[E185] Hope for the Journey with Mary Beth Chapman and Emily Chapman Richards

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the Empowered to connect podcast, where we come together to discuss a healing sensored approach to engagement and well being for ourselves, our families, and our communities. I'm JD Wilson and I am your host. And today on the show we've got Mary Beth Chapman and Emily Chapman Richards from show hope to talk to us about their origins in getting connected with empowered to connect, why the work of etc. And the Karen Purpose Institute and Dr. Purvis herself were so important to Stephen and Mary beth growing up or growing up in their organization. And then also we talked about the hope for the Journey conference, which is coming up the stream soon. You'll have instructions in the show notes below for how to find the conference where you can stream it, et cetera. But if you unfamiliar with show hope or the Chapman's themselves, just know Stephen Curtis Chapman is the all time leading record salesperson in christian music history. No one has sold more albums than him in christian music history. A pioneer in contemporary christian music, personal friend of my so and my mom as well. And so we have known and loved the chaplains for a long time and are just so glad to have Mary Beth and Emily on today. And so you're going to hear them talk about a whole lot of stuff, not the least of which is what they're most excited about coming up with show Hope, which was exciting news and exciting work that they're getting to be a part of. And so they're great partners of ours, great friends of ours. Here they are now, Mary Beth Chapman and Emily Chapman Richards. Well, as I said in the introduction, we're here today with Emily Chapman Richards and her mom, Mary Beth Chapman. And so we wanted to talk today about lots of different things. But guys, I just wanted to start off for people who are unfamiliar with your story or how show hope or the Chapman family even knows, etc. Or knows about etc. Years ago, you were on and shared the story a little bit. I wonder if you guys wouldn't mind just sharing who you are and then going into kind of how you guys were first introduced to empower, to connect. [00:02:15] Speaker B: Okay, well, I'm Mary Beth, my daughter, Emily Chapman Richards is with me, as you guys know. And Stephen Curtis Chapman, who is not here with us. [00:02:30] Speaker C: He's your father. [00:02:31] Speaker B: He is your father. He and I founded the organization show Hope in 2003. So we just turned 21 years old. And so we're legal. We grew up. We grew up and we founded show Hope after experiencing the miracle of adoption in our own family. So that's kind of the short synopsis of why we're show hope and how that was founded, and then fast forward, moving to the connection to empowered to connect. It was years ago. You have the years lost away in your brain. [00:03:08] Speaker C: It was around 2007, 2008 that show Hope kind of organizationally, as we were journeying with families, supporting, reducing the financial barrier that's the primary focus of Showhope's work through our adoption aid grants. Mom and dad's heart really is to continue always to go deeper with families and so know we're four or five years old at that point. How do we not just champion adoption, but adoption done well and walking into the process with eyes wide open. It was about that time that showhope set aside a seed grant within the organization to begin exploring what would become our pre and post adoption support program. Around that time, we were introduced to the connected child and the work of Dr. Karen Purvis, and then shortly thereafter, met Michael and Amy Monroe, who had empowered to connect as a ministry of Irving Bible Church there near Karen and TCU. And so Karen really, as the great convener that she was, brought show hope together with empower to connect and said, hey, how do we get trust based relational intervention into the hands of the faith community? And really, that's where kind of the intersection of show hope and empower to Connect's work and relationship began. I think our first conference, the first empower to connect conference that has now morphed into the hope for the journey conference was in 2010. And so, yeah, kind of that 2007, 2010 building relationship, figuring out kind of what it would look like to create this resource to empower and equip parents and caregivers, meeting the everyday needs of children impacted by adoption and foster care. [00:05:02] Speaker D: I was at that first conference. I was there. [00:05:06] Speaker C: You were? [00:05:07] Speaker B: I think that's where all of Mo's tears started. Every time I'm with Mo on a stage, he cries. [00:05:13] Speaker D: I sat on. I haven't stopped crying. [00:05:17] Speaker A: I did. [00:05:17] Speaker D: I sat there and thought, oh, Karen, I think we showed up and it was starting. And of course, the only seat in the. I mean, it was a small little group. It wasn't, but it was like the. [00:05:32] Speaker C: Front row, you know, that was at Covenant. [00:05:34] Speaker B: That was at Covenant, yeah. [00:05:38] Speaker A: Wow. [00:05:40] Speaker D: I did not. And that's where I met Michael and Amy, 2007. [00:05:44] Speaker B: And I think Mo and you and Emily can again correct my foggy brain. But somewhere