Business Innovators Radio - The Inspired Impact Podcast with Judy Carlson-Interview with Carey Marin, Adoptive Mom of 4 Children, Gift of Adoption Fund Board Member

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

Carey Marin is a wife, mom of four, entrepreneur and open adoption advocate.Carey is a graduate of the University of North Texas where she received her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. She has worked with orphanages in Bolivia and Romania, and with women and children in Ecuador, Kenya and Turkey. She received the President’s Volunteer Service Award, and founded Hearts Wide Open, an open adoption support group. She has also served with Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children in foster care.Carey and her husband, Paul have four adopted children. She joined the Gift of Adoption Fund- Colorado Chapter Board in June of 2023, shortly after she and her family relocated to Denver from Dallas. Gift of Adoption is a national charity that provides grants of up to $15,000 to complete the adoptions of vulnerable children. Priority is placed on helping children facing what is possibly their only chance at adoption, including those at-risk of separation from siblings, entering foster care, aging-out of an orphanage, or with special needs.Gift of Adoption is the largest provider of adoption assistance grants on a nondiscriminatory basis (without regard to age, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or marital status) and grants are paid directly to adoption agencies and attorneys working on the child’s behalf. Since inception in 1996, Gift of Adoption has awarded more than $14 million to give over 4,724 children permanent families and the chance to thrive. To date in Colorado, GOA has awarded $507,000 in grants to complete the adoptions of 155 children.Gift of Adoption is recognized by Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance.As President & CEO of Purpose Media Group, Carey specializes in crafting strategic communications that drive measurable results. From public relations and digital content marketing to message development and crisis communications, Carey helps businesses build trust, credibility and lasting connections with their audiences. She has helped clients garner national and international media attention from the LA Times to the Wall Street Journal and Good Housekeeping to TODAY Show.www.giftofadoption.orghttps://giftofadoption.org/joinourboard/giftofadoption.org/colorado/facebook.com/GiftofAdoptionColoradowww.purposemedia.biz***********************************************************Judy is the CEO & Founder of the Judy Carlson Financial Group. She helps her clients design, build, and implement fully integrated and coordinated financial plans from today through life expectancy and legacy.She is an Independent Fiduciary and Comprehensive Financial Planner who specializes in Wealth Decumulation Strategies. Judy is a CPA, Investment Advisor Representative, Life and Health Insurance Licensed, and Long-Term Care Certified.Judy’s mission is to educate and empower her clients with an all-inclusive financial plan that encourages and motivates them to pursue their lifetime financial goals and dreams. Learn More: https://judycarlson.com/Investment Adviser Representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management, LLC, an SEC Registered Adviser.The Inspired Impact Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast-with-judy-carlson-interview-with-carey-marin-adoptive-mom-of-4-children-gift-of-adoption-fund-board-member

Welcome to the Inspired Impact Podcast, where dedicated female professionals share how they inspire impact every day. Authentic stories, passionate commitment, lives transformed. I'm your host, Judy Carlson. Welcome to today's episode of the Inspired Impact Podcast. Today's guest is a business owner, entrepreneur, wife, mom of four adopted children and a board member for the Colorado chapter gift of adoption fund. I'm so excited to introduce you to Carrie Marin. Thanks for joining us today.

Hi, Judy. Thank you for having me. I can't wait to hear your story. This is going to be so exciting. So you got a lot of things going on here. Where do you want to start to tell us your journey? Well, let's just say it's never a dull moment. around my family in my life. There's always something going on.

I am. So I moved here with my family about three years ago from Dallas. And my husband was transferred here for a job. And we had actually just adopted two children from a sibling group. Well, they're from El Paso. And so that year, I think that was 23, we decided to adopt two kids, move to Colorado, sell two houses in Dallas, and we just basically, you know, upended our life. And I think you would there have to be crazy to do something like that. Or you have a bigger purpose, you know, in your mind for why you're doing it. So, right. Had a crazy couple of years.

So you said two kids from a sibling group, were they the first two you adopted? They weren't. So we also have two other children that were adopted at birth. One is, 16 and we have one that is 12 and we adopted them the day they were born. We received them. And then this sibling group, we adopted through foster care. So they were nine and 10 years old when we adopted them a little over three years ago. And there was a reason for doing that. It could, it would have been really easy to just adopt, you know, a newborn again. But I really had a vision to help kids who were the most vulnerable. And anytime you get past that age of seven to when you're a child and you're in foster care,

the odds of you getting adopted just reduce dramatically. And especially if you're part of a sibling group, it goes down even further than that. So we said, we're going to do this. And we're going to try to help a couple of kids who are probably the least likely to be adopted. Wow. Yeah. So when they're from a sibling group, were there more than just the two that you adopted? They do have a half-brother that's from a different father.

