Ethics before speed
Expectant parents deserve counseling, independent legal advice, time, and freedom from pressure. A faster process is not a better one.
Meet your guide
Hi, I’m Colleen.
I started Adoption Harborlight because I remember exactly how it felt to want a child more than anything and have no idea where to begin.
My story
I had been dreaming about adoption since high school. I spent years first trying to conceive on my own, and when I struggled with infertility, I took it as a sign to return to the plan I had carried all along. Starting the adoption journey was terrifying. It was also, by a wide margin, the best decision I have ever made. I am deeply in love with my little boy.
The process itself was confusing and lonely. I did not know a single person who had been through it. I chose an agency essentially blind, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best. Every step felt new and a little frightening, and I kept wishing someone would walk it with me. I learned most of it the hard way. That is exactly what I would like to spare you.
Adoption Harborlight exists for families like mine was: certain they want a child, unsure how to begin, carrying big hopes and big fears at the same time. If you find your way here, I want you to feel cared for, supported, and genuinely prepared for what is ahead.
Background
Where my experience comes from
Two things shape how I work: clinical training in how people carry difficult experiences, and having walked this road myself as an adoptive mother.
- Licensure
- Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Michigan. I do not provide counseling through Adoption Harborlight, but the training behind that license shapes how I listen and how I support you.
- Trauma and child development
- A 16-hour adoptee trauma course, completed while considering adoption from foster care, plus sustained coursework on children, temperament, and the different ways they are raised.
- Education
- B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, both weighted heavily toward children and families.
- Lived experience
- Adoptive mother. I have firsthand knowledge of one pathway and have researched the others carefully. Most of all, I know what the waiting feels like.
To be clearAdoption Harborlight is a consulting practice, not a counseling practice. Nothing here is therapy, and no therapeutic relationship is created by working together.
What I believe
The commitments behind this practice
Adoptees are the point
I keep learning from adoptees and birth and first parents, not only from professionals. A child’s story belongs to them, not to social media.
Honest numbers
I would rather tell you an uncomfortable truth about cost or timing early than let you discover it after you have signed.
Clear limits
I will tell you plainly when a question belongs to your attorney, your agency, your doctor, or your accountant, and I will help you ask them well.
The best way to know if we’re a fit is to talk.
A free 15-minute call. Bring anything, including the questions you feel silly asking.
Book a free consult call