American Adoptions -- America's Adoption Agency

Enjoying a Summer Day Near Colorado Springs

From Jenn: What I admire and respect most about Nate is his quiet wisdom, sense of humor, and love for me and our son, Zack. Nate is very well-read, and extremely bright, although he doesn't make a big deal about it. I love his smart, dry, quick-witted humor, and a day doesn't go by when he doesn't make me laugh and smile--even if I'm in a bad mood. He also loves Zack, me, and our families so much. When Nate and I were dating, I ended up falling for him even *more* after I saw him interact with his parents and siblings. I thought, "This is a guy who loves deeply, is loyal, and is grounded in his family." I love that!

From Nate: What I admire most about Jenn is her loving and kind spirit. She works hard but loves to have fun as well. She enjoys cooking and providing hospitality for our friends. She loves Zack and has that great combination of care, discipline and fun that makes her a great mom. Her love of others, faith in God and loyalty to her friends and family make her a truly good person whom I love very much. Plus she has a good sense of humor.

Zack and All His Cousins

For our family, cultural diversity shouldn't be something specific we'll need to address in words; your child will see it naturally in our lives.

Even though we are both Caucasian, as are our parents and siblings, we have been involved in multi-ethnic communities for a long time. In 1997, Jennifer helped start a multi-ethnic church in the Washington, DC, area, where she and Nathan eventually met.

We are now, also, involved in a multi-ethnic church in Colorado as well, so most of our friends reflect a broad range of backgrounds--both racially, culturally, and economically.

We also have a niece and nephew who were adopted from Ethiopia, who live only 90 minutes away, whom we see regularly.

There are some things we will need to learn as we grow as a family, but we have the friends and family close by to help guide our steps.

Camping

Our strengths as individuals have been molded, shaped, and refined since we were married.

Jennifer is highly detail oriented, loves working and doing things, and loves planning things: parties, events, you name it.  She is good at connecting with people, individually, over coffee, or through events. And the friends she makes, she keeps for the long haul.

Nathan is more laid back, very well read, and doesn't get stressed or anxious very easily.  That doesn't mean he doesn't like work. As a firefighter, he has to be good at being relaxed one moment, then running to help someone in need the next.  He also is a great handy-man around the house.  He knows how to fix things (plumbing, cars, etc.) and if he doesn't know, he reads about it then likes to figure it out himself.