Joshua and Tesa

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From Us to You

Dear Expectant Mother,

We would like to first say thank you for taking the time to view our profile. We appreciate you being part of our journey just by taking a look through and getting to know a little about us. We’ve been praying that the right person might read about us and be moved to get to know us more. Through this letter, we’d like to tell you a little about us!

We have known each other for many years, and consider ourselves high school sweetheart-adjacent since we didn’t start dating until after Joshua graduated. Being together for so long has allowed us to grow together as we’ve navigated entering adulthood and beyond.

Throughout our time together, we have enjoyed many adventures together. We love to travel and explore new places like new states, National Parks, and more. While traveling far from home can be great, we also enjoy exploring closer to home to find local eateries, shops, and fun! We are so excited for a little bundle to join in on those adventures and experience it all through their eyes!

Exploring is very exciting, but we love a quiet night at home just as much. On a normal day, you could find us at home watching movies, sports, reading our books, or playing board games. We enjoy hosting dinners for our family and enjoying a nice day at home. While we often go to church events throughout the week, on any given Sunday Joshua can be found expressing his love for music by playing bass in the church band. We enjoy going to the movies to see the latest DC, Marvel, or Harry Potter movies as we consider ourselves a bit nerdy. We’re excited to see if your child chooses a wand or a cape and which fandom they enjoy the most! We’re ready to share these moments with your child and excited to see them fit into our family gatherings and outings!

We really enjoy being in the role of Aunt T and Uncle Josh as our family continues to grow. We currently have three nieces and two nephews that we love dearly. We enjoy taking our older niece on our “days of fun” to places of her choosing such as the aquarium, zoo, rock climbing, and other local attractions. We’re excited to begin to take our other nieces and nephews out for their days of fun as well!
We, along with our families, are very excited to grow our family through adoption. We’re very excited to share our family traditions and have more people to share our lives with. While our traditions are important to us, we are excited to bring other traditions into our home with a new addition to our family. We would love to add your child’s heritage, culture, and family traditions to the ones we currently have. Through that, we’re excited to teach them to cook and bake foods from their culture. We’re so excited to make messes in the kitchen with them as we make these special treats!

With love,
Tesa and Joshua

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Why We are Choosing to Adopt

We chose to pursue adoption because we are ready to grow our family. We tried multiple rounds of medical treatments that lasted for over three years. Before starting that journey, and during it, we continued to talk about our options for growing our family in different ways, including adoption. During our conversations, we realized that while we were eager to start our family, we did not believe that to do so we must have biological children. Our desire to become parents center around providing unconditional love and support to a child, whether they shared our DNA or not. In coming to this conclusion, we decided to stop our treatments, and pursue growing our family through adoption. Throughout our fertility and adoption journey, we have been very open with our friends and family, which has given us so much support. We are all very eager for a new addition to join our family and begin this next chapter together.

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About Us

We met when we were a junior and senior in high school, though we didn’t end up dating until after Joshua had graduated. Once we began dating, we immediately had a long-distance relationship. This didn’t change when Tesa graduated, as she started college in Arkansas. We used our available weekends to travel to see each other as often as possible. Once Tesa left Arkansas, we moved in together during our engagement and while we finished college. While we found our first home there and started our professional careers, we longed to be closer to family and moved back near our hometowns.

We chose to pursue adoption after multiple years of medical treatments trying to grow our family, and many different conversations. During these conversations, we realized that while we were eager to start our family, we did not believe that to do so we must have biological children. Our desire to become parents centers around providing unconditional love and support to a child, whether they shared our DNA or not. Throughout our fertility and adoption journey, we have been very open with our friends and family, which has given us so much support. We are all very eager for a new addition to join our family and begin this next chapter together.

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About Tesa, by Joshua

Tesa brings so much joy to my life. She’s got an amazing sense of humor and a quick wit that keeps me on my toes. She’s always wanting to try something new and exciting and pushes me to do new things. Through all of our trouble with IVF, she’s shown an incredible amount of persistence and toughness. Proverbs 31: 26-31 is a perfect reflection of Tesa. I’ve known for a long time that Tesa will make an amazing mother. Watching her interact with our friends’ kids and our nieces and nephews has reaffirmed that fact. She’s patient and firm when she needs to be, and gives so much love to those kids.

