Road to Adoption: 11

March 8, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

(I’m running a series on our experience adopting an older brother & sister from foster care, in the hopes it will clear the way for you to do the same.) *** With all the waiting, you wonder about practical things. Like money. Can you afford two or three kids? Can you even afford one? You’ve read all […]

Win a mansion in heaven! (well, maybe…sort of)

February 24, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

This is the post where I make a plea for you to do something huge that will, in all likelihood, ruin your life. But you’ll do in order to rescue others, which means you’ll be guaranteed a blinged-out mansion in heaven! (Okay, I’m not entirely sure about the mansion. It’s just a working theory…) Steve […]

Vacation Week

February 17, 2016.Reading time 4 minutes.

It’s vacation week. Please know that every word of this coming post is a reflection of this single fact. I’m reading a book on motherhood. Always a bad idea for me. I got sucked in because I love the author and she’s both sharp/brilliant AND soft/maternal, and that combination exists out there in the writing […]

How Dare You Exist…Do You See Me?

January 22, 2016.Reading time 8 minutes.

The parameters of my motherhood right now are strung out between two equal and opposite poles: How Dare You Exist? and Do You See Me? It ain’t pretty, folks. We are DEEP in the gap of all the middle school developmental stages, along with some early childhood ones that were missed along the way. They overlap and undercut […]

Road to Adoption 10

January 14, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

(I’m sharing our story of adopting two older kids from foster care so maybe you’ll consider it too. You can find the first post here.) *** You give up. You’re indescribably tired of adoption as a concept. Tired of reading books and blog posts and doing assessment interviews where you try to guess how you’d […]

Humbled by the Holiday

January 4, 2016.Reading time 8 minutes.

That vacation Kicked. My. Butt. We had a wonderful Christmas – 4 days filled with family get togethers and presents and laughter. It was all way more than I could have imagined or hoped for as we dove into the challenge of creating New Family holiday traditions. I’m so grateful. But the vacation part? Exhausting. […]

This Is What Love Feels Like

December 18, 2015.Reading time 11 minutes.

On Sunday, the Cherubs will have lived with us for six months! Six months is a big deal in the adoption from foster care world, because that’s how long you have to live together before you can finalize the adoption. They’ve been marking off the days toward that date with a mixture of terror (that […]

Road to Adoption 9

December 15, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

(I’m documenting our path to adopting two awesome older kids from foster care so you can consider it, too.) *** It’s been awhile. You’re waiting. MAPP class is finished, the dates for your home study interviews are on the calendar, and your home is bedazzled with seasonally appropriate decor…and fruit. Always lots of fruit. (Because fruit […]

Christmas Fear

December 8, 2015.Reading time 7 minutes.

We put up our Christmas tree last night. It’s lovely and crooked, decorated by two Cherubs who are fighting mightily with their fear that we’ll disappoint them this Christmas. Fear that the presents won’t be right, or we won’t have traditions, or that this won’t be like they dreamed of when they heard they were […]

Good News overcomes disappointing realities

December 2, 2015.Reading time 8 minutes.

Read this article! You’ll love it, I promise. (You might even print it off and keep it on your coffee table to make you happy, like I did.) It’s about two girls who were adopted on National Adoption Day. They had been in NINE foster homes over the course of eight years. Think about that. Imagine […]