We are both originally from the Midwest; Preston is from Illinois and Megan is from
Michigan. We met in 2012 when Megan was finishing up medical school and Preston was in the
army, stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. We were set up on a blind date by our good
friends. After the first date, we knew there was a connection – it felt like we had known each
other for years.
After we began dating, Preston got out of the army and Megan graduated medical school
and started residency in General Surgery. When we became engaged, Megan realized that her
main priority was family, and decided to leave the practice of medicine. Since that time, we’ve
both come to understand the importance of doing what we love and building careers that focus
on our family and our values. We now own and operate a drop-in daycare center in our town. We love having a family-focused business that actively involves our 4-year-old daughter, Etta. We
are fortunate that she can come to work with us and be a part of our business!
As a family, we enjoy spending time outside in nature, and going on adventures. We love
seeing new places and trying new things. This is a passion we share with Etta and hope to share
with another child as well. There is always something new to see and experience, whether it’s in
our own backyard or across the country. It’s important to us to expose Etta and any future
children we may have to new sights, cultures, and ideas.
In 2017, we had been struggling with fertility. Adoption was something that had always
been on our minds, and we decided to pursue adopting a baby. We were fortunate to be
connected with a birth mother who became like family to us, and we welcomed our daughter,
Etta, into our lives in 2018. Since her birth, we have been very open about Etta’s adoption, and
we continue to share updates on her life with her birth mother.
We are excited to pursue expanding our family again through adoption! Etta is very
excited to be a part of our adoption journey this time around. She is a very thoughtful,
compassionate little girl, and she is very excited at the thought of becoming a big sister.
We bought our home in early 2020, and we love our safe, quiet little neighborhood. There
are a lot of older families around us who have become bonus grandparents to Etta. Our property
is just about an acre, and we have lots of space outside for gardening and for our family to play.
We’ve also turned our garage into a home gym, with a special area for Etta to play with us.
Our dog, Colt, is a charcoal lab who became part of our lives in April of 2013. Colt is a
very sweet and intensely loyal dog. He is fun-loving and is Etta’s favorite playmate. He is a big
sweetheart who loves to cuddle (after playing some fetch, of course)!
We were both fortunate to have been raised in families with two parents and siblings.
Both of our families continue to provide us with love and support. Etta was the first grandchild
on both sides of our family, and she’s brought so much joy to everyone. They are all excited to
welcome another child into the fold!
Megan’s parents live in the same town and are very actively involved in Etta’s life.
Megan’s sister also lives in the same town, and her brother is in the process of moving there as
well from Florida.
Preston’s parents are retired, and although they live in Texas, they’re able to visit
frequently. Preston has three brothers, and two of them also have young children.
Our number one priority in raising a child is ensuring that they know they are safe and
loved. As parents, we believe that it is our job to set an example for our children to love others
and to have compassion and empathy for those around us. We want our children to be confident and understand their inherent worth. We hope that our children grow to trust themselves, to work
hard to achieve their goals, to be adventurous, and to dream big. We believe in giving our
children opportunities to always explore and discover new things, whether that’s through school,
travel, or participation in clubs and sports.
When Megan was growing up, her dad was a social worker with child protective services,
and later became a pastor. Through her dad’s work in the community, she saw that there were a
lot of children in need of a secure home, and she felt pulled toward adoption from an early age.
When we were not easily able to have a biological child, we knew that adoption was the
right choice for our family. After we adopted our daughter in 2018, it was always on our mind
that when we were ready to expand our family further, we would open the door to adoption
again.
We value family time more than anything. We have worked very hard to shape our lives
around family. Because we own our own business, we work on our own schedules and are able
to maximize our time together.
As a family, we like to spend time outside together. We have a garden in our yard and
love spending time throughout the year working on the garden together. We also have lots of
local trails and rivers that we like to explore as a family.
We love being active and try to share that with our daughter, whether that means having
her in our garage gym playing along while we work out, or going on family walks through our
neighborhood.
We are open to a transracial adoption, and we will do everything possible to ensure that a
transracial child feels accepted into our family while also connected with their own culture. We
believe it is important to incorporate items and traditions from a transracially adopted child’s
culture into our lives. We will offer love and support to a transracially adopted child to help build
their self-confidence and self-esteem so that they will better be able to cope with prejudice and
racism and general life experiences.
We understand that if we become a multi-racial/cultural family, we will cope with
racism, discrimination, and prejudice. We will continually work to learn ways to combat
discrimination and prejudice so that our transracially adopted child will understand their inherent
value.
Regardless of the background of our child, we value exposing them to many different
ethnic backgrounds, cultures, races, special needs, and socioeconomic backgrounds. We will
ensure that our child has cultural opportunities including adoption support and play groups,
dining at Asian, Hispanic, and African restaurants, and attending multicultural celebrations.
As parents, we will always show our child unconditional love and support. It is important
to us that our child understands where they came from, and we will ensure that he or she will
know of you and of their background. We are committed to honoring our adoption agreement,
whatever that may look like. We will raise our child to value honesty, curiosity, and family. We
will encourage him or her to always follow their dreams and will do whatever we can to support
those dreams.
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