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About Joshua, by Tesa

Joshua is first and foremost my safe place. Joshua is one of the most patient and loving people that I know. He is my sounding board, and I know that with him by my side, anything is possible. I regularly ask myself how I got so lucky to have him as my partner in this life. Because of all of this, I knew Joshua will make a great father one day. He’s shown this same patience, love, and kindness to our nieces and nephews who think he is the best person around! Seeing him be the best uncle he can be has been the sweetest thing to witness! When I think of who Joshua is, I think of 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8.

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Lifestyle

During a normal day, you can find us at home relaxing around our house. We enjoy cooking, baking, and playing games. Joshua does a lot of the cooking for us at home. His favorite type of cooking is grilling or smoking various foods. Tesa enjoys baking sweet treats and bread to share with her family and friends! We enjoy playing games together (Dice Throne and Ticket to Ride being our current favorites), hanging out with our friends, and connecting virtually to play DnD with Joshua’s brother and our sister-in-law. We enjoy watching movies, especially if they’re Marvel or DC, but Tesa’s ultimate favorite is Harry Potter, which Joshua watches with minimal complaints for a muggle.

During the summer vacation from school, Tesa can likely be found doing a home project to continue to update our family home. She also enjoys reading, baking, and spending time with her family. The past few summers she has painted the kitchen cabinets, updated the landscaping, learned to make croissants and more!

As mentioned, family time is a big influence in our lives. We enjoy hosting family dinners and being around our nieces and nephews. We love to take our niece for “days of fun” so that we can continue to connect with her as she enters her pre-teen years. We imagine that your child would fit perfectly into these activities with our families. Our families are excited for another little one to join in on the fun with things like trunk-or-treat, family gatherings, and birthday dinners as a family.

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Hobbies

We enjoy doing a lot of things together. We enjoy going to the movies, watching movies at home, sharing our love for others through food, playing board games, and more! We have recently enjoyed going to and watching hockey games together. We use this time to reconnect and relax after a long day at work. While we do enjoy being together, we also have our own individual interests as well. Joshua enjoys playing board games with friends and playing video games, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, and watching the Chiefs and Titans football games. Tesa enjoys crocheting, baking, reading, hanging out with her family, and listening to music in her free time. Typically, her crochet projects and baked goods are shared with friends and family as a way to express her love for them.

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Home & Neighborhood

Our home is a spacious split-level home. We utilize this space for family gatherings, especially around the holidays. We enjoy cozying up on the couch to watch TV and movies. Upstairs is vital to our home, including our kitchen, living room, and bedrooms. We are lucky enough to have space for a nursery right across from our bedroom. Our downstairs houses Joshua’s office where he works from home every day and a small rec room. We share our home with our dog, Killian, and our cat, Maya.

Our neighborhood has many children that you can often find playing outside with their families. We have many trick-or-treaters come to visit, a 4th of July bike parade, pool parties and more! Our neighborhood is safe with friendly neighbors and is the perfect location to hop on the highway to get to any destination in town.

Our neighborhood has many children that you can often find playing outside with their families. Our favorite thing about Halloween is how many trick-or-treaters we have come to our door. In our first year, we had over 100 kids stop at our house! Our neighborhood is safe with friendly neighbors and is the perfect location to hop on the highway to get to any destination in town.

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Racial & Cultural Diversity

We are open to all racial and cultural backgrounds. We see this as a way to continue to become open-minded and learn about people that are different from us. We are excited to embrace the heritage and culture of whatever child God has in His plans for us. We are ready to learn, explore, and inherit a new culture into our family. We are looking forward to diversifying our family and our circle of friends. We are ready to reach out and learn all that we can from mentors and those in our community to ensure that your child knows their heritage and culture to best help them develop their own identity.

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Family Traditions

One tradition that we both love is having Thanksgiving at our house. Food brings people together, and we love that we are able to provide that space for our family. A fun tradition that we have brought into our family is having a special Christmas day mug. You get to pick your Christmas out and that’s the glass you use that morning while we open presents! We are eager to add traditions from your family into our home to help your child know their history and create their personal identity.

