Shane and Alé

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This is Us

Hello,

We are honored that you may be considering us to parent your child. We have led a very blessed life and we hope that you see our family is authentic, fun, and loving. Though we are very fortunate, having children of our own is something we will never be able to achieve. When we learned the news that we would not be able to have children, we were heartbroken. We still dream of becoming parents and believe that we were destined to become parents a different way. With the love and support of our family and friends, we took a giant leap of faith and began our adoption journey. Not a day goes by that we don’t think about you and hope that you find your way to us soon.

We have been praying to be parents for a long time and we can’t wait to be “those parents” – you know, the ones who dress up with their child for holidays, have matching Halloween costumes, cheer the loudest at athletic events, and share too many cute photos on Facebook and Instagram.

We have been together for more than 15 years and have been on a long journey to expand our family. Unable to have biological children, but we know that growing our family through adoption is a blessing that is in our future. We will be a strong family for a child and create lasting relationships, experiences, and adventures of a lifetime. We already know what lullabies we will sing to our child, how we will decorate the nursery, and look forward to the days when we’ll be getting a child ready for their first day of kindergarten. We can see celebrating Christmases together, playing outside in the backyard, and having dance parties in the living room to our favorite songs, in addition to taking trips to the beach, to the city, and hopefully to Disney World.

Your baby will be entering quite a family – one with a sincere yet silly dad who will provide steadiness, humor, and unmatched love; a caring, big-hearted mom who will love unconditionally and spend her life providing for your baby; a Grammy who can’t wait to spoil her new grandchild, a grandpa who is ready for a new fishing buddy, and aunts and uncles and a brand-new cousin to grow up with. Our neighbors are ready to welcome a new kid to the neighborhood crew, and our friends and extended family can’t wait to have a new member of our family to love.

Your love for your child and selflessness in considering adoption for your baby humbles us, and just as you want nothing but the best for your child, we too want to give your child nothing but the best and a wonderful life filled with love, where he or she can learn and grow in a loving family.

Our journey to becoming parents has not been easy nor has it been short, but in the end, we know it will be worth the wait and we will celebrate each and every day that we wake up to the joy of being parents to your child. We promise to cherish and love your baby with everything we have and can’t wait to get to know you, love you, and support you in every way we can.

You are brave, you are loved, and you are respected.

All our love,
Shane & Alé

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In Our Family, We Believe In...

• Being kind and compassionate toward others
• Enjoying life and finding the beauty in all things
• Finding opportunities in difficult situations
• Expressing gratitude regularly for the blessings we have

It is not lost on us that adoption affects so many people. If you wish, we would love to remain in contact with you, so that your child understands the reach of their family.  We will always be connected through the blessing of adoption, and in our family, that means you will always be a part of our lives and our story forever.

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Our Relationship with You

There is one thing that has been missing forever in our arms and hearts, and that is to be a mom and dad to a child. We are so grateful for your selflessness and bravery and are overcome with emotion in thinking about how thankful we are for the decision you made to put your faith in us to raise your baby. You are now a part of our story – and our extended family if that is your wish. It is our hope to have an open relationship with you, to share pictures and updates and visits if that is something that you are open to.

Your child will know that to us, you will always be our HERO. We admire and respect the love you have for your child and the tough decision that you made to provide them with a life full of hope, promise, and opportunity. They will always know how much we love you and that you brought us the greatest joy we could ever ask for.

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Shane Was Born to be a Dad

Shane is kind-hearted, athletic, and genuinely fun to be around. He’s so funny and such a good role model. The neighborhood kids love to hang out with “Mr. Shane” because he’s always telling jokes and tossing the football. When he is with our goddaughter, I see what a wonderful father he will be to a child. When he’s in the yard with the neighborhood kids, I see how a pre-teen will look up to him as a father. He will be amazing, active, gracious, and sincere – everything a great dad is! I imagine him on lazy Saturday mornings snuggling with your child all cozy on the couch watching cartoons and Shane entertaining our child with his impersonations of the cartoon characters and hearing the two of them laughing and having a good time together.

Fun Facts About Shane

• THINKS he is great at impersonating characters on TV.
• Played baseball, football, basketball, soccer, and hockey at one point or another during his childhood – but ended up being a long-distance runner!
• Hated onions as a child but now wants them added to every hot dog and hamburger that he eats!

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Alé Will Always Put Your Child First

Alé will be the kind of mother that expresses unconditional love and will always make sure that your child feels loved, supported, and cared for. She is always finding fun things to do with our goddaughter and our friends’ children like building a fort and telling stories, having dance parties in the living room, or just coloring at the dinner table. The kids love her and can’t wait to spend time with “Aunt Alé.” I am so fortunate to have met and fallen in love with my wife, and I have never met, nor will I ever meet a more caring, genuine, or selfless person than her. There is no one else in the world that I would rather raise a child with than my wife. I can’t wait for the day when I can take our child to the store to help pick out special Mother’s Day cards, one for you, their 1st mom and one for their forever mom.

