2025 Midwest Keynote Speaker
Diane Harlow is a self-proclaimed “Multi-Generational Mom”. She and her husband Terry are parents to
9 children, ranging in age from 31 to 2. She has learned to never say, “this is our last adoption”, as God
has proven her wrong time and time again.
After many years of trying to have it all by juggling career and family, Diane left the corporate world to
invest in her family and to establish a non-for-profit sheltered workshop in O’Fallon, Missouri. Words Wear is dedicated to creating positive changes in our community by providing employment and training
opportunities for individuals with special abilities
Diane will be publishing her first book later this year, A Love Letter to My Daughter. A book dedicated to
surrendering our overachieving tendencies and discovering what it means to be fully loved by God.
2025 Florida Keynote Speaker
Sandra Flach is mom of 8 children, 5 through adoption—2 diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She encourages and equips foster and adoptive parents through her weekly Adoption& Foster Care Journey Podcast and blogs at SandraFlach.com. She is a certified facilitator of the FASCETS Neurobehavioral Model, teaches FASD workshops, and co-leads the Hope for the FASD Journey online support community. Sandra is co-founder of Justice For Orphans and author of Orphans No More—A Journey Back to the Father. She and her husband Wayne have been married 36 years. They reside in upstate NY where they love to spend time with family, especially their 8 grandchildren.
2024 West Coast Speaker
Bethany Spencer is a relentless follower of Jesus, wife to Keith, mama of 5, and widow to Eric. Her three oldest children were adopted from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012.
Bethany is an educator turned entrepreneur, speaker, + author. She works as a certified life coach, specializing in mindset, mental wellness, + business. She educates, empowers, + equips women to use their gifts and businesses for uncommon generosity, transformational impact, kingdom expansion, + visionary leadership.
Bethany and her family world-school, splitting time between RVing in the USA, international travel, + Costa Rica, where she spent 13 years of her childhood.
You’ll find her at the fair trade coffee shop down the road – sipping a vanilla latte, listening to audible, + planning her family’s next travel adventure.
2024 Carolinas and Ohio Keynote Speaker
Brooke Fremouw has an educational backround in nursing but didn’t pursue her career in the field because of the rapid growth of her family. Instead, she has been primarily a stay-at-home mom. Brooke has faced many challenging seasons in her home, thus has advanced her education. She became a Certified Trauma Support Specialist, is trained in EEG nuerofeedback services, and has taken advanced training hours for 12 years. Most importantly, Brooke is an adoptive mom to 11 children that came to her and her husband at all ages from birth to 17 yearas old. She has helped countless families to find joy, peace, and respect over the past few years and is excited to do the same for you.
There were times in Brooke’s life as an adoptive mom over the past 14 years that she was short on hope, and short on perspective. Now that many of her children are adults, it is easier to say with confidence that the story of the trying adopted child is truly still unwritten. By introducing you to adult adoptees and even her husband, Brooke is able to help share perspective that she otherwise couldn’t.
Jason and Brooke have been married since 1998. Jason is a mortgage lender by trade but a full-time father to all 11 of their beautiful kids as well. Jason gives strength and wisdom as he speaks to his role as an adoptive father.
2024 Florida Keynote Speaker
Ann McKinney is the momma to 16 amazing children, 2 homegrown and 14 through the blessing of adoption. The McKinney children range in ages from 11-31 years of age. She also has two grandchildren and hopes to have any more! Ann is a true “Medical Momma”, parenting children with sickle cell disease, beta thalassemia major, limb differences, autism, developmental delays, epilepsy, leukodystrophy, vision impairment, cerebral palsy, and a
history of trauma/neglect/abuse. Two of the McKinney children, Daley Faith and Teddy, have passed and are waiting for their momma in heaven.
Ann was the original founder/director of Treasured Adoptions Foundation and is currently the Child Sponsor/Social Media Director for In His Hands Orphans Outreach (Haiti and Kenya programs). She is a passionate about adoption and orphan care and has helped dozens of orphans find their forever families. She travels to orphanages/orphan homes through In His Hands several times a year to assess the needs of the children and to collect videos and
information to help her advocate for them.
