I love this girl! Adoptive Mom Edition

I love this girl! Cuz really, how can you not? Kristine is sweet and thoughtful and funny and pretty and happy.

And she is one of the nicest people on the planet.

I’m not just saying this because she’s my sister, or because she’s one of my best friends, or because she’s one of my very favorite people. Everyone pretty much comes to the same conclusion within five minutes of meeting her.

Everyone who has ever met her also agrees that she is going to make an amazing mother. And it’s a goal Kristine has actively been working toward for the past six years.

Growing up with Kristine, we always knew she was going to adopt. When she was somewhere around five years old, we got all the clues we needed to figure that out. And even though we thought it was our duty as her siblings to tease her relentlessly for many years that she was going to “buy” her kids, deep down we all just knew that it felt right for her to adopt.

Of course, when we were kids, we had no idea exactly how hard going through adoption was going to be.

As an ADULT, I had no idea how hard going through adoption was going to be. Cuz, man. It’s so much harder than I ever expected. Infertility stuff was bad enough. I swear, adoption stuff is many times worse. The road to choosing adoption is long. Then add all the work that goes into just getting everything approved so your adoption profile can go out for birth moms to see. And that's when things really get tough. There's all the waiting. And the false hopes. And the fear of false hopes. Really, every single step of the way is hard. Just watching her go through it is hard.

Kinda makes me feel bad about all the teasing we did when we were kids.

And after all the really hard times, today Kristine woke up being a mom. I'm so happy for her! Gosh, I love this girl.

I bow down to you, Kris. Turns out that you’re the strongest of us all.