in the process of that, Michael and Amy began wanting to kind of transition that piece out. Life was getting kind of crazy for them. And then, so there was this whole idea of the IP, of empowered to connect. I think they approached show hope about, you know, could you guys take this? Which is where the empowered to connect name of the conference came originally. And so as show hope was growing up in her skin, know, having the cornerstone work of adoption aid grants, and then beginning to move into this pre and post world. And at the time, then we still had the care centers in China. We were. We, what do we do with all of this? Mo and Tana became very involved at that point, and it was like, I think, how can we shift this piece to, you stay in partnership somehow, then transition the name so we don't confuse everybody of the actual piece of conference, allow Mo and Tana to do what they do great, and somehow, as only God can do it, all of those pieces falling into place have allowed us to kind of run in our lanes, do what we do by the grace of God, really well. And it's been really a beautiful thing to see how empowered to connect the entity you guys have become. Just this flourishing tree. We like to call that a branch of show hope because you are such a key partner to the work that we get to do and we love. I think sometimes in the work that we get to do, we kind of get to be kind of the spotlight shiners and get to use our influence affluence to really work with great partners. Some of our core values, obviously, all core values to people who want to do things well or to do things well. Stewardship being a great issue. Not just stewardship of donors money, but stewardship of partners that we work with and how can we find the strategic people to work with that are doing it? You know, after Mo got done crying and realizing that this was like a. [00:07:53] Speaker C: Key piece for what you all were. [00:07:55] Speaker B: Beginning to do, it's been a really great partnership. And so see there how I didn't use dates, but kind of. [00:08:03] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:08:05] Speaker B: That all came together well, I. [00:08:09] Speaker D: Will say just a sweet friendship and partnership, for sure. And it was fun. I know we will show this in a few weeks. I don't know when it'll air, but we were just with Emily a few days ago and looked into your office. [00:08:25] Speaker B: Mary Beth, my space. But again, when you can kind of lay the work down and go, okay, let's all get in a room and see who's doing what, who has the ability to do it really well, and then how can we partner and use our pieces to come together? And whether that, again, is financial or inspirational or again, just getting the word out, whatever. And it's been really fun to work with you with you all, I think. [00:09:03] Speaker C: In those early years and what has continued to play out is the common vision that was caught for the unique expertise and ability to help move this work forward faster. Right. And so you had, of course, Karen and the institute coming to the table with the ip and the research and the incredible neuroscience, understanding the ip. [00:09:41] Speaker A: Of. [00:09:41] Speaker C: The content of the conference. You had empowered to connect. That was really incredibly suited. And you guys have continued to expand on resources to walk day in, day out with parents and caregivers, meeting those everyday needs, and then show Hope was just positioned to be able to really be a megaphone, had the platform and the ability to go, okay, hey, we know how to do an event. We know how to put a guy on a stage with a guitar. We know how to do. How do we all bring what we can do? Well, because we have this common vision of helping each child see and feel and understand their preciousness and their value. That's it. That's the home run. So let's all go for it. And to see that, what, 13 years later, after 14 years, after the first conference, we're still knocking it out of the park. And it's because of, again, I say that with humility, because we all come to the table desiring the common. Yeah, it's really special. [00:10:51] Speaker B: I think we probably all, at one point or other, individually from each other, came to a point in ministry. And I can speak for Stephen and I, where when we first adopted, uses God, uses tricky God. He uses these little pieces in our life where, like, oh, I can't unsee what. I just, like, showy was placed in my arms, and I couldn't unsee the plight of children in China, for sure. Right. Because that's where God took us on our adoption. Then, you know, he used that to go, okay, you can't not move into some type of action. And then how then do Steve and know flesh that out to go? In those early days, it was like, oh, my gosh, I think that friends of ours, I think know christian friends in our community would want to step into this not knowing anything beyond children needing a home. Right? And so then that became the cornerstone work of, we just want to help families be able to afford adoption. Well, then you go forward in that, and then you come to another really crucial intersection, which is, I think, where even I can't speak for you, mo. But you get to this point where it's like, uh oh. Like, literally, I'm not doing anybody any good if I stop there, because