Jayden Eliana Elain has been the greatest gift we have ever received. After many adoption matches fell through, we knew that the child God had planned for us would be better than anything we could ever imagine - and she has been just that. You never see her without a smile and her little giggle comes out more and more each day as she throws her arms in the air, begging to be tickled. We are frequently asked, "Is she always this happy?" and are so thankful that we can undoubtedly answer that yes, indeed she is. She claps for joy anytime she hears music and her little toddler voice tries it's best to sing along.

Jayden is our adventure buddy; she accompanies us in everything we do and her shrieks of joy reach new levels every time she gets thrown in the air, flipped over, pushed fast on her bike, or spun around by daddy. She loves the wind in her hair and splashing water on her face, making baths and boating two of her favorite activities. Though she is young, it is so clear that her 19 cousins are her best friends and she never backs down from a tackling bear hug from any one of them. The cuddles and pats she bestows upon her doll and the contagious joy she gets every time she catches even a glimpse of a baby give us confidence that she just may die of excitement getting to have a little sibling.

We are a family who loves to travel! Every winter we escape the snowy landscape and head for the sandy beaches of Mexico with Justin's family. It is a full two weeks of playing games on the beach, lounging by the pools, eating too many of our favorite street tacos, and catching every glorious sunset over the ocean. So many memories stem from this trip, which we are so thankful to be able to take every year. Morgan's family has also joined in these adventures, adding to the sweet memories we have captured on the beach with family. Kids get their first taste of the ocean, sandcastles are built and destroyed, grandparents reign as champions in card games, and sibling bonds grow stronger year after year

While Mexico is an annual highlight, we have a backlog of favorite travels. Our first big trip took us to Italy, giving us our love of Florence and pasta carbonara. Most recently, we took Jayden to Greece, Israel, and Egypt - the trip of a lifetime that we will never forget. In her first year of life, Jayden traveled to four continents and six countries (two of which returned Jayden to her cultural roots!) and we cannot wait to show her and her future siblings more corners of this amazing world.

Adoption will always be part of our daughter's life. As much as she has been gifted to us - to love her, care for her, and raise her to be a fearless child of God, her story did not begin with us. It began with the miracle of life in another woman, who loved her baby so much that she bravely decided it was better for this child to be brought up by someone else. We cannot express how difficult that choice was for Jayden's birthmother or how brave she was for making it. But we are forever grateful that she did. Adoption is not something to be hidden - these are stories worth telling and retelling for ages to come. Our daughter will always know that she was adopted; she will be told stories of the bravery and love her birthparents had in providing her a new home. Understanding of these stories may come in different stages as she grows, but nonetheless they will be forever part of her story. She already shares similar adoption stories with multiple cousins, who have also come into our family through the brave decisions of other birthmothers. We could not be more thankful for the bravery of our daughter's birthmother and look forward to telling similar stories to our future children for years to come.

Just two days after deciding to adopt our daughter, we walked into our weekly family Saturday night dinner to find a swarm of siblings, parents, and nieces armed with cake, chocolate, cheese, and cheers of excitement celebrating our leap forward into growing our family. This joy and celebration only intensified when we brought our daughter, Jayden, home for the first time.

We are not merely the family that spends every holiday, Sabbath, and sporting event together but the family that wouldn't have it any other way. We laugh together, cry together, and get overly competitive in our backyard wiffleball games. All year we look forward to our Christmas-time pajama dinner with Justin's family or the traditional New Year's Eve Olympics with Morgan's. We spend every Fourth of July piled into a massive cabin with over seventy of Justin's cousins, aunts, and uncles, boating and playing games until we collapse from delightful, sun-kissed exhaustion. We've loved seeing Jayden immediately become a part of our extended family's lives. She loves getting chased by her uncles, pampered by her aunts, cuddled by her grandparents, and trying to keep up with her 19 cousins. We dream of the day we can welcome another child into our home to help pick out our next Christmas tree, join in the cousin Easter egg hunt, and build sandcastles on our annual family beach getaway.

Our five-bedroom, four-bathroom home sits on a quiet cul-de-sac in a neighborhood minutes from Justin's family. The open layout is perfect for entertaining and our large deck and lawn set the stage for summer parties and children's playdates. Our neighborhood is swarming with young kids playing hockey or football in the street and boasts scenic walking trails that loop through our nearby lakes. Some of Jayden's favorite activities are playing on the swingset at the park down the street or walking our dog into town on the bike path. Summer evenings are spent barbequing on our deck, wakeboarding at dusk, or splashing in the kiddie pool with Jayden. In the winter we take walks on the ice-covered lakes all around us, play games by the fire, and enjoy an annual escape to somewhere tropical. We cannot wait to share these joys with our second child and look forward to the day when our kids can beat us at ping-pong in the basement.

We cannot imagine the weight of the decision you are making. Your bravery to consider this step, the love you have for your baby, and the self-sacrifice to consider blessing others with the gift of the life inside you thoroughly astound us. Though we do not yet know you, we pray for you and your baby daily, asking God to protect you on this difficult journey and thanking Him for guiding you thus far.

Though there are many unknowns in the journey ahead, one thing is undoubtedly certain: we will love your baby with a boldness and depth that cannot be measured. Having already adopted our daughter, we are keenly aware of the emotional process that this can be and are ready to walk through that with you. In many ways, adopting a child is entirely different than having one biologically; we recognize that there will be differences from our own ethnicity, personality, complexion, and interests. However, we have boldly embraced these differences with our daughter and are so thankful God brought her into our lives. In adopting our daughter, we have already put into practice what it is like to adopt cross-culturally and, for all the ways we love how she is not like us. It is so clear that God planned for her to be part of our family. We understand the importance of leaning into these cultural differences while always loving our children unconditionally, and we are eager to do so again with our future adopted children.

Our daughter will always remember that she is adopted; she will always remember the love her birthmother had for her, and we are so grateful to share similar stories with our future adopted children as well. We are prepared for the questions our children will ask about where they came from and are excited to tell them bedtime stories about the bravery of their birth parents. We look forward to sending along pictures and updates about your child as he or she grows. We know this has meant a lot to our daughter's birth parents, and want to ensure you have the opportunity to watch your child grow if you wish to.

Our daughter, Jayden, is also excited to have a little sibling. She shrieks with joy at the sight of any baby and prepares to be a big sister by gently giving her baby doll pats and cuddles. Though we waited a long time to meet her, we thank God for every step of the process as we believe He used that time to better prepare us for the journey we are now on. We are confident that if you choose us to parent your child, he or she will instantly become loved and cared for, not just by us and Jayden, but by our family, friends, and community. From the day we welcomed Jayden into our arms, she immediately became a part of our immediate and extended families and we could not imagine our lives any other way. We know this will be the same story for any future children we adopt.

We cannot wait to check for monsters in their closets, decorate gingerbread houses with them at Christmas, hold them up to dunk basketballs in the driveway, and teach them proper wake-surfing form on the lake. We are ready to lose sleep over nighttime feedings, bandage scraped knees when their training wheels come off, and hold back tears when they head to college.

We already love your baby so very much and want to give them all we have and know. Above all, we pray they find a godly, loving, and joyful home that values their story. We would be honored if you found that home in us and are forever grateful to be considered.

Justin & Morgan