Our Adoption Profile

Dear Birthmother,

We want to express our gratitude to you in taking the time to learn a little bit about us. We know that we cannot fully understand the feelings and emotions you must be having at this time, but we are praying that you can feel peace as you make the decision that is right for you and your baby.  We know that it takes unselfish love on your part to choose the path of adoption.  If it is your wish, we want you to know that we plan in keeping communication open with you with pictures and regular letters so that you can share in your child's development.  We desire for your child to always know of your love.

 

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A Bit About Us

Jake

I am 32 years old and the middle child of two sisters whom I have a close relationship with.  Growing up I had a pet iguana, loved scouts, being outdoors, and I also wrestled in high school.  I graduated from dental school and now I am general dentist for the U.S. Army.  I get a lot of satisfaction in improving the quality of life for my patient’s everyday. 

At basic training, 2013

 

Whitney

I am 33 years old.  I come from a big family of six children.  I love all of my siblings and the chaotic joy having a big family has brought to my life! I love the outdoors and many different outdoor activities.  I graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in communication.  I am currently volunteering at the Armed Forces Network radio station as a radio DJ and I love the opportunity I have to learn a new skill and meet new people.

In the radio studio at AFN

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 Our Story

            We met for our first date after initially meeting on a Christian dating site that was recommended to us by our respective friends.  Jake kept it simple by planning a dinner date to get sushi.  What stood out to each of us during the date was how easy it was to talk to each other.  We talked for hours at the restaurant and continued to date afterwards until we became engaged six months later.  After our engagement Jake moved to upstate, NY to start dental school and Whitney stayed in Utah to finish up her bachelor’s degree and plan the wedding.  We got married during Jake’s winter break and Whitney moved out east so that we could begin our married life together. 

Our wedding day, December 2009

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 Our Relationship in Jake’s Words

Our relationship is a simple one where we just get each other and love being with each other. Whitney is the most supportive and loving wife I could ever ask for.  I love how she is adventurous and discovers the best about every place we have lived in.  We have moved a few times and because we are in the military we plan on moving a few more times during my military career.  So far we have lived in upstate, NY (for school), Oklahoma and now Germany.  Another thing that I love about Whitney is how creative and adventurous she is.  I know that when we adopt that she will always have a fun craft project, cooking activity, or an outdoor hiking adventure ready for our family to enjoy together. 

  

Our Relationship in Whitney’s Words

One thing that really stood out to me about Jake while we were dating was how thoughtful and caring he is and that is still true six years of marriage later.  Jake is always very attentive and aware of my needs.  He is also very protective and loving towards our nieces and nephews.  I know that he will be a very attentive father.  Jake also has a passion for life and is passionate about his work and always has a desire to continue to improve his skills and grow.  

Our Families 

Jake's Family

I would describe my family as close and fun.  I grew up with a lot of support from my parents and knowing that they wanted the best for me.  We would spend our summers boating on the lakes by my house, playing little league baseball, and eating dinner on our patio outside.  Family nights included board games, cooking, movie nights, and Ping-Pong.  My dad works in finance and my mom is a nurse in the neonatal ward (which will be a big help as we become first time parents).  They always encouraged me to seek the best education and experiences that I could. My older sister, Malia has two daughters and another baby on the way and my younger sister Mandi has a baby girl on the way due January 2016.  Your child will be surrounded with love from everyone in my family and will have tons of fun playing with cousins.   

Faith and religion has always been a keystone in my family; we are members of a Christian-based church and believe that Christ loves us.  Your child will grow up with knowing the love of Christ in their life.   

Jake with his niece, Makena

Jake with his dad after running a 5K

 

Whitney’s Family

I had a very simple childhood and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  My fondest memories are of doing craft projects at home with my mom, building snowmen with my dad or enjoying my mom’s homemade apple pie.  There are six children in my family, so there was always something going on in my parent’s household growing up.  I am very close with all of my siblings and I have a unique relationship with each one of them.  My dad has always been the patriarch of the family and is protective of all of his children.  My mother has always strived to provide a nurturing environment at home.  Although we live far away from our family members we strive to stay connected with them through regular phone calls.  My two older sisters are both married with their own children.  When we are all together as a family is so fun to see the cousins interacting and building relationships with each other.  We can’t wait for our own child to join in this circle of friendship and my family is so excited and supportive of our decision to adopt. 