now we're encouraging people yes, it's the heart of the father. He doesn't want children to be fatherless, but we are literally moving them into this situation. And if we stop there, we've done a disservice to the family. And so then we're at a place where it's like, uhoh, we have a desire, we need to go deeper with families. We cannot leave them in this lurch. Like, oh, you kind of advertise this being, oh, it'll go well with you if you adopt. That's not we ever was, you know, is God calling you to this? Not everyone's called to adopt, but if God's calling you to this, we want to be able to help. But then Steven and I became very convicted that we can't stop know, not because we needed anything more to do, it was because we needed to go deeper and intentional with families. And that's the heart of show hope. It's definitely the heart of empowered connect mo, you and Tana, and obviously the institute wanting to get this information into the hands pre and post adoption, right? Like taking it to other countries, taking it into states, taking it into our foster care system. And so I think it's just been know, just smiling, going, see there, see, know, being faithful and trusting the Lord. Not that I can speak for us. I can write the book on what not to do. Steven and I have, as far as parents, as far as humans, as far as a married couple, we can write the book on what not to do. But it's been really affirming to be able to look back at this last 20 years and see how he so graciously and lovingly had his kind of hand on our back, just kind of pushing us along, like kind of an invitation. It's not this finger in the sky, like, now you need to do this. Now you need to do this. See what I have for you now. This keep moving forward. And it's not always easy, but that's the common, I think, thread that runs through what brought these entities together. [00:14:31] Speaker A: You talked a lot about Mary, about this kind of natural journey the organization had been on, and that we can't stop there. We've got to do more and go deeper with him and all that. Why was it so important for you? And maybe why did you guys uniquely feel the tug for pre and post adoptive services? If money is one of the biggest barriers, why was it so important for you to get other resources, how to connect TBRI into families hands? [00:14:58] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I think looking back to that time frame of 2007, 2008, we worked closely with Dan and Terry Coley. You guys know that name? They were at show Hope during that time, going back way before that. We were in a small group of Dan and Terry. So that probably put like when you were little girl, we were in a small group that I think everybody but two couples had adopted. So clearly the church we were involved in was what got our minds percolating around this idea of stepping into adoption. And then during, well, with Dan and Terry, at a certain point in life, we were there. 02:00 a.m. People who, they had some adoption stories that were difficult and they were walking through, and then we began to see other families walking through really difficult things. And so when that is laid out before you with people who you work with, people who you play with, people who you're doing church with, it was that natural progression to go, literally, and I don't mean this offensively, but you really wake up one day and go, we're going to have to go in the witness protection program because we've given thousands of grants to families. We cannot stop and go hope that goes well for you because we began to see it wasn't going well. We all began to have these, uhoh, really difficult stories and these kids are awesome, right? But they are broken and bring their invisible suitcases along with our invisible junk that we bring to the picture and so we couldn't not do something. [00:16:50] Speaker C: Yeah, and I think that well said. And I think it coincided with an understanding we have this advent of neuroscience development, child development, just relational connectivity, particularly with the institute, but even just an understanding within, if you looked at the broader kind of adoption community at that time, early 2000s, you had the height of particularly intercountry adoption in what, 2002, 2000? And 322 thousand children came home that year on a visa through intercounty adoption. I mean, to put in perspective, that was to now 1400 visas last year. So, I mean, a 92% increase. [00:17:34] Speaker B: Yeah. When all this was circulating was at the height of international adoption. [00:17:38] Speaker C: Right. But there was very little, not that the conversation wasn't happening, but it was a lot smaller of a group having conversation around understanding the impact of early attachment injuries, adverse childhood experiences. How do we care? Well, and how do we enter into these stories? With tenderness, with intentionality, with an know Karen's famous quote, injuries that have happened in relationship will be healed in relationship. How do we really begin to embody that? So you also kind of coinciding with the growth of show hope, more children coming home. Therefore, us hearing more stories of children coming home also realizing, hey, we've got to do something different here, and we can do something different because we have some information