Basic Info
Elizabeth
Ethnicity: White
Religion: Christian
Denomination: Catholic
Matt
Ethnicity: White
Religion: Christian
Denomination: Catholic
Elizabeth & Matt
Texas
Intro
About
Work & Education
Elizabeth
Education: Doctoral Degree
Profession: Philanthropy Leader
Matt
Education: Doctoral Degree
Profession: Nonprofit Leader
Post-Adoption Relationship
Open (Open to contact, phone calls, in person visits before adoption. Sharing photos and letters after placement. Visits at neutral location after adoption, etc.). If you want a more closed adoption, we would honor that request as well.
Environment
Country: USA
State: Texas
Parent Relationship: Married
Parent Neighborhood: Urban
Parent Years Together: 15 to 20 years
Parent Residency: House
Parent Pets: No
Children At Home: No children
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual parents
Preferences for a child
Age: Newborn to 1 year of age, 1 to 3 years of age
Gender: Either
Multiple Children: All
Race/Ethnicity: All
Special Needs: Open to discussion
Certification 
Gladney Center for Adoption verified this family completed an adoption homestudy including: background checks, character references, official interviews, required training, home inspection, financial review, etc. and are approved for adoption.
Our Family and Adventures
We are excited to meet you!
Hello, We are Matt & Elizabeth
As you consider this profile and our story, we want you to know that we will love your child with our full hearts, and we will raise them to have every opportunity and every possibility we know you would want for them.
We are very excited to share our family with you.
We imagine that the moments that brought you to this moment have been full of emotions, and we have deep empathy for what you have gone through and the decisions you’ve faced. As you consider this profile and our story, we want you to know that we will love your child with our full hearts, and we will raise them to have every opportunity and every possibility we know you would want for them. We will cherish them and nurture them along the path to discover who they are, what makes them unique, special, and very loved.
This profile is for you to get to know us, our families, our lives, and who we are as a couple. If our paths align, we would be so excited to meet you!
We are very excited to share our family with you.
We imagine that the moments that brought you to this moment have been full of emotions, and we have deep empathy for what you have gone through and the decisions you’ve faced. As you consider this profile and our story, we want you to know that we will love your child with our full hearts, and we will raise them to have every opportunity and every possibility we know you would want for them. We will cherish them and nurture them along the path to discover who they are, what makes them unique, special, and very loved.
This profile is for you to get to know us, our families, our lives, and who we are as a couple. If our paths align, we would be so excited to meet you!
Our Story
Our time as teachers taught us that a lot of smart kids are overlooked because they don’t know all the rules of school, and sometimes they need one adult to advocate, care, and help them navigate a system that wasn’t set up to help them.
Our Wedding
We are each other’s best friends, and our family is filled with love, joy, adventure, learning, and laughter.
We met as teachers in Oklahoma. Matt was a middle school teacher and had a classroom across the hall from Elizabeth, who taught the 5th grade. We fell in love with each other’s desire to help others and a shared love of learning and education.
We poured our entire selves into that school. Matt wrote and directed the school plays and gave students who were normally forgotten a chance to show their talents. Elizabeth would stay after school to be the champion of kids who struggled and always ensured that they never felt alone. Everything she did was to ensure that every student felt cared for and safe.
Our time as teachers taught us that a lot of smart kids are overlooked because they don’t know all the rules of school, and sometimes they need one adult to advocate, care, and help them navigate a system that wasn’t set up to help them. We take that mentality into our work now, how we interact with our nieces, and how we will parent in the future.
We met as teachers in Oklahoma. Matt was a middle school teacher and had a classroom across the hall from Elizabeth, who taught the 5th grade. We fell in love with each other’s desire to help others and a shared love of learning and education.
We poured our entire selves into that school. Matt wrote and directed the school plays and gave students who were normally forgotten a chance to show their talents. Elizabeth would stay after school to be the champion of kids who struggled and always ensured that they never felt alone. Everything she did was to ensure that every student felt cared for and safe.
Our time as teachers taught us that a lot of smart kids are overlooked because they don’t know all the rules of school, and sometimes they need one adult to advocate, care, and help them navigate a system that wasn’t set up to help them. We take that mentality into our work now, how we interact with our nieces, and how we will parent in the future.
Why Adoption
We both have wonderful friends and family who are adopted or have adopted children, and we put our full hearts into this decision.
At the beach
We faced some hard times early in our marriage, and we were uncertain that it was wise to bring a child into that environment. We both invested in working through these tough times together, and we grew and evolved in a similar direction. Through the tough times, we emerged stronger as a couple and more confident than ever that we would be married forever, and we wanted to grow our family by having children.
We struggled for many years to conceive children naturally, and while the decision to stop trying was filled with some grief, it also came with relief that there were other paths to achieving our original intention – adding children to our family. Like early in our marriage, we faced this head-on and together. We both have wonderful friends and family who are adopted or have adopted children, and we put our full hearts into this decision.
Supporting each other’s dreams is very important, and we are certain that adoption is how we want to grow our family.
We struggled for many years to conceive children naturally, and while the decision to stop trying was filled with some grief, it also came with relief that there were other paths to achieving our original intention – adding children to our family. Like early in our marriage, we faced this head-on and together. We both have wonderful friends and family who are adopted or have adopted children, and we put our full hearts into this decision.
Supporting each other’s dreams is very important, and we are certain that adoption is how we want to grow our family.
Our Promise
We promise to give them a loving home with caring parents.
Hiking
We know with certainty that adopting children is how we want to become parents, and we promise that our child will be surrounded by a loving family who cherishes them and provides them with a lifetime of support.
