Jared and Elizabeth

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From Us to You

Our hearts go out to you . We are praying for your health and well-being. We admire your strength and desire to give your baby the best life possible. We pray that you can be happy and feel peace at this time.

We have talked with our children about adopting. Our kids have been so excited about the possibility. Liz has always loved children and we knew when we got married that we wanted a big family. In the last few years, we have had strong impressions that our family wasn’t complete and that we should pursue adopting. We would be honored, humbled, and grateful if you chose to place your baby with our family. Your baby would be safe, loved, cherished, adored, and have a fulfilling, happy life. They would grow up with many siblings who love little ones. We live close to both sides of our extended family so your baby would have many cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents who are involved in their life.

As a family, we have always taught the importance of showing love, respect, and kindness to everyone. We teach our children to be kind and include others, whether in our family, at school, in the community, or at Church. We have taught our children to be respectful and never call each other names that would be hurtful or unkind. Let us give a few examples from our experiences that might give you more insight into our family:

Katelyn (17 yrs old): A couple years ago, Katelyn made friends with a girl named Faith at school who has severe physical disabilities. Katelyn would eat lunch with her, even though no one else did, and always said hi and gave her a hug in the hallways. Faith’s school aide wrote us a letter to let us know how much Katelyn’s friendship meant to both her and Faith. She said Katelyn demonstrated maturity beyond her years by looking past the differences in people and loving the individual for who they really are.

Zach (13 yrs old): Zach experienced brain damage when he was less than 2 years old. The doctors couldn’t tell us why it happened. While Zach’s recovery has been a miracle and he is a wonderful blessing in our family, there were many challenges early on. Over the years he has needed lots of therapies: speech, physical, and occupational. Through this, our children have gained greater respect and understanding for those who are different from them.

Ethan (9 yrs old): Ethan came home from school one day and said he had played with a classmate at recess because the boy didn’t have anyone to play with. It warmed our hearts that he was looking out for someone who needed a friend.

These are just a few of the examples we have seen of our children looking out for those who need a friend and being that friend. Our children have always been friendly to other people. They have never cared if their friends are rich or poor or look different than them. They are their friend and that’s what matters to them.

We have loved raising a big family. We wouldn’t have it any other way. When people ask us what it’s like in our family, we reply with a big smile, “It’s FUN!” We know the value of work and strive to teach our children to be hard workers. We also know the value of having fun and playing together. We love celebrating holidays and birthdays. We love laughing and playing games together. We love spending time together and creating wonderful memories. We love being a family! We know that your little one would fit right in. They would be loved so much and given so much affection. They would be cherished. Your little one would be a joy and blessing to us. We would give them every blessing and opportunity to help them have a happy, wonderful life. We would give them our all.

Love,
Jared and Liz

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Why We are Choosing to Adopt

From the beginning, we knew we wanted to have a big family. We both come from large families and saw the blessings that siblings can bring. Liz has always loved being a mom and has never had the feeling that our family is complete. In fact, she received a strong feeling that we should adopt. We have been so excited to pursue adopting a little one. We love children and want to share our home, our family, our hearts, and our love with other little ones.

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About Liz, by Jared

Liz is amazing, both in who she is and what she does. Liz is sensitive, kind, and tender-hearted. She is attuned to how others feel and goes out of her way to be considerate of them. This is true of all ages, from babies to the elderly. Liz loves children and is a steady, loving guide for little ones. She teaches by precept and example. She is a hard worker and respectful of others. She gives 100% to whatever she does.

I am constantly amazed at how often Liz thinks of and serves others. She regularly volunteers to help others and involves our family. She gets excited about holidays and birthdays and I appreciate that she makes them a big deal. Liz is physically active and health conscious. She pays close attention to the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual health of each of our children. She has great aspirations and dreams to do more good in the world. She likes to build and create things, like homes and traditions. Liz is very talented – she is an excellent musician and chef and wedding cake maker and home designer and seamstress. She plans and prepares for the future and thinks carefully about what is most important now and for the long term. Liz is extremely loyal and faithful to me and our family. She is supportive of me in the challenges I face. She is a cheerful woman of faith and capability. She is a wonderful wife and mother. All who know her love her and appreciate her for who she is and what she does. Liz is amazing. I am so grateful to have her in my life.

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About Jared, by Liz

Jared is my best friend and he’s my favorite person to hang out with. He is kind, loving and respectful in the way he talks and interacts with our family. He encourages me to develop my talents and goals in life whether it’s raising our children, playing my instruments, or building houses. He has always supported me being a stay-at-home mom.

