Russell and Valerie

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From Us to You

Dear Expectant Mom:

Considering making an adoption plan is such a brave decision and we admire you for considering such a difficult choice. Should you decide adoption is the right choice for you and your child, our dreams would come true if you chose us to be parents for your child. Just as you are putting your child’s best interests above your own, we too will always make your child our number one priority. We will love them unconditionally, cherish them and protect them and provide them with a life filled with love, guidance, and support to find their purpose in life and help them succeed. Our hearts are open to the kind of relationship you would like to have after the birth of your child, and we will respect your wishes for how often you would like to have communication and visits.

We dream of what it will be like when we become parents, and how exciting each stage of your child’s life will be as we watch them grow. We will embrace every moment of their lives from admiring them as we watch them sleeping in their crib to walking down the aisle on their wedding day, and all the many experiences that we will share with them in between. Each day we will live in that very special moment and value the little things in life, like all the endless giggles, stopping to smell the flowers on our walks, and enjoying the outdoors.

Your child will grow up experiencing two amazing lifestyles. While our home is right on the outskirts of the city, we also have a weekend getaway home that includes animals so weekends will be spent experiencing the joys of country life. The sky is the limit for your child to learn new hobbies and enjoy different kinds of entertainment, as both of us are constantly trying something new and there is never a dull moment in our family.

We have a large support system of friends and family who are so excited about our adoption journey and can’t wait to welcome your child into our family and make them a part of all our family fun and adventures.

We sincerely thank you for reading our profile and want you to know that we too want nothing but the best for your child. Please let us know if you have any questions and we will be more than happy to answer them for you and we can’t wait to hear from you.

Love and blessings to you,
Russell and Valerie

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Why We are Choosing to Adopt

Because we married later in life, we knew that adoption was how we would become a family. We can’t wait to begin the most important chapter of our lives and that’s the exciting adventure of parenthood, with all the joys and challenges of raising a child. We look forward to baby snuggles, midnight feedings, first steps, and even the terrible twos. God has blessed us with a loving marriage, a wonderful family and lifestyle and we are financially secure. It is our hope and dream to provide your child with a loving Christian home, a happy life and to make all their dreams come true.

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About Valerie, by Russell

I met Valerie at work; we had known each other for several years and worked on the same missions.  One day while giving a presentation I saw Valerie was in the audience and she was smiling at me and being supportive and then our eyes locked, and I felt that time stopped.  I saw my future deep in her eyes and knew that she was the one that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

There are so many things about Valerie that I love.  I love how strong and independent she is and how she always puts the needs of others before her own.  She is a good friend, and you can talk to her about anything that is on your mind. It brings her great joy to mentor co-workers to help them shine and succeed in their careers.

Making healthy eating choices is important to Valerie because she wants us to be around for a long time.  Valerie also loves to take advantage of a great sale or cashing in on store rewards for gifts for others and your child already has many clothes and toys for their first few years of life. She will tell you that she’s getting ready for baby.

Valerie loves spending time with our nieces and nephews who describe her as caring and super fun!  She is there for them always and encourages and inspires each of them to study, to make good choices, and to live their best life.  Our nieces and nephews know they can count on her for anything, and she would always protect them or any of her family.

Valerie will be such an amazing mom to your child.  She will sing to them sweet lullabies as she rocks them to sleep and will read them lots of bedtime stories.  Valerie is always telling family and friends that she loves them and is proud of them. I know that your child will hear “I love you” many times a day, and they will know how perfect and beautiful they are and how much Mommy, Daddy and God love them too! I can’t wait to raise a child with Valerie.

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About Russell, by Valerie

Russell and I were co-workers, and I enjoyed his friendship.  He was always supportive of my goals, and we enjoyed numerous long and meaningful conversations. We found that we had so many things in common and had long-term desires and expectations in life that were the same.  Russell would send me songs that made him think of me and send sweet memes in text messages and eventually asked me out for dinner. We have enjoyed dinner together ever since.

Russell has one of the kindest hearts you will ever meet. He’s a devoted husband and a great friend, and he is going to be kind and loving father.  Each day he makes it his mission to not only provide for his family but to do whatever he can to make life great for them.

Russel custom-built our home theater and enjoys being a DIY kind of guy. He works in a leadership role and enjoys inspiring others to make meaningful decisions for all.  He is a veteran and served in the Navy on a submarine as a sonar technician.

Russell loves animals, especially dogs.  He has a big heart for homeless animals or any animal in need.  He loves singing, dancing, and laughing and I picture him making up silly little songs as he sings to your child, holding him or her in his arms and dancing around the room, laughing together. My husband will be such an amazing dad to your child and there is no one else in the world that I would rather raise a child with than Russell.

