Our favorite tradition for our family happens on Christmas Eve. It began the first year we got married. We start with family games, followed by a finger food dinner with an array of different choices picked by each member of our family. After dinner, we go on a “winter wonderland walk” where we bundle up and take a walk in the winter evening. We love the stillness of the night and just knowing we are out as a family. We finish up our night with hot chocolate and snuggling up with a Christmas movie, often “The Walton Family Homecoming” being our choice.

Other traditions for our family include; Father’s Day pictures with matching T-shirts, a first day of school family water balloon fight each year, celebrating each full moon with a small celebration, and our annual special dad and kids camping trip in the summer. We love spending time together and are always looking for new things to add into our lives and to make as a new tradition.

Through our six years of being parents, we have learned that love, hard work, and perseverance are what it means to be a parent. As parents, we strive daily to keep calm and show love through all our words and actions to our children, while still setting structure and expectations in any circumstance. Being a parent is hard work. It requires us to keep going and trying new things to help whatever situation our children are going through, especially if they are in a particularly tough phase of life.

Lindsey is constantly reading and researching when we go through a new challenge of parenting. Kisses, laughs, and watching our children develop into their own individual person is our favorite part of parenting. We can’t wait to have these same opportunities with our future child that comes into our life. The laugh of our children (and future children) is and will be the best sound in the world to us.

It may sound cliche, but our family is our priority. We have two little children already, and since having them, we have decided to make all of our children the top importance in both our lives. Nathan works full time and Lindsey is a stay-at-home mother.

A few years ago, Nathan changed companies to work somewhere significantly more family-friendly and has loved it ever since. Nathan was able to cut back on hours at work and now has time to be home for dinners, softball games, and even now has time to coach little league soccer. Lindsey spends all her time focused on our children and their well-being. She makes sure to cuddle them to sleep every night and keep them involved in so many activities that are offered in our community.

We do everything as a family; whether it is taking vacations or just spending days at the park or camping a couple nights. Life is so much more fun as a family and it makes us happiest to be with our children. Our adopted child will also take that same top priority as the children we currently have.

We have such a tight-knit family that lives close by. Much of our extended family live within an hour drive from us, with some only a few minutes away. We are always talking with aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins. Each month we all meet together for a family get together. We take turns at one another’s houses, go bowling together, visit parks, and even go on an occasional vacation from time to time.

Holidays are filled with joy and excitement as we get together to celebrate. Our children and their cousins always run wild. We spend a couple of hours each Sunday with Lindsey’s grandparents whom we call mama and papa. We talk about “the good old days”, share giggles, tell stories, and eat treats together. They mean so much to us and we are truly grateful to have them.

What makes our extended family unique is that they are always there for each other, no matter the time or day. If there is an emergency in the family, everyone is ready to help out if needed. If someone is sick, there are prayers shared and food delivered. Our family is so excited to see where and how this journey goes. Everyone is full of so much love and they cannot wait to share it and have it rain down on the child we are blessed to raise.

We live in a growing city in Missouri. We are lucky to have so many parks and places to explore in our community. The historic town we live in has many events each year that we go to. Next year, our kids have plans of entering our dogs into our community dog show! We love seeing the Christmas parade each year, celebrating Veteran’s day at our memorial park, and visiting the fair in summer. We live close by a town park that has numerous playgrounds and a crawdad catching creek that we go to just about every week, where our kids play. We have dreams of having the privilege to swing another baby of ours in the baby swings there. In the spring and summer, the ball fields are full of families cheering and laughter. We bought our home a little over 6 years ago and have really made it our own. We have 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and a great backyard we have transformed to be a child’s haven. The bedroom in the basement has been transformed into an inspirational homeschool room, full of things that would make any child excited to learn! Our basement and backyard are our favorite areas. They are filled with toys and books, and even have a bounce house we bring out from time to time! The backyard has swings, a children’s trampoline, sandbox and a playhouse. We have a family garden we all help with.

Thank you for taking the time to look at our profile and learn more about us. We can only imagine what you are going through, what you are feeling, and the decisions that are roaming wild and free in your mind right now. No matter what, we are grateful for you. We are grateful for your time to check us out and your willingness to research and find what’s best for the baby growing rapidly and beautifully inside you. You are so tough and you can do this. As you make important decisions, just know that there are those like us out there who promise from the deepest parts of our hearts to give the child we adopt a safe, stable, loving, and nurturing home.

When we got married over 9 years ago, we both knew that we always wanted to adopt. We felt it in our hearts and have even felt guided since that time to make the decisions that have led us to where we are today. We know that this will be amazingly bittersweet experience for all parties involved and we cannot wait to share our love with another child and the birth mom that amazingly brought them to us. Our hearts have so much room and we cannot wait to one day fill that empty space we’ve been feeling for the last few years.

We admire your strength and courage; we will be here along your whole journey if you chose us to. We hope that through learning more about us, it will give you the peace of mind you need as you consider adoption for your child. If you would like to meet us and learn more about us, we would welcome that and will be here whenever or if ever you need us. We are here to make you more comfortable with this difficult decision.

We will share with you your child’s growth, experiences and life through photos, emails or even texts if that is what you would like. We will always be open and honest with the child about their adoption. We know that you already love them, and we will make sure they always remember that. We can imagine how difficult this is and will never let the importance of this decision be reflected in any other way but positively. A mother’s love is so special and we will pass it onto the child we adopt one day.

We are beyond excited for what the future has in store for us. This is something we have been hoping for for so long, and cannot wait to share this moment with our families and if possible, yours. We are very close and have such a loving extended family who cannot wait to add another child into the mix and give them the equal love that they give to everyone else. Our families are part of our everyday lives and they will spend time with our future child, making sure they feel the love and support that they need to grow and be prosperous.

Thank you for taking the time to consider us as potential parents for your child. We have wished for our empty arms to be filled with our last child for the last few years. Our daughters have felt this empty pain, we have felt this empty pain, and we all are more than ready to bring a loving, sacrificing birth mother and her wonderfully made child into our family. We will do everything in our power to love the child, to care, to teach, to support and to devote the time and energy to make sure they are the happiest human being throughout their life. We thank you and will always keep you in our prayers during this hard time.

Sincerely,

Nathan & Lindsey