Our Family
We are grateful that you are
exploring adoption for your baby. We understand it will be a difficult decision
and pray for your peace in knowing what is best for your baby. We admire your
courage and the love you have for your baby and know how important it is for
you to find a family for your baby that you can trust to always take care of
them and surround them in love.
Our names are Kevin and Jenny, and we met one another
17 years ago, in college, where we became wonderful friends. The more time we spent together, the
more we realized that God had more than friendship in His plans, and we married
just after graduation. Shortly
thereafter, we moved from Nebraska to South Carolina where we planned to start
our family. After many years of
trying to conceive, we learned that adoption would be our best option for
growing our family. In 2006, we
were blessed with the adoption of a son, Leo, who came into our home at 2 days
old. We then moved to Idaho and
settled into a beautiful mountain community. Two years later, we were blessed
again by bringing our daughter, 13-month-old Madeline, home from China.
Throughout our marriage, we have always been
a Christian family and attend church on a weekly basis, as well as enrich our
daily routine with opportunities for growing in our faith as a family. We teach our children about the
importance of God in their lives, how to pray, and how to make choices with God
in mind. Several years into our
marriage, we learned we were infertile, and were led by God to choose adoption
to grow our family. Sharing our
mutual love with our children has caused our hearts to grow bigger than we ever
knew possible, and we long to share that with another child. We feel that adding another child to
our family is the best gift we can give our children.
Our local community is very family friendly and
is the perfect size for getting to know a variety of people. We enjoy the outdoors in which this
area is abundant, such as camping, hiking, boating, swimming and exploring. There are fairgrounds where we attend many events such as
4-H animal shows, rodeos, and fairs. The local parks offer a wide array of
activities including fishing, baseball, indoor or outdoor pools, and nice new
equipment for children, tennis, skateboarding, concerts and more. There is a
nice lake close enough to enjoy camping and water activities. The church also
offers many family activities that we enjoy. Our desire is to instill the
value of being an active part of the community in our children. While encouraging them to be involved
in activities that they enjoy, it is also important that they recognize
opportunities to help their community through generosity and volunteering. We find that by doing these activities
ourselves, and by including them in age appropriate volunteering experiences,
they will learn the value and importance of helping not only our friends, but
also our entire community.
We enjoy hiking and biking together, and
fill our weekends with opportunities to enjoy the outdoors together. We also enjoy fishing and swimming
during the summer months, and go weekly to our local roller skating rink during
the winter. We take at least one
family vacation a year, and spend other vacations visiting our extended family
all over the country.
Kevin graduated from college with a Masters in
Physics. He is employed with an
engineering company, working Monday through Friday. He enjoys his work and sees
his career as an important contribution to our community. Kevin grew up the
oldest of three children, with two younger sisters. His mother works as a secretary for a school district, but
her love in life is being a Grammy to five grandchildren and she is very
involved with each of their lives. At 5’11”, Kevin is tall with dark brown hair
and blue eyes. Being more quiet
and reserved, he enriches our family with his gentle kindness and witty sense
of humor. To stay in shape, he
loves to run, and regularly runs 10Ks and the occasional 1/2 Marathon. He also loves to read (science-fiction,
thrillers) and do woodworking. He
has made several pieces of furniture for our home. He does most of the maintenance on our cars and learns new
skills all the time. He is a
wonderful father, taking every opportunity outside work to spend time with family. Kevin has the green thumb in our family
and works on a family garden each year, passing his skills onto the kids along
the way. He loves to take them
fishing, teach them woodworking, or even just window-shop at Costco while
catching all the samples. 
Jenny is a homeschooling mom,
and is thankful to have the opportunity to watch our children grow and
change. Graduating with a Bachelor
of Arts degree, she has worked in interior design, furniture design and floral
design. Seeking more part-time
employment, she worked as a preschool teacher for two years. During this time, we decided to live on
one income when our family grew, and Jenny has stayed home ever since Leo was
born. Jenny loves to read
(mysteries, historical fiction, science-fiction), and loves to write, though
doesn’t have as much time for that currently, other than updating their family
blog. At 5’3”, with blonde hair
and blue eyes, she is outgoing and enjoys planning social gathering with friends. Twice a month she hosts a women’s bible
study in her home, and enjoys that connection with other women. She loves to laugh, and her favorite
times are those spent playing games with family and friends. For fun she likes to run, exercise, and
cook. She writes a cooking column
for a monthly local magazine.
Jenny also works as a “jewelry lady” for a home-based jewelry company,
in which she does fashion shows for women and sells jewelry. We use the income from this business to
pay for expenses that come with adopting to grow our family. Jenny grew up the youngest in a family
of four children, her two brothers being adopted at birth, multi-racial
identical twins, and one biological sister. Her dad, also adopted at birth, is a retired minister and
her mom a retired nurse, and we visit them a few times during the year. Though they have divorced, they are
both happily remarried and we have added extra grandparents whom we love very
much. Jenny loves being a mom to
our two children and works hard to keep them active in the community. Once our homeschooling day is done, we
like to go to the library, go skating or swimming, or play with friends.
Leo is now five years old and was born in South
Carolina. He is a joy to have in
our family, and encourages us to be more adventurous. He loves the outdoors; where he can find bugs, cool sticks,
lizards and rocks. He also loves
outdoor sports such as fishing and boating, has tried out water-skiing, and
loves to ride his bike as well. A
highlight in his week is his Tae Kwon Do classes; he loves the intensity and
discipline, and will be happy to show his moves to anyone who will watch. He is a very outgoing, friendly little
boy who goes out of his way to make new friends wherever he goes. He loves to read and be read to, and is
a great brother to his little sister.
We have a semi-open adoption with his birth-mom, and send her pictures
every year.
Madeline is an amazing
addition to our family. Since day
one, she has turned our truck-bug-dirt oriented house into a flash of frilly
pink dresses. At four years old,
she absolutely loves to dress up as a princess, but will not hesitate to keep
up with her brother on a rock-hunt in the mud. She enjoys cuddling and coloring, and loves to learn new
things in school. Loving to do
flips, she enjoys her weekly dance class.
She is also quite outgoing, and enjoys sharing all her experiences
through her creative stories with anyone we meet. We have embraced her Chinese-heritage as a great addition to
our family, and get together regularly with her friends that have also been
adopted from China. 
We have two dogs, several fish, and enjoy occasional
salamanders or frogs. Being a
home-schooling family allows us flexibility in our schedule and a variety of
avenues to teach and learn.
Outside of schooling, the kids are involved in Tae Kwon Do and
Gymnastics. We are quite active in
our home-schooling community, enjoying several monthly opportunities to gather
for learning and fun through outings and field trips.
With our children, we have always been honest with them in
regards to their adoption into our family. They know that we cannot have children physically, and that
they grew in another’s tummy, which we call the tummy-mommy, or birth mom. We will continue to share this with
future children, and stress that we are overjoyed that they came into our
family. As they ask more
questions, we will answer them, age appropriately, to help them be assured of
who they are, where they come from, and how our family came together. When they are young, we feel it is best
not to meet a birth-parent in-person, but instead to focus on our bond with
them. Over time, and keeping in
mind what is best for the child, we will share with our child gradual
information of their birth parents if the child is seeking it out. We will commit to sending photos of the
child and letters each year until that child is 18, if a birth parent wishes to
have that.
We pray that you are blessed with comfort in your decision, and
hope this letter assures you that if you choose us to be your child’s adoptive
family we will love, care for, and cherish them each day of their life. We look forward to meeting you if you
desire.
Sincerely,
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