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About Us

We have a loving relationship and do almost everything together because we have such similar interests.  We have the most fun just being at home with family and friends, hanging out, playing games, or singing karaoke.  We can listen to music and sing until the early morning hours at home and have some of the best times.  We are both intrigued by Ford Mustang vehicles. We collect them both in the small model car or toy size and real-life drivable versions.  We attend Mustang and other specialty car shows or car auctions often.  We are so blessed in our lives that we feel it is important to give back and so we volunteer in our community, at church, and with different organizations that we belong to. We also enjoy spending time outside relaxing by the pool, enjoying our view of the country, or working in our flower gardens and wood shop.  A large part of our life also includes three little dogs that love to enjoy the outside as much as we do.

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Lifestyle

I guess you could say we enjoy being active just as much as we enjoy being homebodies.
Our weekdays are filled with work and pleasure. We are fortunate to have our own gym at home, so we enjoy exercising at home with weightlifting and Peloton. Sometimes we’ll ride our bicycles in the country or along the beach and can’t wait for the day when we can add a baby carrier to our bikes and take turns riding with your child. We enjoy cooking together and have hobbies that we enjoy like woodworking, gardening, and fishing. We even grow some of our own food and plan to raise chickens for fresh eggs.

We love music, and there is always some sort of music playing in our home. We watch a lot of movies in our media room and dream about future sleepovers your child will have with their friends for “movies, pizza, popcorn and sleepover night.”
While we enjoy our mini-traveling adventures, going on cruises, going to concerts, and dinner and dancing, we are ready to trade all of this in for packing up the family car to take your child on vacations with family, Disney cruises, and music-in-the-park for families to enjoy where we can still have dinner out and enjoy dancing.
We are big NASA supporters so your child will grow up learning all about space and our solar system. We just spent spring break with family at the Space Center and there will be more trips to the Johnson Space Center as that is one of our favorite things to do.
During the spring and summer months, we enjoy having cookouts with family. During crawfish season we boil crawfish and host a crawfish boil. On July 4th we get together and watch large firework displays in our neighborhood or the country.

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Home & Neighborhood

Our home is the perfect home to raise a family and it is in a quiet and relaxing country setting on almost 7 acres of land. That’s a whole lot of yard for running around, playing tag, and all kinds of games! There are 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, two living areas, and a large theater media room where we have over 1200 movies to choose from.

There’s a pool surrounded by tropical plants that we call our oasis, and we can’t wait for your child’s first swimming lessons and all the pool parties they will have as they grow up. There is also a pond where we fish and lots of green grass that looks like we live in a park.

Our neighbors raise cattle and love to garden. We live only 30 minutes from the beach and sometimes you can even smell the ocean and see the seagulls fly over our home. Your child will grow up in a great area.

On weekends we like to get away to our little country home on 70 acres where there are cattle, farm animals, barns, and ponds. We tour the property on ATVs and just enjoy life driving around and relaxing.

Your child will grow up with so many fun experiences. Valerie, her sister, and her cousins grew up going to her grandparent’s farm and enjoyed camping in a tent, building a tree house, building sandcastles in a sandbox, and riding horses. As a child, Russell would enjoy exploring the hay barns and harvesting the gardens with his grandmother. Some of these same hay barns are still on our property. We will make sure your child is able to experience all these things and more. Our dogs run freely and play, and we take long nature walks to explore.

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Our Pets

We love all animals and are partial to dogs. Our three dogs, Berkley, Mila, and Marley, each have quite different personalities and they are always by our side. Berkley is a Yorkie, 13 years old, independent, and is starting to slow down but still gets around very well. Mila is 8 years old and loves to be by Berkley’s side. Mila is half Poodle and half Yorkie and is a fluffy ball of fun. Marley is our playful toddler dog who is a 2-year-old Maltese and Poodle mix. They all love to play with toys, explore outside, take naps and sleep and snuggle as much as possible. We taught Berkley and Mila how to swim in the pool and they like to relax on the pool floaties. Marley is still young and learning new tricks. He likes to hang out with us in our media room watching movies or Animal Planet intently and he loves to go on car rides to the beach or the farm. Even though we treat them as our children, nothing can replace having a child of our own to teach and keep safe.

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Our Families

Our family members reside in Kansas and in Texas.

