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Our Story

If you follow me regularly, you might have noticed that I haven’t been on social media much lately. There has been so much going on in our lives and home, and I have been so anxious to share. It has kept us very busy, but hopefully soon I’ll be back on at my regular pace again. 

I know some of you are new to my page and mine and my husband’s story, so I’m going to start from the beginning, but try to keep it brief (this could be a really long post.) So from the beginning:

Foster care wasn’t something Colt and I discussed before getting married. In fact, I really had no idea what it was, and had no desire to foster or adopt (although I thought adoption was cool). Almost a year into our marriage, I started hearing about foster care EVERYWHERE… on the radio, at church, through mutual friends. I knew God was working on me. Eventually I brought it up to colt that God wanted us to foster, and he agreed. 4 months later, we had our first foster son, TJ. 

Fostering has been one of the loneliest and most difficult things we have ever done, but also the most fulfilling and rewarding. Over the past 4 years, we have adopted our oldest, Emberlynn (read about that here), had our daughter, Eile (see her newborn session here), and are currently fostering Baby B, Emberlynn’s biological brother with the hopes of adopting him early this Fall. 

The Big News

While our home and hearts have felt quite full this past year, about 6 months ago, God used a young girl that Colt came across at work to put a stir in our hearts again. All of a sudden, my heart was hurting for teens in foster care. Colt will tell you that I actually cried myself to sleep for many nights after thinking and talking about it. 

Eventually we decided to go to a teen adoption event (yes similar to what was in the movie “Instant Family”), and we were there to talk to some teen girls. But again, God had different plans. While we were talking to a sweet young lady, D walked up and started talking to Colt. I’ll tell you… it was as if he chose us. 

We left knowing what was going to happen next, and let our agency know of our interest. Then the process started to see if we would be a good fit for him and vice versa. We spent the next couple months after meeting him praying without ceasing and consulting with professionals and others around us. The truth is, we had every reason to say no to adopting a teen such as: time, finances, the babies, etc, etc. But we aren’t doing this for us. Often times, a life following Christ can be very uncomfortable and challenging in ways you may never imagine. This is for God and His glory, and this is for D. 

After doing as much research as we could and learning about D and consulting with friends, family, and professionals, we made the final decision that we want to adopt D. They told him last night, and we were told he is overjoyed. 

What’s Next?

So I’m sure you’re wondering, “what’s next?” Well, we will start transition visits slowly. We will probably see him for the first time since we first met this weekend, and then he might start weekend visits with us and then he will move in the first of June after school lets out. After he is with us for 6 months, we will be able to officially adopt him.

We are so anxious and scared of the unknown, but we also trust that God is in control. He has our family his hands, and he will take care of us through this next journey. 

Just for you!

To make room for D, we have been doing some home construction. Colt built a wall in our playroom to create a bedroom for D where he will have his own half bath and closet. We still have a lot of upcoming expenses (more than we can count) and some things we are doing to get our home ready for a teenager. Here’s the part where I am really excited for you guys, because I am going to be doing a couple really special promotions that either I have never offered, or stopped offering years ago.  All of these proceeds will go to preparing for D to come home, and to provide him with the things he needs. 

FIRST, I am going to give ALL of my Instaproofs galleries 40% off of all printing AND 20% off all digital downloads for the next 2 weeks. I have never discounted the digital downloads before, so I really hope you take advantage of this offer.

SECONDLY, I am going to do Limited Edition 30- Minute sessions for the evenings of April 28^thand April 30^th in Rockwall, Texas. I will only have 4 spots available each day, so please reach out right away if you are interested. Each session price will be $300 and include all edited digital images with a print release. 

I have had a few people ask about just wanting to help with some of the needs, so I have created a small registry of things we still need to get his room and our home ready, along with places D like to buy clothes. You can see all of that here.

Thank You!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support through this journey. I know we are going to need them now, more than ever, so please keep them coming!