Caitlin Kelly
We are so excited to introduce you to Caitlin kelly as our Mom Feature Friday! You may recognize this special mama due to her work with the Safe Haven Boxes across the Coast, but wanted to allow her space to share her full story!
Take it away, Caitlin! ⬇️
“My husband Steve, and I were both born and raised in South Louisiana. We met in 1998, stayed in touch throughout the years, and fully reconnected in 2006. After graduating from LSU, I made my way to the Coast and Steve and I were engaged 7 months later! We have been married almost 17 years (in October) and have called the Gulf Coast home for 18 years.
I am Mom to 4 beauitful children. Our 2 oldest sons, Stone and Mack James were 5 and 7 years old when God called us to open our hearts to adoption/foster care. We were blessed with our daughter, Grace, in 2016 and became foster parents in 2019. We brought home our son, Billy in 2021 and finalized his adoption a litte over a year later. We are now "Kelly Family Party of 6" and live in the beautiful chaos of raising teenagers to toddlers!
I am a Registered Nurse and my true passion lies in raising awareness for foster care and adoption. Most recently, God laid it on my heart to start a movement about the Safe Haven Law and the incorpration of Safe Haven Baby Boxes in our state. And what an adventure that has been!
With the unwavering support of my husband, I began to talk to different cities about the Safe Haven Law and Safe Haven Baby Boxes https://www.shbb.org/ in August of 2022. Unfortunetly, Mississippi did not have the legislation to house baby boxes in our fire station/hospitals or police stations. I continued to pray and call out to God to provide the right people in my path to see this mission come to life in our great state.
Although we definitely received push back and misunderstanding about the purpose of this mission we continued on. Long Beach uniamously agreed to a baby box in October! Victory! And by December of 2022, I was on the phone with wonderful bill writers and legislators to rewrite the decades old Safe Haven Law. The bill was passed and the Governor signed our new Safe Haven Law into action in April of 2023. By August of that same year, our first Baby Box opened in Long Beach, MS.
Through these last few years, I have learned so much about who I am. Not only as a believer, but as mother. Let your children see that hard things are worth doing. When you fall short, give yourself grace. As a incredibly busy mom of 4, God made a way for me to persevere and to fully rely on Him to what He had called and continues to call me to do. Through our work as foster parents, adoptive parents, baby box advocates and medical professionals...our family has had the privilege of watching God move mountains.
And, yes, HE STILL DOES MIRACLES.
My advice to others is to LOVE recklessly and without reserve. There can be time to heal tomorrow, but you're only guaranteed this very moment to love today.
Remember whose you are and make sure your children are on the ark!
One of my favorite bloggers, Jamie Finn (Foster the Family) expresses perfectly about our children- I have come to find peace in her words below...
As of today we have 3 total Safe Haven boxes in our state, with 8 other cities well on there way to also installing this life saving device.
I implore families to step out of their comfort zone and explore foster care/adoption. It is a big decision, but God is bigger. You may not be called to bring another child into your home, but as believers we are all called to do something!”
Thank you for the chance to feature you, Caitlin! Scroll through all of our mom features HERE!
