Announcing my New Title! Dr. Rhoads

I completed chapters 4 and 5 after a wonderful day of group work. I had 4 adoptive couples meet for 4 hours to share their adoptive stories and react to each other in compassionate ways. The day was all that I had hoped for and after interviewing each of the couples for 2 hours/couple, I had 8 hours of audio recordings to transfer to transcripts and look for key themes and quotes.

I found 4 areas to highlight and numerous quotes as examples of the themes. After explaining all of the findings and implications in chapters 4 and 5, I created a presentation to defend my dissertation.

On April 12th, I presented the research to my committee and dissertation chair along with an audience of other interested friends and peers. The presentation went well and made an impact. After discussing as a group, my committee and chair congratulated me with the completion of my defense and welcomed me as a colleague: Dr. Erica Rhoads!

While that day started out very difficult, God was with me and I felt so privileged to present this material and represent the parents who shared their hearts in my group. I am praying that this will be the beginning of more research and opportunities to impact adoptive parents with God’s direction.

I am so thankful to the many people who have been with me on this journey and the encouragement that I recieved to never give up! Please continue to pray that God leads me to use what I have learned to further His kingdom!