Timothy and Meredith

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From Us to You

Dear Expectant Mother,

There is unlimited love and laughter in our house, and it is truly impossible to have a bad day when children are around. We cannot even begin to imagine the joy welcoming your child into our family will bring to Edward and Louise, and to us.

As you face making the most important decision of your life for yourself and your unborn child, we acknowledge how much you must love your child to make such a difficult and life-changing decision. And should you decide that adoption is the right decision for you and your child, and our family is the one to be blessed with your child, please know that we will continue to grow the love you have for your child with our love.

We will give your baby everything we can give, from love and laughter to a happy, safe, and secure home and parents who will devote their lives to their happiness and well-being. Your child will have rambunctious siblings to love and play with, grandparents who can’t wait to smother them with love, and extended family who can’t wait to welcome them.

As a family, we spend many weekends in the spring, summer, and early fall at the lake and camping with family and friends. Your child will be introduced to sports and hobbies and will have the ability to decide for themselves what they want to do with their lives.

We want your child to grow up knowing all the wonderful things there are in this world and will raise them to love first and judge last. They will learn to embrace differences in the people that they meet and see the wonderful attributes in everyone.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for looking at our profile. Please let us know if you have any questions. We are so excited to start the next chapter of our lives and we hope that it begins with you.

Thank you,

Tim & Meredith

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How We Met

We met through our best friend, Drew, who is Meredith’s oldest brother and Tim’s best friend from high school. We learned about many similarities on our first date, which was approved by Drew, of course! Since dating, Drew met his wife through Tim. The score is even! We were able to connect on many different levels, such as growing up in the same area, attending similar schools, same interests, and having a love for adventure, family, and fun. We quickly fell in love, and we believe our similarities and our differences have made us a great couple.

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Why We are Choosing to Adopt

When we first started dating, we were both very pleased to hear that we shared the same dream of one day adopting and we both have people in our lives who have been adopted or have children through adoption. We thought we would have a child or two of our own and then adopt. But life always has a way of changing its plans for you. After several years of dealing with fertility issues, we were so ready to love and raise children; that we decided to start our adoption journey. By no means did this change in plans disappoint us. To our surprise, we were blessed with two beautiful children. Even with the birth of our two wonderful children, we have never questioned our desire to still adopt. We cannot put our desire to adopt into words, but we both have never been so sure about something in our lives as this.

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About Meredith, by Timothy

Mere and I met because she is my friend’s sister. It was not planned or expected. We kind of just fell for each other. Mere is my best friend. We do everything together and it is easy. We laugh all the time and really enjoy our adventures. She is an unbelievable mom. Eddie, Louise, and I have it made. She spoils us with great meals, our laundry is always fresh, and our home is always in tip-top shape. I’d say she is the organized one in the relationship. She packs all our things for the weekend trips and makes it super easy on us when we have any kind of outing. Mere is a family person. She is always available to everyone. She is constantly thinking about how to help someone or make their day a little easier. It seems to be in her nature to help. That is why she is a nurse and a great one at that. Mere is a great wife and an even better mother.

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About Timothy, by Meredith

I, Meredith, have spent most of my life taking care of everyone around me. I am surrounded by so much love and loved ones, but not until I met Tim did, I truly feel loved, protected, and taken care of. I am strong for everyone around me, but Tim is strong for me. He makes it safe for me to be vulnerable and may have even softened me up a bit. We have faced hardships, failures, and losses, but during those times, I never felt alone or scared because Tim was always by my side. Timmy is selfless, dependable, and compassionate. He is truly the best father and role model I could ask for my children. He gives his all to everyone around him and leaves no one behind. He is a source of laughter and humor.

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Our Lifestyle

Our lifestyle is focused around family, friends, and the outdoors. We love spending time with our family. Sometimes the time is spent helping with projects at each other’s houses, playdates with nieces and nephews, or having nights out together as siblings. Whatever it is, we love the time with spend with them. We love seeing our children grow up together.