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Faith

Our faith is very important to us. We are both Baptists and believe that the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. We regularly attend our local church, including Sunday School, morning service, and Wednesday night Bible study. We both enjoy serving at our church through the social committee and through working the sound booth on Sundays. We are well connected with our church family, who are very excited to welcome a new member to our congregation. Our church has a well-established and attended children’s church that is eager to surround any new member with love, support, and prayer. Our congregation has been actively praying that the right expectant mother reads our profile and that she is surrounded by God’s love during this difficult time. Tesa also helped to begin a women’s Bible study that meets every other Thursday that discusses how to be the best Christ-centered woman we can be. We often discuss how to best bring up children within the church and to give them the best God-centered morals that we can.

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Our Promise to You

Our promise to you is to love your child with all of our hearts. We promise to include them in all aspects of our lives including travel and our sense of adventure. But while they join our family, it’s important to recognize that we join theirs. We promise to always recognize their heritage and history. We look forward to adding their traditions and heritage into our family and daily lives. We promise to keep an open contact with you through videos, pictures, and letters from your child if so wish it. Finally, we promise to always speak of you often with the utmost regard and respect. You are an integral part of our family and deserve to be treated as such.

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Notes from Our Families & Friends

“Josh and Tesa are a loving, reliable couple who develop long-lasting trusting relationships with others. They are honest, strong, and moral people who would make outstanding parents. Josh and Tesa have a strong marriage. They work together to solve problems and they are very genuine and loving toward each other. They always support and help each other regardless of the situation and challenges presented to them.

Josh is a very positive and helpful person who would be a wonderful father. He is always quick to help with projects at church and in the community. He has volunteered time in church and as an alumnus at the university he attended. He is musically and intellectually gifted and applies his gifts in ways that demonstrate he is a leader and role model for children. Tesa is a very warm and kind person who would be a very loving and nurturing mother. She is a teacher and is always engaging children in fun and educational activities when opportunities present themselves. She is talented and gifted and applies her gifts in ways that demonstrate she is a wonderful role model for children.
Josh and Tesa possess all the qualities that would make them good parents, they are gentle but firm, patient, organized, caring, loving, and secure. Any child coming into their home would certainly feel loved and provided for.” – Carl & Sharon, Josh’s parents

“Tesa and Josh are two of my kids’ favorite people. Kirah is 7 and Emma is 1. They always go out of their way to help, from watching them to helping me set up birthday parties. Tesa will take Kirah to do all kinds of activities: painting pottery, science city, and getting Kirah’s favorite food. Josh is very soft-spoken and a man of few words, but as soon as Emma sees him, he’s the only person in the room she wants to hang out with. For the child that gets brought into their life, just know that he/she will be so lucky and loved by so many! These two will be the absolute best parents and they’ll have a great support system! I am so excited for them to start this journey.” – Bree, Tesa’s sister

“Tesa and Joshua have been friends of mine for many years at this point! They are so nice, caring, and responsible. When I was in college, Tesa would invite me to the apartment that she and Joshua shared for home-cooked meals. She and Joshua created such a homey environment and I often look back on those moments fondly.” – Maddie

“Joshua and Tesa have longed for a child to build their family for as long as I can remember. They will be absolutely amazing parents. Their extended families are solid, supportive and want this so much for Joshua and Tesa too. Any child would be blessed to call them Mom and Dad!” – Pam

“Hello! I have known Josh my whole life as we are cousins. Some of my best memories are from times when I was growing up with Josh. I’ve known Tesa for less time, but she’s truly an amazing woman. They hold 3 priorities together: 1) God, 2) their children, and 3) each other. Growing up, Josh had (and still does have) one of the strongest foundations of faith I’ve ever seen, it’s so strong that I’ve actually been a little envious at times because mine hasn’t been that way. I didn’t know Tesa growing up, but just knowing that Josh married her, I know her faith must be pretty strong, too. I have no doubt that everything they have done, separately and together, has been for their future children. I can’t imagine how difficult their journey to have children has been, but their desire to have children has never wavered. Additionally, the love they have for each other hasn’t wavered either. They are going to be incredible parents. The love they have for each other is only going to extend to their children. And their children are so loved already, by the wonderful support system of family and friends they have behind them. If you’re going to consider anyone as parents, please consider them. If anyone deserves to be parents, it’s them.” – Vicci