Fun Facts About Alé

• Loves to dance and took dance lessons from the time she was three years old!
• Was a Girl Scout so she could sell the cookies, but stopped when they made her go camping.
• Her Godchildren have come to expect her to bring her “bag of fun” full of games and treats whenever they get together.  She’s just like Mary Poppins!

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Meet Our Family

Grammy and Grandpap are ready to welcome a new grandchild!

Grammy is truly one of a kind! She’s fun, loving, and always on the go! She will love her grandchild with every ounce of her being and her house will definitely be one that your child wants to visit often. Grammy always plans fun adventures, loves to go to the beach and the pool, and is great at finding the perfect gift for everyone. She really cares about everyone around here and will always be there to help and add to the fun! She’s a great cook and baker and I know will always be making treats for her grandchildren. She’s going to be the best Grammy to her new grandchild.

Grandpap is an avid outdoorsman who loves spending his time hunting, fishing, camping with close family and friends, and making memories in the great outdoors. In addition to his love of the outdoors, Grandpap likes to spend time with his family around the holidays, tell goofy jokes, and swap stories. As a teacher of 34 years, Grandpap looks forward to teaching his grandson or granddaughter new things when they bond together. Through the years, he has passed down a lot of the family traditions to Shane and is looking forward to recreating those memories and family traditions with a grandson or daughter.

While Shane is an only child, he is the youngest of 15 grandchildren and had many childhood friends growing up, many who are still his friends today. His dad lives in the home he grew up in, giving us the chance to visit and relive some of his best memories, such as catching crawfish in the creek behind the house, going for long walks and fishing on the family farm, or exploring the woods that surrounds the property. Each time that we visit Grandpap will be an opportunity to recreate these memories with a son or daughter!

Alé and her mom are very close. Her mom lives close by and is ready to take on babysitting duties at a moment’s notice. She also has a younger brother that she talks to every day. He and his wife had a baby, Camryn, in the summer of 2022 and she is ready for a cousin! Camryn and her fur-brother Reggie the labradoodle are a lot of fun! They live just a few minutes away. We hope our children will be close in age so they can grow up and make memories together!

During the holidays, we host Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with our immediate families and travel to visit extended family to continue our annual holiday family traditions.

Everyone in our family is excited to welcome a new addition, and so are we!

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Celebrating Diversity

We will raise your child to be open and accepting of the things that make each of us special and unique. Regardless of skin color, religion, or where you come from, we celebrate all people and understand that it is what is in your heart that makes you who you are! In our extended family, the blessing of adoption has given us the opportunity to add six children in the last ten years. We hardly remember a time without them at family reunions and know that any child who becomes a part of our family will have an instant connection and support system that he or she can easily relate to. Whether we are blessed with a child with the same or different ethnic background, our experiences with our extended family members have allowed us to learn about and be accepting of other ethnicities, cultures, and heritages. Raising a child of a different ethnicity is an important responsibility and one that we do not take lightly. We will honor your child’s heritage and culture and raise your child to have a healthy racial identity and ensure they have relationships with people who share the same ethnic background.

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Welcome to Our Home

We built our house in 2014 with the thought of making it the perfect home for a child to grow up in and made sure there was room for a big nursery and playroom with lots of toys! We recently purchased a beautiful piano from a neighbor. We both took lessons when we were younger and hope your child will learn the love of music and learn to play as well.

We make a lot of family recipes in the kitchen but also enjoy ordering pizza on some nights, too! In our living room, we love to sit by the fireplace and watch Netflix. Everyone always seems to gather in the kitchen though, where we hang out and have snacks and great conversation.

In our upstairs, we have room for a big nursery and playroom. We can’t wait to decorate a nursery and fill it with love and music. We have already purchased some lullaby CDs with songs from our favorite artists made into lullaby tunes – we have everything from country music to Coldplay! We have a special rocking chair that was Alé’s when she was little that she has painted and made ready to add to the room. Our bedroom will be right next door to the nursery, so we’ll be right there at all times ready to be loving on our new addition to the family.
Our neighborhood is the perfect place to raise a child and will provide the kind of childhood that every child should have. There is lots of room to teach your child to ride a bike, learn how to catch a baseball or softball, shoot hoops, and dance in the street. The children in our neighborhood are always outside running and playing and it’s so wonderful to hear their shouts of laughter. There are lots of families in the neighborhood and everyone is friendly.

We imagine future sleepovers and birthday parties at our house. We live within walking distance to a park with baseball and soccer fields and a lot of playground equipment and walking trails, but we also have the space for a big swing set and slide in our backyard too. The local school system is state recognized in both academics and athletics, giving all students an opportunity to thrive.

We enjoy hosting our family and friends at every opportunity we get, including summer cookouts and holiday parties. A lot of our friends have little kids that enjoy coming over and decorating our driveway with sidewalk chalk and playing basketball, so we know there will be lots of playdates at our house!