But he was being taken care of. He was not in foster care. Okay. Okay. So if they were nine and ten, three years ago, one of your other children was nine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was funny too because

so my two youngest are six months apart and people think they're twins all the time now, but they're not. And then at the time they were all three about the same size. So we all started calling them the triplets. Okay. They looked like they were all three about the same age. They were severely malnourished and had had gone through a lot of neglect and abuse. So it took them a couple of years to catch up both academically and emotionally. And, you know, there's still good and bad days, but they have come a long way. So much different than the first two children you adopted at birth,

who were raised with your parenting style, your home life, your nutrition programs, your morals. So how is that blending for your family? It was really hard at first. It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Oh, my gosh. Bless it. And, you know, and part of that is because their first five years, which are arguably the most influential in a child's life were neglect and abuse.

And so they didn't get a lot of the nurturing that they needed when they were younger and there was a lot of unlearning that had to happen and a lot of relearning. They, it was, there was this one case where they had only been in our house for a couple of days. And, you know, we have people dropping off Amazon packages all the time and the doorbell rings and they just got this crazy look on their face, like what's, what's going to happen? And we were like, why did they get so nervous about that? And I was like, I guess it is because they probably got. you know, a doorbell like that at some point in their lives in the middle of the night where

CPS, you know, remove them from the home or something like that. So it really took them a while to understand that they were here, they were not going anywhere, we were not going anywhere, and they were part of our family. So the impact of having the two other children from birth on them, how have you seen that to be an impact positive or negative? on the two newer children? Definitely they've had a positive, our two original kids, I guess we could call them, have had a positive impact. The boys get along great.

They bunk together. They all kind of hold each other accountable. And they're like a little tribe now. It's really interesting to see how it works. My older daughter and my younger daughter are still. still working on their relationship. It was really tough at the beginning because the younger daughter that came into our family was, she had a lot of rage. And she, you know, at the very beginning, there was a lot of temper tantrums and a lot of anger issues. And I think it just really

frightened my older daughter, who was, I think she was 13 at the time. And she'd never seen anything like that happened. And so, you know, we had to have a lot of real serious conversations about this is why this is happening. And look, we're trying to provide them a safe place and a place where they can be loved and supported and grow into the little humans that they're supposed to be. And they didn't ask for any of this. They didn't ask to be in that situation that they were before. They didn't ask to be part of our family. And so I think there's a lot of, a lot of things that they feel are out of their control when they're going through this, you know, transition.

And so that leads them to obviously want to control some things that they probably shouldn't be controlling. So we've all had to learn a lot. We've had to sacrifice. We've had to give more than, you know, would be required in a lot of situations and a lot of forgiveness. Yeah. Wow.

So what was I going to ask about the, oh, so when you guys, you and your husband decided, which is amazing to adopt some of the most vulnerable children, how did you know what you might be walking into? Was there training, education, all that stuff? There is. So part of the home study process that any family has to go through before they adopt is, is that kind of training to understand where the children are coming from, what they've probably been through and seen and how that affects them emotionally and, you know, education as well. my daughter was two to three years behind academically. So she was supposed to be in fourth grade. And she was really, her math was more like a first or second grade student. And so we've worked really hard over the last couple of years. And she's at grade level now, which is amazing. She doesn't necessarily like math. But she's doing, she's doing the work. So it's amazing what the support of a family and the love can do. for these kiddos. And my son, who is her brother, has just really flourished. And he loves all things, math and science and robots. And he's just, he's very talented in a lot of ways. And so he's really just blossomed and grown a lot in those three years as well. So three of your children must all be

in the same school? They are. They're all three in middle school. Okay. And are. Are they they in different grades or two are in sixth and one's in seventh um the two youngest are in sixth grade they had they had one class together um this past semester they had Spanish together but now they're they're in completely different classes so we always at least try to get them separated even if they're going to be at the same school because just yeah and then your oldest which is a daughter i'm understanding is in high school now? She is. She's a junior in high school.

