.Moms get 24-hour pass from diapers, duties and demands

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Fifteen hundred moms show up in a big room with no infants, toddlers, ‘tweens or teens. What do they do?

First off, they smile — a lot! They laugh. Finally, they collectively take a big deep sigh, realizing they will have 24 hours of grown-up woman time with the sisterhood of mothers.

.Mom (pronounced Dot Mom) is the first event from theLifeway Women area of LifeWay Christian Resources designed specifically for mothers of all ages.

The event, held Sept. 23-24 in Birmingham, Ala., was hosted by Sophie Hudson and Melanie Shankle, both prolific bloggers in the “mom blog” world.

“Sophie and Melanie are known around the country for their blogs,” said Melissa Wilson, Lifeway Women event coordinator for the event.

“Sophie’s ‘BooMama‘ blog and Melanie’s ‘big mama‘ blog are fun and fresh and full of personality, just like they are,” she said. “We thought they would be fun people to host the .Mom event, and they were great!”

Church worship leader Melissa Greene, formerly with the group Avalon, was worship leader for the event.

Platform speakers included Angie Smith, Angela Thomas, Vicki Courtney and Priscilla Shirer, all of them popular authors and speakers.

“All these women are well known to our moms-of-all-ages audience,” Wilson said. “They all have written wonderful Bible studies for Lifeway Women. Besides that, they are all moms themselves – some with very young children and some with adult children – so they know the world our audience lives in.”

During her time on stage, Thomas said moms have to remember every day is filled with trial and error.

“None of us have this parenting thing down,” she said. “But I hope we’re just all passing notes around here. I’ll share something that has worked for me with you, and you share something that has worked for you with me.”

Conference participants were treated to a surprise when the Dugger family, from the television show “19 Kids and Counting,” was brought onto the stage.

“They were already in Birmingham, so at the last minute we asked Jim Bob (the dad) if they would come say hello,” Wilson said.

The women had the opportunity to choose from dozens of breakout sessions on topics such as adoption/infertility issues, raising girls, raising boys, exercise and nutrition, body image and parenting adult children.

A panel of women, each of whom had dealt with infertility, shared stories about the joy of creating their families through adoption.

Heather Platt from Birmingham is a mom of two boys, one adopted and one biological. She and her husband, David — best-selling author and pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham — are in the process of adopting a little girl. She said she was angry when she realized becoming pregnant was going to be extremely difficult for them.

“I think I hosted 18 or 19 baby showers while we were at seminary,” she said. “I still grieve a little bit, but adoption has been such a blessing for us.”

Kris Seidenkranz from Franklin, Tenn., is the mom of two adopted children, a boy and a girl. She said that while she and her husband were disappointed when they realized they would not have biological children, they have never considered their adopted children “second best.”

“These adopted kids are absolutely my first best!” she said emphatically. “I almost hate to talk about my infertility issues because I know, looking from the other side, adoption is our very best. It’s God’s perfect design for our family.”

Wilson said next year’s .Mom event is being planned now.

“We are already looking so forward to 2012,” she said. “We will be back in Birmingham, Ala., Sept. 21-22, with new platform speakers (Vickie Courtney, David Thomas, Esther Burroughs and Sissy Goff). Melissa Greene will be back to lead the worship and music time, and we will have dozens of breakout options again. We learned a lot from the first event, so the 2012 event should be even better.”

Registration is already underway for the next .Mom event, and early registrants will get a discounted rate. Lifeway Women also offer dozens of other training and enrichment events throughout the year. Click here to find out more.

by Polly House, Communications Department

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