Adopting was always part of K’era Morgan and her husband’s plan. They were still surprised at how much their lives changed.

K’era Morgan in her studio. 

The following is an excerpt from “Mother / Founder: 68 Women on the Trials and Triumphs of Starting a Business and Raising a Family.”

Early one morning in January 2023, Los Angeles-based artist K’era Morgan and her husband got the call that would forever change their lives.

“It was a regular day — my husband was at the office, I was working — and the phone rings and they say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a little 16-month-old who’s in need of a home — yes or no?” recalls K’era of the day she learned that she would be a mother through California’s foster-to-adopt program. “In training, we’d go through these mock scenarios to play out what the situation would be like when you’d get a call, what kind of questions to ask and what it’s like, and I remember my husband saying, ‘No matter what, if I get a call and there’s somebody on the other end saying that there’s a child who needs a home, I’m saying yes.’ And that’s exactly what happened. By five in the evening, he was home with us.”

The adoption happened quickly and changed everything

Though adopting a child was always part of the couple’s parenthood plan — especially when their attempts at IVF had failed — nothing could have prepared them for the shock of it all. “It flipped my life around and turned it upside down and inside out,” says K’era, whose sister lives nearby and helped gather essentials in the hours after the call. “In a way, it kind of felt like giving birth. We were all scrambling around. I think we left a shopping cart filled with random stuff in the middle of the aisle at Target because we just did not know what we were doing.”

Because both K’era and her husband are self-employed (he’s a writer, director, and producer), they felt good about being able to stop working at a moment’s notice and trusted their employees to pick up where they left off. But they quickly realized that they had been naive about what they could accomplish at home with a toddler on the loose.

“Our schedules are flexible, so we obviously thought it would be easier,” says K’era. “I remember thinking, We can trade off: Certain hours you can have him, and then I can have him for a few hours, but it doesn’t work like that. We couldn’t get anything done, and we weren’t sleeping.”

A nanny provided some immediate relief — and some time for K’era to get back to her studio — but new motherhood has affected her in other, less tangible ways. “The time that I have to work is limited,” she says. “It’s definitely changed the output of my work, and I’m trying to feel OK with that. Even the style and the feel of my work has changed. As a painter and artist, my feelings kind of flow onto the canvas. It’s different but it’s me.”

Feeding off the fear of uncertainty and using it to propel her forward is a recurring theme in K’era’s life. After attending art school and climbing the corporate ladder as a public relations executive, a move made for financial stability over passion, she went into business for herself, turning her artwork from something abstract and unrelatable to most consumers into something more approachable: a capsule collection of eight throw blankets that became the basis for her side company, K-apostrophe.

Encouraged by industry friends, who generously slid her wares into larger pitches when they could, K’era contacted everyone she knew, went to some big artisan shows to get consumer feedback and her name out into the market, and had some lucky breaks with coverage in magazines like Dwell and Elle Decor.

Adopting was always part of the plan for K’era Morgan and her husband. 

A good support system — and clear boundaries — were crucial

“There were moments that were really scary, and it was so hard,” she says, revealing that it was her husband’s financial and emotional support that encouraged her to take K-apostrophe from a side project to a full-time endeavor. “It wasn’t like there was some big pot of money we were sitting on — I started with only a few thousand dollars. I promised my husband that I wouldn’t touch our savings to get started, so we had to bootstrap. But a lot of my stuff was made to order, so I wasn’t spending a lot on holding inventory. Instead of getting bogged down by plans and funding, I just forged ahead on a small scale, making do with what I had.”

Now K’era makes herself available for commissions and custom projects in addition to creating the textile-driven home decor products she’s become known for, with a new focus on balance. “I have very clear boundaries around work and family so I haven’t really had to turn down things,” she says, noting that she goes to her studio when her son is in daycare. “I’ve been honest about what I can handle schedule-wise, and most of the time people have been extremely flexible. It’s best not to force something because then you regret it.

And she’s open to seeing how her needs and desires transform as she adapts to her new family situation. “Things will continue to evolve as my son evolves and our relationship grows. It’s daunting, but I like this change. It’s been the most challenging and heart-opening and messy and scary and exhilarating thing.”

Amanda Jane Jones and Jennifer Fernandez are the co-authors of “Mother / Founder: 68 Women on the Trials and Triumphs of Starting a Business and Raising a Family.”