Hey there! We’re Peter and Tori, and the first thing we want you to know is that we are full of admiration and respect for you as you go through the process of determining what is best for you and your baby. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little about us and consider us as prospective parents.
We met when we were 10 and 11. Peter’s crush started right then, and it’s never stopped! It wasn’t long before Peter started calling Tori daily, and we became inseparable. Peter’s perseverance, humor and patience won Tori over, and before we knew it we were highschool sweethearts. We married 12 years ago in 2010 in our hometown, and have loved building our community here in the great state of Michigan. We are active in our church, where Tori works, as well as the greater Christian community in our town, and Peter’s job as a middle school and high school music teacher is a great source of joy and friendships.
Six years ago our daughter Esther was born, but we are no longer able to conceive. We always wanted to have a large family and we have so much more love to give! Creating a strong and loving family is our highest priority–that’s why you’ll find us playing family board games every week, walking our dog Truly Scrumptious as a family in our neighborhood or the nearby trails, and celebrating birthdays with our extended family almost every month of the year!
Peter is a naturally excellent listener, and he makes anyone he talks to feel seen and important. It blesses me daily, and it is a value and skill I know he will pass on in our family. I’ve loved watching how this plays out when he teaches—from teaching how to play a board game, to teaching his music students every day at work, to explaining a complex philosophical theory, his kindness radiates out in each word. People are at ease and able to learn so quickly from him.
Peter is a hard worker, and I’ve always respected his tenacity. In college he worked 3 jobs while taking classes. After college, he launched his music teaching business, which is still thriving 13 years later!
Because of Peter, our home is so full of peace. He is the most patient person I’ve ever met. I love our relaxed and easygoing relationship—we both trust each other and know our family is our top priority, and that brings such a sense of camaraderie. We are both flexible and willing to roll with whatever life throws our way, and I’m so thankful I get to do life with him. I can’t wait to see his peace and patience in action as he parents another little kiddo.
Tori shows her love by making sure nothing is overlooked. I’ve never met anyone more thoughtful and considerate. She’s always the first to think of a solution to any problem. She hopes to pass that attitude of loving care to all of her children. I’ll regularly see her pointing out ways to help others to Esther.
Tori rarely misses a detail. She fills our calendar with special trips to the zoo or to the library, and with get-togethers with our family and friends. She loves to celebrate! She comes alive when she’s organizing parties, weddings, holiday gatherings and baby showers. Our entire extended family relies on her to make sure the birthday parties and Christmas celebrations get planned, and that every child, uncle and grandparent feels special and important.
She’s a phenomenal photographer, and does a wonderful job capturing our family’s life together. I could ask her about any trip we’ve ever taken and she could find the photos in less than a minute.
Tori works from home designing print materials and digital graphics for our church. She spends her free time reading in the hammock in the backyard, finding the perfect music playlists, and talking with her close-knit group of six friends that she’s bonded with over the years, all of which are moms with young children. I’ll often come home from work to find Tori buried under blankets reading together with Esther, with Truly the beagle snuggled up close. She can’t wait to have another little one to snuggle up with!
Esther is 6 and loves to create—from art on the walls, complex paper cut out replicas of the Encanto house, to entire worlds in Minecraft! She is the oldest of her many cousins, and she does a wonderful job including the younger ones in her complex imaginative games, like undersea patrol team or mountain explorers. She has been dreaming since she was four years old about being a big sister, and she is invested in doing everything in her ability to help bring a baby brother or sister into our home. One of her dearest friends who is her age was adopted as an infant, and her aunt and uncles are adopted, so she’s grown up knowing this is a loving way to build a family. In fact, she initiated a lemonade stand to spread the word about adoption and she jumped at the chance to join Dad putting the crib together!
Every morning we do homeschool, and she has a special knack for math. At her weekly co-op classes she is learning about nature and music, and she just made her first quiche at her monthly cooking class with grandma. We recently went to the Chicago Field Museum to see the T-rex because of Esther’s dinosaur interest. Tori especially loves travel and sees great value in learning about how other people live around the country and around the world. We have been able to take Esther on multiple extended family trips, including the coast in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and the upper peninsula of Michigan–we can’t wait to provide this opportunity to another child someday soon!
When we moved here the living and dining area captivated us: a big gathering place for our friends and family, with a table that can seat multiple families together. That’s where you can find us often, bonding over a board game from our collection that we’ve been building for 10 years! Peter’s baby grand piano has a prominent spot where Esther dances beautifully and Tori dances (a bit laughably) as he plays. We love reading, and have a basket of books from the library right next to our cozy rocker by the fireplace. Other times you’ll find us downstairs, playing Minecraft on the xbox or playing with large Legos or the play tent.
Our neighborhood is perfect for walks with Truly (our rescue beagle). We often head down the tree-lined streets to one of two nearby school playgrounds or the wooded area with the best sledding hill in town. We are just a short 10 minute drive from the library (one of our favorite places to visit with wonderful children’s programs), grocery stores, a movie theater, and so many parks, including one with a lake with great swimming. We’ve really enjoyed getting to know our neighbors when we host “front yard s’mores” nights, and families have joined us with kids of all ages to chat around our portable fire pit—there are plenty of friends ready for another child to join the group someday!
We both come from large families—Peter has 6 brothers and 1 sister (5 of them adopted), and Tori has 2 brothers and 1 sister. Raising a connected and loving family is one of our biggest passions. We love early child development and education and are eager to pour into another child. Both of our families homeschooled, and our parents cared about equipping us to learn for ourselves and to build good relationships with our communities. We hope to pass these values on to our children, too.
Tori talks with Peter’s mom nearly every day and they are such good friends—which occasionally results in some good-natured teasing from Peter and his dad! You can often catch Peter chatting with Tori’s mom about science fiction novels, or either of us talking to each other’s dads about church and our faith in Jesus. We know it’s not common for both partners in a relationship to get along so fabulously with their in-laws, but we do, and we are deeply grateful.
At Esther’s birthday celebrations, we have 6 great-grandparents present, as well as all four of her grandparents. Every grandparent has expressed to us how much anticipation they have for another child in the family! All of our siblings except for one live nearby, so we get to see each other often for cousin playdates, family dinners and of course, game nights!
We are deeply honored and grateful that you’ve spent time learning about our family. Your story is uniquely yours, and we hope to be able to meet you and let you know in-person how brave and loving this choice to consider adoption truly is. If you choose us as your adoptive family, we promise to give your baby everything they need. They will have a home full of love and fun, an incredibly supportive extended family, and opportunities to thrive, learn and grow. We will raise them to love people, be kind, problem-solve, laugh often, work hard, and help others.
If you chose us, we would love to have an open relationship with you, but we respect that is your choice and we will be happy with whatever you choose. Regardless, from the day the child enters our home, we will always tell their story beginning with you: the story of a mother who was powerful, kind and made the choice to choose adoption because she wanted to give so many good things to her baby. We wish you peace and clarity as you think through your options, and we are full of hope for your life and the life of your baby.
© 2023 Featured Waiting Families, All Rights Reserved
Web design and digital marketing by Valorous Circle LLC
