John was adopted via a closed adoption as an infant. At the time, closed adoptions were very common. However, John always wondered about his birth parents and had questions for them. While he loved his adoptive family, not knowing his birth parents left him with many unanswered questions about himself, his heritage, and family traditions.

It is because of John's personal experiences with adoption that we find it very important to keep open lines of communication with birth parents and it is why we welcome an open adoption for our family. It is our hope that our child, as well as us, have a friendly relationship with the birth parents and their families. We believe that it is important to mesh some of the birth parent's family traditions with our own, so the child can really embrace who they are as a person. We realize what a great honor and privilege it is to be selected to adopt a child. It is something that we hold near and dear to our hearts and are truly excited about.

What makes our family unique is our complete openness and love for people. No matter the color of your skin, your socio-economic background, your gender-identity, or sexual preference, we believe that all people should be treated with love and respect.

We truly believe that every person is unique and beautiful in their own way. We do not judge people on anything but their actions, but even changed actions should be forgiven.

We would love our adopted child without exception. We pride ourselves on being extremely open minded people and promote self-love and an importance of mental health and wellness. We realize that not all of society shares our view points on the world, and do understand there is hatred out there. It is not our intention to shelter a child from this, but to encourage self-worth and love, and resources to help promote a positive self-image and confidence.

Pets are important in our lives because they provide unconditional love and affection. We work closely with a few rescue groups and Katie works at a veterinary clinic. We personally find it important to help those, whether people or animals, in need. We have two-year-old English Mastiff named Earl. He helps keep us laughing throughout the day with his goofy personality. He loves to snuggle and play catch in the backyard. He is a very sweet boy and very in tune to people's emotions. He has a younger sister named Ellie, who is a Dogue De Bordeaux and is just under a year old. She is sassy and playful, and absolutely loves to snuggle. They are best buddies, and are constantly at each other's hips. We think it is also important to raise a child with animals because it teaches them responsibility and boundaries. A connection with an animal can be very enriching. Pets help children learn about responsibility, respect, forgiveness, and unconditional love.

We live in a quiet, small suburb in Illinois. We have a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house, with a full basement. We have a fenced yard with plenty of room to run and play.

Our neighbors are very friendly, and Katie's cousin also lives on the other side of the subdivision. We spend a lot of time with her growing family, and love hanging out with her 3-year-old son, who is quite the jokester!

Our neighborhood is filled with young families with multiple children and pets. Each day the sidewalks are filled with families going for walks. We live 5 minutes away from the local YMCA that holds many camps and classes for children.

We live in a diverse community composed of many different ethnic backgrounds. The local grade school, middle school, and high school are a short drive away and boast small class sizes giving more individual attention to each child.

Our community also has a pool and many ponds and parks to play at. There are many different family events throughout the year which we can't wait to participate in with our own child.

We live close to most of our extended family members. John's mother is a snowbird and lives part of the year in Illinois and part of the year in Florida. Sadly, his father is deceased. His sister, who is disabled, resides at a care community.

We spend quite a bit of time with Katie's family and much of her extended family. Katie has 2 younger brothers who are both married and a younger sister who is graduating high school this year. Both of her parents live close by and we visit them quite often. Katie's brother has two daughters who we like to spend time with and spoil on birthdays and holidays.

We have large holiday parties including Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, 4th Of July and much more. Katie's grandma makes delicious twice baked potato balls that everyone lovingly fights over each Christmas. At each family get together we look forward to card games, laughter, and great food. These are all things that we would love to share with a child.

Hi! It seems you're looking for a wonderful home and future for your child, and we are looking to share our love and life with a child, so it's quite possible that we are looking for each other. Although we have not met, we feel a great compassion for you and your journey. We completely understand the wide range of emotions that the adoption process makes birth families feel. John was adopted as an infant, and we have always felt that adoption is one of the most selfless and loving things a mother can do for her child.

We are a fun-loving, bi-racial couple, who met while working together in 2011, and quickly fell in love. We have now been married for almost 9 years and knew from the very beginning that we wanted to be parents. We have a 2-year-old English Mastiff named Earl and an almost 1-year-old French Mastiff named Ellie. While they are both large, they are such sweet, loving, gentle dogs.

John went to Eastern Illinois University for college and obtained his degree in Photojournalism. He went on to attend Olivet Nazarene University and completed his Master's in Organizational Leadership. A few years later, he realized that business was not the path he wanted to take for his career, and he applied to be accepted into the Local 176 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Union. He is now an electrician and goes to work every day loving his job. Katie works for a veterinary clinic as a receptionist/technician and absolutely loves her job. It is because of our love for animals that we also volunteer for a few non-profit rescues and have fostered quite a few kittens and dogs.

We are the type of people who believe that everything happens for a reason. While at times that can be frustrating, because we don't know why something so difficult has come our way, in the end it typically seems to make sense. The reason we bring this up is that after a few years of trying to conceive a child with no prevail, we felt that there was a reason this happened. We are both extremely loving, accepting, and compassionate people, and it was in that moment that we knew it was part of our family's path to adopt a child.

In our home we value honesty, empathy, resilience, independence, humor, and doing your best. Please know that we would provide your child with all the skills and knowledge to develop into the person they are meant to be. It is our intention to inspire a love for education, but we do realize that college is not for everyone and will support our child in any path they decide to take.

Holidays are kind of a big deal in our family, and we look forward to creating traditions and memories with a family of our own. Whether it's baking cookies together for Christmas (and of course sneaking some frosting!), carving pumpkins and cooking the pumpkin seeds for Halloween (Katie's Dad will try to eat them all!), or a new tradition from the birth parent's family, we anxiously await the creation of these memories.

We live in a culturally diverse community filled with many young families with children. We are eager to have play dates at the community park or pool or go for walks around the community in one of the many forest preserves. We will always encourage your child to discover the world, knowing that there will always be people who love them unconditionally, and those people include you! We are very excited for the future and would be happy to share your child's experiences with you via letters and pictures. Ultimately, we hope that we have given you peace of mind in knowing that we will dedicate our lives to your child's safe, secure, and happy future. Thank you for allowing us to share a little bit about our lives with you.

John & Katie