now, and we often talk about trust based relational intervention being just great human interaction and development, understanding how to be in relationship with one another. You don't have to have a PhD to be able to engage with TBRI as a helpful, caregiving model. And so for us, I think all the light bulb, everything was hitting at the same time. It was providential. [00:18:56] Speaker B: Yeah. I think we were all a part of something extremely providential that the Lord invited us into. And I think the enemy, he loves isolation, right? If I get over here and I'm by myself, like the whispers that can happen, but yet coming together in community, coming together at these conferences, coming together as different ministries that can begin to talk about the needs, it shines a light on it, right? [00:19:28] Speaker C: And I would say that's something that the Lord, even mom, you and dad early on, you guys were very brave, even in dad's public ministry. I remember being maybe like high school, and you guys did an interview around mental health and y'all's journey and therapeutic resources that was kind of new in the christian community. I'm talking like late 90s, early thousands. So mom and dad have also always, I think, stewarded their own story with a level of honesty. And so I think that bleeds into the philanthropic work they do through show hope. Like, how do we break down the stigma? Because like she said, that is the enemy's tactic, is to get you adoptive family in the corner thinking you're the only one and you all are crazy and your child is crazy. And you must have really missed the memo on this, because look at what you've done to everybody. And it's like, if we can just really be honest and let our defenses down in the room, we're all feeling this way. [00:20:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:42] Speaker A: Totally. Well, and I think you look now, and the conference starts covenant some years ago, where it starts and it evolves and grows, COVID hits, it forces you to pivot. So you pivot into having more of a. I don't know if asynchronous is the right word, but a streamable conference that can be viewed for a period of time instead of kind of a live event. Right. What are the things now that you guys are seeing? What's on your top of your mind this year as the conference is coming up and as this will be airing around the time when the conference is going to be available to watch, why should people tune in? What's some unique content coming this year that you guys are excited about. [00:21:24] Speaker C: Don't take it. Yeah, we're excited about the conference this year. I think, like you alluded to, COVID, the great gift that keeps on giving. [00:21:38] Speaker B: How amazing is that, though, at a. [00:21:40] Speaker C: Time where we were already, I think organizationally, and mo, you pop in at any point, we were trying in kind of, I would say 2019, 2020. That's really when we were trying to figure out, like, okay, empower to connect is very much a standalone organization and very engaged and involved in the conference, but the conference is show hopes conference, but it's all collaborative. Right. And then here's the institute. How does this all work together? What does it look like? And we had actually made the decision before the pandemic to rewind the 2019, to replay, to give the audience an option to watch 2018 or 2019 in 2020, to give all of us time to practice the pause, to give all organizations a hot second to really be intentional and figure out, like, hey, let's have these conversations now, and let's also figure out how to be really intentional moving forward. And we were already curious around kind of a virtual platform model based on feedback we were receiving. It's hard to find childcare for two days and get somewhere in person. It's really difficult for this. Can you offer this more than one weekend out of the year? I think at some point we were doing a couple of conferences a year regionally. And so also, tech platforms are coming online and making things like what we're able to do now possible and easy for families to access in organizations. How do we really put an excellent resource in the hands of the local church as the beacon of hope in their community? These are questions we're asking ourselves around the time of the pandemic, which just helped, I think, solidify something we were already curious about of is there a better deliverable to really help accelerate access to this content, specifically this year? What we are excited about, we continue to try to learn from feedback we're receiving, continuing to really hone in on different topics that people are asking us about. Of course, one thing that we were really excited about when we revamped hope for the journey conference is that fifth teaching module connecting trust based relational intervention and the gospel. So really trying to lean into understanding as a faith based organization at Show Hope. The gospel is the gospel, right? There is nothing else that is the gospel. But there are things that are helpful tools that put meat and skin on the actual framework and bones of the gospel. And trust based relational intervention is helpful, is a helpful tool to understand how we interact with our kids, especially those that have been impacted by adverse childhood experiences. So