And we're getting ready to go through that phase of figuring out where to go to college and what she wants to do. And it's interesting because we adopted her from Mexico. And she was our one, you know, our only child for five years. And we thought, oh, my goodness, she's a very mature and discerning. person and was always just the good kid. We never had any trouble with her. And my husband and I were like, oh, this is easy. Let's throw up, you know, a few more in here.

And I was like, God did that on purpose. So we were roped in and we were ready to go because it's been anything but. But we wouldn't trade it for the world. We tease each other all the time. We're like, what else are we going to do with our lives? So then the second child you adopted as a son and where was he born? Yes, we adopted him from Wichita, Kansas. And he just has the most amazing story.

We have an open adoption with him with his birth parents. And I didn't know what an open adoption was when I was going through all of this. And a lot of people have, there's degrees. of how open you want to be with a birth family. It can just be, we send them a letter or pictures every six months up to, you know, maybe they'd get to see their biological child once a year. And we just went all in and said, we want, and this was on the very first phone call that we had with her, with his birth mom. We said, we want to be as open as you want to be. And she's like, well, I don't understand what you mean by that. And we said, well, we know that they've told you

that you might get a letter and photos once or twice a year. But if you want to have a real relationship and we believe that that's the best way for this child to grow up is to know who and where he came from, then we're all in on that. And so it's amazing what happens when you just don't have any fear in love because they've become an extension of our family. Really? Yeah, we're vacationing with them at the beginning.

each this summer. So it's just been an amazing, just really an amazing gift and relationship that we have. They actually, his, his birth parents actually ended up later getting married and having another son who's my son's biological, you know, full biological sibling. And, and I don't think that probably would have happened. I think she would probably say the same thing. I don't think that would have happened if she had she had not placed him with us. And it's, they've just become an extension of our, of our family. So how old is their biological son now? He is, like two and a half years younger than.

Oh, not much younger than. Yeah, not too much. And so we, we see them a lot, you know, they live in Wichita, Texas now, Wichita Falls, Texas. And so we don't get to see them as much as we would like, but a couple of times a year and we tried a vacation together. We spent Thanksgiving together with them. And that doesn't work for every situation. But for this one, we were just really blessed in the fact that we both knew what needed to happen to make this work for our son. And yeah, it's been a really neat situation.

Now with your first adoption, your daughter from Mexico, is there any knowledge that she has of her biological mom? Her biological mother passed away when she was 10 and we did not have any communication with them. We did know some of her extended family. They were uncles, but uncles that were her age, if that makes sense. because grandma was still having kiddos. And so we actually met the lady who adopted her uncles. And she lives in California. So they've been able to keep a relationship up.

But other than that, she doesn't have any communication. And it's interesting because I've got every dynamic. I think in our family, I have international adoption. I have closed adoption. I have domestic open adoption. I have foster care adoptions. And it's different because those things also impact how the kids view it. I think our two new ones are a little bit jealous that Josh, my youngest, has that

relationship because they don't get to see their birth parents. It was part of the termination of rights was that they couldn't have any communication because of it wasn't safe. And my oldest understands, you know, that her birth mother. passed away. And so she doesn't have, you know, that desire, but they all have different situations. And it does make for some very interesting conversations between all of them as well. Sure. The two youngest or the ones you adopted at birth, obviously on their own, didn't know they were adopted. So then you need to sort of figure out how that process is going to

unfold. Different from the two you recently adopted, who obviously have been through a lot and know they were in foster care and know that they were adopted. So how have those dynamics played out in your family? Well, we were very intentional early on to give them as much information as we could. that was age appropriate. And so they both knew from the time that they could understand, I think, or that someone else, you know, had them in their tummy, that they have a birth mother and that they're their biologous or that were their adopted family. But other than that, you know, as they ask questions as we move forward, like I know my youngest asks or he would ask when he was like eight, 10 years old.

