Ready for a plot twist?!

417 days.
That’s how long I’ve been keeping a secret from you.

Our sweet daughter Francesca is not a newborn...anymore. She’s a precocious, smiley and very busy 14 month old!

Yes we brought home this same darling baby girl to foster and adopt...BUT THIS ALL HAPPENED ONE YEAR AGO!

For over a year I’ve been keeping a secret…the best, most beautiful wonderful and special kind of secret there is. And trust me it killed me not to tell you. After all, the last 15 years of my life has been all about sharing my life with you- the ups, the downs, the triumphs, the heartache, the fertile and the infertile. So here I am with this wonderful, exciting news that I wanna shout from the rooftops, I want to write it in the sky, but sadly I could not.

This is why I had to hide my precious baby from you for over a year…

When Francesca was placed in our custody she was a foster baby, a ward of the state, so we were told from the very beginning that we were forbidden from publicly revealing her identity.

I’ve always understood that with foster children you have to be respectful of their privacy to keep them safe. But I had also seen many other foster mamas share info about their babies without totally revealing their identity. For example, haven’t you seen a photo of a child posted with a little heart emoji over their face? Or just the back of a head or some little feet? I had, so I thought that was what we would do. Ya know, tell you without actually telling you.

I made peace with that idea that I could share a small part of this precious babe until we could officially adopt her, but I then realized that’s not how it works.

When the state is involved (at least in California) as opposed to a private foster agency, you’re forbidden from even revealing that there is a foster child living in your home let alone sharing any sort of photos or information.

That was a really tough pill for me to swallow. Here we are, a family that has shared our hopes, fears, desires and struggles to grow our family openly and now we have this amazing triumph and can’t share it.

Of course that was a huge disappointment, especially as a blogger and adoption advocate, but we stayed the course and are so glad to finally reveal the truth.

I realized that someday, however far in the future, I would be able to share our secret and tell our story and introduce you to this perfect angel babe that we’ve been loving on for an entire year.

Well 417 days to be exact

Since Francesca was placed in our arms she has never left our side. Every morning hello at the breakfast table, every walk to the park, every trip to Lake Tahoe, every family movie night, every vacation, every pool day, every birthday party, every front yard hang…

EVERY. SINGLE. MOMENT.

she was here.

Francesca was with us all the time!
Did you ever catch a glimpse of her? Did you notice a rogue baby bottle or stray diaper? Did you see her high chair or hear a baby babbling in the background?

Guys, I’m not gonna lie…it was super to hard to hide an actual human being from you. I was constantly editing my content to crop out a little baby foot or mute a crying babe or reshoot a video of the kids talking about Frankie. The conversation went like this…

Me: “Guys remember you cannot mention the baby.”

Kids: “To who?”

Me: “Well the people in my phone”

Kids: “Wait, there’s people in your phone??”

Me: “Not really, well kinda, but anyway we just can’t talk about Frankie.”

Kids: “But why?”

Me: “Because we’re not allowed to say that we have her until we adopt her.”

Kids: “Well when’s that gonna be?”

Me: “I don’t know babes, I just don’t know.”

Over a year ago we started fostering a beautiful baby girl, brought her into our home and she became a crucial part of our family. (Oh and I can’t wait to tell ya the story of how we found her! That’ll blow you away too!)

In the last 14 months our Frankie Jean has changed from a sleepy newborn to a curious 1 year old with a huge appetite, infectious smile and the most easy going demeanor. She’s an absolute angel and I can’t wait for you all to fall in love with her like we have.

Finally, no more secrets!

Francesca is here and with us forever and we are BEYOND thrilled to share our happy news!