Breakout Sessions for the 2021 REST Retreat
Healing a Marriage while Parenting Hurting Children
Marriage is hard. Marriage while parenting children with abuse, grief and loss in their past is even harder. In this breakout session, Staci Thomas will provide foundational tools as well as practical tips for thriving in marriage while parenting children with trauma.
With twenty-three years of child welfare experience, Staci Thomas serves as the Chief Program Officer of Chosen. As a member of our staff for over eight years, she has been singularly focused on developing Chosen’s proven model of care that helps create family environments in which foster and adopted children can heal from hard histories.
Staci has a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech. She is also a Trust-Based Relational Intervention™ Practitioner and a Trauma Competent Caregiver Affiliate Trainer. She has completed training in Dyadic Developmental Practice, Psychotherapy and Parenting (Level One) and Motivational Interviewing.
Staci is passionate about attachment between parents and children and is a sought-after speaker on the topic. Using her depth of knowledge and experience, she has mentored and coached hundreds of foster and adoptive families. A voracious researcher of all things trauma-informed, Staci is committed to ensuring Chosen’s parents receive best-in-class teaching, materials and techniques to meet the needs of their children. Staci has been married to her husband for 27 years and, together, they have the privilege of being the adoptive parents to four daughters.
Self-Care & Your Oxygen Mask
Every time we fly, we hear these words, “If we lose cabin pressure, please place the oxygen mask over your own mouth and nose before assisting others.” But how do we do that in real life? In this session, Johnna Stein will teach you how to breathe, be still, and create pockets of rest in your day.
Johnna Stein loves reading, writing, kids, dogs, and especially likes rooting for and writing about underdogs. She’s worn many hats through the years as high school teacher, tour director, stay-at-home mom, reading coach, children’s ministry leader, and presently Vice President of Training at Promise686. She’s lived a decade of her life in Holland with her Dutch husband of 31 years and right now they reside on this side of the pond in Johns Creek, GA. She and her hubby have cared for more than 25 bonus kids through foster care and other avenues. Their two bio kids are off the payroll and pure delight. Johnna is a TBRI practitioner, a seven on the enneagram, and is learning to balance her need for speed and her need for rest.
Got Questions? Discuss with our Panel!
The world of adoption and foster care can be a chaotic, crazy, yet awesome world. And yet we all have questions that we’d either like answers to or simply someone to validate our feelings. In this session you will have the opportunity to ask those burning questions, share your feelings, and hear from a panel of adoptive and foster moms that are in the journey with you.
Getting Crafty! Hymn Page Journal Workshop
Learn how to take a simple composition notebook and turn it into a beautiful journal made with a beloved hymn page. Your finished creation will make a beautiful prayer journal, devotional notebook, or blessings book.
Emily Evans enjoys being creative through hand lettering, watercolors, and hymn artwork. She has started Simply E Designs as a fun way to share her creativity with others. Emily and her husband Matt have been married for 13 years. They have one daughter named Sadie who also loves to craft and paint. Emily has been an elementary school teacher for 13 years (12 years in first grade). When she’s not teaching or making hymn artwork, she loves to read, go out for sushi, Bible journal, and take trips with her family.