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My photojournalism final along with a BIG and HUGE thanks to the Boyd family for letting me invade their lives this spring! Thank you all so much!

As Marcey Boyd loads her four adopted children into her grey Nissan Pathfinder that is packed with hot pink car seats, Chloe Boyd picks her nose. Chloe and her identical twin sister, Addie, are getting over a recent cold, making runny noses Marcey’s daily villain.

“The girls slept in some today. They didn’t want to get up. But watch, tomorrow, they will be up really early,” Marcey comparing the girls’ sleep schedule during the week to the weekend. Ashlee (far left) flopped over on the family’s Duke University fleece blanket on the couch while her sister, Charlotte, watches recorded “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” episodes. Her adoptive father, Wes Boyd, holds Addie as Marcey gathers school clothes for their daughters.

Chloe and Addie (left to right) both reach for water as Marcey helps them wash their hands after their first time playing outside following a harsh North Carolina winter. While their sisters are at preschool, Marcey plays and reads with the twins to help develop their early childhood skills, such as speech development.

Ashlee runs and hugs her dad, Wes, as he picks her up from Protestant Preschool & Kindergarten. “Friday afternoons are Ashlee and Dad time,” said Wes. Ashlee and her sisters are all “daddy’s girls” but one-on-one time with dad is hard when there are four daughters commanding his attention.

Bath time for the Boyd girls is an adventure for mom, Marcey. The oldest two, Ashlee and Charlotte, do not like shower water in their eyes and the twins, Addie and Chloe are constantly trying to escape from the bathtub. However, all four of them are clean and tear-free after a good scrub down with Johnson’s Bedtime Bath body wash.

After bathtime, Chloe recieves her second nebulizer treatment of the day. Her and Addie have to receive respiratory treatments because of complications from their premature birth. This is just one of the many side effects foster and adoption parents face.

Wes, an ordained minister, and his wife, Marcey, pray “God our Father, God our Father,” to the tune of the nursery rhyme, “Frere Jacques.” Religion is a huge part of the Boyd’s lives, and has played largely into why they have fostered and adopted their children.

Wes and Chloe share a moment of peace during Ashlee’s fourth birthday party. Wes and Marcey both pray that the adoption of their fifth daughter, Anna Claire, and biological sister to Charlotte, Addie and Chloe, will  be approved allowing her to soon quickly in North Carolina and be able to create bonds with her four sisters and soon-to-be new parents.


Tatum, of Goldsboro, N.C., looks mildly disappointed after she misses the hole for the seventh time at All-Stars Family Fun Center on the first day of spring. (Taken as a feature picture for my photojournalism class)

I love spring; the colors, the temperatures, the smells (except for the Bradford pears), the stormy skies, and the Cadbury mini eggs. But, I LOATHE the pollen…just sayin’. The pollen is at its highest density in North Carolina since 2003. With 90-degree temperatures in April and a think yellow haze in the atmosphere, I feel like I live in Los Angeles. Tatum’s face is how I feel about the pollen right now. Thankfully I have Flonase, Singular & Claritin on my side!