Ann loves to write and has compiled her prayer journals into a book about her family, which is called, “Always Room for More” and has recently completed a VBS program, “Let’s Learn About Haiti”, that teaches children about missions, orphan care, and compassion. She also enjoys substitute teaching at her children’s school, traveling, anything horsey, and serving the community with her amazing church family. But most of all, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Dale, and her children.
Her future plans include writing a book about child loss/grief and securing licensing to begin a non-profit adoption agency in her community, which will offer a sliding-fee scale to help ensure that finances never prevent a loving, qualified family from adopting a child.
2023 Keynote Speaker
Cindy Jane Newland is an author, psychologist and activist in the adoption community. She is an acclaimed speaker who has keynoted at conferences and events all over the country and has an extensive media background. Under her writing name of Cindy Champnella her books include “The Waiting Child: How the Faith and Live of One Orphan Saved the Life of Another” (St Martin’s Press) and “The Twelve Gifts of Life: Finding Extraordinary Meaning in Ordinary Moments. “ Cindy has helped hundreds of families adopt and has run support groups for post adoption adjustment.
After being tragically widowed she is recently remarried and has 5 daughters ranging in age from 29 to 10; 4 are from China. (For more about the joy and struggles in adoption follow her on Facebook: Cindy Jane Newland).
2022 Keynote Speaker
Tracy Whitney is mom to 6 kids and 2 (soon to be 3) in-law kids. She lives in the greater Philly region and works remotely for Creating A Family.org as a Content Manager/Creator. Her oldest 4 kids are adults now and her two youngest children are daughters from China, adopted in 2008 and 2013.
In addition to her roles at CreatingaFamily.org, Tracy volunteers in several large, online adoption communities and in her local church body. She is passionate about the family – hers and helping others build theirs. Her favorite days are when all her kids can be home, hanging out and eating around their huge family table. She loves the Philadelphia Eagles, Tigger, and coffee – and has a huge collection of Tigger mugs that her kids add to each holiday. When Tracy isn’t writing for work or folding more laundry, she’s watching sappy romantic comedies or reading. Her current genre of choice is WW2 romantic/suspense fiction.
2021 Keynote Speaker
Anna Lee Ward provides Biblical discipleship and mentoring to encourage individuals to grow to maturity in Christ, while also equipping them to more effectively reach and genuinely love others. Currently on home mission assignment with Commission To Every Nation (CTEN), Anna Lee previously served as missionary in Mexico and Trinidad & Tobago where she labored to establish discipleship programs and to train others to disciple new believers. She has since served as a Biblical counselor preparing missionaries-in-training for their upcoming assignments around the world. In her work with marriage and families in crisis, Anna Lee draws from her years of married life since 1986. She also shares from many years of intensive parenting experience gained while providing therapeutic foster care to more than thirty children placed with her from families in crisis. Anna Lee’s preparation for marriage and family ministry includes completed training in various counseling methods including SACC (Sarasota Academy of Christian Counseling), NACC National Association of Christian Counselors) and, ADT ( Advanced Discipleship Training ). Anna Lee is a certified marriage facilitator, and has counseled and mentored numerous individuals, married couples and families through critical issues over twenty years. Anna Lee and her husband are birth parents to one daughter, Rebecca, who lives in Michigan. In her free time she enjoy cooking, hiking and watercolor painting. To learn more about Anna Lee and her ministry see her ministry website at www.lifesourcemfc.org
2020 Keynote Speaker
Mandy Litizke is the Founder/Executive Director of Safe Harbor Orphan Care Ministries, an International Speaker, wife & mom to 17. Born into the tragedy and hopelessness of addiction and abuse, hear her story of rescue and redemption; experiencing God’s healing grace & transforming what could become bitterness into blessings. Called to an unimaginable journey of faith and obedience to live out loud. Mandy and her family reside in Columbus, OH.
2019 Keynote Speaker
Loryn Smith, founder of Finally Home Christian Adoption Services, is the mother of 20 children, a social worker, family coach and sought after speaker for her personal as well as professional experience. Loryn and her husband Thad have fostered over a hundred children over nearly 25 years. Loryn is also a TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention) Practitioner and trained directly under Dr. Karyn Purvis at Texas Christian University. Loryn delivers passion, energy, encouragement and support with practical ways to reduce stress in your home and find healthy and effective methods in working with children from hard places.
Seas The Connection 