National Adoption Month Spotlight:

Anna LaBay
Nov 26, 2025
3 min read

Alicia’s Story — Love, Loss, and Building Families Through Openness

McCook Neb. — November is National Adoption Month a time meant to honor families, raise awareness, and shed light on one truth many don’t often hear clearly enough: adoption begins with brokenness, but it does not have to end there.

For Alicia, that truth lives inside her home every single day.

She and her husband were already raising five biological children when adoption entered their lives, not through a plan, not through a checklist, but through compassion and conviction.

“We always said if we were going to speak against abortion, then we also needed to be willing to stand beside women who were choosing life,” she said.

“Not just with words — but with action.”

What began as helping families informally grew into something much bigger. Their first adoption came in 2015 — a baby girl named Brielle. Her mother was homeless and trying to get back on her feet. Instead of a closed adoption, Alicia opened her door wider.

Brielle’s siblings lived with the family while their mother attended CNA school and worked toward independence. Today, they still exchange gifts, visits, and phone calls. Brielle knows her birth mom. She knows her siblings. She knows love came from more than one place.

“I never want to hide where they came from,” Alicia said. “Their biological moms loved them enough to give them life. I want my kids to know that.”

In the years that followed, three more children joined their family — Ezekiel, Ely, and Jasek—each with their own birth story, each shaped by hard beginnings, each welcomed with open arms. Some have deep connections with birth families. Some have limited contact. Others maintain relationships through siblings or grandparents instead of parents. But in every case, Alicia’s goal remains the same:

To make space for belonging, not take it away.

“Mom” Is Not A Word — It’s a Life Lived Beside a Child

When asked how she handles hearing her children refer to their biological mothers as “mom,” Alicia only smiled.

“My title isn’t threatened by that.

I show up every day. I’m the one who’s here for the hard things. They can have two moms, they can have more love. That’s a gift.”

She doesn’t believe adopted children should have to choose who they love. She believes they can carry all of their stories, all of their identities, all of the people who built them — without letting one love erase another.

Adoption Isn’t Simple, Soft, or Easy — But It’s Beautiful

Alicia is honest about the reality many people don’t see. Even newborn adoption includes trauma because separation is trauma. Even success includes grief, because birth families are grieving too.

“No one gets pregnant hoping to lose a baby,” she said. “Adoption starts with loss. Our job is to honor that loss, not ignore it.”

What she wants most this National Adoption Month is to break the stigma. Not all birth parents are addicts or absent. Not all adoptive parents are rescuers. Not all stories fit neatly into one narrative.

Sometimes love looks like stepping in.

Sometimes love looks like letting go.

Often love looks like both.

“You can never have too much love.”

Today, Alicia and her husband are parents of nine — five biological, four adopted. Their living room is loud, their calendar is full, and their hearts are stretched across biological lines, adoptive lines, state lines, and the invisible thread of connection that holds their story together.

She hopes more families feel encouraged instead of afraid.

She hopes adoptees grow up knowing they weren’t unwanted — they were chosen twice.

And she hopes birth parents know there is honor in choosing another path for a child when life felt overwhelming.

“I can’t take away the trauma they carried into this world,” she said softly.

“But I can make sure they never carry it alone.”