Category: adoption

  • Adopting a teen: 8 years later

    Adopting a teen: 8 years later

    As of last Sunday, it has been eight years since the day we finalized Lindsey’s adoption. In the courtroom on Lindsey’s adoption day, 2009: Eight years. In many ways, that feels like a lifetime ago. I look at that picture and I can hardly remember who we were then. Some of you have been reading…

  • Adoption: greatest hits collection

    Adoption: greatest hits collection

    In honor of National Adoption Month, I’m resharing some of my previous posts on the topic. If you’re a longtime reader, you already know this is an issue close to my heart. If you’re new, or if you (like me) tend toward a little motherhood-induced amnesia occasionally, I’ll tell our story in a nutshell before…

  • Hope for when your child walks away

    Hope for when your child walks away

    There’s an old story of a young man who insists upon taking his inheritance early so he can go live it up in the big city and do whatever the heck he wants. To him, that’s what freedom looks like: no accountability, no one checking up on him. For a little while, he has himself…

  • Quilted together family

    Quilted together family

    Having our two adult kids here to visit last month with all the grandkids was wonderful. The timing worked out nicely with Lindsey and crew coming in early that Friday so that we had nearly two days with them before Brandon and crew arrived. We had a few days with the whole gang here, and…

  • Real Mom

    Real Mom

    It’s been seven years since I became an adoptive mom. At that time, Ken and I each had a biological child and Lindsey became our third child. Brandon was 18, Kathryn was 9, and Lindsey was just shy of 15. Look at those baby faces, all of us. Golly, we had a lot to learn….