excited about that module. We have Dr. Kurt Thompson joining us for the homily of Hope, which is super exciting this year. [00:24:42] Speaker B: And that's been a sweet thing. Know, every year when we talk about the TBRI and the gospel module, it's who, who would we ask this, like in this world that we are discussing? Dr. Kirk Thompson. It's just his words are just so invaluable. Well, as God would have it, your dad Stephen met him outside of the realm of TBRI and all this, just met him someplace else and they began this likely unlikely friendship. And so to be able to invite him in to do the homily of hope, it's just been really sweet to see how God just creates those avenues. Another thing about moving the conference to online and streaming, and because now we have the history of these modules, right? They live in permanency, and now we have a vault and wealth of information that we can retool in other ways and make accessible to other countries, to other languages. There's all kinds of things that we're going to be able to do collectively. I know don't know that because we've been able to do modules. It's obviously super important for the gospel to always be present. But now because we can do these modules, we're able to just kind of find ourselves in all kinds of places, like on legislative bills that might require CBRI to be the model of care moving forward in certain, like, how does that know only God, right? And I will say, watching your organization empower to connect the institute and the work that they do, other organizations that we've met, well, how it works is that I've seen a ton of people, Mo, you and Tony being at the top of the list, institute people coming together and they just lay themselves down. There's not, not if there's any ego. It's all the same. It's like this is so important to get into the hands. So then what do we do with it? And I think it's a real beautiful picture of God's people working together to go, you do what you do really well, we'll do what we do really well, and let's just sit back and watch. God does what he does. Right. It's really sweet. [00:27:24] Speaker D: Yeah, it is. Agree. Echo. On so many fronts. Yeah. More to come, right? More to come, which is really fun. I want to say just super grateful. We are indebted on a personal level. We are indebted on a professional level and how you all have been so open handed with your platform. And we have many thousands, thousands, thousands of families have been impacted on such a deep way. And I'm grateful that. How do I want to word this? I think there's a lot of work that happens on the front end, and you all have been willing to say, man, let's see this through from start to finish, from the front to the back. Let's not just work on getting the child home, but let's work just as hard to support families. And so, yeah, just really appreciate you all and just the commitment you all put forth in that and, yeah, just grateful. [00:28:42] Speaker B: Well, we love you all. You know that. We're huge fans of you all and look forward to the work that we do. Who knows what's next? Who knows? [00:28:56] Speaker A: Seriously. [00:28:56] Speaker C: Well, Jd, we've also got a lot of the, one of the things about the conference that I love when we kind of revamped and retooled in each of the teaching modules. So we're covering like a core teaching unit, maybe introduction to TBRI or understanding trauma in the brain, and then the three core principles of TBRI and then the connecting the TBRI and the gospel, but embedded within each module. So you've got your teaching unit, you have a going deeper, which is kind of like a topical deep dive, and then you have a practical perspectives. And that really was a desire to put a family or an adult adoptee, a foster youth alum in front of the families that are in the thick of it, that can hold their story, that do hold their story with both hope and honesty and can recognize, like, yeah, there's really sad parts of my story, our family's journey, and yet also I can hold on to hope in that. And so I am thinking of a couple of the interviews that I know that have happened. One, a sibling dynamic of a biological daughter and their younger sibling that came home through inner country adoption. Palmer in the p way. And a sweet story that now she's a professor at Lipscomb teaching law, and he's now a student, the younger brother, that's the adult adoptee, and she's teaching a class on justice in the Tennessee women's prison because Lipscomb has an affiliation and he's a student in the class from the Lipscomb cohort that comes mean, like, how cool is these kinds of stories that I think families, children, youth workers, case managers need to see? Like, hey, these are some of the pictures of what's ahead on the journey, because right now it's kind of bumpy. Or people come to hope for the journey. Maybe some are required, whatever. A lot are coming because it's like we're about to hit the eject button, like, oh, what is going on? And so can we give. Let's just put a little bit of hope there. Hold it with honest hands. [00:31:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:26] Speaker D: On some levels, you all have done such a beautiful job telling the stories and different perspectives, and there's not been this master. You all have been attuned to what families