We love being parents and have always envisioned a family with multiple children. Luke is our 10-year-old that loves math, reading, sports and spending time with family and friends. We have always supported any interests he has such as Cub Scouts and derby races, reading Harry Potter, running football routes with mom, playing chess, learning new basketball skills with dad, and even creating an upside down scarecrow with the grandparents for Halloween. He is a very caring kiddo and has always been so excited to be a big brother!

However, our journey to grow our family has not been easy. We struggled to get pregnant, endured fertility treatments and sadly lost a baby girl. After losing our daughter and struggling with infertility for several years, we have always felt our little family was not complete. We have several friends who have adopted children and they have and will be a great resource and support for our journey. We have so much love to give and are incredibly grateful for this opportunity. We have been blessed to be surrounded by love and amazing support from both of our families and friends. We cannot wait to share these blessings with another child!

Kelly About Todd: I love and admire Todd's love of family. It's one of the main reasons I fell in love with him and do so again and again every day when I see him with his mom, friends and family and of course with Luke. He has always put family above everything and will drop anything to help anyone in need. He has a good balance of work and home-life and takes time for the little things like volunteering for school field trips and never missing a costume parade at school. He has always been a very hands-on dad at every stage of Luke's life from building kiddie blanket forts to helping coach sports teams. He has an endless amount of love to give and we truly enjoy our lives together.

Todd About Kelly: Kelly has so many great qualities that I admire and patience is a big one. She relates to Luke on his level so that he can make good choices at school and interacting with his friends and others. She really listens to what he has on his mind and helps him work through his concerns. Kelly has a gift for truly trying to understand others and their feelings. She cares on a very deep level, does not judge, and wants everyone she encounters to be happy. I'm not sure there is anyone on the planet more organized than Kelly, which is great because that's not my strong suit. Kelly is thoughtful, insightful, and a truly wonderful person. She is an amazing mother and wife, and I feel fortunate to get to spend my life with her.

Family is our number one priority in life. With sports practices and religion classes we still make time for quality family time every week. We have a Sunday family movie night tradition with good cuddling, buttery popcorn and enjoying time together to start the coming week off right. We take great care in balancing work and fun and boy do we like our fun! We have some amazing bike trails close by and enjoy the exercise along with the beautiful scenery, sound of the trickling streams and have even had a deer share the path with us. One of our favorite weekend morning activities is to ride our bikes on these paths to a local bakery and restaurant for breakfast tacos and pastries. We love supporting our nieces and nephews and their games and activities as well and have fun cheering them on. Attending a Royals baseball game is a tradition every year since we met. We enjoy them even more with Luke. Supporting our veterans is also very important to us. We never miss a Memorial Day ceremony at Kelly's stepdad's American Legion where he is the Commander.

We moved to the suburbs of Kansas back in 2016 looking for a great school and neighborhood with lots of kids. We found it! With so many young families, our neighborhood is well-known for Halloween festivities and one of our favorite times of the year complete with a chili party for friends, family and neighbors dropping by. Our Blue Ribbon Elementary school is within walking distance along with a beautiful park that has a giant play area with streams, a pond and picnic areas. Every weekend we hear knocks at the door to see if Luke can play and our back yard is proof of how much the kids like playing whiffle ball, football and making up their own games by the bare spots in the grass...just like Todd's backyard growing up!

We have a neighborhood pool complete with a water slide along with a basketball and tennis court and playground just up the street. Luke says his favorite things about our neighborhood are playing with so many kids, riding bikes and doing cannonballs in the pool.

We have a 4 bedroom 4 ½ baths house with a finished basement with a playroom. When we bought our home, we decided the front room would be the "Christmas tree room" as it is perfect for a tree with big windows and a tall ceiling. After the holidays, it's the "chess room" where Todd and Luke play chess. It won't be long before Luke beats Todd! We have a cozy patio shaded with big trees with a fire pit that gets used often for s'mores and friend and family BBQ gatherings. We just love our open floor plan to host friends and family and have a room just waiting for a future child to complete our family.

We have a very close and connected family. Todd's family is literally so close we can walk to two of his brothers' houses and to his mom's place as well. Not only do we spend all holidays together, we see each other often walking through the neighborhood and hanging out on the weekends. Todd's family has a tradition of a pajama Christmas celebration that lasts all day and into the night and is filled with food, games, silliness and a dance party put on by the grandkids with the whole family joining in. There are 11 grandkids with lots of ages. We often see several nieces riding bikes by our house and the older ones coming back from college. Our family group text gets used often to keep everyone informed of special events, celebrations, grandkids scoring soccer goals, volleyball games, touchdowns, school accolades and silly pictures of course as well.

Kelly's family is also close by. Her mom and stepdad will often stop by to visit or bring homemade goodies. They never miss a sporting or school activity of any of their 4 grandkids! Kelly's sister, brother-in-law, and three kids also live nearby. The girls have their own get togethers for coffee and craft dates and the families gather often for birthday celebrations and holidays together. Growing up, Kelly's mom's family often played card games together. It's a tradition that continues at family gatherings to this day. Kelly's dad still lives in the house she grew up in Iowa, and he comes down often for grandkids' games, strings and choir concerts, and we Facetime when travel doesn't permit. Kelly's family is unique in that her grandmother had a twin brother, her mother has a twin brother, and her sister has boy-girl twins.

We are incredibly thankful that you have taken the time to consider us as a potential family to your child. We know that you have a difficult decision to make for your baby's future and will keep you both in our thoughts and prayers.

Our story is a bit of a love at first sight story. Although Todd said the "L" word first, we were both feeling it since we met on our blind date and it has grown over time to a deeply committed love. We have different but complimentary personalities, and it's our vision and passion for family that brought us together and continues to strengthen our love every day. We have been married for 11 years and the excitement and fun that we had when we met has grown ever since.

Becoming parents was the greatest miracle we have experienced and cannot wait to bring another child into our happy, safe and supportive home. Both sides of our families are incredibly excited to welcome this child into our family along with supportive friends as well that will be there through every step of their life. We cannot wait to share our favorite traditions and create new ones together as well. We will love this child unconditionally and help them build on their strengths, potential and thrive to live their best life.

We value family, education, making the time to spend quality time together and finding and appreciating the joys of life. We have set up an education fund for whatever path your child would choose to follow and cannot wait to get to know their individual personality and what brings them joy. We have found that meeting the emotional needs of a child and each other are just as important as their physical needs and how those change at different stages in life. We are very active and hands on parents and truly cherish watching them grow into the little person they are destined to be and love them just for who they are.

You will always be respected in our home if you choose to take this journey with us. We will support the level of openness you choose to have with your child and share where they came from and how they became part of our family if desired. We will always be honest with your child about their adoption story so they can be confident and comfortable with themself at all stages of life. We are happy to share your child's experiences with you and their growth along the way through letters, artwork and pictures or exchange emails or phones numbers to stay in contact if you wish.

We are grateful to our parents for our happy and secure childhoods, which in turn made us want a family of our own more than anything. We have a wonderfully happy little family but have just always known there is another special someone just waiting to come make it something greater. We have never given up the dream of bringing another child into our family and will be forever grateful to you for helping us grow our family.

With love,

Todd & Kelly