Advancing Grace

Each month our Director of Advancement Michael Tooker and Assistant Director of Advancement Michelle Broek will share stories of how the Grace message is impacting the lives of our constituents.

  “Investing in Foster and Adoptive Families” Family Matters is raising up voices in the foster and adoptive community to carry the message of God’s grace! As a product of the women’s liberation movement, Susan TeBos didn’t grow up thinking she’d be a mom.  But nine years into her successful career, Susan found herself asking God, “Is there something more than this?” Susan and Mike are now the parents of 3 teens and tweens from Siberia, Russia.  She’s learned that, first and foremost, raising kids requires grace.  Lots of it to face the unique challenges that parents of biological children may not. Susan now feels burdened to serve as a champion for post adoption advocacy.  She’s published one book already (Before You Were Mine, Zondervan Publishing) and is in the process of releasing her second. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLr7E53FbsM#t=0&w=640&h=385] It’s this passion for post adoption advocacy that brought Susan to a Grace Based Parenting Conference in 2012.  Susan instantly connected to the grace message.  In her own words, “I had always tried to help our children understand how deeply loved they were. It wasn’t until I heard Tim Kimmel describe this as a love mirrored after God’s heart of grace that I truly understood it myself.”  In that moment, Susan became both a student and teacher of Grace Based Parenting. Upon hearing the message of grace, Susan had this to say:

Grace Based Parenting focuses on the heart of a child.  For the adopted child, this is huge because many have had their hearts broken. Extending grace to a child like this is like wrapping him in a warm blanket of hope, security, and significance.  So you can see why I left the conference thrilled, motivated, and committed to implementing grace based parenting in our home.

Earlier this year, Susan joined the Family Matters speaker team for our first-ever Grace Based Foster and Adoptive Parenting conference. Susan is one of many gifted voices God has raised up to carry the message of Grace Based Relationships.  It’s her passion, gracious heart and experience as an adoptive mom that gives us great hope that this message will reach the foster and adoptive community.