When we are home we enjoy playing cards and board games (we are extremely competitive and enjoy beating each other at UNO Attack). We also enjoy going to the movies and seeing the newest movie that is out. We take Draco (our German Shepherd) out on walks and play ball with him in our large back yard. We both enjoy reading. Deidre enjoys reading mystery and suspense books while Pat enjoys a good science fiction book. Pat loves to cook and grill, he likes seeing people enjoy his food. When we are not working we love to travel. Deidre's goal is to visit all fifty states. We only have seven states left and then Deidre has visited all fifty. After we visit all the states we look forward to traveling internationally and seeing the world.

Deidre enjoys snow skiing very much. She has been doing it since she was a kid. Deidre has tried to get Pat to ski a few different times but coordination is not one of Pat's strengths. We both love to see and try new things while we travel. We have gone snowmobiling at night in New Mexico, star gazing in Hawaii and moose watching in Maine. We just try to enjoy the moments we have with each other. Sometimes our family joins us. Our biggest thing we look forward to is sharing our future adventures with our child and hearing them tell their own stories about it as they grow.

We plan on being incredibly open with our child about their adoption. We plan on them knowing who their birth mother is (if that is what the birth mother wants) and sharing her story with him/her. We plan on having ongoing discussions with our child as they grow into their own person. We know that conversations will change as they get older, and their questions will also. We will always be honest with our child and would encourage them to reach out to their birth mother, so they have a firsthand account of their blood line. We want them to know who they are and not be afraid of that.

As our child grows we would continue to educate ourselves on how to have meaningful conversations with our child about his/her adoption. We have a lot of love to give, and we want to share it with them. We know we won’t always have the answers immediately and we may have to look into them which we know they will understand.

We enjoy our family traditions that we have throughout the year. We go to sporting events and try to get to a baseball game, football game and hockey game throughout the year. We enjoy going to concerts and shows. We try to go to a few different concerts or shows throughout the year to see new things. Occasionally, other family members join us. We have many holiday traditions. We love to decorate the house for Halloween and hand out candy to the kids. We love to see them smile when Pat gives them large handful of candy and watch as they get pictures with our decorations. On Thanksgiving, Pat cooks dinner, and we have the family over and sometimes friends join us. After Thanksgiving Day, we go to the local tree lot and pick out a real tree and decorate it. We always buy a new ornament each year that we get either during our travels or from the local Christmas store. We attend church and open a gift on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day we wake up early (Pat is like a big kid) open gifts and make breakfast. Then we make dinner for our family. A couple days later we celebrate a second Christmas when Deidre’s sister and family come down. Both sides of the family get together and have a great time. On Easter we attend church, have Easter baskets, an egg hunt (depending on which family members are here) and make dinner for everyone.

Family is one of the most important things to both of us. Pat's dad (Doug) and Deidre's mom (Judy) and older brother (Darryl) live close to us and we are lucky to be able to spend time with them often. Deidre's sisters (Paige and Amanda) live in Ohio with their families, and we get to see them a few times a year.

We celebrate holidays with our families. Pat cooks dinner on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas and we have the local family come over and we are all able to spend time together, laugh and have a good time. We also celebrate a second Christmas when Paige and her family fly down. Both sides of the family get together. We joke around and enjoy spending time with each other.

We enjoy traveling on our vacations. We have been extremely fortunate because Paige and her family love traveling also, and we have had many adventures along the way. We went hiking in Maine, went snowmobiling and stargazing in New Mexico, visited a zoo in Nebraska, went to a wedding in South Dakota, and we went tubing and skiing in Utah.

We go to concerts, shows, sporting events and movies with our family. We enjoy local events with our family (i.e. candle making, pottery painting and soap making). Card and board games are also a must.

Our entire family is excited to have our child in everyone’s lives. There is a lot of love to go around with this family.

We live close to different beaches, museums, amusement parks, zoos and aquariums. We are not at a shortage for different adventures to share with our child. Our local recreation center has a pool and we have many local parks by us (one of them just opened up a new playground). One of the other local parks has a large Christmas light display that you can walk through during the holidays. We are extremely fortunate and live close to an elementary school with a diverse population, so we have kids all around our neighborhood.

During Halloween we like to hand out candy to the local kids. We enjoy watching the children smile from ear to ear as Pat gives each of them a large handful of candy. We go through a cooler worth of candy each year from all of the local kids coming to our house.

Our house is very quaint. We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, sunroom, and laundry room. We have a large backyard where our German Shepherd (Draco) loves to run around and we look forward to spending time with our child out there. Pat's favorite room is the kitchen. He loves to cook and grill. Deidre and Pat's favorite room together is the front room where we enjoy watching movies together and playing games with each other.

First and foremost, thank you. Thank you for considering adoption and making some family incredibly happy. We realize it is a difficult decision and even if you do not choose us we just wanted to start by saying thank you for making some family complete.

We have been friends for fifteen years and have been together for seven of them. We were married almost six years ago. We started our journey together later in life and started our journey of having a family immediately. Now our journey has led us to adoption. We have always been open to adoption to complete our family. We believe love is love and we have a lot of love to give our child.

We want our child to be the best person he/she can be. We want our child to choose a career path that makes them happy. Deidre has a Master’s Degree in Education and Pat has some college education. Deidre is an elementary school teacher. Pat is a manager at a retail flooring store (this year is his fifteen-year anniversary). We both love what we do and enjoy going to work every day. Our goal is to raise our child to be a good person who knows the difference between right and wrong. We know they will make mistakes along the way, but we want to be there to help guide them and let them know just because they made a mistake it does not mean they are a bad person.

We are incredibly open to an open adoption. We would love to keep in contact with you (pictures, emails, calls, whatever you are comfortable with) and keep you in our child's life. We will be honest with the child from the very beginning and let them know that they are adopted and where they came from. We have no problem letting them know who you are and letting them communicate with you as they get older (again, on your comfort level). We want to keep you informed as much or as little as you are comfortable with as our child grows.

We are simple people who live fairly simple lives. We love to laugh and have a good time. We enjoy traveling and trying new things. We are excited and look forward to showing our child the world too. We want them to experience new things they have never seen or done before, try different foods and see different cultures. We want our child to grow and be well mannered and respectful of everyone they meet in life. Some of our favorite activities are spending time with friends and family, playing cards and board games, and going to the movies. We love to try new local events such as pottery painting, glass melting, cooking classes, etc. We try to include Draco, our German Shepherd, who loves people, in as much as we can. He has traveled with us locally to places like the beach, the park or to get ice cream or out of state on some of our adventures. We look forward to him being best friends with our future child. We want the child to be open to new adventures and ideas. Family traditions are important to us especially as our family grows. We have a lot of traditions that we look forward to sharing with our child. If you have any traditions that you have that you would like us to continue please let us know. Again, we want the child to know where they came from and we would love to tie in some of your traditions with ours.

Our family and friends are all extremely excited to meet our newest family member. They all have big hearts and unique personalities. There will be no shortage of love because our child will be constantly surrounded by it.

Thank you for taking your time to read our profile. We appreciate you and your future child no matter where they go. Thank you for being you.

Love,

Pat & Deidre