Taylor and Jaclyn

>

<

From Us to You

First, we want to thank you for considering us to raise the child you’ve sheltered and nurtured. While we can’t ever truly understand what you are going through, we recognize the difficult choice that you are considering to allow us the opportunity to welcome your child into our home and our hearts and are so grateful for you. We would like to share a bit about ourselves and what life will be like with us. Taylor was born and raised in Georgia and Jaclyn lived in several states growing up (North Dakota, Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas), as her parents were both in the Air Force. We are both active-duty Air Force physicians in internal medicine and are currently stationed in Texas. Our plan within the next few years is to separate from the military and stay in Texas as we are close to family here. We both love to travel and try new things: new recipes, adventures in other countries, and unique experiences closer to home. We love to sing silly songs in our kitchen while we cook dinner together and spend time together in our garden or hiking with our dogs, Ava and Juno. We both are what many would consider nerds – we enjoy boardgames, video games, sci-fi, anime and a good costume party.

Our families are very important to us and we see them often; although Jaclyn’s family lives closer than Taylor’s we still make time and talk to his on a regular basis, too. One of our favorite things when we are together with Jaclyn’s family is playing boardgames into the night, laughing and enjoying each other’s company. With Taylor’s family we love going out on the lake and watching the beautiful Georgia sunsets.

If we are blessed with your child, we will raise them to be both happy and the best at whatever they are drawn to: art, music, medicine, sports or anything else. We will go on adventures and broaden their horizons to the beauty the world has to offer. We will visit with cousins, grandparents and family friends (which can make for happy, but boisterous holidays). Both of us value education and will provide your child with the best education we can, both from schools and with life skills so they are well equipped when they become independent adults.

A little about how we came to adoption: we talked about adoption even before we got married. Jaclyn: my youngest sister, Carmen, was adopted as an infant when I was 17 years old. Her birth mother became a family friend and it was a beautiful thing to gain a new sister and watch her grow. Having seen firsthand how wonderful adoption can be, and the relationship that my sister and the rest of my family still have with Carmen’s birth mother mimics what we would like with you, depending on what your preferences are.

We started trying to have biological children in 2021 and, unfortunately, we suffered three miscarriages. After our infertility workup, it was determined that we would be very unlikely to have children naturally. It was a painful time, but it has brought us closer together and has led us to starting the adoption process a bit sooner than we had anticipated. Now that we are here, we are so excited to go through this journey with you and can’t wait to meet you!

Check us out on Facebook.

>

<

Why We're Choosing to Adopt

We talked about adopting even before we got married. Jaclyn’s baby sister was adopted and her birth mother became a close family friend. We have talked about how wonderful it was to have Carmen in the family, and she has talked with us about her experience with adoption as well. She always looks at it as there being more people to love her, since it was a very open relationship with her birth mother and Jaclyn’s family. After our infertility workup and miscarriages, it was found that it would be highly unlikely that we could have children naturally. This lead to us moving up the timeline as to when we would like to start trying to adopt. We are excited to start a family, no matter how we came to this point, and can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.

>

<

About Jaclyn, by Taylor

Jaclyn makes me feel blessed every day I get to wake up next to her. She is one of the kindest people you will ever meet, and she cares about people she’s just met like she’s known them her whole life. She’s always thinking of ways to help others and make other people’s lives just a little bit better. Just being around her makes me want to be a better person and she truly brings out the best in me. She knows how to laugh and have a good time being goofy. She is the spontaneous one in our relationship, and she brings me out of my conservative shell which I really enjoy. She is wonderful with kids and enjoys spending time with our nephews, nieces, and friends’ children. She gained a lot of experience with kids when she was helping her mom raise and care for her younger siblings when her dad was busy with school and work. She is going to be an amazing mother and I can’t wait for her to be able to share her love with a child of our own.