When we started dating, I knew that Jared wanted to have a large family. He is the oldest of nine children and he was always willing to help his parents out with his younger siblings. Jared is very respectful and loving of his Mom and Dad. Jared is a hard worker and has provided well for our family. He has instilled in our children a desire to do well in school and to be successful in life. Jared never yells and is patient with me and our children. He is a good listener and takes time to try and understand someone’s feelings. He loves to wrestle with the boys and tell ‘Dad Jokes’ to make the kids laugh. One of our kids’ favorite things is “tickle time.” Jared will chase the kids around the house trying to tickle them while everyone is squealing and laughing.

Jared loves the outdoors and enjoys mountain biking. He is not a complainer and is always trying to come up with a solution to problems. He’s a team player and always contributes in a positive way whether it’s helping with the dishes or laundry, changing a diaper, or helping the kids with their homework. Jared is trustworthy and loyal. He is my best friend!

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Our Family

Our family life is fun! We work hard so we can have fun. We love to go hiking, kayaking, backpacking, swimming, and biking. We all play tennis and love being able to go as a whole family and play together. We would love to teach your little one tennis. We’ve loved camping over the many years and have recently discovered that we love backpacking even more! Being out in nature is a happy place for us. For Christmas one year, our kids received their own backpacking gear: backpack, sleeping bag and pad, backpacking chair, stove, tent, etc. They all love learning life skills that we get to teach and explore while being out in nature. We love spending time in the mountains enjoying the beauty of the earth. We have so much fun sitting around the campfire telling stories, making each other laugh, and just having fun. We love going kayaking as a whole family. No one gets left out because everyone has their own kayak. We once went kayaking and a hailstorm suddenly came upon us, even though there were blue skies surrounding us! It was short lived and passed quickly. Our kids are always excited to retell the story with big smiles on their faces. They said it was epic!

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Meet Our Kids

We both come from large families, and knew that we wanted the same for our family. We have 9 children, and our 3 oldest live outside of the home.

Carley is our oldest daughter. She is newly married, and we love her husband. We see her weekly for dinner. She is kind, and a good student.

Andrew is serving a mission in Texas right now. He is fun loving, sociable, and outgoing. We look forward to our weekly check in calls with him.

Madison is living away at college. She is clean, orderly, and cares deeply. We check-in at least once a week to see how college life is treating her.

Katelyn is our oldest at home. She is creative and friendly. Her favorite classes are ASL (American Sign Language) and furniture design class.

Avery is also in high school. She is a born leader, who is fun-loving and enjoys acting in drama class.

Zach is determined and brave. He is in middle school and likes PE, and playing Minecraft.

Asher is our “ham,” very funny and creative. He enjoys learning about science and playing Legos.

Ethan is a talented kid, who is good at school and has great friends. He likes learning about math, and can often be found drawing.

Cameron is sociable and likes to take younger children under his wing. He loves eating chocolate and pizza, and enjoys soccer, tennis, and volleyball. Since Cameron is our youngest, he is the most eager to become a big brother.

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Lifestyle

We are a family who does everything together! We support each other in our various activities whether it’s a soccer game, a tennis match, a dance performance or competition, music concerts, or church youth activities. We love being active and enjoy many outdoor activities like hiking, camping, kayaking, and biking. We also enjoy fun traditions like pizza movie night! Jared started this tradition many years ago and the kids look forward to it. We love making homemade chocolate chip cookies and playing games around the kitchen table.

Our family shows love and respect for one another. Being close in age, our kids love playing with each other. They have often said how much they love coming home after a long day at school. They enjoy hanging out with friends at school, but home is their happy place. We love that our kids like to be together. We teach our kids to be honest and trustworthy. We’ve strived to give our children many opportunities to grow and learn new things. We want them to be creative and hardworking.

We’ve had the blessing of living close to our extended family in the last few years. We get together often with Grandpa and Grandma, aunts and uncles, and cousins for family dinners, birthday parties, holidays, family reunions, camping, swimming, etc. It’s been fun for Liz to get together with her mom and sisters for quilt club each week. Our kids have had the opportunity to play on the same sports team with their cousins and go to the same school with cousins. It’s been a great blessing to have the interaction and support of family living close by.

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Home and Neighborhood

We live in a cozy neighborhood with lots of kids. Our home is located across from farmland and we have a breath taking view of the snow capped mountains. We love setting up the volleyball net in our backyard to play a game of volleyball or badminton. We enjoy the many walking trails that meander throughout our neighborhood. We are located close to our children’s schools and enjoy the family friendly Recreation Center where we go swimming often. Even though we live in the city, we are surrounded by farmland where our kids get to see horses and cows, corn and other crops growing each year. Local farmers set up a pumpkin patch and corn maze for the community each fall. Our town is known for the local arts and there are lots of festivals that happen throughout the year such as quilt shows and art shows.

