John grew up in a small town in West Tennessee and has always loved the outdoors – camping,
biking, hiking, and swimming. As an adult he loves to travel and experience new cultures.
Through his work as an employee health and safety professional, John has had the opportunity
to travel around the world, eat new foods and meet amazing people. Now he works from his
home office which allows flexibility in his work schedule. Flint juggles a lot of hobbies. From painting to gardening, Flint loves learning. He is now relearning piano. Flint tries to swim every day in the spring, summer, and most of the fall. Flint has been with his current job for 8 years, engaging over 2,000 volunteers across Tennessee for disaster relief, blood collections, and more. His colleagues were very supportive when they fostered, sending diapers, clothing, and lots of advice.
When we first met on a dance floor in a city in Tennessee, we never thought we would be
getting married and starting a family. Actually Flint did. He looked at his best friend, pointed at
John and said, “That guy is going to be my boyfriend.” Ten years from that day, we were
standing in a church saying, “I do!” We have been happily married since 2013. We live in a
home and city we love surrounded by a network of friends and family – everything we need for
our next chapter, and we are excited to welcome a child into our family.
Langley is our Labradoodle that loves jeep rides, hiking and kids of all ages.
We live in a suburb outside of a city in Tennessee with two parks, walking trails, playgrounds,
and great neighbors. We are just 15 minutes from downtown where we love to enjoy
great music, some of the best food in the South, the Zoo, Adventure Science Museum,
Children’s Theatre, sporting events, and plenty of family activities.
Our four-bedroom home is built for an active family, including a swimming pool, plenty of space
to run and play, basketball goal, and garage basement with gym and games.
John grew up surrounded by a large family, and he has a wonderful younger sister. He has an
amazing niece and many young cousins. Faith and family have always been the center of John’s
life. As a couple, we enjoy traveling with John’s parents, sister and family to the beach,
mountains, and Disney World. We also enjoy when they make trips to Nashville.
Flint was the baby of his family with two sisters: Tammy and Sherry. Flint’s mother has ten
grandchildren who call her Granna. Flint’s late father left a legacy of giving, hard work and
family first.
We find it very important to unplug and connect with others. Flint’s father would organize cabin
trips for the whole family. We continue this tradition each year by hosting the family pre-
Christmas cabin celebration averaging 17 people under 2 roofs and sometimes 1 roof. Each
year, John reads a Christmas story while Granna helps the kids decorate the tree with
ornaments from the story. We also organize an experience for the grandkids to understand the
importance of giving, i.e. making comfort kids for the homeless.
Flint and John grew up with supportive parents who nurtured our interests, from piano to
basketball and baseball to choir. We believe it is important for a child to explore their own
interests to discover their talents.
We have always loved children and planned to adopt, but the time had to be right. We started
with fostering, which ended with a wonderful experience caring for a baby. For over a decade,
John has worked for a global company that allowed him to move to the city and work from
home, and when Flint’s job changed to allow work from home and added paternity leave, we
realized this was the right time to move forward for our family.
While it’s important to make your home a welcoming sanctuary for friends and family, we
thoroughly enjoy travel. We have primarily enjoyed beach trips like Florida, California and
Puerto Rico, but we balance in other experiences like the Smokey Mountains and Washington,
D.C. John’s family usually joins us for one beach or mountain trip a year. Disney World was one
of our favorite family vacations. We both come from large families, and enjoy spending time
with them.
And we’re always up for trying new things, like paddle boarding on Percy Priest Lake with
friends or hiking at Ruby Creek Falls with our dog, Langley.
Flint and John come from very different backgrounds. Flint was from a rural community and had
only two other white students in his graduating class. It was not uncommon to see a diverse set
of people at his mother’s dinner table, including his Hispanic nieces. Today, Flint serves an
organization known for its work bringing diverse partners together to respond to disasters and
collecting blood for those with the Sickle Cell Disease in the African American community.
Thanks to his employer, John is a world traveler and loves embracing different cultures. He loves
exploring and especially eating. Between Flint and John, they have been to 14+ countries.
Hopefully you have an idea of who we are as a family and who we want to be as parents.
Our friends and families join us in committing to provide a lifetime of nurture and support,
education, family adventures, and unconditional love. We appreciate you taking the time to
learn about our family.
We understand the awesome responsibility of raising a child to reach their fullest potential, and
we would be honored if you chose us.
© 2023 Featured Waiting Families, All Rights Reserved
Web design and digital marketing by Valorous Circle LLC