We promise to create a home full of joy, laughter, love, and stability. We commit to understanding our child’s talents and struggles so that we can support them in the unique and individualized ways that match their specific personalities. We will not shy away from addressing difficult moments or emotions. We will teach our child the skills and tools to navigate these moments, and we will stand alongside them every step of the way. We promise to give them a loving home with caring parents. They will have a family who will support and celebrate them throughout their entire lives.
We promise to create a home full of joy, laughter, love, and stability. We commit to understanding our child’s talents and struggles so that we can support them in the unique and individualized ways that match their specific personalities. We will not shy away from addressing difficult moments or emotions. We will teach our child the skills and tools to navigate these moments, and we will stand alongside them every step of the way. We promise to give them a loving home with caring parents. They will have a family who will support and celebrate them throughout their entire lives.
Post-Adoption Relationship
Open (Open to contact, phone calls, in person visits before adoption. Sharing photos and letters after placement. Visits at neutral location after adoption, etc.). If you want a more closed adoption, we would honor that request as well.
Certification
Gladney Center for Adoption verified this family completed an adoption home study including: background checks, character references, official interviews, required training, home inspection, financial review, etc. and are approved for adoption.
Posts
Traveling
Traveling is a big part of our relationship, and we enjoy all the trips that take us to cool weather and natural beauty. Big trees and mountains bring us peace, and some of our favorite memories are adventures hiking up a mountain, taking a long walk on the beach, or running together in a new city. This time allows us to connect, talk, and be healthy. Some of our favorite places include Big Sur, CA; Sun Valley, Idaho; and the Oregon Coast. We have a rule when hiking: you can start talking about the post-hike meal once you reach the halfway point! We are excited to bring our future child along with us on our travels and introduce them to the beauty of this amazing world.
Our Time Together
We find great joy in spending time together! We have spent the first 14 years of our marriage committed to our jobs and professional growth. Our careers remain focused on improving the communities in which we live by providing children with access to quality academic experiences and mental health services. We are both proud to be the leaders in our organizations, and this gives us job flexibility to, when we have children, spend time raising them. When we are not working, we absolutely love spending time with family, traveling, cooking, walking in the neighborhood, reading, or enjoying a sporting event together. Each evening, we cook and eat dinner together at the kitchen table. We are both a little competitive, and this spirit of friendly competition translates into our shared enjoyment of sports – especially football, basketball, and running. While Matt is faster, and Elizabeth can run farther! We are good at knowing who is best at each talent and dividing roles accordingly.
Our Family
We are both the oldest siblings in our families! Matt has one sister and two brothers, and Elizabeth has two sisters, all married to wonderful people. We have six nieces who we love very much, and we spend as much time with them as possible. Elizabeth’s family has a house on the Oregon Coast, and family time often means gathering along the seashore. Matt’s siblings live across the country, and time together involves traveling to their cities to spend time with aunts, uncles, nieces, and grandparents. We cook and eat together, and we celebrate family birthdays and holidays with gatherings that include our parents, siblings, in-laws, and nieces. These gatherings often conclude with a family dance party! We have a wonderful extended family, and they know adoption well –we have several extended family members and close friends who are adopted.
Meet Elizabeth
When Elizabeth sets her mind on something, it will get done - no matter what the obstacles, she will figure out a solution. Elizabeth knows what it means to struggle. She became a teacher to help students who were like her - intelligent and eager to please, but who hadn’t figured out how to succeed in school. Elizabeth is constantly thinking about how she can make everything around her better. Elizabeth is a caretaker. She plans lunches, puts cute notes on them to make Matt feel special, and still finds time to run with her friends. She loves nature and is the happiest on a mountain, in a forest, or with her feet in the ocean. Elizabeth’s current job is to provide support for education and healthcare within our community, and it is the thread that has been true in all she’s done. She has always done everything she could to make sure everyone has a fair chance in life. What people don’t know about Elizabeth is that she loves a cup of warm milk, a cozy blanket, and a cold winter run. She is afraid of heights, does not like loud concerts, and is inspired by any story where the underdog wins. Hobbies - Playing with her nieces Reading books (paperback not eBooks!) - Documentaries and historical fiction movies - Browsing through local bookstores - Running - Traveling with Matt - Handwriting thank you cards
Meet Matt
Matt is inquisitive, intelligent, a creative problem solver, imaginative, and incredibly patient and understanding. Matt reads instruction manuals from front to back, makes sure we have updated fire extinguishers, and he checks all food labels for expiration dates. He completes the crossword puzzle every day, and he oversees all technology in our house. Matt’s job is to support individuals struggling with mental health challenges. He has advanced education degrees in his professional field which gives him the knowledge to be successful, but what he really appreciates is how his work keeps him involved in the local community and connected to the adversity that many young children and adults face each day. This gives him understanding, appreciation, and empathy for our community. What people don’t know about Matt is that he is a great cook. He does not follow recipes but makes delicious meals by combining our favorite ingredients. Matt is the best storyteller. His nieces get excited when he sits on the couch with them and tells stories with them as the heroes. He likes his coffee black, fears spiders, and he cooks the best salmon ever. He doesn’t like sticky surfaces, and he can fix anything. Most of all, Matt is my (Elizabeth) biggest champion. He stands alongside me when things are hard and cheers for me when I’m doing well. Matt is simply the best. Hobbies Making really good coffee - Cooking dinner - Reading - Great movies - Learning about obscure topics - Swimming in our pool Crossword puzzles - ‘Regular’ puzzles Exercising - Traveling with Elizabeth