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Our Relationship with You

We would love to have you be a part of your baby’s life as much as you would like to be. We feel it is important for them to know you and know the love and sacrifice you gave for them. We will always speak highly of you and the love you have for your little one. We would love to come visit you or have you come visit. We are open to whatever level of communication is comfortable for you.

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Faith

We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We strive to read from the scriptures each day as a family. We go to church each Sunday as a whole family. Our kids love having friends in our church that share the same values and interests as they do. We are active in our church callings. Jared is a youth Sunday school teacher and enjoys teaching and helping the young men and young women. Liz works with the young women in our church and loves teaching and planning activities. She recently went nighttime snowshoeing with them and had a blast!

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Racial & Cultural Diversity

There is much diversity in our community. Our children go to school with children from diverse backgrounds. Their schools have a mix of Caucasian, African American, Latino, Polynesian, Hispanic, and Asian heritages. Our children have made many friends who are of different religions, races, and backgrounds. Here are a few examples of our experiences:

Jared lived in the Dominican Republic for 2 yrs as a Church missionary, where 18% of the population self-identify as black and 68% as mixed black and white ancestry. Jared came to love the people and tried to help them improve their lives. Currently, Jared works with many associates from different backgrounds and races, including a global team that spans Europe and Asia.

There was diversity in Liz’s neighborhood growing up. Her next-door neighbors adopted 8 children from Jamaica. Liz’s best friend in elementary school was Polynesian. Her best friend in junior high and high school was African American. Currently, we have several families from different backgrounds in our Church congregation. Our four youngest boys took piano lessons from a high school student in our neighborhood who is Asian.

Our daughter Carley served as a Church missionary in Peru speaking Spanish. She has always wanted us to bring more children into our family from different backgrounds.

Our oldest son’s best friend and tennis partner is African American. They were doubles partners on the high school team for three years. Another one of Drew’s tennis friends is from South America. We have always seen Drew be respectful of those of other races and ethnicities, including defending them when marginalized.

Ethan came home from school one day and said he had played with a new classmate at recess. When Liz asked him about it, Ethan said the boy didn’t have anyone to play with so he played with him. It warmed our hearts that he was looking out for someone who needed a friend.

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Family Traditions

We love celebrating Holidays in our family and we make a big deal about it! We are big Harry Potter fans and celebrate Harry Potter’s birthday every year. We dress up in Hogwarts robes and fix a feast worthy of the Great Hall. We enjoy making butterbeer, pumpkin pasties, Gilly-weed pasta, Mandrake pudding, Polyjuice potion, chocolate frogs, and the list goes on. We love decorating our home with cauldrons, owls, flying keys and broomsticks, and our very own sorting hat. We then play games and spout off Harry Potter trivia. It’s been a fun tradition to see the family have so much fun together.

Christmas is a big deal in our family for both Mom and Dad and the kids. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. We make it magical! The kids always look forward to setting up the Christmas tree and hanging their stockings on the mantle over the fireplace. Each of our kids have a homemade quilted stocking that matches their baby quilt that Liz made for them. She is so excited to make a baby quilt and matching stocking for your precious baby. On Christmas Eve we have a pizza pajama party and make cookies for Santa Claus. Our kids get to exchange their secret sibling gift that night. They are always so excited to give their gift to the sibling whose name they drew. It’s been a blessing to see our children know the gift of giving. Christmas morning is so much fun!! Our kids love opening their stockings to see what Santa brought them. A couple of our children have the tradition of writing Santa a letter each Christmas and He always writes them back telling them how Rudolph is and how good they’ve been this year. It makes the kids laugh. Our kids love seeing all of the presents wrapped under/around the Christmas tree. Every present is wrapped so no one knows whose present is whose. We have a tradition of numbering the presents and Santa lets the kids know in his letter who gets to open what. Our kids love this tradition (both the older kids and the younger kids who still believe in Santa) because they say it’s a chance for them to share in the excitement of what their siblings receive.

Halloween is also a very big deal in our family. We love decorating the house and are big into costumes. Liz loves to sew costumes for the whole family. She’s made many jedi cloaks, princess and fairy dresses, We love the fun side of Halloween and we have a tradition of hosting a family Halloween dinner each year. We make yummy, delicious food and give each dish a “scary” name. Our kids love to go trick-or-treating and we go as a whole family. Our older kids love going trick-or-treating with their younger siblings. They say they wouldn’t miss it for the world. After we get home from trick-or-treating, the kids love to exchange and swap their candy with each other.

We love creating loving, happy memories through fun traditions and activities that we do as a whole family.

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Our Promise to You

We will cherish and love your baby forever! They will be a part of a family who loves them and receive so much attention from us and all of their siblings. Your little one will be adored. We will give them all the opportunities and blessings for a happy, fulfilling life. Your little one will be supported and encouraged in all that they do throughout their life. We love you.