Amanda Bouchard is an editor and content curator for Love What Matters based in Connecticut. She is a magna cum laude graduate of The University of Rhode Island with a B.A. in Public Relations, with minors in Communications and Gender & Women’s Studies. She is passionate about adoption and foster care. She enjoys reading at the beach, concerts, or traveling to new and exciting places.
“Being adopted is hard and being Korean-American is hard, so having both of those experiences intersect can be confusing and painful at times. Now I’m a lot more open about the ups and downs of being adopted and the reality of being a racial minority.”
“It feels like life just didn’t exist before this. Who knew before I was even healed from my C-section incision, my husband and I would be going to a funeral home to discuss cremation options for our 2-week-old baby girl?”
“When he came into the room he said, ‘How are you?’ I hugged him and said, ‘I’m so scared.’ I was not ready and my babies certainly weren’t either.”
“I’ve figured out who I am without alcohol. I feel like I’ve found the secret to my life.”
“I genuinely don’t know what it’s like to have a functioning gastrointestinal system or blood cells, or not have fluid pressing onto my brain.”
“The leading cause of death in Lyme patients is suicide. If that doesn’t tell you how horrible it is, I don’t know what will. So many of us lose everything because of this disease, and believe it or not, many doctors still don’t believe it even exists.”
“Throughout the journey we kept imagining what it would be like meeting Alpha for the first time, playing it over and over in our minds. But nothing could prepare us for how it really was.”
“‘No one ever calls to check on foster kids. What do you want?’ Over the next couple of months, we moved quickly through so many decisions.”
“My symptoms are not determined by my mind. However, my perspective is framed by my mind, and with this I’m able to experience the same pains in different ways.”
“‘There is no way I could do this with three kids.’ But there is so much loss in foster care and adoption and I felt strongly that losing a sibling was not something I ever wanted any part of, so within a few breaths, I said yes.”