During the week we both work but make time to have dinner together. We know this may not last long once our children are in sports and in different schools and social activities. We are very active during the weekend, spending time with our family and friends. We cannot wait for our lives to get even busier with our family growing and our children growing older.

Since we first got married, we both became “campers”, with the rest of Tim’s family. We have a camper of our own, which is equipped for an outdoor weekend of fun and adventure. When we aren’t camping, we spend a lot of the summer weekends at Norris Lake with the Mere’s family. The house is always full with the rest of our siblings, parents, and nieces and nephews. During the off-season of camping and lake season, we spend weekends with friends and family playing games/cards, watching football, or simply just enjoying each other’s company.

We cannot wait to include your child in everything we do, from our wild outdoor adventures camping and at the lake to our loving family time in our home. We can’t wait to be involved in our children’s sports, but we are also totally fine with their hobbies being something else. Meredith can’t wait to share her love of reading and cooking with your child. We will love your child so much that they will easily laugh and help others like Tim does.  We will teach your child to explore the outdoors with their siblings. And most of all, we know that your child will be loved by everyone in our family. We have an endless amount of love and cuddles we cannot wait to give your child.

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Our Home & Neighborhood

Our beautiful home is in a large family-friendly neighborhood with many amenities. We live in a two-story house with 4 bedrooms and 3.5 baths on a wooded lake lot. Meredith keeps our house tidy and clean; she may have a bit of OCD. While we love a clean and organized home, we love toys all over even more. We have great space to play with all our fun toys. We have comfortable couches for endless snuggles and movie time. We feel our house is the perfect size. It has enough space to run and play, but it is still very cozy and welcoming.

The yard is big and fenced in. We are on a small fishing lake, but there is plenty of distance and safety between the house and the lake. We have plans to build a swing set now that our son is big enough to swing. Edward’s favorite thing to do is to play outside. Our yard provides ample space to run around. We have a spacious deck that also provides a safe space for Louise and for your child to play and watch their energetic brother.

Our great neighborhood has lakes, a swimming pool, sports fields, walking paths, and playgrounds. Our home and surrounding area are very safe. Our community provides its own private law enforcement team of Reserve sheriffs, in addition to the city and county sheriff officers of the surrounding areas. We have been here for six years and love the community feel and find new and exciting events all the time. This is a new area for us, but we are close to family. The neighborhood is located in a small town but it has an upcoming community with great school districts, fun parks, and a safe environment with many loving families. Tim has joined the local volunteer fire department, which has led us to many new friendships. The more time we spend here, the more we fall in love with the area, and cannot wait to raise our children in this community!

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Our Families & Friends

Our very large families are extremely important parts of our lives and we have strong bonds with all of them. Both Tim and I are best friends with our siblings. Tim is one of 5 siblings and Meredith is one of four siblings. In Tim’s family, we have 10 grandchildren. In Meredith’s family, we also have 10 grandchildren, one is on the way. Our children are always so excited to spend time with their cousins. Unfortunately, we only have one grandpa still living, but he is still very active and a large part of our family.

Our little family starts with our firstborn, Edward Lloyd. Eddie came to us after a long struggle with fertility issues. He was our first miracle. Shortly after Eddie was born, surprise! We were pregnant with our second miracle. We could not believe it. Louise Ann was born 14 months after we had Ed. Both of our children are very independent, extremely happy, and ambitious children. Eddie is the most amazing big brother to his little “sissy.” Little Lou is quickly following in her brother’s footsteps. They both are always smiling and laughing, which makes them unbelievably happy. We have truly been so blessed and cannot wait to add our final sibling/siblings.

In addition to our very large and active families, we both have very strong friend groups. We both have large groups of friends from high school. Tim’s friends all have kids and Meredith’s are quickly starting their families. Our friend get-togethers are wild with all the children but are so much fun. We see our friends often for playdates, lake trips, and sporting events. We value our friends like family and our family like friends.

