Smarty Mom: Maureen Osborne

Smarties, I’m thrilled to introduce you to our fabulous Smarty Mom this Easter weekend, Maureen Osborne. I met Maureen last year as our boys were in kindergarten together and have been on every single sports team together. Such a cute and fun bunch of boys (and moms too:-)!

Maureen is one of those women who you adore the first five minutes you spend with her. I don’t think there has ever been a time when I didn’t see her with a beautiful smile on her face from ear to ear. She is the Smartiest mom of two boys and a girl and she and her husband have decided to add a fourth to their family in a very unconditional way, by adopting a baby from China. The amount of strength, courage and foundation that this family has inspires me to no end. Maureen started a blog, Finding Mei Mei, to document this journey and it’s nothing short of amazing. I encourage each and every one of you to soak in the powerful posts that Maureen has shared along the way. I personally cannot wait to share the follow-up to this feature when they find “Mei-Mei”.

Smarties, meet Maureen Osborne!

Maureen’s Smarty Mom Stats

Mom of: James (9), John (7) and Kate (5)
Married to: Rob for 15 years, college sweethearts from Clemson – how cute is that?!
In her previous life: She was an Upper School Counselor at Providence Day School
She hails from: Gainesville, FL (yet another reason why I love this girl, orange and blue is in her roots, two different shades:-)

OUR STORY {WHY ADOPT?}

Our story starts in May of 2011. However, for me, the beginnings of this journey started many years ago. When I was in my twenties, a family friend of ours adopted a little girl from China. This was talked about often in my house, and always in a positive way.

A seed was planted in my heart.

Fast forward 20+ years, a marriage, and 3 kids later, and that seed was still there. In May of last year, my husband and I were away for a night and went out to dinner. We were having a wonderful dinner, talking about how happy we were and how lucky we are to be blessed with our 3 wonderful kids. Our waiter stopped by and offered to take our picture. I’m so glad he did.

I’m glad because at that moment I had no idea that a few minutes later I would say something to my husband that would change the course of our lives. A few minutes later, I totally surprised myself by asking him, “what would you think about adopting a little girl from China?” I surprised myself when I said it because it wasn’t at all planned. Not once in our marriage had we EVER discussed adoption. We never struggled to have kids. We had decided 3 was a good number, and we thought we were done. While asking the question may have felt like a surprise, my husband’s response was the REAL surprise. Without a breath, a pause or any hesitation, my sweet husband looked right at me and said, “yeah, we should consider it”. So, when we returned from our trip, we spent the next year doing just that….considering it. In that year, we never once considered having a biological child, or going anywhere other than China. We researched Chinese adoption, Chinese orphanages, called multiple adoption agencies, talked to friends who have adopted, sought out families who have adopted from China, and consulted pediatricians and international adoption doctors. We spent months and months and many sleepless nights fretting over the risks, the financial burden, and all the unknowns that come along with international adoption.

We talked.

We talked more.

We talked for weeks and months. We talked more about this than we have any other decision we have made in our 10 years of marriage.

We prayed.

We would feel excited, and then we would feel scared.

We would feel certain, and then we would feel uncertain.

Ultimately, we decided that we want to do something really meaningful with our lives. We have been blessed with so much, and we want to give back. We want to live out our faith for our children and teach them the importance of the values that are so important to us: compassion, mercy, tolerance, faith, hope, and of course, LOVE. It is cheesy, I know, but we really feel like we are being called to do this. Our hearts have been completely broken for the estimated 147 million orphans in this world who have no one, and nothing, to call their own. Every child should have a mom and a dad. Every child should know the love of a family. NO CHILD SHOULD BE ALONE. And after months of looking at images like these, and hearing the stories of the thousands of abandoned children in China, it was no longer ‘why adopt’? It was ‘why NOT’? After all, we would love another girl in this house!

So, after almost a year of consideration, in April of this year, we signed on the dotted line and felt a complete sense of peace that we are doing the right thing. We are full of hope, and we can’t wait until the day that we see our daughter’s face for the first time.

“Once our eyes are opened, we can’t pretend that we don’t know what to do. God,who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls,knows that we know and holds us responsible to act.” Proverbs 24:11-12

In case you are missing some of our other traditional Smarty Mom questions, here are a few of Maureen’s…

Best piece of parenting advice you’ve ever received?

Teach your kids by your example.

Favorite thing to do with your family?

I am lucky enough to have most of my siblings here in Charlotte, and my favorite times are those that we are all together with our kids.

Favorite place to go on Spring Break?

Florida

Minivan or SUV?

Minivan

The word “mom” means…

…home to me.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Hopefully exactly where I am now, doing exactly what I am doing now, just with one additional child!!

Thanks, Maureen, for sharing your precious family with us this Easter weekend and we cannot wait to meet Mei Mei!