waiting families

We both work in the healthcare field, Christopher in surgery and Daniel in cardiac ultrasound. We have been a couple for nine years and married for almost two years. Christopher says Daniel’s sunny disposition is what first caught his attention, and Daniel felt very comfortable with Christopher from the start. We are best friends and very supportive of each other in our careers and hobbies. We enjoy working and playing together, doing things such as cooking, bicycling, and tending the family farm. It’s important to us to help care for our community, too, so we volunteer serving meals to neighbors in need with our church.

Our city home is nestled in a subdivision near a county elementary school with a jungle gym, swings, and large park to fly kites or play ball. We have four cats and a fenced backyard, and we spend lots of time on our large deck, which is built around a giant tree that makes it feel like a treehouse. We spend our weekends at the family farm, surrounded by the garden, horses, fishponds, and assorted wildlife.

Both of us have multi-generational families with siblings who are active in our life. Christopher’s older brother, Rob, lives nearby, and his mother and grandmother live about 15 miles away; we have supper with them every Thursday evening. Both are very excited about the adoption and have already begun choosing their titles, Nana and Granny.

Daniel’s brother, Joe, lives with his family in New Mexico, and his mom lives at the family farm, with us, or with Joe and his family; she loves visiting everyone! We also have many folks we consider extended family: friends from church, neighbors, and colleagues we’ve worked with for many years.

We both grew up enjoying the outdoors and the wilderness. We are active with our church and participate regularly in church functions, and we also enjoy cultural celebration as well as family tradition. Every Thanksgiving weekend, we make Grandma’s “million dollar fudge,” and every summer, we plant a large garden with vegetables and flowers; we process some of the vegetables to eat throughout the winter. It’s so exciting when you pick the first red ripe tomato or the first ears of corn! We look forward to participating in these traditions with our child.

We have friends at church who adopted a child ten years ago, and we’ve watched their family flourish. Then, three summers ago, our nieces and nephew came to visit, and we had so much fun keeping two eight-year-olds and two ten-year-olds occupied with healthy activities. Until recently, we didn’t think we would be able to have a child to love and grow with, but now we see other couples adopting children and building the families of their dreams. Why not us? Our siblings and friends have wonderful lives with children, and we can’t wait to experience the same.