Letter
Our Promise to You
what we want more than anything is to raise a kind human who treats others well and puts goodness into the world
This is us!
We know that the choice you’re making by considering adoption for your child is an incredibly difficult choice to make. We have so much admiration for you already simply by being loving enough and brave enough to make that decision. Our promise to you is that we’re dedicated to providing our future child with a warm, loving home where they’ll be nurtured, supported, and valued for exactly who they are. It’s important to us that our future child knows where they came from and that you always have a place in their story. We also want to say Thank You. Thank you for taking the time to look at our profile, thank you for making such a difficult choice, and thank you for giving a family like us the chance to be parents. What you are doing is so powerful, and we admire you so much for your strength.
Our greatest goal is to build a happy life for our child where they'll constantly surrounded by people who love them, support them, and help us teach them the values we want them to learn. More than anything, we want to teach our child:
That it’s ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them
To love and appreciate everyone for exactly who they are
To love and appreciate THEMSELVES for exactly who they are
That there’s so much more to the world than just what’s around them
To be adventurous and try new things (especially when it comes to food!)
To explore art, nature, and the world around them
To always be open-minded to learning new things
To respect the differences of others
To be kind (as Jaclyn used to tell her students, “Be a good dude.”)
As theatre people, empathy and kindness are very important to us, and what we want more than anything is to raise a kind human who treats others well and puts goodness into the world.
Our greatest goal is to build a happy life for our child where they'll constantly surrounded by people who love them, support them, and help us teach them the values we want them to learn. More than anything, we want to teach our child:
That it’s ok to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them
To love and appreciate everyone for exactly who they are
To love and appreciate THEMSELVES for exactly who they are
That there’s so much more to the world than just what’s around them
To be adventurous and try new things (especially when it comes to food!)
To explore art, nature, and the world around them
To always be open-minded to learning new things
To respect the differences of others
To be kind (as Jaclyn used to tell her students, “Be a good dude.”)
As theatre people, empathy and kindness are very important to us, and what we want more than anything is to raise a kind human who treats others well and puts goodness into the world.
Our Story
We’re so very ready to start the grand adventure of parenthood together.
Us on our wedding day
We met in junior high, sitting next to each other in the standardized testing room. We struck up a conversation about Jimmy Buffett because both of our dads are big fans. From there, we became friends, and that friendship grew throughout high school. In high school, we had a lot of classes together, including choir, and were around each other a lot because Jaclyn was on drill team and Brad was in band. We started dating the weekend before we graduated high school and have been together ever since!
Brad proposed on the day that Jaclyn graduated college. and we got married a year later. We’ve been married for 14 years as of the writing of this profile book, and we’re still absolutely best friends. We’ve been trying to have children for about 12 years, but due to some infertility struggles, we haven’t been successful. We’ve chosen adoption because we’re so very ready to start the grand adventure of parenthood together.
Brad proposed on the day that Jaclyn graduated college. and we got married a year later. We’ve been married for 14 years as of the writing of this profile book, and we’re still absolutely best friends. We’ve been trying to have children for about 12 years, but due to some infertility struggles, we haven’t been successful. We’ve chosen adoption because we’re so very ready to start the grand adventure of parenthood together.
Brad On Jaclyn
She’s emotionally intelligent, which makes her extremely empathetic and caring, and I believe those are the best qualities a person can have.
Jaclyn can be super goofy sometimes
One of my favorite things about Jaclyn is that she is truly one of the most intelligent people that I’ve met in my entire life. I don’t think there’s any challenge in this world that she could be faced with where a lack of smarts would be her barrier to solving it. The world saw her as an amazing educator, but had she chosen to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or astronaut, she would have been one of the best.
But her intelligence goes beyond book smarts. She’s emotionally intelligent, which makes her extremely empathetic and caring, and I believe those are the best qualities a person can have. She’s creative, and puts some wonderful art into the world (I wish we had a way to show you the breadth of what she’s done in the theatre). She’s worldly, which allows us to have meaningful conversations about the world around us.