need. You all have been flexible on. I mean, you went from one conference a year to like three conferences a year to rewind, to simulcast. I'll just say for those that are listening, the beauty of the conference, for us personally, when we think about our work with empowered to connect the simulcast, the gift it brought to us is that it made it accessible to our community. We weren't flying in the speakers, we weren't bringing it like, we were just, hey, we're going to show it. And you all even learned with that. It used to be a two day, and then all the things you all said, hey, what do families. It's hard to do two days. It's hard to do all those things. And so you've made it super accessible. They can now watch it over several months. They can watch it with a small group, they can watch it like we did. We used to just show it in the auditorium and have 200 people show up. And it allowed us in the community to begin to introduce healing, supportive tools and began to bring people like minded said, I'm not alone. And then we got to grow from that. It was an open door, it was an on ramp to then deeper work. And so I just say for anyone listening, the beauty is the simulcast, that it's such quality, but you haven't reinvented the will. When you look back, I know there's been some modifications, but at the end of the day, you are getting quality stories, you're getting TBRI 101. And it works on so many levels. So I just encourage churches. It's just a child welfare on and on and on. It has been a place, an on ramp for so much of our work here. [00:33:38] Speaker A: Well, in our family in particular. Like when we were in those dredges, like what we were talking about earlier, and just feeling like, I don't know how much more we can take of just feeling like failures as parents. We got introduced to the parent course and we're going through the parent course, and around maybe a month after the parent course, there was a simulcast being held down the street. We would not have at that point made the investment to get all the way to Nashville or to have gotten out to Dallas or whatever, but we would go ten minutes down the road, find a babysitter, ask off from work and kind of make it happen. And it was the biggest breath of fresh air is to consume it in a day to get all that content in. We're going back home to release babysitter. And we were like, we got this. We can do this. And that's what I would say to anybody listening who the greatest entry point is, you can watch it in whatever setting you need to be able to watch it in most comfortably. You can take notes, you can pause, you can take breaks as you need to to make sure you can really soak it in. And then if at that point you're like, well, everybody else around me needs to see this, you can spread the link around to get to everybody else to see it as well. So kudos to you all for just continuing to evolve with it and making it more accessible to everybody in new and inviting ways and for putting the stories of adoptees and foster youth in those settings as well is just great. And so we're really thankful for our partnership, as we've said a billion times during this interview. But I wonder if you guys would think for a second about, as we wrap up here, what are some things on the horizon of show hope that you can talk about that you're really excited about or some new things that you guys are or, you know, what? Break some news, like, tell us things you can't talk about right now, but what are some things you're excited about that are on the horizon at show Hope? [00:35:36] Speaker B: You guys know that in, I guess it was it. 2020 was the official exit right before the pandemic hit. We needed to make a really difficult decision to transition our work out of China. That about killed Mary Beth. It was a lot of anguish. You talk about pacing the floor and arguing with God. It was to, I didn't want to make that decision and had an amazing board around Stephen and I and looking at everything that was going on in China and obviously the building, Maria's big house still stands there and still cares for a few children, I believe, as we speak. But that was really difficult for us and as we began to just really pray about what would be next for Show Hope. We have a community of families that still hang out on a Facebook page with us that have adopted children from a care center in China that show Hope supported. And so we are gearing up to do some reunions. We used to do a Maria's big house of reunion. Every couple of years. We're going to try to do one of those in 2025, bring those families together. That would be super exciting for me, to be able to reconnect with those families. And again, though, that also reintroduces them to the work of show Hope and some of the needs they may have. One of the things that came out of the exited work from China was we began medical care grants, and we began them somewhat small in that we were doing all this work in the area of pre and post adoption with the conference and all the other things we do. So we started them with true medical care, medical devices that maybe fall outside the bounds of insurance, of insurance, all of these things. And so it's been kind of a slow on ramp to medical care. And if you have an adopted child, you don't have to have an adopted child that received a show hope