>

<

About Taylor, by Jaclyn

Taylor is the most wonderful man I’ve ever known. I often tell him that he was worth the wait, since we met and got married later than a lot of others do, and I know how lucky I am to have him in my life. We are best friends and can talk about anything together, which I cherish. He always finds ways to make me laugh when I’m having a bad day and is a sounding board for my thoughts and ideas. He is so smart and thoughtful; he can rein in some of my more impulsive ideas and help round them out. One of the many things I love about him is that he is always willing to share his honest thoughts and feelings with me and that kind of communication has helped us through some difficult times. He loves to go on adventures and is always willing to try something new with me, be that travel, cooking, or learning a new skill. Taylor is so kind and patient – he will play trucks with our nephew for hours and is willing to help out any way he can at home or with others at work. He truly goes the extra mile for those around him. Taylor truly is the most amazing man and I know he will be a fantastic father. He is kind, gentle, honest and a strong man of faith as well. I count myself truly blessed to be his wife and can’t wait to see him as a father.

>

<

Our Home

We live in the suburbs in a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 story house. We moved here from Mississippi in July of 2022. Our neighborhood has lots of children and a playground/pool area for them to use. We have a big backyard for playing and our dogs enjoy running around there and chasing their squeaky pig toy. It is also home to Jaclyn’s growing plant collection. We enjoy our covered back porch that is great for grilling or just enjoying the sunrise on the weekends. The kitchen is large enough for us to cook together and do silly dances.

>

<

Our Sweet Pups

Our dogs, Ava and Juno, are a big part of our lives. We got Juno shortly before we got engaged (January 2019) and it was such a great moment when we brought him home from the shelter. They didn’t know anything about him and he was such a sweet pup. We were originally going to take him home for a sleepover (something our shelter does to give dogs a break and for new owners to get to know them), but Juno had other plans. He jumped into Taylors lap as we were looking over paperwork and melted our hearts. Taylor looked at me and said “We have to adopt him, look how cute he is and he fits perfectly in my lap”. I agreed and we got a new family member. He is quite goofy and loves belly rubs. About a year later we decided he needed a sister, so we took him with us to the shelter and he played with several dogs, but Ava was the only one that fit. She is constantly wagging her tail and initially she fooled us into thinking she was a very calm dog. However, after she got comfortable, her silliness (she will chase sparkly things like laser pointers as one example) came out and only made us love her more. We joke that she must have swallowed a jumping bean because for such a short dog she can jump about 5 feet in the air. We love hiking with them and taking them with us for weekend getaways and look forward to many years with them in the future.

>

<

Our Families

Jaclyn’s family mostly lives in Texas. Taylor’s family is located mostly in Georgia, and his brother currently lives in Toronto. Jaclyn’s family is half Puerto Rican, so they can be very energetic, bubbly, and cook delicious food! They enjoy getting together, playing games, and laughing together. Now that we live closer to Jaclyn’s family, we see them every few months. We are a little further from Georgia, but we try to make it there several times per year. Taylor’s family enjoys going to baseball games, boating on the lake, and going to the beach with all the aunts, uncles and cousins. Due to being in the military, we have friends spread out all over the country. Luckily, many friends from our medical training are here in our area now. Two of our closest friends who have known us our entire relationship live locally and it has been great to be so close to them and their new baby.

>

<

Lifestyle

We are adventurous homebodies. We enjoy travelling and exploring, but we also enjoy quiet weekends at home watching TV, playing games, or gardening. We cook most of our own meals because we enjoy cooking and it’s cost effective but we do enjoy going out to eat on occasion. We do our best to maintain an active lifestyle for our health and also the military requires it. Our faith is important to us so we go to church on Sundays and are active in the church when we can be. We also enjoy gardening and Jaclyn is the far better gardener in our marriage. This year we even managed to grow our own pineapple!

>

<

Family Traditions

We have developed several traditions in our relationship. Some have been brought from our families and some we have started ourselves. A tradition we enjoy during the fall or winter is making homemade apple cider. It cooks for most of the day so the entire house smells like apples and spices. When the apple cider is ready, it is so delicious and warms your soul. We do this just for ourselves or when we have people over for the holidays. A tradition we have continued from Jaclyn’s family is watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” every Christmas (the Jim Carrey version). We also watch “The Nightmare Before Christmas” during Halloween and carve pumpkins every year. When we go on vacation, it is tradition for us to drink hot beverages on a porch or a balcony in the morning and enjoy the morning together. Another tradition we have on vacation is to get a cookbook from different countries or areas of the U.S. that we are visiting.

