The story behind Olivia's Little Joys

You've heard it a million times before. It's the classic tale of girl went to buy something, girl couldn't find it, so girl made it for herself. Except this girl wanted to share her creations with the world. This is our story of how Olivia's Little Joys was born...

Our backstory

I, along with my husband, Mark, first registered our interest to adopt a child in December 2023 after struggling with infertility many years before. Fast forward to Summer 2024, we had completed all our adoption training, stages 1 and 2 of the adoption process, and were approved to become adopters under Foster to Adopt and mainstream adoption - just days before our wedding.

We paused the journey straight after being approved so we could create the perfect home for the family we had always dreamt of.

In Spring 2025, I started looking at the profiles of children available to adopt in - you could call it impatience or total excitement - and, after a couple of months of casually looking, I stumbled upon a profile called Olivia on 8th July 2025...

Why we exist

It turned out Olivia was 'the perfect match' for us, so we continued talking about her in the summer of 2025 up until the 1st September 2025 when our first day of transitions began.

We were - and continue to be - fortunate to have a wonderful and close relationship with Olivia's foster family, which is how I first noticed that all was looking quiet on the greeting card shelves when it came to finding cards just as unique as them and their familial set up.

The first struggle came trying to find a thank you card that referenced the enormity of what they do day in, day out and truly showed the appreciation we had for them. Next came Christmas and wanting to find a card with a subtle difference in language and the recognition of the unique relationship between them and our child.

What I wanted in both scenarios simply didn't exist and I was frustrated about it to say the least. So, after messaging Olivia's foster mum to see if it was just me that found this annoying, it turns out that the lack of appropriate greetings cards for those involved in children's social care is actually kinda a big, big, HUGE problem.

It's one of those things you don't think is an issue until you're in it, but once you are, you realise there's still a long way to go before something as small (but still so important) as greetings cards become truly inclusive. We're working hard to change that.

Our inspiration, our world 🌍

I have been inspired by Olivia in every way imaginable and she is the sole reason why Olivia's Little Joys exists today. Naturally, I wanted to name this company in her honour.

Although Olivia isn't the given name of our little ladybug (as she is affectionately known), it was the anonymous name on her profile. To maintain her anonymity, we will continue using the name Olivia until she is old enough to choose if, when and how she wants to share her story.

When I first saw Olivia's profile, I turned to Mark and said "what do you think of the name 'Olivia'?". We loved it a lot back then, and it seems we love it just as much now.