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Our Lifestyle

We both work but are lucky to have schedules where we can work from both home and the office. It’s nice to get into the city during the week, but it’s great to be at home during the day, too. We make it a priority to have dinner together every night. Whether it is tacos, spaghetti, or a new recipe Alé saw on Facebook, we make sure we use this time to catch up on our day, note the good things that happened, and plan for the next day. Before going to bed, we pack our lunches and pick out our clothes for the next day, so we’re ready for when it’s time to pack your child’s lunchbox and lay out their outfit for school! We can’t wait to add another chair around the table and have your child join our lives to share in all of the big celebrations, and the little ones, too.

On the weekends we enjoy visiting our family and friends and traveling to new places, but we also like to stay at home to recharge with movies and popcorn on movie night and can’t wait to add Disney movies to the list! As the “planners” for our family and friends, we often coordinate the fun gatherings, like family and class reunions, Christmas parties, and Birthday celebrations. We can’t wait to start making plans for your child’s 1st Birthday celebration!

In the spring and summer, we LOVE to be outside whether it’s on the back porch, roasting marshmallows around the fire pit, doing a home improvement project, or spending a day at the pool. Shane loves to plant flowers every spring and he looks forward to having the help of his future son or daughter, just like he helped his dad when he was younger. He can’t wait for the day when we can take a trip to the family farm for a fishing trip at the pond. There is so much room to run and explore and plenty of big fish to catch!

In the fall and winter, we like to try new restaurants and take in a play or musical in the cultural district. We love to watch football, too! We have a lot of trees in the yard so we know that will make for some fun leaf jumping for a little one! In the winter, all of the hills around our house are covered in snow and make for perfect sled riding snow days. Alé always looks forward to making hot chocolate and warming up by the fireplace under big fuzzy blankets!

Follow us on Instagram @simmonsadopt to check out our latest adventures!

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Family Traditions

We have so many traditions that keep us busy, allowing us to create memories and fill our photo albums.

Thanksgiving is Shane’s favorite holiday, and we host our families for a big dinner. Alé and her mom kick off Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving and look forward to those deals and discounts on the hot toy each year when she’ll be shopping for her grandchild!

Christmas is one of Alé’s favorite holidays. The house is decorated from top to bottom in red and green with Santa Claus and reindeer and, much to Shane’s dismay, a lot of glitter! Each year we decorate our Christmas tree with special ornaments while watching “Christmas at Rockefeller Center” and having Christmas cookies and hot chocolate. We are looking forward to the day when we can add a “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament to the tree. We can’t wait to be one of those families waiting in line to see Santa at the mall and getting our family photos taken for Christmas cards. We’ll watch Elf, Frosty the Snowman, Christmas Vacation, and probably even Frozen!

Every Easter, we prepare a traditional Easter dinner and pack an Easter basket of foods to take to church to be blessed by the priest before we have dinner as a family. We have plenty of space at our house, grandma’s house, and grandpap’s house for hiding Easter eggs for a hunt on Easter day!

On Mother’s Day, Alé and her brother treat their mom to a baseball game – even when our team is not having a great year. We will be sure to honor you on Mother’s Day, too, as your role as first mom will always be recognized and honored.

Each summer, Shane goes on a fishing trip with his dad and extended family for a week on the lake. They always return with great stories from their adventures on the water. Also in the summer, we spend a weekend with our friends and their children, sometimes at the lake, to take a break from work. In addition, we gather for cookouts throughout the summer as Alé’s brother is a master on the grill.

On Halloween, our neighborhood has a great night filled with costumes, candy, music, and a parade of little ghouls and goblins. Alé can’t wait to get creative with the best costume on the block for our child! We also go to the pumpkin patch each year to find huge pumpkins to carve for the front porch.

It’s not uncommon for us to have a small crowd of people at the house to share a meal, watch a football game, or just reminisce about the past and share our excitement for the future. From celebrating holidays to vacationing with family and friends at the beach, to fishing on the lake and planning family reunions, we can’t wait to introduce your child to all the fun we have!

We can’t wait to make new memories with your little one and fill even more family photo albums so that we can look back and treasure all our special moments together.

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Our Faith

Our faith has kept us positive throughout our journey to start a family. We find opportunities to pray together, practice our faith by attending church service, and participate in faith-based programs and events in our community. Alé is blessed with guiding two beautiful Godchildren as they navigate their faith and spends quality time with them reading Christmas stories and adding pieces to the nativity scene one by one. Shane and I pray together often and thank God for the blessings He has given us and for those blessings that have yet to come. We also pray for our families and our friends, and we pray for you.

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Our Promise to You

We do not make promises lightly and any promise that we make will be kept and honored.

• We promise to raise your child and teach him or her that honesty is a priority and love for one another comes above all.
• We promise to honor your wishes and help to create the kind of relationships that you will be comfortable with. We vow to ALWAYS put your child first in our lives. The care that he or she will receive will be second to none.
• We vow to always, always, always put your child first in our lives. The care that he or she will receive will be second to none.
• We promise to honor you as first mom – the beginning of the book of your child’s life – and make sure that he or she knows how much love surrounds them and how far that love extends beyond the walls of our home.
• We promise that you will always be a part of that story and love – however you choose that to be.