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Family Traditions

One of our big traditions is our Christmas party with Meredith’s mom’s side of the family. This get-together comprises around 75 people and we usually have it at our local community center because of how large the crowd is. It is great to see everyone around Christmas because, with our family being that big, it is hard to see everyone during the year. We have a delicious dinner together and Santa comes to visit the kids! Each child gets to sit on Santa’s lap, and he congratulates them on something good they have done that year. They get a small gift from Santa. In recent years, we used to have a white elephant gift exchange among the adults. But year after year, the same type of gifts kept being exchanged. We decided to switch it up the past two years. We now donate and supply a Christmas for a family in need. Each family is assigned a type of gift to give and then my parents deliver all the gifts to the mother and/or father of the family so that they would have Christmas gifts to open on Christmas morning. We also give gift cards to grocery stores and different food places, so the family does not have to worry about affording food. All of our family is very generous throughout the year, but there is something special about Christmas and a child’s smile on Christmas morning that makes this so amazing.

Another tradition we have is Bengals Football games. We watch Sunday football every week with either Tim or Meredith’s family. Both families are big football fans and even bigger Bengals fans. During the season, we have parties for special games with both families. But the most important game/games are the Superbowl and playoffs. Because of superstition, we spent the playoff games with Tim’s family. The Bengals have been doing great the past two years and the men do not want to jinx it. The men get extremely rambunctious, and the women and children spend time together watching the game, playing with the kids, and eating great food. Most people may think it’s football that brings everyone together, but it’s the food. Tim’s family all have their special appetizers, most involving cream cheese, of course. Cheeseball, bagel dip, skyline dip, stuffed mushrooms, etc. We love being able to spend time with family while having great food and watching, hopefully, great football.

We have too many traditions to list, but what I can say is all our traditions involve family and friends. Most of those traditions have food involved. We love bringing our children to these events and having them meet everyone we love. We cannot wait to have your child be a part of our family traditions.

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Racial & Cultural Diversity

Although we do not have a very racially and/or culturally diverse community, we will make sure that our children and your child will learn about other races and cultures, especially their own. We have diversity in our friend groups and families. We both have African American friends. We both have a Vietnamese sister-in-law and a hopeful sister-in-law. Our nephew is part Vietnamese. We have a nephew with Down syndrome. We raise our children to be all-inclusive of different diversities, whether it’s religion, ethnicity, or differences of opinion.  We are constantly looking for ways to educate and change ourselves, especially in the wake of all the racial and cultural division this country has been dealing with. We make sure our children read books and watch movies that show the main characters of different races and cultures. We make sure our children’s toys include different races and cultures. It is not enough to just acknowledge diversity. We need to learn and change our ways. We hope to bring our children along on our journey of self-discovery, education, and change related to racial and cultural diversity.

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Our Relationship with You

We want to keep a relationship with you and your child. Our hope is that you are open to visits with your child. We want to keep you updated with pictures and videos, but we know in person is best. We want to open our hearts and our home to you. But we know this is all up to you. We will do what is comfortable for you.

We will tell our child that you are their mother. We will tell of their birth story and how they came to be our child, too. We promise to tell your child about you and the great love and sacrifice you showed him or her. As with the visits, we will do what makes you comfortable. We hope to be able to tell your child stories about you and share with them where they get certain attributes and qualities. From day one, we want to be open with our child about where and who they came from. Their adoption story will be an open book. We want this child to be consumed with love from you and from us.

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Our Promise to You

We promise to raise your child with all of our hearts. We will dedicate all of our love and devotion to our children. We promise your child will have the most loving and fun siblings.

We promise to give your child every opportunity and to provide an education for them to help them achieve their dreams in life. Most importantly, we promise there will be no shortness of love from us, our families, or our friends. We promise to raise your child to love first and judge last.