Our lifestyle is a perfect balance of adventure and just enjoying the simple pleasures of work and home. We both have a "work hard, play hard" mentality. We both love what we do for a living, so work doesn't necessarily always feel like work. But we love to get away too! When it's time to have fun, we are fortunate to share a lot of the same interests. As a couple, we love to travel. Jacob has a true passion for baseball, so we almost always sneak a ballgame into our travel plans when we can. Faith loves visiting art museums and finding mural art about town, so that is on our travel agenda too. We love to tour around cities: visiting historical sites and must-see places, finding local hot spots for the best food in town, and walking until our shoes fall off. We both enjoy the outdoors: hiking, fishing, kayaking are some of our favorite things to do when on vacation. At home, we stay active by riding bikes, running in the neighborhood, walking our pup or going to the gym. The weekends are a lot like our life in general, a good mix of relaxation and fun. Our city has a lot of rich history, so it's fun just to be tourists right in our own backyard. We love visiting local parks to hike or fish, and the beach is only an hour's drive too! But nothing beats home, and visiting with our family. Most of our weekends are spent around the pool, fire pit or simply around the dinner table to catch-up on the day-to-day with the ones who mean the most!

Faith About Jacob: Jacob is my favorite person, my best friend, and the love of my life. He's smart, supportive, a hard worker and one of the most thoughtful people I know. His positive outlook on life is infectious. The bonds he shares with his family and lifelong friends are strong, and admirable. Jacob blesses our marriage in so many wonderful ways; and the love he has to give is boundless. I'm so very excited for him to become a dad, and look forward to journeying parenthood with him.

Jacob About Faith: Faith has such a warm heart and a great sense of humor. She's quick to lend an ear to anyone, and is very giving of her time to others in this way. I love her creative spirit and appreciation for the smallest details. Faith enjoys life's simple pleasures; it's a quality I've admired in her since the day we met. She is loyal and honest, and everyone's biggest cheerleader. Having her as my co-pilot in life has meant the world to me. She is my best friend and my greatest love. I cannot wait for her to become a mom, because she is going to be an amazing one!

We like to think of our journey to adoption as beginning from the day we met. In all the traditional ways our story is like many others: our paths so happily crossed, we fell in love, married and excitedly prepared ourselves for the family we’d soon have. We began filling our married years with love and adventure; and waited and prayed for that next chapter to begin. As the years passed by, we leaned on each other in hope, and through heartache; we laughed, we cried, and we tried (everything). But God had been preparing our hearts in the waiting, for what He’d known all along … that we'd become parents through adoption. So while our adoption journey is just beginning, our journey to it began long before. For Jacob personally, adoption has always held a special place in his heart. Jacob was six when his parents completed their family through adoption; he can remember the day clearly, meeting his baby sister for the first time and the fond memories of that day and of his childhood with her, as they grew older. Now both adults, their bond couldn’t be stronger. We are fortunate for Jacob’s parents and his sister in our lives; and for the experience of adoption in theirs. Their support on our journey to adopt is invaluable to us, and we know will be too, for the little one that we are blessed.

Our home is located in a peaceful, family-friendly neighborhood. A sports complex, children's playground, and large community pool are just a few of the amenities we share with our neighbors. The miles of wide sidewalk throughout the community are filled in the evenings with families soaking up every last bit of Florida sun. The entire community sits on 800 acres, surrounded by preserve areas, green space and natural ponds, so wildlife is in abundance around us.

Our neighborhood holds events throughout the year for families, such as snow-cone socials, 4th of July fireworks and an annual trunk-or-treat at Halloween just to name a few. Since the neighborhood was designed with families in mind, we know that our child will always have friends close by.

Within any direction of our home, there are nearby nature parks, museums, theaters, great restaurants and top rated schools.

Our home's floorplan is a spacious two-story, with five bedrooms and four bathrooms. The bonus room upstairs is one of our family favorite spots to play games and watch movies on Friday nights and rainy weekends. We have a large fenced-in backyard, with a swimming pool for splashing around on summer days and a firepit for roasting marshmallows on winter nights. When we moved in a few years ago it was just a house. Over the years our family has made it a home, and a child would make it complete.

We've been lucky in love and lucky in in-laws. Our families are our biggest supporters, and excited in every way for us to be growing ours through adoption.

Because Jacob's parents live nearby, getting together with them for family dinner, a game night or just a quick pop-in to say hello is a welcomed part of our everyday life. Jacob's younger sister is also close by and we are lucky to spend a lot of quality time with her as well.

We are Aunt Faith and Uncle Jacob to our niece, Annabelle, who has brightened all of our lives with her loving and inquisitive personality (and impromptu living room dance performances).

With Faith’s mom and younger brother also not too far, means holidays, birthdays and all the special occasions in between almost always involve our big group. Faith and her mom are extremely close, and try to see each other at least once a month.

We cherish our close family connections and time spent together, and know that our child will be surrounded by love!

We hope that as you've read our profile, our love for each other, our values and the love and life we could give a child comes through our words and pictures. We appreciate you, and the time you've taken to get to know us more; and we look forward to getting to know you.

For both of us, family is everything. Our parents were both married as high school sweethearts; and have enjoyed long, loving marriages that have stood the test of time. Their dedication to family and each other is the best example of love and commitment either of us could have ever asked for. They've always been our biggest supporters, and still very much are. Our childhoods were very similar: playing with neighborhood friends until dark, cartoons on early Saturday mornings, family dinners, summer vacations, holiday traditions, etc. We've been blessed with a lifetime of wonderful memories and a true sense of what it feels like to belong to a loving family. Our dream is for our child to know this same feeling.

As a couple, the life we have created since meeting and marrying has been some of our most cherished years. We've known some heartache together: the loss of Faith's father and Jacob's grandmother. But mostly our life together has been full of love, laughter and adventures. But our most favorite adventure awaits! It has long been our prayer to start a family. We've tried and failed for many years on our own; but we firmly believe that God wastes nothing. As we've drawn closer to Him, the louder He placed adoption on our hearts. We call it our 'new hope'; and are so very excited for this next chapter of our lives.

We realize that you have a very difficult decision in choosing the best family for your child. We also know there are many beautiful families waiting and willing to love your child fiercely and unconditionally. That is our promise to you as well. We can offer your child a safe and loving environment, surrounded by a strong network of caring and supportive family and friends. Our dream is that your child would know love and happiness, every day of their life.

In our home, you will always be honored and respected. We also want you to know that we respect whatever level of communication you wish to have moving forward via letters, emails and photographs, so that you may share in precious moments and milestones; and gain comfort from seeing how much your child is loved and cared for. Should you desire, we'd love to make arrangements for future visits when the time is right.

Though our journeys down this path may look very different, we are connected and forever would be in the most important way … through the indescribable love we'd share for your child.

We pray that you have strength and peace as you consider your options. And we thank you again for considering us as parents for your precious little one.

Warmly,

Jacob & Faith