Our family is what you might call the "ultimate extroverts." Simply put, we enjoy spending time with people. Friends and family are very important to us and we want to spend quality time with them as much as we can. It could be a BBQ in the backyard, or a weekly co-rec softball game in the summer. It doesn't matter to us what we are doing, as long as we are doing it with people we love. As a family we enjoy the simple things. From being outside and taking a family walk to eating popcorn and watching a movie on a Friday night.

Another major part of our lives is a camp called FUSE that we volunteer with each year for adults with Muscular Dystrophy. It is a four-day camp in the hottest part of July, but well worth it for our hearts, minds, and souls. Dan sticks with the boys and helps with model rockets, race cars, and swim time with the campers. Laura spends her time staying up late with the campers, catching up on what we did throughout our year apart. She helps the campers getting ready for the dance, and tries to con them into doing something with her for the talent show. Every year we lose sleep, strain our muscles, and embarrass ourselves in front of the whole camp, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

We LOVE traditions! Some traditions are specific to holidays, while others, time of year. In the spring and summer, we love to hunt for Easter eggs, watch the HUGE town fireworks show, and spend the day at the pool during our annual "Friends Fest" on Labor Day. In the fall we enjoy the pumpkin patch, and college football games. One of Laura's favorites is Friend Thanksgiving, which includes costumes and a murder mystery! In the winter, we go sledding and start our VERY strong puzzle game. Laura's love of Christmas and all that in entails, means that decorating has become a big tradition. We watch "Elf" on repeat, and each bedroom gets it's own tree. (That's not weird, right?) A few years ago, we added in something we call Skatesmas. Our friends and their families get together with us and we all go roller skating, drink milk shakes and go old fashion Christmas caroling. Dan's favorite family tradition is Christmas Eve day! It's been something Laura's family has done since she was a baby, that started with just her father and siblings. Now it isn't just Laura's family, but Dan's mom comes too! We head into the city, stopping at different places to purchase all the food for our Christmas meal. We eat at the same BBQ restaurant every year, then stop at the mall for last minute gifts, and (of course) a carousel ride! To end the day we all attend a Christmas Eve service, then have snacks and play games before bed.

10. We celebrate all the time! Be it Ramsey learning to tie her shoe or marking something off our dream list. Accomplishments big and small are worth celebrating!

9. We LOVE holidays! Laura likes to decorate for them and Dan likes to invite people over and grill.

8. We have a real life, legit costume closet. Laura's dream is to organize it in sections of 80's, Christmas attire(there are a lot of sweaters and headbands), etc. People often call and ask if they can borrow something.

7. We are all extroverts, and love spending time with people.

6. We all love to travel! Be it just a short trip to stay the weekend with family, or a big planned trip to an all inclusive.

5. We love playing games! We especially enjoy card games.

4. We enjoy lazy days as much as we love days running around.

3. We don't mind doing weird things. We love to suggest the "funny face" photo, and see what people do.

2. We are the first on the dance floor! If you give us good tunes, we will dance, no matter where we are.

1. We put our friends and family first. Which means if something is important to one of them, it is important to us.

Our house sits up on a hill out in the country, just a few minutes from town. While we live in the country we do live in a neighborhood. Each house has a few acres, which gives everyone plenty of space to run around. We have a lake for fishing and canoeing, and horses right next door.

We built our home in 2015 with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. We have an unfinished basement, that we love to roller skate in as a family. It has an open floor plan with a huge island in the middle of the kitchen for sharing laughs and cooking breakfast.

The neighborhood is full of families and constantly has kids playing outside. Dan loves "working the land," and can be found doing lawn projects when he has a free weekend. Laura enjoys keeping the front porch decorated for each holiday or season, Christmas being her favorite.

If you go into the town, you will find a restaurant owned by Dan's family, with a park and a pool right across the street. We also have access to a private pool less than a mile away, and a family farm with a creek less than 15 minutes away that we enjoy throughout the spring, and summer months.

We are lucky enough to have both sides of our family live fairly close.

Dan's family lives within five minutes, which makes it easy to pop over on a Sunday for dinner and card games. Our daughter especially loves Thursdays. Since she was born, Dan's dad has picked her up from daycare and enjoyed an evening with her. They enjoy going to the park together, or visiting Gigi (Great Grandma).

Laura's side of the family has tons of traditions, mostly centered around music. Sometimes we all like to go to the theater to see a fun musical, or have a barn dance at her sister's farm with our friends and extended family. Dan has always enjoyed this about Laura's family. His mother took him to a Blue Grass festival every year as a child and they still continue that tradition now. So when he met Laura, it was a great surprise that they had the love of music in common. He especially loves when he has a chance to listen to her sing. She sang in a band for about five years, and he hopes that she will be able to do that again in the future.

Both sides of the our family are excited about us moving forward with adoption.

We first want to say how much we appreciate you taking the time to learn about us! We can't imagine how difficult this decision has been for you. And we are so thankful that you are taking the time to find the right fit, even if that isn’t us.

We have been married for almost eight years. We have one daughter, Ramsey, who is 6 years old. We would tell you that from the start of our relationship we have always been goal oriented. We started discussing very early on, what we wanted our family to look like. We knew we wanted multiple children. We knew wanted to build a home in the country on a little piece of land that we could call our own. Dan wanted to get his Master's Degree in Education Administration and one day become an elementary school principal. Laura wanted to follow in many of her family members footsteps and own her own business. We wanted to become debt free, so we could live and give like many other's can't. We recognize we had help along the way, but our dreams and goals have always been a big part of what makes up our family. And we are happy to say that we have accomplished a lot on our list, with just one major one left, which is growing our family by at least one more.

We are so excited to see what the Lord has in store for us, and what little one is meant to complete our family. We will be honest with you, while we don't know your situation yet, we are probably feeling some of the same things you are feeling. We are scared, anxious, and not sure how everything works just yet. But we are also very hopeful and excited to see where this road leads us. We are very excited to provide our future son or daughter a loving home, and a (slightly sassy) big sister.

We plan to raise our children to work hard, love the Lord, and have fun! We want them to learn to play music, which they can always enjoy no matter what they do in their life. We want them to have the opportunity to play sports so they can learn how to work as a team. We value education and know that it looks different to everyone. We want to help our children figure out what that looks like to them. Be it college, trade school, or something different entirely. We intend to raise them to be respectful and inclusive to everyone. We always want our door to be open to our children, through all the highs and lows. Through all of the highs and lows. We hope by instilling in them what was instilled in us, then when they are adults, we will have not only great relationships, but great friendships as well.

We want you to have a role in our child's life, because you are significant to us. What that role is, is whatever you choose it to be. But know, we are interested in getting to know you, and keeping you updated with what is happening in our lives. We are more than open to sharing photos and emails with you. We plan to be open and honest with our child in regards to their adoption. We want to make sure they understand that they are loved by you and that this decision wasn't easy. You will always be reflected positively to them.

Again, thank you for considering us as potential parents for your child. We know your decision isn't being taken lightly, and we appreciate that. We will continue to pray for you and the baby daily, and appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit about ourselves with you.

Dan & Laura