Whitney with her parents at Niagara Falls, 2011

Visiting the Christmas lights in downtown Salt Lake City

 
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Our Community

Jake is serving as a U.S. Army dentist and we are currently stationed in Germany until August 2017.  We live in government-leased housing located close to the military post.  We love our housing area because there are many playgrounds and bike paths close to our home.  The area in Germany that we live in is beautiful countryside full of pine forests with walking trails and farmland.  Because we are a part of a military community stationed overseas, most of us live far away from extended family support and, therefore we reach out to one another to build lasting friendships. We have a great relationship with our neighbors and often have them over for games and BBQ’s. We also have a lot of friends that have new babies and we look forward to future play dates with them. In the military community there is a lot of diversity with people that come from all over the United States with different backgrounds and cultures.  We feel that this is advantageous because this makes our home and community vibrant, colorful, and accepting of others. 

Our Interests and Raising a Child

-->We feel so fortunate to be able to be stationed in Germany because this provides us with wonderful opportunities to travel.  Traveling enables us to learn about the culture and history of each place we go and we can’t wait to share these experiences with a child. In addition to travel we also enjoy outdoor adventures.  Some of our favorite trips have been camping trips in the various places we have lived.  We feel that every place we have been has its own unique beauty and characteristics. This is something that we can’t wait to share with our future child.

Prague, 2015

Paris, 2015

   

Although we get a lot of enjoyment out of our many adventures, we also enjoy spending down time together.  We enjoy having quiet evenings at home reading, watching movies or playing games with friends.  We look forward to being able to read to our child and hope to instill a love of learning in him or her.  Whitney enjoys crafting and always has a project in the works to decorate our home.  Whenever we visit family she always has fun activities to do with the nieces and nephews and we can’t wait to do fun projects with our own child. 

It is very important to us that our child understands his or her own self-worth.  We feel that by providing unconditional love, a stable home and opportunities to progress and grow that your child will be able to reach his or her full potential.  We will also strive to be provide the best education that we can so that your child can have a successful and fulfilling future.

Our Hope

 Thank you for taking the time to get to know a bit about us.  We pray for you as you are making your decision to select adoptive parents.  We look forward to hopefully having the opportunity to meet you soon.

It is our hope that through the miracle of adoption that we can someday experience the deepest desire of our hearts to become parents.  Together we have built a relationship of lasting love; however, our lives still feel incomplete without the special joy that only a child can bring.  By selecting us to be the parents of your child, you would be giving us the greatest gift imaginable, the opportunity to raise a child and experience life anew.  Though far from perfect, we have a strong desire to love and nurture a child and will strive to be the best parents we can be.  It is our sincere wish to be able to shower your child with hugs, kisses, and our unconditional love and to give your child the best life and opportunities we can provide.

We also wish for you to know how much we honor you for your decision to choose an adoption plan for your child.  We think about you often and what you must be going through in this process.  We feel sorrow for the loss you feel, but please know that we feel immense gratitude to you by providing for us an opportunity that we otherwise would not have to be parents.  We know that it must take an immeasurable amount of courage and self-confidence to select adoptive parents for your baby.  Should you choose us to raise your child, we hope that this letter will help provide you with a feeling of peace and assurance.  Please know that we wish for you to always be a part of your child's life and wish for him or her to always know of your love.

Sincerely,

Jake and Whitney 

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Our Journey to Adoption

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First of all, thank you for taking the time to read this, whether you be a friend or family member, a birth mother, adoptive parent or just a casual pursuer.  It is our hope that through this post we can help spread the word about our decision to adopt and find the baby out there that is meant to be a part of our family.  We are so excited to begin this journey and even though we know there is the possibility of many ups and downs, we hope that in the end we will be blessed with what we have been so earnestly seeking, which is to grow our family.

It has been a journey to come to the decision to adopt.  Like many couples, we decided to “casually” try to become pregnant about four years ago.  After about a year of “just seeing what would happen” we got a little more serious about trying to become pregnant.  After two years of trying to conceive we began the process of seeing a fertility specialist, which lead us down a road that entailed, numerous tests, one surgery, multiple fertility treatments and many tears.  Each time we tried something new and it was unsuccessful it felt like having a precious baby of our own was becoming farther and farther out of reach. After a second failed attempt at in vitro fertilization, fertility treatments no longer felt like the right path to grow our family.  We have always been open to the possibility of adoption, but now it has become our reality and we couldn’t be more excited about it!  We truly feel as though the baby that finds its way into our home is meant to be with us and the love we will feel for this child will be no different had we conceived a baby with our own DNA.  Although we are still only in the beginning stages of the adoption process, people have already reached out to us about their beautiful adoption stories and it is my hope that we may one day join their ranks.

