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Truth First. Decisions Second. Children Always.
I am a former foster parent, adoptive parent, certified foster care trainer, state-level advocate, and the founder of Low Tide Lighthouse. I spent over a decade working inside the foster care and adoption system from every angle, as a child who lived it, as a parent who fostered and adopted, as a trainer who taught it, and as a leader who worked at the county, state, and federal level to change it.
Low Tide Lighthouse is not a business idea. It is what all of that built toward.
Low Tide Lighthouse was not born from a business plan. It was born from living through what happens when good intentions meet a system that requires far more preparation than anyone talks about.
I felt called to foster. I believed love would be enough. I said yes when children needed homes. And I kept saying yes long after my capacity was gone.
What I was not prepared for was the cumulative weight. The appointments. The trauma behaviors. The system navigation. The advocacy battles. The grief of loving children who may leave. The specific loneliness of doing work most people around you will never fully understand.
Adrenaline carried me at first. Then exhaustion replaced it. Eventually my body stopped cooperating. I developed an autoimmune illness and found myself depleted in ways sleep could not repair. I needed therapy. I needed boundaries. I needed support I had not built in advance.
That experience changed how I see this work.
Foster care does not just test your parenting. It tests your nervous system, your marriage, your identity, and your limits, all at once. You can feel called and still not be ready. You can be compassionate and still need preparation. You can love deeply and still need structure.
Low Tide Lighthouse exists so families do not have to learn these lessons the hard way.
“I didn’t just enter the foster and adoption world. I lived the realities that shape it..” - Me
I am not someone who did this work and moved on. These children are my children.
My daughter came to us at 14 months old and is now she’s 10. My son came to us at five weeks old from the NICU and never left. We fostered from 2015 to 2019 and adopted four children plus a bonus child who will always be part of our family.
I also came to this work from the inside. My mother was in foster care. I was adopted by my grandparents. I know what it feels like to be the child who doesn’t always belong or feels out of place, not just the adult navigating it on a child's behalf.
That is not background information. It is the lens through which I do everything.
Grounded in Experience
My work in foster care did not begin with a program. It began with years spent inside the system at every level, as a foster and adoptive parent, as a certified trainer, as a county leader, as a state board member, and as a professional within an adoption agency.
This is not a side project. This is the thing nearly a decade of work was building toward.
This work is not therapy. It is not legal advice.
It is education, navigation, and honest conversation, without sugarcoating the realities families face.
Pictured: My time when I was VP of our state association board. Me with Susan Ramirez (CEO of Austin Angels), volunteering at various events and me at our annual conference.
My Experience: A Heart-Led Journey in Foster Care Advocacy
2015–2019 - Licensed Foster Parent & Adoptive Parent State of Alabama — 4 adoptions + bonus child
2017–2024 - Founder & President County Foster & Adoptive Parent Association, Alabama
2018 - TIPS-MAPP (Trauma-Informed Partnering for Safety and Permanence – Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) 2-Week State Certification, Alabama
2018–2020 - Quality Assurance Board Member DHR, QA Board, Alabama
2018–2024 - Foster Parent Voice — County Supervisor Meetings County Child Welfare Department, Alabama
2019–2024 - Vice President Alabama Foster & Adoptive Parent Association
2019 - Federal Review Participant Federal Foster Care Review, Alabama
2020–2022 - Director of Foster Parent Relations, Tuscaloosa Angels
2021–2024 - Recruitment Specialist - APAC, Alabama
2025–Present - Founder & Lead Facilitator Low Tide Lighthouse — Colorado Springs, CO
I work with individuals and families navigating foster care, adoption, and kinship care, offering clarity rooted in lived experience and years inside the system.
I help families slow down, ask better questions, and understand what these paths actually require before children pay the price for adult uncertainty. I help current foster and adoptive parents who are depleted find their way back to themselves. I help families crossing into adoption understand what they are entitled to and what comes next.
Families who work with me leave with more than information. They leave with a clearer picture of where they are, what they need, and what a sustainable version of this life can actually look like for them specifically.
This work is not therapy. It is not legal advice. It is education, navigation, and honest conversation — without sugarcoating the realities families face. I am not a therapist and this work is designed to complement, not replace, professional mental health support.
If This Resonates
If you are considering foster care or adoption and want honest preparation before you say yes, there is a program built for exactly where you are.
If you are already in it and feeling the weight of it, you do not have to navigate this alone.
If you are not sure where to start, start with a conversation.
Explore The Lighthouse Programs to find your place on the shore.
Or schedule a free 15-minute discovery call. No pressure. No sales pitch. Just clarity about where you are and what might help.
