Hello there lovely people.

Through this blog I’m going to share my journey of joy in starting and growing a family through adoption. There are unwelcome frustrations along the way too, but mostly these are admin-related and mostly there is MUCH joy! The kind of joy that squeezes you tightly at 05h30 in the morning and kisses you with snotty smooches. What a pleasure. My heart is to start conversations around this topic and to make adoption more ‘normal’ by creating a network for adoptive moms to share their stories, be encouraged and also feel part of the ‘mommy community’.

My husband, Ryan, and I are proud parents of three of the best kids. Ilan is almost six and the cuddler in the family – he enjoys ‘dancing like a Zulu’, riding his bike dangerously down hills and being a big brother to ‘the kids’ as he calls them. He summons the family together for ‘family hugs’ most mornings. Kira is three and a half and is a real busybody – she likes to pull out her beautifully braided hair at the very first opportunity, has a deep belly laugh and has eyes only for her brothers. Judah has just turned three and is a gentle soul with a dimpled smile that can knock your socks off. We’re a South African family pieced together through adoption.

Adoption has always been on my heart and it was something that Ryan and I chatted about before we even got married. These days when you think about starting a family, there are options – try for biological kids or adopt a child and for us adoption was our number one choice. It helped that we’d seen adoption played out in other families and that we were able to discuss adoption with parents who had pioneered into the world of social workers and courtrooms ahead of us. Even though we felt under-qualified as first-time parents-to-be, we were reassured that ANY family is better than NO family for a child who needs a family.

Why did I call my blog, ‘Heart Mama Blog’?. Well that’s because moms through adoption often refer to themselves as ‘Heart Mamas’ because even though our kids didn’t grow in our bellies, our love for them undoubtedly grew in our hearts.

Welcome to my blog,

Jules