We travel extensively, whether it's riding a double decker bus through London, digging for quartz crystals in Hot Springs, or snorkeling with sea turtles in the Cayman Islands we’re always looking for new unique experiences that build lifelong memories.

We also love to spend time with our family and friends. This can involve some kind of potluck and board games or going out to a local festival. These are always low key get togethers and more and more often are starting to involve children. Many of our friends are just now having their first child or are actively planning for them. We are all excited by the thought of our children growing up together.

Morgan loves to craft. Her passions include photography, sewing, paper crafts, and mixed media sculpture. She is also an avid cook and baker and is always trying out new recipes. Skip loves to work with his hands. He also loves to work on his Jeep with his dad making various modifications for future off-road adventures. Skip also scuba dives and skis. We can't wait to share our hobbies with a child!

We are a family of animal lovers. Currently we have two dogs, a Lab mix named Dewey and a Boston Terrier named Leeloo. We also have two chinchillas named Rocket and Sweet Pea. We love our dogs and they are an important part of our family. Bringing them into our lives has taught us patience, understanding, and how to be responsible for the life of another.

We honestly cannot imagine our lives without Dewey and Leeloo. Dewey often goes on errands with Skip and Leeloo is just a loving cuddle monster. Nothing makes us happier than coming home, seeing their excited faces, and cuddling on the couch to unwind after work. Leeloo and Dewey have both proven to be very popular with the other children in our family and it isn't uncommon to see them playing together around the holidays. We believe every child should have a pet growing up. They teach you empathy for another in a way that no human can really do, and they are pure love.

When making the decision to adopt we began reading and researching this topic extensively. We wanted to know how adoption has affected both adopters and adoptees so that we could best meet our child's needs. What we found echoed what we both believed in our hearts, that complete honesty and transparency was critical. All relationships are based on trust and nothing would erode that more quickly than a lack of honesty between us and our future child. From the earliest age we will help the child build an identity where their adoption is normal and just a fact of their life, not a defining characteristic. When there are tough questions, we will answer them with kindness but honesty. When the child needs space to think or feel, we will give them that. Most importantly we will stress to them that no matter their origin that they are our child and that we love them unconditionally.

Morgan comes from a larger family and is very close with her sister and cousin. In order to keep up with everyone we have a standing Monday night dinner which we all look forward to. We gather at her grandmother's home and everyone is welcome. It's not uncommon for cousins, aunts, and uncles to show up for dinner! Much of Morgan's extended family lives in Florida but comes up to visit several times a year. These are always big events with lots of meals out and spending time together doing various fun activities around town.

Skip comes from a smaller family. His father comes by the house weekly to hang out and help with projects when he's not busy traveling. Once a month or so we gather at his mom and stepdads for family dinner and game night, along with Skip's two step-sisters and their significant others.

Aside from our families we also have a very tight nit group of friends we get together with a couple times a month for food and fun. There's almost always a board game being played at these events. Several of the couples in our group of friends are now beginning to start families of their own and we are all looking forward to our children being the same age and able to play together.

When we decided to marry 6 years ago, we knew we wanted to find a place to call home. A place we could raise a family and continue the family traditions we both loved so much. With that in mind we purchased a beautiful home in the suburbs of a large Midwest city. Our home has a huge back yard and is up the block from the neighborhood playground where many neighborhood kids love to play. We chose this area as it boasts one of the best school systems in the state and it is close to the local elementary school as well as several large state and city parks for us to explore.

We love our hometown and all the cultural, educational, and fun things there are to do here. Whether it's spending the afternoon at the botanical gardens, spending the day at our world class zoo, trying the latest ethnic restaurant, or going to one of the many festivals there's never a shortage of new experiences to be had! We are beyond excited to share these experiences with our future child.

By now you have felt an entire range of emotions negative to positive. Fear and uncertainty likely nag at you as you struggle to make the best decision for your child. We can't pretend to understand everything you're feeling and the burden on your heart. We know that you want the best for your baby.

Hopefully we can put to rest many of the fears you might have for your child's future. We promise to raise our child in an environment of love, growth, acceptance, and adventure. We have worked hard to place ourselves in a position to provide a wonderful home for a child. We have done our best to make smart life decisions so that we can be prepared for parenthood.

We are a couple who believe the world is a large playground full of places to see and explore. We are always looking for new experiences. Morgan loves to cook and bake and is very much looking forward to making all kinds of cookies, cakes, and a general mess with our future child. She is a skilled artist who loves to create and express herself and wants to share that and encourage creativity and expression in whatever form the child chooses. Skip loves to ski, scuba dive, and work with his hands. He is very much looking forward to teaching our child how to ski, work with tools, build things, with occasional help from grandpa.

We both highly value education and believe it is critical to a well-rounded person. We recognize there is more to education than just the classroom, which is why we encourage learning in all its forms. From Scouting to Legos, children’s museums to books, and hands on experiences we will make learning fun! Both of us are looking forward to the day we get to chaperone our first field trip and may have to thumb wrestle to see who gets to go first.

Both of us love to read, watch movies, explore museums, and travel! We like to travel to places we've never been before and are extremely excited by the idea of showing these places to our future child. Some of the places we've been are London, the Caribbean, the North East including Boston and Salem, Chicago, and Hot Springs. In the future we're planning trips to Australia, Japan, the Pacific Northwest, and Colorado. We have family in northern Florida that we visit regularly so trips to the beach are definitely in our child's future! We also have a plot of rural forested land with a creek owned by our family that we look forward to camping on and exploring together.

We know keeping in touch with your child is important. When we decided to adopt we did so knowing that we would want to have a relationship not just with our child, but with their birth parents. To us it is important for our child to know where they come from both biologically and culturally. It's difficult to make promises to someone you've never spoken with before, so let us instead give you our intentions. It’s our intention to maintain an open relationship with frequent updates and great communication. We’ll routinely send you photos, letters, and videos. If possible we’d love to schedule video chats and potentially in person visits if you wish.

In the end our goal as parents is to raise a kind, tolerant, and loving child who is passionate about learning, traveling, and self-discovery. It is our hope for our future child that they will someday find a person they love to share their life with and start their own family and that they will enjoy success in their life in whatever terms they choose to measure that by.

Many thanks,

Skip & Morgan