I don't understand why I can't live with them because he knows them. And we said, well, we made this decision because we both, you know, decided that this was the best place for you and the best situation for you. And I said, you can talk to your birth mom. She's going to tell you the exact same thing because we're all on the same page. And it doesn't make it any easier for an eight or a 10 year old mind. But they just need to be able to hear that, you know, reinforced on both sides and that you know those conversations happened sometimes when my daughter was

10 my oldest she started wondering like well and this was before her she we found out that her birth brother had passed away um she just she's like i just want to know who she was and what she looked like and and i said well i made a list for her because i said i don't know a lot of those answers but here are the 10 things that i do know about her i know she's i know she's loved you because she chose life for you and she chose to place you with a family that's going to love you. They had told us that she was very tall and beautiful. I put that on there. I put, you know, we know she's from Mexico. So I just listed the things that I do know. And I think she probably started creating a story in her own mind about what that looked like. And I was fine with

that. I wanted her to have as much information as she could. Wow. And think about that story she's created in our mind and writing that down someday. What an amazing gift in a way. Different from, you know, kids with their birth parents and not any of the other situations. Now, the two most recent ones, I mean, I don't understand or I don't know when they went into foster care versus when you adopted them or how that whole process. works, but they lived through it. Yeah, they did. They did. They're very resilient. They, you know, some of the behaviors that we're working on with them are actually the same behaviors that helped them survive that situation. And so, you know, the, there was and still is

like some defiance, you know, toward, toward us. But I think that that little, our, our, our daughter, she's very spunky and I think that spunkiness helped her survive and they did what they had to do to be able to do that. And, um, and now we're just trying to say, hey, those are all good characteristics of who you are, but let's use them for good now. Let's let's take who you are and use that in a positive way versus in a negative way where you're fighting, you know, literally fighting for survival. So, um, I'm not sure. how familiar you are with it, but tell me a little bit about what you do know about fostering because that was a gift that was given to those two children as well. Is that right?

Yes, definitely. They were with a foster mother. She was an older lady for a year. And then they also were placed prior to that with their paternal grandmother for a year. So really in the system, they were probably in like what they would consider foster care was kinship care for a little over two years. Okay. And I think that's right. But yes, I think that just having that stability and I'm sure she dealt with a lot more severe behaviors than we did because she got them right after they were with their family.

But it is a gift. And we fostered them for six months. It was just a technicality. we had already said, these are our kids. We're not going back. This is permanent, but they require you to foster for six months. But yeah, it's a gift. And the system can definitely improve.

Okay. This wasn't Texas foster care, but all across the country, the foster care system definitely needs improvement. We got two kids that were on a lot of, you know, psychotropic drugs. and large amounts and didn't necessarily need them, but sometimes it's a way to just deal with it and not have to worry about the behaviors. And so we took them off that almost immediately. And so there's that.

I think there's also what gets lost kind of in the system is they're struggling through PTSD. It's like a childhood complex PTSD. I'm not a psychologist or a therapist, but I've done a lot of reading and a lot of research on this. Try to kind of diagnose where they are. And it gets mislabeled as ADHD a lot. And once you start addressing, you know, the issues that cause the PTSD, then you start seeing them, you not have these behaviors that are very similar to ADHD. So that's very interesting.

There needs to be a lot more research and a lot more support around that from a mental health standpoint. Sure. So when you thought about adopting kids who are most vulnerable, you're in Texas. You said the children were from El Paso. Is that where their foster parent was? So how did that match occur? We had an agency. We went through Gladney adoptions, and they do a lot of foster to adopt placements now,

not just domestic or international adoption. The need is so great for adopting from foster care. And they matched us after we've gone through all of our training and the home study and everything. They matched us with them. And we flew to El Paso and spent the weekend with them. and she actually came running out the door to me. And she's like, Mom! And I was like, wow.

Whoa. That's a little soon. But this little girl will need the mom. Oh, wow. The spunky one. Yeah. Yeah, bless her heart. Oh, my gosh.

I'm overwhelmed at the gifts that you're giving to these children and all out of the goodness of your heart for their heart. But it's definitely been more. worth it. Yeah. So then you arrived in Denver and you're part of the gift of adoption fund. We haven't touched on that yet, but I want to learn more about that and how you got connected and what else you do to share your story so that others are encouraged. Yeah. Yeah. So gift of adoption is a national charity. They have chapters in, I think it's 18 states across the U.S. I'm not exactly positive about that number, but here in Colorado, we have awarded about half a million dollars in

adoption grants, and so we help families who need some financial assistance to adopt, and 100% of the proceeds that we raise go to the grants. And we've awarded total 155 children in the state of Colorado with adoption grants. So what would cause a person to reach out to the gift of adoption for a grant? How does that surface in the process? Well, a lot of domestic and international adoptions can exceed $50,000. It's a big chunk of money for legal fees and home studies and travel to, you know, to meet your children and pick them up. And a lot of families, what we're seeing,

because I'm on the grant committee to approve the adoption grants, we're seeing, you know, very middle income families who don't make a ton of money, but want to give a child a family. And that's a really big lift. Fifty thousand dollars is a big lift. And so we want to help them complete their adoptions because there's nothing more you can do for kids like, the kids that we adopted, then give them a safe and loving home. And so our entire goal is to raise as much money as we can to give to as many families as we can. We have in Colorado, we have 18, about 18 families a year that request grants. We would love to double or triple that because we know that there's a need out there.