>

<

Our Vacations and Leisure Time

Traveling is one of our favorite things to do. We both enjoy exploring new places, new cultures, and new foods. When we go to a new place, we always try to book some sort of food tour. We have found that the best way to learn about a new place or culture is through their food, because you learn a lot about the history of a culture through their food. We make vacations relaxing, too and always build some free days into the schedule of our vacations. This way we don’t need a vacation from our vacation . Some of our favorite vacations have been to Portugal, San Francisco, Hawaii, and Italy. We also really enjoy local getaways with our dogs, where we can just be together and relax. In addition to our couples’ getaways, we also make sure to take time for family vacations with our families. We want to make sure the larger family traditions continue and we get to enjoy spending time with the people we love.

>

<

Racial and Cultural Diversity

We have had a lot of discussions about how we would raise a child that was a different race or ethnicity from our own. Jaclyn grew up in a multi-cultural family (American and Puerto Rican) and her adopted sister is of Mexican heritage. Taylor went to college at a school with a very diverse student body, and learned a lot about racial diversity and racial justice there. We are open to a child of any race or ethnicity and would love and cherish them no matter their background. However, we would never ignore their background or be colorblind. We want to celebrate their heritage and culture, especially if it is a heritage or culture different from our own. We want to surround them with positive influences and mentors who share their same cultural or ethnic background throughout their life, but at the same time expose them to cultures and traditions different from their own. We have enjoyed learning about different cultures during our travels and that is something we will continue with your child as well. This will take on many forms, from cooking traditional foods, stories that reflect their birth family’s culture, celebrating cultural holidays, and overall raising them to be proud of who they are.

>

<

Our Faith

We were both raised in Christian homes and were shown from a young age how important it is to follow the example set by Jesus to the best of our abilities through service, prayer and generosity. We try to do something to make us contemplate a faith topic (such as temptation or giving) every day. To that end, we pray together nightly and have a bedtime devotional that we do before going to sleep. Many of the books we have read together about marriage have been Christian based and working through these books together has made our marriage stronger. We belong to a Methodist church, and while we are new members, we have felt very welcomed by everyone there. We will continue the Christian tradition in our home and will lead our family by doing our best to emulate Christlike traits as much as is humanly possible.

>

<

How We Met

We met each other when we were in Internal Medicine Residency in the Air Force. The first time we met was through a mutual friend at a pizza and music place where Taylor showed off some killer dance moves. At that time, Jaclyn was dating someone else and so we were just friends, but Taylor did let her know that he was interested if she was ever single in the future. When her long-distance relationship didn’t work out for other reasons, after about a month of being single, she invited Taylor over to study and eat dinner. He (very casually) asked how things were going with her boyfriend and she told him they had broken up. She asked if he was single and still interested in going on a date. At that point he got the cutest grin and said yes, he was still single and wanted to date her. Our first date was a fishing trip, which was an unusual choice for a first date, but it was a lot of fun. The rest, as they say is history. After we became engaged, he told her that shortly after we met, he texted his best friend that he had met his future wife.

>

<

Our Relationship with You

The relationship we build with you will largely depend on what your preferences are. Since Jaclyn has personal experience with an open adoption and has seen the benefits of that firsthand, we would be open to a similar arrangement. However, we recognize that is not for everyone and for different reasons a birthmother may not want something as open. We would ultimately like your child to know who their birth mother is, whether that is through meetings, letters, pictures, etc. We want you to be comfortable with the kind of relationship we have with you and wouldn’t want to force our idea of what kind of relationship we should have onto you.

>

<

Our Promise to you

Our promise to you as the birth mother has many aspects, all of them important. First, we promise to love and cherish your child for the priceless gift that they are. We promise to raise them in a Christian home where they will know the value of honesty and right from wrong. We promise to give them every opportunity to build a rich and fulfilling life – through experiences, education, and work – so they can pursue what they love. We promise to support your child through their times of trouble and celebrate their victories. Finally, we promise to be open with your child about the blessing of their adoption, while honoring your traditions and the sacrifice you made.