Joseph and Megan

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From Us to You

“Family: Where life begins and love never ends” – author unknown

Dear Expectant Mother,

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We recognize the choice you are making is one of the most difficult a woman can face. Entrusting your child to be raised by someone else requires incredible strength, honesty, bravery and, most of all, love for your child. We deeply respect that. Please know that we are comfortable and open to sharing photos, milestones and precious moments with you on Shutterfly. We want you to have the ability to check in whenever you want to, and see new and updated photos and videos.

We are Joe and Megan, and are extremely honored to be considered as adoptive parents for your baby. We have been in love and married for four years and enjoy long walks, being outdoors, taking in movies and catching up with friends and family. We enjoy life together and pray and dream of becoming a family through adoption.

Two days after Christmas in 2012 is where our paths crossed on accident, at a pizza pub, and we immediately hit it off. Joe was living in Kansas at the time and came back on weekends to go on dates and for us to get to know each other. He ended up moving back to Nebraska four months after we met. January 2014 is when we got engaged and then married a few months later in April. It was a small and intimate occasion surrounded by fifty-five of our family and closest friends.

Some of the things that we can’t wait to experience with the start of parenthood include your little one’s first words and first steps. Another thing that is important to us is being a part of helping them learn and grow with all of their new, daily life experiences. We look forward to trips to the park, the zoo and helping him or her to learn how to ride a bike and even just reading books every night as they fall asleep. It will be so rewarding to watch them grow into their own young person, meeting people and making friends of their own both in school and with all the neighbor kids. Most important is that we just want to be there to help them with whatever they need to start their life in a loving, caring and healthy environment.

Thank you again for your time and for getting to know us a bit. If adoption is the right choice for you and for your baby, know that we would be honored to be a part of it, and would never forget the loving sacrifice you made for your child. We promise to love your child unconditionally for the rest of our lives.

Joe & Megan

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About Megan

Megan and I were introduced by a mutual friend on a holiday weekend, and I don’t think either one of us was planning on meeting the person we were going to spend the rest of their life with that night. Right when I met her I was immediately attracted to her funny and outgoing personality. After a few dates, our relationship grew closer with a lot of talks about what we both wanted in a life partner and our future. Starting and growing a family was something we had both always wanted and now our journey continues.

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About Joe

Everyone who knows Joe, also loves him. He has a heart of gold and is a genuine guy all around. He really enjoys his job and everyone he works with enjoys him as well. When he isn’t at work we enjoy walks, movies, dinners out and connecting with family. The biggest thing I can say about us is our love for each other and our amazing sense of humor. The moment I met Joe I could see the perfect father figure in him.

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Our Families

Growing up in a small extended family, Megan had only one aunt and uncle on her mom’s side. Her parents got divorced when she was six but both still managed to be a part of their children’s everyday lives. Truly it was the best of both worlds! People would often say, “Are your parents are really divorced?” Megan’s sister is four years older and her brother is only nine months older than she is. Joe was raised in the same house throughout his childhood with both parents and a brother who is three years younger. Growing up for him involved a pretty large extended family experience with seven aunts and uncles on his dad’s side and three more on his mom’s. With so many cousins sometimes it was hard to keep track of everybody!

Now Megan’s mom spends her winters in Arizona and the rest of the year here in Nebraska. Unfortunately, we lost Megan’s dad two months after we got married to dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Joe’s parents live here in Nebraska and are less than ten minutes away from us. They also recently purchased a property in Arizona to spend some time down there with Joe’s younger brother and his wife and two kids. Megan has an older brother and sister who were brought into her life through adoption. Her brother is married and lives in Iowa and has two children who are growing up fast, now 5 and 7 years old. Her sister is also married and lives in Missouri with one son who just turned 13. Our parents, aunts, uncles and cousins are so supportive and excited to meet the little ones.

