Orphan Summit!

I am still in Ft. Lauderdale and will return tomorrow. I have had an unbelievable time surrounded by 600+ people as passionate about orphans as I am. Today started with Kay Warren (Rick Warren's wife) speaking on the church's call to minister to the 143 million orphans globally. It was a touching and moving presentation. But the leaders of this summit vowed to leave their logos and egos at the door and partner together for Christ's work. So here we are with many of the worlds leading orphan organizations partnering together it is incredible. I learned today that there are no financial grants specifically designated for families who want to adopt HIV positive kids. These families can get grants from many organizations but there are no grants designed specifically to be offered to families who extend themselves to HIV positive kids. One of my goals is to see that implemented to encourage families to adopt children that could live a long life if they are brought home to america.

I also met a man named Tim Borland who wants to run 143 million steps for orphans. http://www.runninghope.org . I spoke with him and encouraged him to go to Ethiopia (the home of most long distance runners). Go to You tube and type his name in. I told him the story of how Ella had taken great pride in the long distance runners coming from Asela, Ethiopia and how his running there would infuse so much hope for them.

My friends Eileen, Jerry and Teresa were great traveling partners. It was amazing to see God's hand in all that went on this weekend. I truly believe that we are just beginning to see a huge movement to bring people together to rid this world of the orphan pandemic. I certainly hope that in my life or my children's life we can see the numbers drop considerably and that they can have a future of hope and great health.

Love,
Deanna

I met a group of people from Colorado who have vowed to place all of the kids in the Colorado Foster Care system into permanent adopted homes http://www.project127.com .
Calvary Church in Ft. Lauderdale started up an organization to help the many foster kids in South Florida http://www.4kidsofsfl.org . There are so many amazing things going on but still too many orphans and children without homes.