Drew Hale is a growing singer songwriter from Traverse City. He’s toured the country and has shared the stage with the likes of Tim McGraw and Toby Keith. He’s even had Vince Gill sing on one of his songs, but none of that is as important as to what he has growing at home. Corey Adkins explains in this week’s Northern Michigan in Focus.
“The most important thing about who I am is being a husband and a Dad. My wife and I adopted three boys out of foster care six years ago now. I have 7-year-old twins and an 8-year-old and they are the coolest kids on the planet,” said Drew.
It all started when he met his now wife, Emily.
“On our third date my wife told me if I wasn’t interested or at least thinking about foster adoption we didn’t need to go out again. When I got married I always assumed I would be a biological dad. I always wanted to be a dad my whole life. Then I met Emily, and she changed my whole outlook on meant what it meant to love people,” said Drew.
Love doesn’t have to be biological
“Family is what you make it and we tell our kids all the time we adopt who we want. They’ve got aunts and uncles that aren’t a biologically related to them. People that are our best friends that we have just made our family,” said Drew.
Drew wanted to do something special to commemorate his three boys so Drew did what he does best and wrote a song called 3 More Branches.
“I was looking at my Christmas tree and I said something like ‘yeah I guess we’re adding three more branches to that tree this year’ and it just clicked for me and that’s for 3 More Branches kind of started,” said Drew.
And every day since then has been worth it.
“This has completely changed our lives and we wouldn’t have it any other way. As crazy as things, get we wouldn’t have it any other way. I started to think that maybe there are other families out there that have adopted or that are currently fostering that might be in the same spot, and maybe a song like this could give a message of hope for them. You know there are hard days and there are days that you want to quit and there are days that you wake up and you wonder why you got into this for the first place. Then you hang around those kids and you see those faces and you watch them grow up and watch them change and watch them grow and fight and struggle, and it makes every single struggle more than worth it,” said Drew.
Drew wanted to pay it forward and maybe help some of the other kids in the foster program.
“Every single dollar I make in the month of December off that song is going directly to Childhood and Family Services and my goal is to raise a $1,000 for Childhood Family Services Angel fund for next year,” said Drew.
You can find the link to the song and donate as much as you want.
“There’s so many kids that all they need is someone to show them that they’re worth love and affection and it can change their lives, and that’s what we’re hoping to do with this,” said Drew.
We’d like to give a special thanks to the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa for the use of their lobby for this shoot.
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