Leading with Love shares one parent’s journey of supporting their trans son while navigating their own grief, growth, and learning. It highlights the importance of creating space for honest conversations, affirming care, and accessible support—so that trans youth and their families don’t have to navigate this journey alone.

As we navigate through this mix of excitement and nostalgia, I can't help but think about a few things I wish we had known back when we were fresh to the whole post-adoption scene.

Things don't have to be perfect to be important, meaningful, and worthy and neither do people. I am committed to loving my children so wholly, that I accept every part of their story and everyone who is a part of it.

Think about the trauma that this meeting could have or may have caused my oldest child. Was it necessary? Could it have been done differently?

Divorce is far from an ideal situation, but as the saying goes: “When Mom is well, the kids are well.”

Consider a dictionary definition of the word holiday: “a day of festivity or recreation when no work is done”. Wow. I am fairly certain that if I go with this definition, I have not had a holiday since 2001 (the last year that I was child free).