Matthew and Laura

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Welcome!

We’re so glad you’re checking out our profile! We’re Laura and Matt. We hope as you read our profile that our love for each other, our values, and the love and life we could give your child, comes through in our words and pictures. We imagine that you have many tough decisions ahead of you. As you read our story and learn more about us, it is our hope that we are the family you have been looking for and we can’t wait to hear from you.

We are affectionate and loving people; our dogs get way too many treats and kisses! Hugs are a daily part of our routine if one is leaving or coming home. We like to do things to make each other laugh; there’s definitely lots of laughter in our home. Laura is an Elementary School Principal for grades PreSchool-6th and has been in education for 15 years. She has 2 Masters Degrees, one in Educational Leadership and one in Family Psychology. Matt is a Real Estate Broker with his own Brokerage. He has been in this field for 11 years and has a degree in Criminal Justice. Both of us value education and will highly encourage your child to always continue their education, with the support of us! We promise your child’s education will always be of high importance to us and will most likely attend the same school that Laura works at which is currently a high performing school.

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About Matt

Matt and I are very opposite in many ways, but when brought together I feel that’s what makes us a strong team. Matt is very passionate and energetic; he puts thought and heart into everything he does, including his work, our family, and our home. He loves to read, take the dogs for walks, hikes, and loves his sports (Astros, Cowboys, Rockets, UFC). Matt is very emotionally available and cares very deeply for those he loves. I know how Matt is as a partner, and I am absolutely sure that as a parent he would always put your child first. He will be engaged and open as a parent. He wears his heart on his sleeve and gives deeply for those he loves. I know that a child would open his world to so much and there wouldn’t be anything he wouldn’t do for them. I also know he will be protective and want the very best for his child, nothing else will do.

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About Laura

Laura has been in education for all of her adult life, starting as a 4th grade teacher and working her way to Dean of Students at an A+ school, and is now the Principal of an Elementary School. Needless to say, she knows children well, it’s been her life’s work, and something she is very passionate about. While all this knowledge is great to have, that’s only part of the reason she would be a great mother. She is selfless, hard-working, happy, a great leader, and very patient. These traits, along with her knowledge of early child development make her the ideal adoptive parent. Laura enjoys scrapbooking, traveling, adventures, family, and animals of all kinds. An ideal “Day Off” for Laura would be spending the day with family at the local zoo. She loves learning and spending time with our Golden Retrievers, Zoe and Stella, and me.

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Our Families

Laura:

I was raised by two of the most selfless and amazing people. I strive to be like them every day by mimicking their servant leadership and always helping others before myself. My parents are very active, they love to antique, eat Mexican food, and have family dinners very frequently. I have one sister who is younger than I am. She is very funny, artsy, and creative. She is an Art teacher for grades K-6th at the same school I work at. She has a very free spirit and is very brave!! She loves to hike and kayak on her days off. We all volunteer twice a month at a food pantry near the school. My extended family is small, but very close and committed to each other’s happiness. My mother works at the same school that my sister and I do as an early childhood reading specialist, so the three of us spend a lot of time together! My grandparents are in their 80’s and still travel to Arizona from Iowa every fall to visit. They have spent winters down here every year since I was 2! My grandma is an excellent baker and I love to use her recipes! My grandpa is still farming the family land in Iowa, mostly corn, and still has his pilot’s license! I know he would love for your child to visit the family farm one day!

Matt:

My extended family is mixed, with my father and stepmother living half the year here, and the rest of the year at our lake house in upstate New York. My father is my best friend, confidant, and advisor. He was a principal for over 30 years before retiring, Laura leans on him for advice frequently. My dad and stepmother enjoy spending time with friends and family and my father is a big-time outdoorsman. My mother and stepfather live about 40 minutes away from us. My mother is a retired Special Education teacher and has a doctoral degree in education. On the weekends, you can find them playing golf and enjoying time with family and friends. They have 2 beagle puppies, Tara and Tucker, who are the newest members of the family. My brother lives about an hour away. He is 3 years older than I am and also my best friend. We have been through a lot together over our lives and continue to support each other in whatever ways we can. My brother has a master’s degree in education and enjoys spending time with his dog Cooper, hunting, and spending time with friends and family. Whether it’s football or baseball, we always have some sports team to catch up on together, but always for the Cowboys or Astros! My grandmother on my mother’s side is 95 years old and resides near my brother. She enjoys anything to do with family and getting everyone together.

