We first me when we were only in grade school. Our families became close friends since we attended the same school and Church. In 3rd grade, Connor's parents helped Julie's family move into a new house and spotted the house across the street for sale, leading us to become neighbors. As little kids, along with our siblings, we would play together after school almost every day, riding bikes through the neighborhood, fishing in the neighborhood pond and building forts in our backyards. Julie's family moved away when she was in the 7th grade, but our families remained close friends.

When Connor attended college near Julie's home he would spend long weekends and holidays with her family. We would stay up late with Julie's brothers talking about life and playing games. It was during these years that we developed a deep friendship, but it was not until after both of us graduated college and moved away from home, Connor to Hawaii and Julie to California, that we both finally admitted that we'd had secret crushes for quite a while. Our lifelong friendship has now turned into an amazing marriage with lots of fun memories together!

Our love for Jesus is central to our home and to our lives. We were both raised in Christian homes and are so grateful to our parents for teaching us the faith and values we hold most important. Our faith has been our guide as we strive to become the people God calls us to be and the family we hope to have. Our love for God and our experience of God's immense love for us are the foundation of our lives.

We aspire for our home to be a place where we cultivate a faith filled family and pass on the traditions we hold dear. Our children will be welcomed joyfully into our diverse church community and family. A belief we hold important and will strive to share with our children is the deep respect for all life and the dignity of each individual and unique person.

We aim for our lives to be lived for others and it is this aim that has contributed to our careers in the military and health care field. We hope to inspire our future children to use their faith and unique gifts and talents, whatever they may be, to impact the world.

Adoption has been a part of our extended family for years. Connor has two cousins that were adopted as infants and Julie's cousin has two adopted sons. Julie's goddaughter was also adopted from China by close family friends. We are so grateful that our family and friends have already experienced adoption and know the beautiful blessing that it is. We know our lives and our families would not be the same without these special five people.

Just recently Connor's cousin shared with the entire family that with the help of her mom and dad, she had reconnected with her birth family. It was really special to witness the joy of the extended family and the response of excitement at the prospect of more people for all of us to call family. It gives us so much confidence that we have great support and love as we walk down this path.

We live in a beautiful old home full of character in Newport, RI. Our home is in a residential neighborhood just next to the downtown area that sits on the water, and in the winter when the leaves have fallen we get a beautiful view of the water from our windows. Across the street is a beautiful church with a park that was hosting a pumpkin patch the day we moved in. One of our favorite parts of our neighborhood is that we can walk to our church, St. Joseph, just down the street which is a vibrant parish with many families.

A unique part of our lives is our military community. We move every few years, which means a new home and new neighborhood, but the military community is steady and consistent. We have friends that followed us from California to Newport and will follow us from Newport to our next base when it is time to move. We have many close friends in the military, so we always cross paths with old friends at each assignment. The military is an incredibly tight knit community, with many resources from play groups and schools to volunteer opportunities, holiday celebrations, family support groups and so much more. It is an amazing group of people from so many walks of life that has an amazing way of making everywhere we have lived feel like home.

Family is a huge part of our lives. Julie is the third of seven siblings and Connor is the oldest of four, and between the two of us we have an abundance of extended family. We would both say without reservation the greatest gifts our parents gave us are our siblings. Growing up in large families we were surrounded by love, support, and lasting friendships. To this day our cousins and siblings are some of our favorite people.

When Julie’s family is together we have big family dinners followed by exciting game nights. When we get together with Connor’s side of the family there is lots of storytelling and laughter followed by movie nights with popcorn. While having the entire family together is amazing some of our favorite times with family are with our individual siblings and their families, especially time with our nieces and nephews. We had the opportunity to live near two of Julie’s siblings the past two years and our three families would get together for family fun at least once a month. While being a military family may seem that we wouldn’t see family often, the blessing of a large family is that we have never failed to live within reach of family.

Our families are some of our greatest supporters on our journey to adopt and we are thrilled to bring a new child into everyone’s lives. We have no doubt about the immense amount of love ready to be poured out onto this child.

We are so grateful for our life together and are excited to have a child to share this life with. Julie is a pediatric nurse, finding her home in nursing to be at the bedside of sick babies. The opportunity to care for these sick children and their families is an immense privilege and she is so grateful for the knowledge she has learned and brings to her next role as a stay at home mom. Connor is a Naval Officer and his career with the surface Navy means he has had the opportunity to serve on a number of Naval ships. His assignments have brought deployments and time at sea but also rewarding adventures and travels as a family, as well the ability to serve alongside remarkable men and women. We have a happy and wonderful home life and home is wherever we are together. Days spent outside together hiking, paddling or just relaxing on the beach with a book are the best. We love welcoming family and friends into our home and hosting dinner and game night, cards are our favorite, is always fun!

We became close friends when we were only in grade school and that friendship turned to something much greater as we grew older. We began dating after college and knew within months that this was it. We have been married almost three years now and it is a complete joy to be married to your best friend, we share not just memories of our years as a couple but so many happy childhood memories together, and we dream of all the memories we will make with our own children. We spoke of children from the early days of dating and have always hoped for a big, loud, crazy family. We have always been open to adoption and when we had trouble getting pregnant it was clear to see where God was leading us.

We want you to know we are here because we long to love a child with no reservations. The journey to adoption has been a beautiful story of growth for us, growth in love for each other as we’ve poured ourselves into the words you read here, growth in love for the child we hope to love and raise as ours, growth in admiration for the birth family who is facing tough decisions and choosing great love, and growth in our faith as we have felt called to have a family built through adoption. We believe one of the most beautiful parts of adoption that we want our child to know is that they are chosen. Chosen and wanted so much by us, chosen and loved by you and chosen uniquely by God.

Over the past few years we have watched our siblings raise their children and it has only increased our hopes for children of our own. We love our life and adventures together and are grateful for all the time we have had as a family of two, but we are ready to grow. Our family is overjoyed at the hope of growing again and there are grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins so excited to welcome this child into the family. We promise this child will be raised surrounded by love, family that is present and supporting, with faith in God and knowledge that they are known and loved by Him, a chance to see new places as the military takes us from one assignment to the next, an opportunity to explore their gifts and talents whatever they be, and an environment to flourish and grow.

As the years go by we promise to keep in touch through email and letters. We will love to share photos and stories and if it is something you would want, arrange for a visit in the first few years. Please know we want our child to know you and know that they come from a place of love. We are venturing into a lifelong journey that will include you in our family in a very special way and we can’t wait to meet you.

Sincerely,

Connor & Julie