Adoption is a part of our life in many ways. Courtney's grandparents adopted her mom and uncle and she also has a close friend that is an adoptee and a birth mother. When we started talking about the possibility of adopting a child it was comforting to have family and friends that had their own adoption stories to turn to for support. All of their adoption stories were very different but the one thing they had in common was they always knew they were adopted. Their parents were very open and honest with them from the time they were babies and because of that they all had a tremendous amount of love and respect for their birth parents. We knew that we wanted to do that same thing with our adopted children and make their adoption story a part of our conversations from the beginning.

Because of the gift of adoption, we were able to become parents and a family of three in 2017. Adopting our son has been the greatest joy we have ever experienced. While he is still too young to understand everything, we have always talked about his birth parents and what a selfless decision adoption is. We feel very lucky that our children will have friends and family who have personal experiences with adoption and who can help them understand what a blessing it is to be an adopted child.

In our free time we love to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Stephen loves to fish and is passing that down to our son. In the spring and summer he goes fishing as often as possible and now that our son is able to start fishing himself we often go together as a family. We also love to go to local nature trails and walk and hike when we are able. Our son loves to be outside as much as we do and walking new trails is always an exciting time to see and experience new things.

Because we have a large yard, we are able to spend a lot of time playing sports and jumping on the trampoline. We play basketball, baseball, soccer, frisbee, really just about any sport you can imagine. In the summer we are able to set up sprinklers and water slides and create a little water park of our own. When the weather starts to cool down we enjoy having campfires and roasting marshmallows and hotdogs. We go for walks at least once a day while our son rides his bike through the neighborhood. We can't wait to share our love for the outdoors with another child.

We have a tremendous respect for you and we understand what a difficult decision this is for you to make. We want you to know that we will be forever grateful to you for trusting us to raise your child. We promise you that this child will always know who you are and what you did for them. We will make sure, as we have done with our son, that he or she will know that the decision you made was done out of love and the desire for them to have the best life possible. We aren't perfect people and certainly aren't perfect parents, but we will promise you that we will always do what is in our children's best interest. We will always be there to love and support our children and we will do everything we can to help them realize their dreams. We promise you that we will devote our life to making sure our children are able to lead the best lives possible and grow up in a happy home filled with love and laughter.

We live in an amazing neighborhood that is filled with kids of all ages! It is a small community that gets together to celebrate holidays and host fun family events throughout the year. Halloween is especially fun since we have a neighborhood scavenger hunt during the day and then we all gather for a movie in the backyard after roasting hotdogs and smores! We have neighbors with young children all around us and some of our best friends live right across the street. Our son plays with his friends almost daily and not a weekend goes by without some kind of a gathering with our neighbors.

We live in a two story home with three bedrooms and a loft that we use as a playroom. Our kitchen, dining room and living area make up our downstairs and is a perfect gathering place for our friends and family. We have a large backyard where we are able to play sports and jump on the trampoline year round and in the summer we have space for water fun. We love to host backyard events and spend a lot of time outside each day. Because we live in a small neighborhood with little traffic it is a very safe place for kids to play with their friends and ride their bikes and go for family walks. It is also wonderful to live in a community where everyone knows one another and someone is always willing to lend a hand.

We have a wonderfully supportive family and we enjoy spending as much time with them as we possibly can. Stephen’s family lives in Texas and Louisiana so we are not able to see everyone as often as we would like to, but we make the most of each visit we have. We have three nephews that we adore and our son looks forward to spending as much time as he can with his cousins. We all enjoy outdoor activities and spend lots time fishing, swimming, playing on water slides and playing sports together.

Courtney’s parents and sister live right around the corner so we are able to see them on a regular basis. We have frequent family dinners at our house and always host our family holidays. Connor enjoys being able to see his Aunt and Grandparents on a regular basis.

We feel extremely blessed to have such a loving, close, supportive family. Our son has so many people in his life that love him and everyone is excited at the possibility of welcoming another child into our family.

Hello! We want to thank you for taking the time to learn about our family. We are Stephen and Courtney and we have a son named Connor. We are very grateful for the opportunity to tell you a little about our life, our home, and our dreams for our future.

Fourteen years ago we met through mutual friends. We dated for two years and have been married for twelve years. Stephen is in the army and loves being able to serve his country. Courtney worked in human resources but was excited to become a stay-at-home mommy when we adopted our son. We both believe that raising a child is the most important job anyone can have and we feel it is important for her to be able to stay home and raise our children. We live in a two-story home in a wonderful neighborhood with three bedrooms, a playroom, and a large backyard with lots of room to run and play.

For many years we tried to conceive a child. Throughout the process we began to talk about what was really important to us. What we discovered was having the opportunity to love our future children was what we wanted more than anything. It was then that we knew the decision to pursue adoption was right for us and we decided to start the process right away. Adoption gave us this perfect little boy and our hearts were full. When we talked about what our family looked like we always imagined having two kids. When our son was two years old we started talking about the possibility of adding another child to our family. We spoke to our families about the possibility and we were met with nothing but support and excitement at the idea. Adoption has given us the opportunity to fulfill our dreams of becoming parents and now we hope to be able to give our son the blessing of a sibling and fill our home with more joy.

We love to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Most evenings we go for family walks and on the weekends we often spend most of the days playing in the backyard, walking the neighborhood, and spending time outdoors with friends and family. We love to play a family game of frisbee or soccer and then hop on the trampoline. It’s always a special treat when we can have a fire and roast marshmallows in the evening. Courtney loves to cook and we make sure to always have dinner together. Our son loves to be in the kitchen with her and has been learning to cut vegetables and help with the baking. She is excited to have another child to share her love of cooking with. After dinner Stephen plays music while we dance and clean the kitchen together. No matter what we are doing we always find ways to make it fun and we can't wait to share these things with another child.

We aren't perfect parents an can't promise you that we will be, but we can promise you this; in our home you will always be respected for your love, bravery, and selflessness. We will work every day to provide our children with every opportunity possible and to help them achieve their dreams. We will laugh every day; we will be there to celebrate their accomplishments and to comfort them through the tough times. We promise that we will stay in contact with you through letters and pictures. We are open to exchanging emails and text messages if that is something that you want and are comfortable with. We promise you we will provide a home filled with unconditional love, where you will always be respected and loved.

From the bottom of our hearts we thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Our greatest desire is to become a family of four and we thank you for considering us as adoptive parents.

Stephen & Courtney