probably how they reach us. When they're trying to figure out how they're going to pay for things, the agency would probably say, oh, you should just go Google grants for adoption. And our name probably comes up. And so, yeah, we give across, you know, specific to specific state adoption. So anyone who's requesting it's designated by each of the chapter states. Okay. You mentioned fundraising. So how does that happen? We have a couple of different fundraisers that we do over the years. We have coming up on, actually it's already started. We do a March Madness break. What do you, gosh, what do you call it? A bracket, a March Madness bracket.

Okay, cool. Familiar with it. But that's happening right now. And you can go to gift of adoption.org slash call. Colorado to see all the details about that. We have a golf tournament that we have in September every year. And we try to do a lot of kind of many events. We don't have one big like gala or one big fundraiser that we do. We do a lot of smaller events during the year. And you can also just donate on the website. It's easy to do that as well. And you know, I have part of my philosophy and the reason for doing this is we have, you know, a lot of people say, oh, well, I can't adopt.

It's just not possible or I just don't have the means or I don't feel like I'm called to that or I would never feel like they're my real kids. I get that a lot. Don't you don't you want your own kids or your real kids? I'm like, they're my kids. Yeah, they are. Do you see what we've gone through? They're my kids.

And I guess my thing that I would say is there's an author, Max Lucato. He has a book that's called Outlive Your Life. You were made to make a difference. And he says no one can do everything, but everyone can do something. And that's how I feel about adoptions. Like you don't have to adopt to give a child a family. There's a lot of other things that you can do. One of the things that I noticed that was greatly in need when we,

adopted the sibling group was just support like and and respite support. We haven't been on a vacation. My husband and I by ourselves in over five years and just having being able to still have those relations like have like spend intentional time working on those relationships. I mean they take up a lot of of time and even away from our other kids because we're focusing so much on trying to write the ship with them and having that respite support for someone who knows how to handle those kids those kids that need a little extra help and that we can feel safe leaving them with you know while we just go spend a little bit of time together so respite report a respite support is huge but but the idea behind gift of adoption is also you don't have to adopt to give a child a

family. And that's a, that's something that I would ask everyone to think about. There are so many children in just the U.S. alone who need families and we can all do something. So the people that participate in your fundraisers, is it primarily families or is it companies or corporations or how are you, you're reaching more and more for that? Yes. Foundations. Corporate donors, individual donors. We've even started looking, I can't remember what they call it,

but it's where, you know, wealthy individuals can designate a charity for their funds to go to. So we're doing all of that. And I feel like we're still a fairly young organization here in Colorado. We've had a big turnover of our board. And so we're really growing the chapter right now. And we would love to see our numbers double and even triple over the next couple of years. Because the more money we raise, the more kids get to go home to their forever families. Yeah.

Mike had mentioned that there were families that, you know, we're waiting for some help and there wasn't the funding available through gift of adoption. That is a cry and shame, right? When they're ready to go. And the 155 children, do they span from birth to 18 or is there a concentration of? Yeah, I think a lot of them, I don't know the numbers, you know, off of the top of my head, but I've seen, I've seen a range. I've seen infant adoptions to a sibling group I just saw recently from Columbia. The little girl was three and the brother was 13. I saw twins come up last week on the grant committee from, I think it was Haiti.

So I just kind of see it across the board. There's just so much need just here domestically and internationally, of course, as well. but we obviously, the age doesn't matter. We're just trying to help as many families as we can. So on the grant board that you just mentioned, for instance, you said twins came up last week from Haiti. So does that mean there's a Colorado family who is well into the adoption process of these twins

and they just need to get some funding to get through the finish line? Yes, absolutely. Yes. And they've probably already done a few fundraisers and sometimes people dip into their 401K. Excuse me to do that or they borrow from family. And part of what happens when you're doing your home study is that you know, you have to give a personal financial statement and they want to make sure that you've, you know, financially can support these children. And that's probably when it comes up. It was like, okay, well, how are you going? to fund this adoption and people have to make, you know, some really tough decisions on on where that money's coming from sometimes. Wow. Yeah. And I think, like you said, the middle class, you know, couples and families are probably the ones who could really embrace adopted children.

