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by Hope

Today my twins turn 20 years old! 20!!! Please join me in wishing Sea Cadet (oldest by 20 minutes) and History Buff a very Happy Birthday!

Here are a few twin updates from years past:

• The Twins
• Twin Update
• Homeschool again and a Twin Update
• A Car or Braces
• An Introduction to my Debt
• The Adoption Story

I have had their birthday presents for a while. And I purchased some of their favorite foods during my last grocery run in September to cook their favorite meals in celebration (we typically go out for birthdays.) It’s a break in tradition, but we are all happy with the plan.

The twins had never had a birthday party before they moved in with us. And they showed up just two weeks before their 13th birthday!

I couldn’t let the opportunity pass to celebrate them. My girlfriend and I invited every teenager we knew from the neighborhood and a few other kids Princess and Gymnast age, and threw the party at the local recreation center. There was laser tag and cake. It was funny when I looked back at the pictures and saw a couple of kids that they are friends with to this day. Good friends, in fact!

It reminds me that hard times pass. The hard times now will pass. Because moving two teenage boys with no history, from such a different background was hard. But now…now, I can’t imagine my family without them. I am so proud to call them sons and still feel joy when they call me mom.

I’ve been blogging here at BAD for over half the time I’ve had the twins. And while I have been learning hard financial lessons, I have been working hard to make sure they are making wise ones know AND knowing why AND how they will affect the future.

Hope

Hope is a resourceful, solutions-driven online business manager with over two decades of experience helping clients streamline operations, manage projects, and grow their businesses through digital marketing and technology.

But life has a way of rewriting your plans.

A year ago, Hope made the decision to move in with her aging parents full time – a season she wouldn’t trade, even as it came with its own financial and emotional weight. Earlier this year, she lost her mother, and is now walking the tender, disorienting path of grief while learning what “forward” looks like from here.

Hope came to the Blogging Away Debt community in 2015 as a single mom raising five foster and adoptive children. She’s written through job changes, financial setbacks, and the bittersweet transition to an empty nest. Her kids are finding their footing in the world now – and so is she.

Rooted in faith and fueled by the same perseverance she’s brought to every hard season, Hope is ready to face her finances with fresh eyes and an honest pen. She believes that clarity, courage, and community can change the trajectory of anyone’s story including her own.

She lives in Austin, TX with her dad, loves adventures with her dog Addie, and is figuring out, one step at a time, what this next chapter is meant to be.