Jaclyn's Work:
Jaclyn taught high school English and theatre for 14 years. At the end of the 2022 school year, she chose to step away from education so that she would have more time at home to focus on our family.
Now, she works at an association management company where she works with associations and non-profits to help them with their events and day-to-day business. The two things she loves most about her job are that she gets to primarily work from home surrounded by dogs every day and that when she works onsite at events she gets to meet a lot of interesting people.
One really cool thing: her boss is super supportive of our adoption because she’s an adoptee!
Jaclyn's Favorites:
-Baking and Cooking
-Crafting and Making Art
-Hiking, Dancing, and Baseball
-Acting and Costuming
-Singing and Playing Piano
-Gardening
-Reading
But her intelligence goes beyond book smarts. She’s emotionally intelligent, which makes her extremely empathetic and caring, and I believe those are the best qualities a person can have. She’s creative, and puts some wonderful art into the world (I wish we had a way to show you the breadth of what she’s done in the theatre). She’s worldly, which allows us to have meaningful conversations about the world around us.
Jaclyn's Work:
Jaclyn taught high school English and theatre for 14 years. At the end of the 2022 school year, she chose to step away from education so that she would have more time at home to focus on our family.
Now, she works at an association management company where she works with associations and non-profits to help them with their events and day-to-day business. The two things she loves most about her job are that she gets to primarily work from home surrounded by dogs every day and that when she works onsite at events she gets to meet a lot of interesting people.
One really cool thing: her boss is super supportive of our adoption because she’s an adoptee!
Jaclyn's Favorites:
-Baking and Cooking
-Crafting and Making Art
-Hiking, Dancing, and Baseball
-Acting and Costuming
-Singing and Playing Piano
-Gardening
-Reading
Jaclyn On Brad
He’s loving, intelligent, and funny, and he knows how to appreciate what makes people different and special.
Brad will be the dorkiest but most fun dad!
Brad’s best qualities are that he’s loyal and supportive. He’s such a good caretaker for the people who he loves, and I can’t imagine how I would’ve made it through some of my most stressful times in the last 20 years without him carrying me through. He’s loving, intelligent, and funny, and he knows how to appreciate what makes people different and special. He’s dedicated to his work and passions, and when something’s important to him, he’s all in!
I’m so excited to see him be a dad. When our exchange student Elena came back to visit us after she graduated, we got to take her to a baseball game. Just watching Brad explain the ins and outs of how baseball works while they watched the game together reminded me of cherished times with my own dad, and it gave me such a wonderful glimpse into the kind of dad Brad’s going to be.
Brad's Work:
Brad works as a software engineer for a consumer analytics company. He started working there just a few weeks after graduating college, and has been there ever since (almost 14 years, as of this writing).
One thing he really enjoys about his company is that they help businesses open successful new locations, which helps create jobs, so his work feels meaningful. The people he works with are fantastic too! Most of them are friends just as much as they are coworkers, and they’re super supportive of our adoption journey.
Brad also recently started a small side business selling movie-inspired art, and is excited to see where that goes!
Brad's Favorites:
-Acting and Singing
-Playing the Guitar
-Hiking and Baseball
-Playing Video Games
-Watching TV/Movies
I’m so excited to see him be a dad. When our exchange student Elena came back to visit us after she graduated, we got to take her to a baseball game. Just watching Brad explain the ins and outs of how baseball works while they watched the game together reminded me of cherished times with my own dad, and it gave me such a wonderful glimpse into the kind of dad Brad’s going to be.
Brad's Work:
Brad works as a software engineer for a consumer analytics company. He started working there just a few weeks after graduating college, and has been there ever since (almost 14 years, as of this writing).
One thing he really enjoys about his company is that they help businesses open successful new locations, which helps create jobs, so his work feels meaningful. The people he works with are fantastic too! Most of them are friends just as much as they are coworkers, and they’re super supportive of our adoption journey.
Brad also recently started a small side business selling movie-inspired art, and is excited to see where that goes!
Brad's Favorites:
-Acting and Singing
-Playing the Guitar
-Hiking and Baseball
-Playing Video Games
-Watching TV/Movies