 years this year and have four children, one of whom joined their family through adoption as a toddler in 2010.

Conversations About Homeland Trips
Many families with internationally adopted children have some sort of interest in a homeland or heritage trip back to the place of their child’s birth. But, there is a whole lot to consider before you start planning a trip like this for your child or whole family. Kelly Raudenbush will facilitate an informal panel discussion with Melissa Corkum, adoptive parent and adopted person from Korea; Juliet Ercolano, adopted from China; Ari Anderson, adopted from Latvia, and her mother Tara about the potential value of homeland trips, challenges to consider, and suggestions for ways to prepare your child and family.

You may be all maple and pumpkin lattes right now; we are too. But, we’re already got a vision for March because we’ve got big plans for the weekend of March 23rd-March 25th.

We’ll be at the beautiful Bear Creek Mountain Resort with about 110+ other married couples for the 6th annual Together Called. That’s a little under 150 days from now…not that we’re counting.

Katherine and Jeffrey Reed, director of Lifeway Kids, are joining the Together Called leadership team for the first time as our keynote speakers. We’ll also be joined by singer/songwriters Philip and Jessica Morlan of Seeds Family Worship; Jeff Nitz, Chief Operating Officer of Patrick Henry Services, and his wife Cheryl Nitz, Director of the Attachment & Bonding Center of Pennsylvania…just to name a few.

Registration for TC2018 opened last night, and we’re currently at about 70% capacity which means there’s still time for you to jump in and join us. And, we’d seriously love that.

What you get:

Friday night refreshments; Saturday breakfast, lunch, and dinner for two; Sunday breakfast for two; Friday and Saturday night stay at Bear Creek Resort; and all retreat programming and fun. {$489 per couple}

For those couples who simply cannot leave their children for two nights, we offer an abbreviated registration which includes Friday night refreshments; Saturday breakfast, lunch, and dinner for two; Friday night stay only. {$349 per couple}

We offer a limited number of day-only spots which include only Friday night refreshments; Saturday lunch and dinner for two; and retreat programming…with a little less fun. But, hey, you’re still a part of it, and that’s a good thing. {$179 per couple}

Thought you could make it but turns out you can’t? We will refund your registration cost minus $50 up until March 7th, 2018.

So, what’s stopping you? Click HERE and register now!

You don’t need another conference. You need connection; you need each other. You need rest so you can press on in what you have been together called to do.

That’s what Together Called 2018 is all about. Over March 23rd-25th, at the beautiful Bear Creek Mountain Resort nestled on 330 acres in Berks County, Pennsylvania (approximately 90 minute drive from the Philadelphia Airport and 35 minute drive from Lehigh Valley International Airport), Together Called provides an opportunity for husbands and wives to step out of the chaos called everyday life and be encouraged, a place for us to learn and fellowship together as individual couples and as a community.

Whether you are just starting out in your fostering or adoption journey or completed your family years ago, you belong here. Every part of the plans for the weekend is to allow God to meet you right where you are no matter where that is. Part of those plans include bringing you keynote speakers to remind you of Truth and encourage you to connect deeply with each other and our Father God who loves us.

We can’t wait to welcome Katherine and Jeffrey Reed to our Together Called leadership team for our 6th Together Called.

Married over 20 years, Katherine and Jeffrey Reed live south of Nashville, Tennessee with their four kiddos, one of whom joined their family via adoption.

Throughout their marriage, Jeffrey has served in full-time ministry in all sorts of formal roles in the church including as executive pastor, senior pastor, worship pastor, and family and children’s pastor. In the early 90s, he wrote and produced music, including music that was a part of the 1996 Olympics. In 2013, he became the director of LifeWay Kids, one of the largest children’s ministry organizations in the world. LifeWay serves over 60,000 churches across the country and hosts more than 250,000 through its summer camps. Currently, Jeffrey serves churches directly as a ministry partner and travels and speaks at churches and various events across the country.

Katherine has served alongside Jeffrey in multiple roles in the church and in the world of education. Her Master’s degree in special education and experience working with children with all sorts of different needs allow her to speak both as a professional and as a wife and mother who has been in the trenches herself. She has written for Parent Life magazine and currently serves as the children’s ministry director at the Church at Spring Hill, near Nashville.

Make sure you join our mailing list for registration reminders, and check back to our website under RETREATS for more detailed information and the link to register for Together Called 2018 as October approaches!