So, now for a little bit about Jake and I.  We have been married for almost six years and in that time we have lived in two different states and two countries!  We are both from Utah and moved to Buffalo, NY where Jake attended dental school.  After school Jake commissioned as a captain in the U.S Army, which brought us to Lawton, OK where Jake completed a one-year residency program at Ft. Sill.   During this time Jake got orders to work in the clinic at Grafenwohr, Germany and we couldn’t be more excited to be here!  Although this year has been possibly the hardest year of our lives due to the disappointments of failed fertility treatments, we know that we are so blessed to live out our dream of living in and traveling around Europe. One of our favorite things about travel is to experience a new culture and enjoy trying different things and foods.  In addition to traveling there are many things that we enjoy doing together.  We love the outdoors and any opportunity we have to be outside together.  We love to go hiking, camping, stand up paddle boarding, and snowshoeing.   We can’t wait to share these experiences with a little one.  We know that we will love whatever child we adopt unconditionally.  Our thoughts on parenting are that we wish to provide our child with every opportunity to progress and grow in this life in order to reach his or her full potential.

We are a U.S military family living overseas in Germany.  We plan to pursue a domestic adoption from the states, which would work just the same way as if we lived in the states, it just requires a bit more traveling on our part. :-).  Please pass this along to anyone that you think may be interested in learning about us further and please feel free to browse around our blog to get to know us a little better.  Thank you for reading.

Heidelberg

In March Jake and I went on a chilly four-day weekend excursion to the charming city of Heidelberg in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region in Southwest Germany.

Walking on the streets of the historic city center.

One of the main attractions in Heidelberg is the castle ruins.  Here is a view of the ruins before we headed up the hill.

I wish I could find a condensed version of the history of the castle, but it's been through quite a bit.  The earliest structure was before 1214 and it had been expanded by 1650.  This castle was a player in numerous wars and attacks including the Thirty Years War and underwent major destruction at the hands of enemies.  After peace finally came to the region the castle was left unoccupied for many years and craftsmen and builders began using materials from the castle.  In 1764 a German ruler entertained the idea of establishing his court there, however, a lightening bolt hit the court building twice starting a fire.  He took this as a sign and moved his court elsewhere.  The castle remained empty and was in danger of being demolished by the Grand Duke of Baden until a French count took an interest in the building and served as a voluntary castle warden until 1822.  He put together a tour guide of the ruins which brought many tourists to the area and has helped make Heidelberg the tourists attraction it is today.

A view of the city from the castle grounds.

...and here we are making our way across the river.

Flossenburg Castle Ruins and Concentration Camp

So, we are pretty behind on our blogging, so it's time to get caught up.  Back in March we went on a short little hiking excursion to the Flossenburg Castle Ruins about 40 minutes from us.  In the town of Flossenburg there also was a concentration camp, but unfortunately we didn't get any photos of the camp.  Maybe the atmosphere just felt too somber to take any pictures.  The camp was interesting to see however, as Flossenburg is located in a rocky region.  The camp was primarily a labor camp where prisoners worked in the quarry.  Here is some info about the camp.  After having just spent a winter in Germany, I can imagine how harsh the conditions would have been for the prisoners.  It is always an enlightening experience to learn about some of the harsh realities of history.

Austria Sledding Over Valentines Day!!

So for Valentines Day we had a long weekend!! I love being stationed in Europe!!  We went to Goldegg, Austria and visited the ski town of Bad Gastein.  My Goal was to surprise Whitney with a little get away, but she found out and ended up helping me book the hotel (Thanks Babe, love you).  We stayed at this amazing Guest house in Goldegg,  Hotel Zur Post Goldegg.  The first night we ate at the hotel and I had a local dish of venison stew with spaetzle.  Amazing!  

We did a small sledding hill and tried the traditional sleds for the first time.  They were actually hard to steer, but it was fun.  I would have really pushed to ski, but winter has not really given us a ton of snow here and I just can't justify spending the money to go now slush and ice. 

Oh what did we find at the top of the chair lift?? 

We took the Gondola up to the top of the Gastein Ski resort and walked around on the top of the mountain. 

We then decided that we should try the Alpine Therme.  It was our first time in a European spa, this means co-ed and clothing free.  I think one time is good enough us two Americans.

 Bad Gastein Waterfall and Goldegg Castle