Our lifestyle is flexible. We both have excellent careers that we love, and that allow us to be around for all of life's tiniest and biggest moments. We enjoy traveling with friends and family just as much as we do staying in and cuddling up on the couch. The choices we have made, have allowed us the means to travel the world and see all of the wonderful things it has to offer. We can't wait for the opportunity to share the world with your child as well. Our lives are filled with brilliant colors, people, and sounds. Colors like those found in the grassy hills of Ireland and the bright pastel colored buildings in Puerto Rico. Sounds like laughter and giggles in a backyard fort. People like family huddled around a Christmas tree that is overflowing with gifts. And our lifestyle has allowed us the opportunity to share our love of life with your child if you choose us to be parents.

There isn't enough room to share all of our family traditions but some of our favorites involve spending time together with family. At Christmas time every year we dig out the holiday family heirlooms like the Santa collection Lauren's parents passed down to her. As a family we hang all the old homemade ornaments, made by generations of children in our families, on the twinkling tree. We bicker about who will get to wear the silly old smelly Santa hat while baking holiday treats to give friends and neighbors.

We don't just celebrate the good times together though, we also come together to support each other through the challenging times. When Lauren and Brad learned that having a baby the traditional way wasn't an option right now for them, they told their families. At which point their families took turns calling and visiting them to share funny stories about how Lauren and Brad were accident prone as kids, so adopting would likely mean they could be blessed with a child that stood a chance at not tripping over their own feet.

Family takes priority in our lives. Family isn't defined only by last names or by blood. Family is defined by commitment and by love. It means showing up when they need it most. It means having each other's backs. It means choosing to love each other even on those days when you struggle to like each other. Family means never giving up on each other. When we say that family is a priority we mean it. If you were to gift us with a child, that child, and you would become family to us. Our commitment to loving something you created could never be argued because we would never give up them. Family isn't just an important thing, it is everything.

After all, it isn't what we have in life, it is who we have in life that truly matters. There is an old saying that we can't always choose the music life plays, but we can choose how we dance to it. That is really meaningful to us because you get to choose if we become parents, but we got to choose to dance down this path.

We are building a beautiful new home that will be ready very soon. Our new home will have 4 bedrooms with stunning lake and community park views. One of these bedrooms would make for a serene nursery for your child. Your child who would grow up never wanting for anything and spoiled by their new grandparents. These grandparents could swing for hours with your tiny miracle, at the swing in front of our new home. The new home also has a dedicated office space for Brad. Brad will be the cool dad, that works from home so that he can meet your child for lunch when they go off to elementary school someday. Speaking of school, Lauren is a second grade teacher at the A+ school your child would be attending with her someday. There won't be any missed awards ceremonies, class parties, or performances, because Lauren would be the mom that works at the school just down the hallway from the little munchkin you brought into this world. After long school days we could come home and sit at the kitchen table and do homework with dad, while mom cooks dinner. During summers we can float for hours in our pool or go kayaking on the river that is connected to our neighborhood dock. Speaking of neighbors there would always be someone waving hello from their porch when your child was riding their bike with their friends down the private tree lined streets of our neighborhood.

Family time to us is always time that is well spent. While our families are loud and chaotic at times, they are also supportive and accepting. We were both taught early that family comes first and that when they need you, be it in a crisis or in a time of joy, you show up. To us family doesn't stop at blood, the definition of family to us is those whom we choose to surround ourselves with. We choose people that bring joy and meaning to our lives, and we call those people family too. Family should be a big, beautiful, messy collection of souls that were placed on this Earth to laugh and cry, share and give with each other. Our family is unique and bringing your child, into our lives, would be the greatest gift anyone could ever bestow upon us. Your child will be loved and cherished every day. You will be loved and cherished every day for gifting us with something we have yearned for desperately. Lauren's grandparents used to say that, "Fate make our relatives, and choice makes our friends." Lauren and Brad say, that choice is the everything in life. Choice builds us all up, and your choice can bring the ring of a laughter and pitter-patter of tiny feet to our lives.

A letter from Lauren on behalf of Lauren & Brad:

Dear Birth Mother,

That "dear" seems very formal doesn't it? We feel like "Hi birth momma" is much more us. I'm Lauren and my husband Brad is sitting here beside me, cuddling our little old man dog that is afraid of thunder. We are from the sunshine state, but we guess no one told our pound puppy that summers here are puddle hopping wet and that it would sound like the clouds grew arms and learned to clap almost every afternoon. Between us Brad loves the attention he gets from Apollo, that's the old man dog, he is always saying soft sweet things to him like "who's my buddy" and "it's okay I'm here". Shhhh don't tell him I shared that. I guess that's the perk of being the person typing the letter.

Anyway, Brad and I met back in 2014, and we have pretty much been inseparable ever since. I'm not sure either of us believed in soulmates till we met each other. Even now that seems silly to say right, soulmates? I don't think we'd have another way to express the love and faith we have in each other without that word. It seems so odd to think that a person could go their whole life and never meet their other half. Then out of nowhere be shopping one day for a coffee table or a lamp and as fast as it takes to blink, there that person is. That's how it happened for us. The adults that we were, I was looking for a less broken coffee table that my mom would stop complaining looked like it had survived a war zone, and he was looking for a lamp after his got fell off his desk. We came around a corner and bumped butts passing each other. I paused and made a bad joke along the lines of, "You'll have to buy me dinner first." And Brad burst out laughing that I had made that terrible joke, I'd learn later and every day since that he's all about terrible dad jokes. I pointed at the coffee table in front of us and said "How adult do you think a person would have to be to have a glass coffee table?" He replied, "well about as old as a person would have to be to have their own Lazyboy sitting chair." We laughed together this time and we introduced ourselves. Almost 5 hours later we were sitting in a model living room in the furniture store still talking, when a sales person came up to us and said they were about to close and we'd have to come back tomorrow. "Tomorrow?" we said together. How could that even be? We had just sat down, hadn't we? Surprise we hadn't.

Fast forward…When we were told that a traditional pregnancy wasn't going to be an option for us we embraced it as a challenge. While we were saddened by this hiccup it was just that a hiccup. A blip that rallied our families around us. We realized that wasn't the end of building our own family it was just a new beginning. We discovered open adoptions, a chance to change a life. There were wonderful folks out there just like you looking to do something incredible for their child, something that hopefully we can do with you. If you were comfortable choosing us we'd love to have the chance to share the love we would have for your child with you, through letters, photos, drawings, and if you were comfortable with it even visits. After all it take a village to raise a child. A village of love they would get from their active life with us and their history with you, people that we would never let be overlooked for forgotten.

I'm sure we've rambled on to long, but let us leave you with this…You have the power to create a family. To give a gift we would never forget. A precious life that we would give our own lives to protect.

All Our Love,

Brad & Lauren