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Lake House Family Fun

In the summer of 2022 our family had a large family reunion. Our extended family (uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.) all came from all parts of the country. Over 45 family members – what a great sight to see! Our families are a large part of our lives and we feel very grateful to have these lifelong connections with them.

Matt: This all started with my grandparents on my father’s side in upstate New York. They had a home on Lake Ontario. When I was a child, every summer we would travel up to my grandparents’ lake house and hang out with our cousins and, because their house was right on the lake, we had plenty of outdoor activities; boating, skiing and everything fun a child could imagine. These childhood memories for me have lasted a lifetime.

Since my Grandparents’ passing, my father built a summer home on the same lake and right down the shore my aunt and uncle have beautiful summer cottages as well. This has helped carry my grandparents’ tradition of instilling in everyone how important family is. From boating and fishing to canoeing or sailing, tubing or skiing, these summer activities are just what any child would be lucky to have. We feel very blessed to have had these opportunities growing up and that my dad, aunt, and uncle have continued my grandparents’ legacy.

Continuing this legacy means a great deal and our entire extended family is looking forward to our adoption and welcoming another member to our ever-growing family. We, as hopeful parents, are looking forward to bringing your child up to our lake cottage every summer and continuing these traditions. We can vividly envision the future of teaching your child how to ski, sail, fish, or whatever interests take hold for them. It’s just an absolutely beautiful place where a child has an opportunity to see and do things that not everyone has the opportunity to do. This we also feel blessed for – the ability to provide such opportunities to your child.

Our extended family doesn’t stop there. In our hometown our parents live very close and we routinely meet up for dinners, card games, trips to different parts of the state and lots of outdoor activities. From hiking, camping, and hunting, we take great pleasure in spending time with family and friends to explore all that Arizona has to offer. We are very lucky to have our parents so close and boy are they excited at the possibility of being grandparents!

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Our Home and Neighborhood

We live in a neighborhood that is full of kids playing together in the community parks and we can frequently hear kids playing outside until sundown. We live very close to the mountains, which can be seen from our front door! We have lots of great schools around our neighborhood and Laura taught in our district for 8 years.

Our home is warm and filled with lots of love. We find it very important that our home is calm and serene, a place we both want to come home to and can enjoy each other and hopefully nurture a child. Your child will have a room that is very unique, it is an on-suite room with a beautiful window. The room will have lots of books, as reading is a love for us. We have a large kitchen that Laura loves to cook and bake in; the living room is close by so that we can still chat while Laura cooks! We enjoy simple things: going for breakfast on weekends, hiking in the mountains, taking the dogs for a walk, or staying in watching a new movie together. Because of our schedules we are able to spend a lot of time together and will have so much time and love for your child. We spend some time in the summers up at our lake house in New York, where Matt enjoys fishing and would love to share this with a child. When we are at home during summer, we have a pool that we like to spend time in to cool off during our hot weather! We have just installed some turf that will be perfect for a swing set!! We have lots of sidewalks and a long driveway, which will be fun to use chalk and draw with your child or teach them how to ride a bike!

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How Our Love Story Began

We met in college through Matt’s brother. Some of our favorite memories are from our college years together. We enjoyed sorority and fraternity events, nights watching it snow, and long weekends at home with each other’s families. We dated for 7 years before we were married in Sedona, Arizona. We recently celebrated our 11^th wedding anniversary. We celebrate our dating and wedding anniversary each year and try to make each day a celebration of each other.

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Our Sweet Pups

We have two Golden Retrievers, Zoe & Stella. They are sisters from the same litter and are 4 years old. Stella is the boss and loves to play with her toys, play chase, and talk (yes talk!) Zoe is much smaller than Stella and absolutely loves to cuddle. She is very sweet and loves to play ball, all day if she could! We take the girls on walks, sometimes twice a day, there are lots of parks around our home and the girls love to run in them!

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Family Time

We love to travel. We love trying new food and seeing new places. We try to always plan something to look forward to, so that may be a trip somewhere, or a special hike, or a new restaurant, or date night together. We love to write to each other, even it’s just a card or note several times a month; we try to remind each other what we love about our life and our love. We keep a journal together that somewhat documents our life, this keeps our communication very open. Little things and moments are special to us, even if that’s making waffles for breakfast or having a dinner picnic and movie in the living room!