Valerie’s parents and sister live in Kansas, about 11 hours away, and we see them throughout the year on holidays and birthdays. Valerie’s parents are retired and extremely excited about the idea of gaining another grandchild. We are certain that they will come for extended vacations in Texas to help babysit.  They have been planning their lives around the possibility of adding a child to the family for quite some time.  They will snuggle, nurture, love, and embrace everything about your child and as they grow older, they will play games, take walks and enjoy all their experiences with them.  They have many traditions with their other grandchildren that they will continue with your child.  One tradition is going to Build-a-Bear every Christmas to pick out an animal to create any way they desire.  Valerie’s sister will love your baby as her own and is extremely excited to have a niece or nephew.  She will be a loving, fun, and stable person in your child’s life. She will be available any time and they will know her better than anyone else as she will be a trusted family member and role model.  Your baby’s cousins will be older so they will be the special baby cousin that our nieces and nephews adore.  Our niece has never held a baby and is looking forward to this being her first baby to hold and love.  Each niece and nephew is into their own activities and are quite excited to teach your child and have life experiences with him or her as well.

Russell’s sister and mom live in Texas and will also be involved with your child. They live in a rural town 2 hours away where we have our getaway home.  They also enjoy country living and will help your child embrace country life, swimming, and carefree living by chasing lightning bugs, toads, or other interesting creatures that live in the country.  Holiday traditions and family time are important to all our family, and we know that your child will fully understand each holiday and understand the need for family.  We have close friends with children that we like to visit, vacation, and do holidays with as well and they are also extremely happy and supportive to add a child to love to our crew.

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Faith

We are Christians and believe in and have faith in God because he died for our sins and forgave us.  Throughout our lives, we have endured sickness, hardships, and extremely sad times and during these trials, we have placed our trust in God to help us through those tragic moments. He always takes care of us and provides for us and our families.  We attend church weekly and enjoy a non-denominational, contemporary-style worship service.  The church we attend has an outstanding children’s ministry that your child will thrive on as they interact with other children.  We will raise your child to love God and to know there is eternal life for him or her in Heaven.

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Our Family Traditions

We cannot wait to share both new and old family traditions with your child. There will be daily, monthly, and yearly traditions. Some traditions will be at home, others at grandparents’ homes, and some that are during the holidays. A daily tradition will include reading a bedtime story. In our home we have weekly Saturday morning movies in our media room. We will soon start a tradition with your baby to start watching Disney movies or holiday-themed movies during the appropriate season. Once they are old enough, we will plant a large pumpkin patch for them to enjoy, along with dressing up for Halloween each year. Overall, our family celebrates all holidays. We take every opportunity to celebrate with family both in Texas and Kansas. During the winter holiday we take several weeks and go to Kansas and have quality time enjoying large family and friend gatherings. We love experiencing Christmas through the eyes of our small niece and nephews. On New Year’s Eve we enjoy entertaining friends, playing games, singing karaoke, and sometimes swimming. During Easter we celebrate Christ’s resurrection and attend church. We look forward to the Easter bunny and Easter baskets with goodies, as well as coloring and hunting for Easter eggs. Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day we also set aside to celebrate and embrace relaxation and fellowship with our friends and family. Each and every day your child will enjoy traditions as we hug, kiss and pray for them showing them especially how loved and cherished they are.

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Racial and Cultural Diversity

We have love and acceptance for all people of any race and ethnic background and wish that everyone would be treated equally, but we also acknowledge that not all people are. In our family, we believe in fighting against racial and social injustice. Our family is also blessed to have family members who are biracial, and we love them equally as their value is not based on their skin, but their hearts. Valerie has the pleasure to keep company with coworkers and collaborators from many different countries and many different races who are not only friends but part of our family.

We committed years ago to embrace diversification and learn about our friends’ cultures and heritages because it is important to us to know and understand this so we can love them fully. We have friends who are like family who have expressed sincere interest in helping us keep the traditions of your child ’s heritage and are dedicated to help us continue to humbly learn and grow.

It is important to us that we set an example and teach your child to accept everyone as they were perfectly and beautifully made.  In the abundance of items that we already have for your child, there are many toys and dress up clothes from other countries, and dolls with different skin tones or hair color. It is our mission to allow the child to choose their own identity and independence of who they are while loving and supporting them in all ways. We are all different in our own ways and that is what makes life interesting and exciting!

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Our Promise to You

We have desired a child for so long, we promise you that your child will always be our number one priority and we will always put them first.

Your child will know their beautiful story of adoption and how much you love them and continue to love them.

We would like an ongoing and open relationship with you, and we would love to learn all about you and your family to share with your child, so we can tell them little things like you got your blue eyes from your mom, or your dimples from Grandpa John and anything else you would like to share. But we will respect your wishes and what you are comfortable with.

And we promise you that your child will always know how much we love you.