Foster Care/Adoption

As an infant, I was adopted into a loving family. I was raised to be just another member of the family - my mom even forgetting that we weren't biologically related at times (like the time she was stressing because she thought my unborn baby would have her nose!). I grew up knowing that I really wanted to expand my family through adoption, not even feeling that maternal need to have biological children. As I have entrenched myself in the world of adoption and foster care, I have learned a lot. The most important thing that I have learned is this: Not all kids who are adopted are orphans.  Many (maybe even most?) have families who love them, but who are incapable of caring...

My journey to (biological) motherhood was anything but text book easy. It took about eight months to get pregnant. Once pregnant, I carried eight pounds of EXTRA amniotic fluid. I had back labor. The epidural didn't touch my labor pains. And after hours of pushing, I was rushed off for an urgent C-section. I spent the night in the ICU because I wasn't breathing properly. My firstborn came out blue, and spent his first night in the NICU, and I had to wait until I was released from ICU to truly meet him for a proper introduction a day later. I had to leave the hospital and leave my baby behind. Welcome to motherhood, it's not easy. My son spent 28...

When you think back to your first decision as a parent … you probably think formula or breastfed? Co-sleeping or crib? Maybe you think more to the toddler years, when discipline becomes part of the equation. Some parents haven’t thought a TON about their parenting style. That’s ok too! Are you free-range? Are you a helicopter? Are you self-identified as free-range while ACTUALLY hovering?! Some of you have even gone lengths to read books and books and books about what philosophy of parenting you wanted to adopt. My first parenting decision looked quite different from all of those above. My first parenting decision was to parent. At the age of 30, freshly moved to a new town in a new state, I realized...

Ever since I was little, I always had a dream about being first. Not just first place, but the first female in history to accomplish something amazing. In school when I learned about astronauts, I decided that I would work hard to become the first female astronaut. But the space program accepted its first female astronaut, a teacher named Sally Ride. My dreams of being the first were crushed by the time I was in third grade. Then I decided I wanted to be the first female supreme court judge. And then along comes Sandra Day O'Connor to ruin those dreams. If I had stayed true to my roots, I possibly could have found my place in history as the first female...

"Can I just keep you forever?" It's a question that I ask my 3-year-old often, and it's always followed by a sweet, "Of course you can! I'm your daughter!" But not this day. This typical, playful, normal morning, I asked our 8-month old my question. "Can I just keep you forever?" And the toddler responded, "No, Mommy! She's going to live with her aunt, silly!" That was the moment. The moment when reality smacked me in the face. My baby girl was leaving. The thing is, she was never really all mine. We are her foster parents, so we knew we would be loving her for as long as we had her until a family member was able to step forward. We've...