Hi, we are Jeremy and Andrea. We have two kids, a daughter (14) and son (10), who we adopted as infants. However, we feel like our family is not yet complete and would like our kids to have a brother and sister.
Our family story began all the way back in 2002, when we met in college. Jeremy was the one who noticed Andrea first, but once he introduced himself, she was smitten. Well, maybe smitten is overdoing it. She was anything but. Fortunately, Jeremy’s roommate was dating Andrea’s roommate, so he had enough opportunity to be persistent and finally won her over. We dated for a year and grew our relationship by attending Church together, spending time with each other’s families, and studying together. Jeremy proposed in 2003 and we were married later that year. Since then, we’ve added our two children, a home, and a couple of pets. Our faith in Jesus Christ plays a big role in our family too. We are very active in our Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints).
Any child who joins our family will immediately have a brother and sister who have been waiting years for them to come. They’ll also have parents who will do everything they can to provide them with a loving home and opportunity to fulfill their potential. In our home, they will be loved, nurtured, surrounded by lots of extended family and friends. They’ll be educated, taught to love the Lord and His goodness, and provided with opportunities to see and try new things.
As a family, we enjoy playing games, Friday movie nights, playing in the water, family trips, bike rides, getting together with family and close friends
Our home is a modest two-story in an idyllic neighborhood. We love the mature trees and decent size yard, where we have room to play on the grass, grow a garden, and have backyard chickens. Downstairs, the kitchen, dining, and living areas are connected and open, providing a more spacious and light-filled feeling. The kids’ bedrooms are upstairs, along with a cozy bonus room, where we enjoy watching movies together while relaxing on the sectional.
Our neighborhood is amazing. It is very safe and the school is only a few blocks away. We know most of our neighbors very well. They’re the kind of people who will stop in the street or on the sidewalk to visit with one another. We also share the bounty from our gardens, chickens, and fruit trees with one another. Our son is friends with our backyard neighbor and requested a ladder to easily go over the fence. When a few of the fence slats came loose, the neighbor and I decided to reattach them with a hidden hinge, so they now have a secret gate!
Our community is an extension of our neighborhood. Even though it has grown a lot, it is very family-friendly. People are very warm and courteous. Many volunteer in a multitude of ways to keep the community safe, clean, and provide recreational opportunities. We have everything we need here, and within just a few minutes we can be in the mountains or desert.
Families are forever. They are also always there for you. We both grew up with lots of immediate family close by—Andrea with two sisters and cousins out her back door, and Jeremy with three brothers, three sisters and extended family nearby. In our married life, we haven’t lived in the same town as our families, but aren’t far away and visit often. The kids love their cousin time and holidays with everybody.
When we aren’t with extended family, we also enjoy doing things with just the four of us—whether it’s games or movie night at home. We are also blessed with the best group of friends anyone could ask for and vacation with them twice a year, skiing, and boating.
Like most people, we wish we could do more big trips, but we work hard to save and plan so we are able to do something every couple of years that will be an experience we cherish forever. Some of our best memories are the vacations we take together as a family, whether big or small.
Summer is probably our favorite time of year: long days to be outside, go swimming, and play with friends and family. We enjoy camping, boating with friends, and riding motorcycles and mountain bikes. We always look forward to our annual family reunion at the house on the river, the annual week on a houseboat with our friends, and 4th of July celebrations and fireworks. We only wish that Jeremy could take the whole summer off to play every day, too!
Fall and spring mean soccer practices and games, more mountain and dirt biking. Both seasons seem like a string of celebration—birthdays in the spring and holidays in the fall. We love the holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas when we get to spend time playing, laughing, and relaxing with extended family. The kids have always enjoyed winter and playing in the snow. Jeremy is back on board now that he is skiing again, especially since the kids are starting to like it too.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about us. We are so thankful for the opportunity we have been given to be parents already. Adoption gave us a family and we will be forever grateful to birthmothers like you. We can’t wait to welcome another child to our family through adoption.
With our first two children, we have a semi-open adoption, meaning that we share letters/emails and pictures with their birthmothers, but do not do visits. We talk often to them about their wonderful birthmothers and share their birth and adoption stories. We started this almost from the time we brought them home. Long before they could communicate back. The kids both have a framed picture of their birthmothers in their bedrooms. We want them to know where they came from and how Heavenly Father brought our family together. We would like to have this same type of relationship with this next child’s birth mother.
While we can’t say that we know what you’re going through right now, we can say that we have so much respect and appreciation for you. Thanks to our first two wonderful birthmothers, we have been given a small glimpse into your experience. The love you’re demonstrating by even considering an adoption plan is incredible, and we know that no matter what decision you make, your child will feel that love. We wish you the best as you sort through the choices in front of you, and hope to hear from you soon.
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