Even as a couple of college students stressing through tests and essays, we dreamed about our future family. Being parents is everything to us— every major decision we have made as a couple included the idea of what it would look like when we had a family. Now that we are parents we have devoted the majority of our time and energy to making sure our kids will have the best childhood we can provide.

We find joy in seeing Lily's eyes light up when she's delighted, hearing her proclaim "I DID IT" when she completes a task, or watching her feet do a happy dance when she's excited. We are enthusiastic to share our love with a second child, and find the things that make their eyes sparkle. The best gift we feel we can give our children is time, and we plan to give as much as we can to our children as they grow up. Our parenting style involves a lot of time spent together as a family, sharing experiences, and trying new things together.

We dream that our children grow up happy, curious, and confident. We want to instill a sense of curiosity in our children that allows them to ask questions about the world around them. We dream of our children growing up and thinking they were raised in a home where they felt safe. Safe to learn, explore, and most importantly safe to be themselves. We want to share the good days, but we also want to be the type of parents our kids can come to on their worst days. We will do everything we can to provide the support our kids need to grow up confident, and allow them to pursue the things that interest them.

We dream of being a family that remains close throughout the years, of someday looking at each other in a room of grandkids and a cup of coffee with a smile on our faces and laughter filling our home.

We enjoy a simple life finding any excuse to spend time together and making every task into something fun. Paul works primarily from home, and Addie has the ability to work from home when she chooses to. When Addie works from the office her morning commute is a quick four minutes. This means we are always close by if our kids need anything throughout the day.

When we aren't working you can find us tending to the garden out back, sharing laughs with friends and family, driving Lily to an evening activity, or playing outside with our neighbors. One of our favorite things to do in our free time is host family when they come to town. We love living so close to our families and take any opportunity we can to cook a meal and get everyone together to enjoy an evening. We attend church every Sunday morning and find ourselves busy throughout the week taking in the different activities our community has to offer. We don't want to push our interests on our children, so we try to sign Lily up for anything we can to see what she enjoys. Overall we stay busy, but we love watching our calendar fill with youth activities.

We have been blessed with an amazing family surrounding us. Our family is loving, supportive, and extremely present in our lives. We root for one another and stay in touch with family even as the generations continue to grow. We live in a town that is a short drive from most of our family, and we are able to visit family weekly. We go to church with Paul's parents and spend weekends at the lake with his family. When we spend time with Addie's family, we get competitive over a game of cards or enjoy rides on ATV/UTVs.

Our children will be raised near lots of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The family continues to grow and expand as more kids are born and brought into the mix. Each child is welcomed with open arms and with the same excitement as the child before them. All of our family is over the moon excited at the idea of us adding to our family and watching Lily become a big sister.

Nebraska - We were very intentional as we made the decision of where to live. Our town is within an hour of a large city which allows us to enjoy the simple side of a small town while still enjoying the benefits of a big city. Our town has lots of young families as well as families touched by adoption. We love how friendly and welcoming the community is and all the resources our town works to bring to us.

We were fortunate enough to purchase a new home in 2022. When choosing a home we were sure to pick one with enough room to grow our family, and in a neighborhood we could be proud of. Our neighborhood is very safe, has a lot of kids, and has an annual block party to get everyone together. We know if we need anything someone in the neighborhood would be happy to help.

Our favorite room inside our home is the kitchen. We spend our evenings cooking together, dancing while we wait for the timer to go off, and then eating a meal together. Watching Lily help in the kitchen brings us so much joy.

Thank you for taking the time to look into this brief description of our life! We hope it gave you a glimpse into our lives and the life your child would have in our home. We know you are here because of the love for your child, and we admire you for your strength through such a difficult decision. We can promise you that our home is a home full of love, stability, and understanding. Your child would be joining a family that can't wait to adore them and to share life's experiences with them.

We were married in 2016. What started as a blossoming romance on a college campus has turned into a loving and happy family. We encourage each other to be better versions of ourselves and take pride in one another's accomplishments. We enjoy the simple things in life together and love sharing those things with a child.

Our community is inclusive and embraces the idea of keeping young families local. This means our community works hard to be sure families and children have fun activities to do throughout the year. The events and priorities in our town are geared towards making life for our youth as fun and positive as possible. In the summer you can cool off under a fireman's hose after a water balloon fight in the streets or watch the fireworks crackle overhead. In the fall you can collect more Halloween candy than you could ever eat at the local businesses, or catch the candy during the local parades. In the winter you can watch as downtown turns into a Hallmark movie and Santa comes to visit. Any time in between these events you can enjoy one of the various playgrounds or pools. We may be a smaller community, but our community works hard to ensure we have all we need right here.

While we value fun in our home, we also value hard work. Education is extremely important to us. Our community has public and parochial schools to choose from, all of which provide an exceptional education. We have clubs and organizations in town that further this education into extracurriculars. We want a child to appreciate a quality education, but we also want them to feel free to explore their own interests and find their own passions. Our proximity to larger cities allows us to be able to take advantage of different organizations or camps that may not be offered locally.

We would love for this child to have a relationship with you. At a minimum, we will share letters, photos, and stories with you as this child grows. However, we hope that the bond we have over loving this child will also bring us closer and allow us to create an ideal open adoption for the child. We are blessed with an open adoption with Lily's birth parents that includes regular texts and monthly updates to her birth parents and members of her extended birth family. We look forward to utilizing some of the same styles of communication with future birth parents, but we also understand that each open adoption is different.

We are ready to devote our marriage and our time to growing our family and giving our love to another child. This opportunity is not something we take lightly and there are no words to describe the respect we have for you as you navigate this difficult decision.

Paul & Addie