Hi everyone! I’m so excited to be joining the Hellobee community as Mrs. Turtle! This site has been a lifesaver for me over the last year. I live in a rural area in Northern California without a big community in real life, so I have really appreciated all of the support I’ve gotten here.

A little about me: I live way up north in California, very close to the Oregon border, with my wife. I’ll call her Missus Turtle. (Thanks to Mrs. Scooter for the title.) We aren’t parents to any human children yet, though we hope to be very soon. We do have quite the menagerie of critters living with us. In the house we have four dogs, all mixed breed rescues. Outside, we have six adorable Nigerian Dwarf goats, ten chickens and two old horses. We also have two other horses who earn their keep as lesson horses in our nonprofit horseback riding program.

chutney

Missus Turtle and I have been together since May of 2012 and have been married since August 8, 2014. We met working as professional horse trainers at the same ranch, and have been lucky enough to turn our passion for horses and teaching into an exciting nonprofit program for kids. We love working with horses and kids, and are really enjoying putting our skills to good use serving the community we live in. We also spend a lot of time outdoors in our free time, hiking, camping and just enjoying the beautiful area we live in. I love to bake and she loves to cook, so we spend a lot of time in the kitchen as well, especially this time of year.

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ferindy

Our parenting journey started about fourteen months ago with trying to conceive using a known sperm donor. After twelve straight cycles, extensive testing and no diagnosis OR BFP, we decided to reevaluate. Both of us have felt drawn to adoption and foster care for some time, but had no real life exposure to the foster system so we weren’t sure what we would be getting ourselves into. We did know that qualified foster parents are really needed in our area, and we knew we could do a good job.

In September we decided to take the plunge and become licensed foster parents. Our intention is adoption and we hope to take in infants, but we are willing to be foster parents first. We are currently working our way through the licensing process, hoping to be fully licensed in early spring.

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I plan to blog about the process of becoming a foster and adoptive parent, the challenges (and positive aspects) of working with “the system,” issues we are faced with as same sex, possibly transracial, adoptive parents, and of course the wonderful benefits of growing up with animals. I’d love to hear questions and ideas for posts as well, so don’t be shy! I certainly don’t know everything about this process but I’m learning a lot as we go.