Matthew and Tamara

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From Us to You

While we cannot possibly begin to understand what you are feeling we want you to know that your courage to make this decision is something we admire in the most humbling way. Our paths have crossed for a reason, and we are hopeful that it is to walk this journey together. Even though we have two children of our own and it is not possible for us to have more, we still have plenty of room in our hearts to love your child. The thought of your child completing our family is remarkable and we simply cannot describe the feeling or amount of gratitude we have for you.

Your child will be joining a family filled with joy and excitement and will have two older brothers cheering them on throughout everything they do. Your child will always be supported and know that their dreams are possible no matter the circumstances and that we will be there with the gentle push and/or encouragement when things don’t go as planned.

We would love to share this journey together should you wish by staying connected and sharing updates with you often. She/He will always know that without you we would not have the opportunity to love them and for that we will forever be grateful.

Beyond our immediate family, your child will gain an abundance of loving family members and friends from all over the country. Your child will have grandparents (including a great grandparent), Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, 2 older brothers and 2 loving playful dogs.

Your child will never know what it is like to not be surrounded by love and affection. Every day of your child’s life will be filled with love, laughter, patience, and trust. They will learn, grow, and be encouraged every step of the way. She/He will join our family in making memories both at home and with friends and family through countless experiences and joy. We are excited to see who they grow to become and what their hopes and dreams are so we can encourage and support them along the way.

Please know we are beyond thankful for you and the potential consideration of our family for your child. We are excited to grow our family and wish you all the luck and strength that you need in order to make the best decision for you and your wonderful child.

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Why We are Choosing to Adopt

We have always wanted a big family and since we first started talking about kids back in 2005 adoption had always been something that we both had an interest in. We have always wanted to have at least 3 kids, but due to some medical issues we had to stop after our second boy. While our lives have been filled with happiness, there has always been that one empty spot. After Matt got a new job and we were no longer running from paycheck to pay check we have decided that now is the right time to push forward and complete the family that we have always wanted.

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About Matt, By Tamara

Matt is funny, caring, and supportive man. If you are ever having a bad day, he will always be there to tell you one of his dad’s jokes and make sure you have a smile on your face. When I had surgery, he never left my side and made sure the kids and the house were taken care of. He wanted to make sure I was focusing on healing and nothing else. Matt has always been supportive of the boys and I when it comes to always trying to make it to every event in which the boys are involved or being my cheerleader when I wanted to go back to school for my Certificate Nurse Assistant and my Phlebotomy Certificate. I am incredibly lucky to marry my best friend and amazing father to our boys.

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About Tamara, By Matt

The first thing that I think of when asked to describe Tamara is that she has a heart of gold.  She is incredibly kind and patient with everyone she meets and always puts others before herself.  Tamara is also one of the strongest people I know.  If one of our children is sick or hurt, she will run to check on them even when she is sick or hurt herself.   

Tamara is the strongest person I have ever met.  We had our first son after being married for about 2 years and when he was 5 months old, I got orders to deploy.  During the 9 months that I was gone she never complained about being left alone to raise our newborn child. She took every opportunity she could to show pictures and talk about me to our son and make sure that he would know me when I came home.  Being able to raise an infant and manage the entire household on her own shows just how strong and devoted she is. 

She will always make time to listen when someone needs to talk regardless of what she has going on or what they want to talk about.  I think that because of this, kids love going up to talk to her.  Watching her interact with kids never fails to put a smile on my face.  

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Our Home & Neighborhood

Our home is in a small but rapidly growing community. We have a 2-story house with 4 bedrooms, a living room and a loft. While our back yard is not very big, we do have a gazebo with patio furniture. With this being Arizona, we love to spend time in the backyard grilling and making smores with the kids. Since our backyard is not very big the community makes up for it with a lot of communal areas.
A very short walk away from the house is the community lake that is filled with fish, ducks, various birds and turtles. The lake is large and is about 1 mile to walk around. There are open grassy areas around the lake that always have kids of all ages running around and playing. We also have several parks (some large and some are kind of small) all around our neighborhood. Some of them are just open fields for people to play whatever they want there but some of them have nice playground equipment for the children to play on. There are also baseball fields, soccer fields, basketball courts, tennis courts and even a skate park.
There are also multiple swimming pools around our neighborhood that are run by our HOA. At the main HOA clubhouse is a large swimming pool along with a child water park play area. We also have several walking trails in our community and even more just a short drive away.

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Our Lifestyle

A typical week for both of us is Matt and I both work. I am a teacher’s aide, and my husband is a Federal Officer. We Come home from work and the boys do their homework. Later I cook dinner and I try to cook dinner every night, but Fridays I like to go out to eat with the family. Also, I take the boys to any after-school clubs they have. Matt is a Federal Officer so his work schedule and his days off are not the same but when he has weekends off, we like to take day trips to the park, zoo, museums and we love to shop. Sometimes we like to stay at home and spend time together playing board games, we have a huge collection of games to choose from and we also like to play family games on our Nintendo switch. When the sun starts to go down, we like to take our two dogs Gunner and Hope for walks around our lake. On the weekends in the evening, we like to sit together upstairs in our loft and find a movie to watch. We have multiple heated pools all year round and the boys love going swimming and seeing their friends. In our family we love to spend a lot of time together. So, we can have plenty of memories to smile and laugh about in the future.

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Our Pets

We have two fun and loving dogs in our home.  The first dog is approximately 7-year-old German Shepherd named Hope whose is a very loving and protective dog.  We got her from the Arizona Humane Society, and they rescued her from the streets.  When we brought Hope home about 3.5 years ago, she instantly had a bond to our children and even treated our youngest boy as if he was her own puppy.  She loves nothing more than to be petted and taken for walks but doesn’t really care about playing with toys.  Our other dog is a 2-year-old Australian Shepherd mix named Gunner that we got as a puppy from another rescue in Arizona.  He is a very active and goofy puppy that loves to play with everyone.  Gunner’s favorite thing to do is to go on walks and smell EVERYTHING.  It can slow the walks down but watching him bounce from thing to thing always brings a smile.  He also likes to be lazy from time to time.  When he gets in that mood he loves to lay on the floor with the kids and watch movies or TV with them.

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Family Traditions

We have many family traditions that we would love to share with your child.  We have the standard family traditions for the holidays such as large family dinners and decorating the house, but we also have some for the rest of the year.  Near the beginning of fall and spring we go to a nearby orchard to pick fresh fruit and vegetables right from the trees or ground.  We also will go back near Halloween to pick out pumpkins to carve. Over the weekends when there is nothing going on we love to have a movie night or game night as a family.  We will get snacks from the store and make popcorn as our kids pick out a movie or one of our many, many boardgames.  Every year we also love going to the Renaissance fair to watch the shows and jousts that the players put on.

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Our Families & Friends

We have tons of family and friends who are very excited and supportive and can’t wait to meet our new addition to our family. Matt’s parents come to visit us and stay a month at a time to spend the most time they can with our boys. My parents come usually on the holidays and stay for about two weeks. We also go visit our parents and stay a couple of weeks at a time so they can see their aunts, uncles, and cousins. Our friends we try to spend time with by going out to eat or spending time with each other at home playing board games and talking. So don’t worry, your child will be surrounded by so much love and support.

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Our Promise to You

We promise that your child will grow up in a loving home cared for not only by us but by grandparents, the rest of our family and our friends. We promise that he/she will be taught to be kind and confident, and to have not only “book smarts” but to be “street smart” as well. He or She will grow up experiencing different cultures, not only in our family and their own background, but different ones from around the world.