The Rev. Elizabeth Hagan is the pastor of Palisades Community Church in Washington, DC, She’s the author of Birthed: Finding Grace Through Infertility and Seeing a Different World as well as a regular blogger at elizabethhagan.com. Her essays have appeared in the Huffington Post, TIME’s Motto, the Christian Century and Ethics Daily. She’s a graduate of Samford University and Duke Divinity School and the proud wife of Kevin and mother of Amelia. She’s an advocate for the importance of choosing family– both as an official adoptive mom and also as a surrogate mom to many through her work with Our Courageous Kids, a foundation dedicated to helping children growing up in international orphanages go to college.