What are Matching Mondays?

Just about every Monday, I feature children who are waiting to be adopted through the foster care program. Each child has been approved by the heart galleries that host them to appear on my blog. Not every heart gallery from every state has given us permission to post their waiting children (some we can only link to, some we can use photos and some change their minds constantly about whether or not we are allowed to help in their outreach efforts) …we are working on that. Brenda of Another Small Adventure really does all the work on this. She knows foster care waaay better than I do and I am grateful for all her help.

Jadyn, age 13 from Utah.

He loves dancing, playing the piano and jumping on the trampoline.

You can view the heart galleries from all the states by going HERE and clicking on the states you are interested in.

Share the Matching Monday link on your blog to help these children find forever families! See all the buttons available HERE. Or press “like” at the top or bottom of the post to share these waiting children with your Facebook friends!

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Categories: Adoption, Foster Care

The minute I recognized Josh Redfern at BYU, I knew he was different.

It took us 5 years to finally have a real first date, but it was pretty darn incredible. I already loved him. After all, 5 years is a long time to keep coming back to each other. I love him more than I can really put into words.

And then I saw my husband hold our first baby. And fight for our second. I saw him agonize over the ones we lost. And I saw him hold our third and never want to put him down.

I never really knew how much I loved that man of mine, until I saw how much he loved our kids.

Parenthood just takes my breath away.

I am so blessed to have a husband that I can wish a Happy Father’s Day to and spoil. And I am so grateful for the sacrifices he makes for our family.

And we simply cannot have a holiday like this without thinking of the birth families of our kids and the sacrifices they also make.

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY to all the dads, grandpas, birth fathers, uncles, hopeful dads and brothers. You all make a difference in the lives of my kids.

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Categories: Family • Tags: Father's Day, Fathers are Important

Up until last week, we only purchased no-name bulk cereal.

Up until last week …when the whole craziness went down with Cheerios.

Did you hear about this? Cheerios put together a commercial featuring an interracial family. (Yay! Families that look more like mine!) The ad received so many racist comments (making references to genocide, calling the ad disgusting, saying it made them want to vomit) that Cheerios made the decision to shut down the comments.

Oh ‘Merica. We have a long way to go. When it comes down to it, we still aren’t okay with families that don’t match or fit into the “norm”. We aren’t as “progressive” as we think we are. This was eye opening for those of us who fit into the non-matchy category.

So why have we made the switch TO name brand Cheerios?

Donny Deutsch said on TODAY last week that “97 percent of companies would stay away from this because they would say, ‘I don’t need the letters.’”

“Advertisers for many years always took the safe route, which was to try to ruffle no feathers,” Allen Adamson, managing director of the branding firm Landor Associates, told Huffington Post.

But not Cheerios. They took “the risk”–how ridiculous that it is a risk when the ad represents 9 million US families. Good heavens.

They didn’t pull the ad despite the “controversy” that a bunch of anonymous trolls stirred up. I love that Cheerios didn’t let hate dictate how they advertised their product.

Hate did, however, influence where my dollars were spent. Thanks to the racists, I have now become a loyal Cheerios customer for life. Thank you, racists!

And thank you, Cheerios! Thank you for representing and standing up for (even if unintentionally) families like mine, children like mine–all 9 million.

Turns out that Cheerios commercial is right on: Cheerios …they are so very good for my heart.

Hear what that cute little girl and her parents have to say about the whole controversy. (Spoiler: The little girl assumed all the fuss was because of her adorable smile. I love her!)

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Categories: Transracial Adoption • Tags: Cheerios, Transracial Adoption