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Family Traditions and Holidays

We typically host a lot of holidays at our home. This includes family, lots of friends, and neighbors. There’s always way too much food and lots of laughs! Laura loves to decorate, so setting the tables and decorating around the house for holidays is always a favorite activity. We both believe that little things make big memories, so we enjoy small gifts, notes to each other, or remembering about past memories during the holidays. Laura’s family loves to play cards, so that is typically seen every Sunday night at Laura’s parents’ home; this was a tradition that has been passed down from when Laura’s father would spend Sunday nights with his grandmother.

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When the Baby Comes

Laura:

I hope to take as much maternity leave as I can. As a school Principal, I do have somewhat of a flexible schedule that will one day match your child’s schedule. Since I work at a school, I plan in the long run to take your child to school with me starting at age 3 for Pre School. Matt will most likely be at home more times than I will and, when not working, will do the childcare. Both sides of our family have expressed interest in watching a grandchild at least one day a week.

Matt:

I have a somewhat unique job as I work as a Residential Realtor/Broker and own a small brokerage with a business partner. I have been doing this since 2010. I have time available when most do not, and have a very flexible schedule. I plan to stay at home with your child as much as is possible and even have the ability to take him or her with me to work if necessary. Laura would take maternity leave so we can create a routine and work through the initial steps of parenthood together, with the understanding I would be more of the “stay at home” parent. We are also lucky to have my mother and father-in-law just 30 minutes away, my father and step-mother 5 minutes away, my mother and stepfather 40 minutes away, and my brother close as well. We have multiple sets of parents who would love the opportunity to be grandparents and support us in any way possible.

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Racial and Cultural Diversity

There is nothing simple about adoption. If we accept that understanding adoption, race and identity are on a developmental continuum over an adoptee’s entire lifetime, then we see that an adoptee’s work is never done but continually evolving.

We believe that every child deserves the best possible home with a family who is willing and prepared to meet their needs and this means part of loving your child is seeing and loving the color of their skin. We will foster a connection to the land of their birth and celebrate their heritage. We will teach your child the best we can [about racism], in simple language; lessons can become more elaborate as he or she matures. We will talk about the movement, the wonderful civil rights leaders, and how they made a difference and we will introduce people our child can identify with and will want to emulate.

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Why We are Choosing to Adopt

We have been married 12 years, and together 19 years. We’ve had time to truly learn who each other is and embrace our time together. We have been very blessed in our lives and would love the opportunity to share that with a child or children. We have not had any luck with a pregnancy of our own and know that in our hearts that adoption will be a great path for us. Laura is lucky enough to work at a school and with children every day and has always been drawn to children. We know that having a child to care for of our own would be such a privilege in our lives.

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Our Relationship With You

We would like you to know that you will always be a part of your child’s story. We will include you in stories and in the communication plan we create together. We want you to know we are open to any type of communication or visits that you are comfortable with. We are open to sending pictures during holidays, birthdays, and major milestones. As your child grows, they will learn about their adoption story and special history. We believe in honesty and open communication with children and with you. Our hope would be that communication will help you heal and to feel reassured of your decision long after your baby is born and placed with us.

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Our Promise to You

We believe in open adoption, and your child will always know the special way you became a part of our family. We promise to give your child a lifetime of unconditional love, support, and a happy home filled with love and laughter. We promise to unconditionally love your child by providing a loving, safe, and stable home where every new day is a wonder. We will be patient and allow them to experience the world on their own terms, but to set an example, to teach, and to guide. We will absolutely instill good values, compassion, empathy, grit, responsibility, and kindness.

We appreciate you taking the time to learn about us and we hope you have enjoyed getting to see this snapshot of our lives. We look forward to developing an honest and open relationship in the way that is most meaningful and comfortable for you. We would be honored to meet you and begin this journey. We will teach the value of art and culture, and all that is beautiful in the world. We know this is a confusing and difficult time for you while you are trying to figure out the best option for you and your precious baby. We hope that you feel supported and loved no matter where you are in your journey. We admire you so much for choosing life and for considering adoption. If you decide to make an adoption plan, we want to assure you that we promise to respect you and whatever level of openness and contact that you want to have with your child. We promise to cherish and love your child with our hearts and souls and to provide a safe, happy, home and a life with every opportunity possible.