May 17, 2018

Motherhood, Laying Down On The Job

Mother’s Day weekend is kind of our Super Bowl weekend. (National Adoption Month is our Christmas.) Motherhood is woven into the fiber of what we do. For Mother’s Day, I asked our social media followers and staff to send us the pictures the most typified motherhood to them. We received the most fantastic pictures. There […]
May 09, 2018

My Stephanie

9 Years ago, yesterday was the happiest day of my life. Why? In addition to having a wonderful stepdaughter and a happy and healthy three-year-old, my baby girl, Stephanie, joined our family...making it complete. But it was a long road to get there. First, I need to tell you about my oldest sister, Stephanie. My […]
Apr 25, 2018

The Beautiful Tapestry Of A Foster Family

Next week, the month of May comes to a rapid start and, with it, the advent of summer. However, before pining a tidy bow on the month of May, I want to remind you that May is National Foster Care Month. As adoption professionals, we tip our hat to Florida’s foster parents, who day-in and […]
Apr 18, 2018

The Privilege Of Watching Them Grow Up

One of the highlights of my job is keeping in touch with the adoptive families after placement and receiving updated photos and videos of the children. We get to see quite a bit of our kiddos when they are babies in the hospital, little bundles all snuggly in thier stocking caps.
Apr 13, 2018

Adoption Tax Credit

It’s coming. We all feel it. Once the year changes, you feel like you have a world of time, and then before you know it, it’s April 17th, Tax Day. One important thing to remember this ominous weekend is to apply for your adoption tax credit if you finalized your adoption in 2017. Created 20 […]
Mar 28, 2018

Hope Blooms In Purple

In college, I volunteered with a group that held kid’s clubs in the inner city. We focused on one neighborhood in Clearwater. We would go into the neighborhood, pick up the kids, (with the permission of their parents) and walk them across the street to a field to play games, sing songs, and such. The […]
Make It A Spring Break To Remember
Mar 22, 2018

Make It A Spring Break To Remember

As Spring Break is peaking around the corner I started to think about what my plans would be. Typically- I work. Although my son and I are super close, he is still a teenager and the last thing he wants to do is hang out with his mom for a week. It just isn’t the […]
Mar 19, 2018

The Sweet Time In Between

We love our kiddos. All our kiddos. But for all our preparation, for thought, and care, it is not for us to spend much time with them once they come. If we do our job well, than the child should pass from the birth parents arms to the adoptive parents arms, (and a few nurses […]
What To Expect When You’re Expecting A Home Visit
Mar 15, 2018

What To Expect When You’re Expecting A Home Visit

Completing the homestudy paperwork can be a terrifying adventure – the list of tasks seems to go on forever and the questions are probing and can trigger hard memories. Nothing, however seems to strike more fear into prospective adoptive parents’ hearts than the home visit. Visions of stern, white-gloved matrons digging through closets and checking […]