grant. Just an adopted child who is in need of a medical care grant can apply. And we would encourage you to do that. We would love to be able to help you if you're listening. And so we started that. It's been a slow kind of on ramp for the last couple of years. We've been dreaming and scheming of what that will now look like as we step into a new fiscal year in July, of what we might add to that. Some of that may be some emotional support and some counseling and some therapies, which I think is desperately needed with our families because a lot of times that isn't covered in insurance. And so we want to really think through that strategically. We want to think through what kind of help that is, who are the people that are qualified to counsel these families. And so really kind of dreaming and scheming a little bit about that. And so, yeah, again, it's that when we think through strategic, we have a lot of strategic items on our strategic plan to kind of get crossed off. But when we think through those things, they're all things that really can be defined as how do we go deeper with families? And again, I think a lot of times people think that happens once the child comes home. Then how can we go deeper? But how can we strengthen things on the front side? How can we work with the institute to get the conference and other countries translated into cultural languages and then cultural, we, how know mo and Tana and Emily take governments by storm and get this information into state governments and the legislative and all of that kind of thing. God continues to open little doors here and there and cracks open and then Mo can just kick them open and Emily can kick them open and know who knows where things like that. So when I say going deep with families, it's really what would it look like for children to come into homes super healthy? Could a day exist when we've been able to even help so much on the front side that there's some real strength and support there when the family becomes a unit and then moving forward, it's not such a heavy weight. Right. And so I don't think that's wishful thinking. That's just taking steps and seeing where God can direct and lead. [00:40:09] Speaker A: Thank you all. [00:40:11] Speaker C: Yeah, Emily, I was just going to add, I think what has proven true for us when you operate with your core conviction at the center. Right. And for us at show Hope as a faith based entity, like our core religious beliefs and how we understand who we are and how God has designed us to bear his image and be in relationship and love and outdo one another with honor when we really operate out of that, and then we find and partner and pursue excellent resources, excellent content, like the opportunities that are being presented that are in front of you all and your work that are in front of showhope, things like entire school districts wanting to license the conference for their personal development, for their professional development. What? It's just unbelievable. And then that's when we all get in a boardroom and are strategic and figure out how do we all do this together and institute. Are you cool with that? Again, I think when you really, truly root yourself there and then begin to let your kind of strategy sort of blossom or bloom out of that, it's just really remarkable what begins to take place. And that's been true time and time again at show hope. Not been easy, but it's been true. And I think that I would encourage even a family listening those core beliefs at the center of your family. Beautiful things come out of that core commitments, those two or three things that are absolutely true for you, not easy, but true. [00:42:14] Speaker A: Love it. And obviously totally agree with that. Guys, thank you all so much for joining us today and for all your work, all the continued work. And we'll hope for some rest at some point for both of and we'll link below how you can find more information about the conference where you can stream it, all those things and yeah. Mary Beth, Emily, thank you guys. [00:42:42] Speaker D: Thank you. [00:42:47] Speaker A: Well, again, just thank you to Mary Beth and Emily for joining us today. And exciting stuff from show Hope, stuff that's on the horizon is great and groundbreaking. And I just would tell you, as an organization that is partnered with show Hope very tightly in our work, they are relentless about doing good and relentless about following the mission of their organization and making adoption both accessible and supported for families who choose to adopt. And so we can all speak firsthand and just say, that's true. We've experienced it in our own lives, but hopefully it has been a resource for you as well. So to find out more about show Hope, you can check the show notes below to find out more about the hope for the journey conference and where you can stream it. Check that out in the show notes below, or you can go to showhope.org and get all the information that you need there. Showhope.org. So that's all for us here at empowered to connect for everybody here, for mo, for Tana, for everybody on the ETC team, for Kyle Wright, who edits and engineers all of our audio never tags you at the creator of the music behind the empowered to connect podcast I'm JD Wilson, and we'll see you next week on the empowered to connect podcast.