Getting older…

Today is 2 months until I turn 34🎉🎉🎉

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be counting down getting older. I grew up a dancer, where youth is celebrated and aging is dreaded. But as a single woman in the middle of adoptions in a foreign country… 35 is the magic number.

Ask anyone that has ever been on a journey towards adoption and they will most likely tell you that the road is long and difficult (and that’s putting it mildly). This journey towards adoption is hands down the hardest thing I’ve ever done. If you ever hear anyone describe the adoption process as easy, they are LYING.

It feels like I’m constantly in this battle with the world for my children to even have a chance at a chance. My kids and I have been a family for many, many years, yet in a way its like the outside world has put us in this family “purgatory”, this in-between place of being a “real” family and a “pretend” family. It is hurtful to my kids and I when people treat us as an illegitimate family. I think sometimes people get so caught up with what a family looks like or what they think a family should look like and forget what a family actually is…a group of people that love and support each other. Family has nothing to do with blood or what you might think one should look like. Carlephora is my family and we are perfectly imperfect, which in my book makes a pretty rad family.

Cheers to family and to getting older 💜

Ever loving. Always growing. 

Caroline

PS- That pic was taken ages ago 😉