Barry’s Parents Hold Our Son Jack

Barry is the youngest of four children and there are fourteen years difference between him and his youngest sister. All of his siblings are married and have children as well as grandchildren. His mother, Georgia, resides in our home town and is the owner and secretary of the family business. Even though she is eighty years old, she gets around like she was fifty. Georgia enjoys spending time with her youngest grandson, our son Jack, and is excited about the new baby to come into our lives. Jack is named after Barry's father, who died just before Christmas last year. We mostly gather together for dinner at Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, and birthdays at Georgia's house.

Barry’s Mom, Misty Holding Jack, Misty’s Mom and Members of Our Family and Church Behind Us Await the Baptism

Misty is the oldest of two children in her family. She is fourteen years older than her sister. Her family resides about 15 miles away out in the country. We gather on certain occasions for food and fellowship. Misty's mother likes to garden and cans the food she grows. Her father likes to fish, work in the yard, and help with the garden as well. Misty's sister Chelsey is like a daughter to us and we keep up on her sports and grades as well as trying to keep the boyfriends at bay.

Both of our families and friends have witnessed our struggle with fertility treatments and are very supportive of adoption. They all love and treat our son as if he were naturally born to us. Barry's brother-in-law was adopted and so was Misty's grandpa, so our family has grown and accepted adopted children.

Our Home

Our home is nestled back in the country on 116 acres. The driveway that leads to our house is parallel to a creek. We chose this setting with children in mind because of the privacy and security. Our home has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, formal living room, formal dining room, upstairs family room, mud room, salon, tanning room, downstairs family/recreation room, three car garage, and unfinished attic. Barry's barn is detached and houses all our recreation vehicles. We just had an in-ground swimming pool and a play-ground added this year and are awaiting some landscaping.

The Back of Our House with Our New Pool and Playground

We live in a small community and we wouldn't have it any other way. If we are not related to everyone we pretty much know them or about them. Our town has two medical clinics, two grocery stores, several convenient stores, a nursing home, fire department, justice center, two parks, elementary school, middle school, high school, theater, and are near a large lake. Every year our community has a festival in the fall and has pie eating contests, a fiddlers contest, a parade, baby contest, cruise night, and a sock hop. This festival attracts about twenty to thirty thousand people. In a town of about three thousand that is a BIG deal. We also have an "Old Fashioned Christmas" celebration with horse and buggy rides, hot chocolate, bon fires, and singing. Our community is one that we are very proud of and is a great place to raise a family.