And then the funding is difficult. Right. Because we're all out there just trying to make it work, right? Yes, absolutely. And have you worked through all these, your oldest is 16, you said? Have you been working for 16 years? Or what has, what has that done? I can't afford to not work.

Your career. Obviously, you know, I never had any with any event that, you know, after waiting so long for children, we were married 12 years before we adopted our first child. And so after waiting so long to be a mom, I didn't want to miss anything. So that was when I started my company because I wanted to have that flexibility to, you know, not miss, you know, the first time she walked or the first time she said my name. And so I made that decision to, okay, I'm going to have more flexibility. Obviously, it changes my income, you know, somewhat, especially as you're first getting started.

but that was a sacrifice I was willing to make so that I could be present and really intentional with our relationships. Right. And then now that the other two, more recent ones that seem to need more attention, has that – well, and when you got them, they were already school age, so there wasn't those first five years of raising them. Well, has helped. School has helped. You know, I have a finite number of hours that I can get some work done. Okay.

But, you know, my husband and I have always been very supportive of each other's careers. And he's, you know, 100% my partner. And we help each other, you know, as needed, you know, from a workload perspective. If I'm going out of town for business, you know, he knows he's got to give. more, you know, 150% that week and vice versa. So we're both very supportive of each other's careers and he's just the best partner. We laugh about it all the time that we wouldn't want to do this with anybody else. That's great. And thank God I have you because I don't know what I would do if I didn't. That's right. Yeah, that's a great marriage message, right? I love that.

Is he an in-office person? He works from the office. three days a week. So he's home two days. And I work from home. So we're pretty present. And that makes a big difference from going to, especially for the sibling group, going from one parent who was never there and left them at home all night long to we're here all the time. Right. We're not going anywhere. So it's been a big change for them for sure. When they came into, your lives and then you were here in Denver and the school that they're in. Is that, um, is, was that a conversation or conversations that you guys initiated with the school they were going into? Yes, they were in elementary school when, when we first moved here. And,

um, the, the school that they were at was just amazing for my daughter because they did all of these wraparound services for her. And, um, and, um, the, the school that they were at was just amazing was just amazing for my daughter, and, And in fact, they had originally when they saw her, her IEP, they said, well, we might not have the support that you need here. Let us send you across town to this other school. And I said, no, no, no, no. I can't do that. I got three kids at the same school. I can't be going back and forth all over the place.

We did that in Dallas the first six months that we had them. And so we just came together and we figured out. out a plan and and they were fantastic. They were amazing and really worked with her and gave her that one-on-one support that she needed and they were so patient with her, probably more patient than I am with her. And that was, I have no doubt that they were the reason that she was able to advance as quickly as she did and catch up to her grade as well. Wow, that's amazing. I guess I could just keep going, but we better wrap this up. But there are so many options people have today to be an adoptive parent like you and your

husband at all different age levels. There's the opportunities for the gift of adoption fund. So what resources, what information would you like to share with our listeners now to give them that encouragement, to give them that direction? should that be something that's piquing their interest, but they just can't move forward through it? And you've just been such an encouragement. Oh, well, thank you.

Yes, definitely go to giftofadoption.org. And if you want to go directly to the Colorado page, just do slash Colorado. There's tons of resources on the website there. If anyone is interested in adoption and doesn't know where to start, they can just reach out to me. I love talking about it. I love helping people figure out, should it be international?

Should it be domestic? Should I do newborn? What are the pros and cons? And like I said, I've been through every scenario. You have a lot of experience with all of that. I would love to talk to people. When I was in Dallas, I had an adoption support group. And that was one of the things I love doing is help families, you know, figure out where that best place for them is.

so we'd love to chat with anyone who's interested. Absolutely. Well, you're just a wealth of resources and your personal experience tells it all, right? Yeah. Yeah. Wow, thank you so much, Carrie. This has been phenomenal. I'm so excited to have met you and share your story.

Thank you so much, Judy. It was a pleasure talking with you. Thanks so much for joining us for the Inspired Impact Podcast. To listen to past episodes, please visit the Inspired Impact Podcast.com.