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Our Home

Five years ago we moved into our first home that we built together! The house is located in a nice, quiet circle that is full of friendly people and lots of kids. The ages of the kids are anywhere from just learning to walk to scooting around on their bikes and scooters. Being in a big, open cul-de-sac allows for plenty of space for a little one to safely learn how to ride a bike, among other childhood experiences. We can’t wait to run around our backyard with your child with enough room for a swing-set and possibly a pool in the future. The neighborhood has recently added a second park and both are within walking distance of our home. Not far from one of the parks are two small fishing ponds that are also used for ice-skating in the winter. There is an elementary school only a couple blocks from us, that is not even five years old yet and they have already expanded the buildings. This summer they have started having food trucks brought into the neighborhood offering everything from breakfast, BBQ and ice cream. There are also two churches in the neighborhood with such nice families and great Sunday school and summer programs for kids of all ages. A new YMCA was built less than five minutes from us, with a great amount of activities for children and for parents. It has indoor and outdoor pools and a new middle school attached. With all of these things available to us we have endless options to keep a young one busy with activities and experiences that everyone will remember forever.

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Our Lifestyle

We enjoy outdoor activities, movies and going out to our favorite restaurants. Our neighborhood and city have endless bike paths and sidewalks for nice long walks or bike rides. Some of the other things we like to do outside include swimming at one of the many pools we have to choose from in our community. It’s always nice on a cool evening to grill out and catch up with neighbors, friends or family. Megan’s preferences for movies probably lean more towards romance and comedy, and Joe will watch pretty much anything, but does like action and movies based on true stories. Joe is also a pretty big sports fan, especially football and golf. He has been a lifelong football fan of the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the San Francisco 49ers, and has enjoyed playing golf with his dad and friends since he can remember. Some of our favorite restaurants include a couple different Mexican places on our end of town. We also have great Italian and sushi places close by and a burger pub that we love

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Traditions

The fourth of July has become a big tradition in our neighborhood with a parade where the kids decorate their bikes, scooters and wagons. We grill out with neighbors, friends and family and everyone brings a favorite dish to share. The end of the day of course is watching fireworks for as long as our heart desires. The neighborhood seems to step-up the displays and friendly competition every year. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the holidays that our families get together at Joe’s parents’ house with everyone bringing something to add to the holiday feast. After the meal we always finish off the day with a board game or card games. All in all our holidays always include family and friends catching up and lots of belly laughs as well as a feast that no one ever leaves hungry.

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Why We are Choosing to Adopt

After we met and dated for a while we had both talked so much about having children and about how our lives would be fulfilled with children in it.

~ A child has a special way of adding joy to every day ~

After we got married, we set out to start our family right away. After some time with infertility, we found that we were going to have go in a different direction with bringing a baby into our lives. Adoption was the new path for us, and since Megan has two siblings who were adopted when she was growing up, it is a very familiar and comfortable decision. We hope that this journey helps us not only start our family, but fulfill our hopes and dreams of becoming parents and sharing our life and experiences with a child of our own.

~ Adopting a child won’t change the world – but for that child, the world will change~

On a Typical 3-Day Weekend

When we have a 3-day weekend, we like to check out and see what’s going on in the community and see if there are any events we may want to attend (Farmer’s markets, movies, Nebraska football, basketball and volleyball games. Sometimes we sneak away for a couple days to Omaha, and we also enjoy heading to Iowa to see Megan’s brother and his family.

What We Hope to Teach our Child

We want to teach your child the same values and ethics that our parents instilled in both of us. Going to church and being a good student in school – other things like respecting your elders — be nice to others – good work habits and responsibility.

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How a Child will Enrich our Lives

It wasn’t long after we met that we knew we wanted to have children as part of our ‘life plans’. We can’t wait for the day-to-day adventures we’ll have with a child in our lives. The things we’ll experience and learn as new parents will be irreplaceable, special and unforgettable.

Day-to-Day Plans

Megan will be home about 75% percent of the time, working around Joe’s work schedule, and we will probably have a nanny a few hours a week as needed. Day-to- day plans would include indoor and outdoor activities, play dates with friends and their kids, story time every night at bedtime and at Barnes and Noble, and getting to know and spend time with all of Baby’s new family members.

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When We Hold Your Baby in our Arms, our thoughts will be...

Our thoughts will always be that “we hope she is doing well” and we will always be thinking of the strength and bravery that she showed in making such a difficult and important decision in her and her child’s life.