Nate and Amanda

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From Us to You

We are truly honored that you’re considering us as part of your journey, and we deeply respect and admire the love and courage it takes to make such a heartfelt decision for your child. If you decide that we’re the right family for your baby, we want you to know that your presence and love will always be part of their story. We are committed to sharing with them the incredible strength and love that guided your decision. Please know that your child will be well cared for and that we will love them whole heartedly.

We would love to have an open relationship with you, sharing the special moments and milestones along the way. We’re open to visits, phone calls, video chats… whatever helps us stay connected with you as your child grows. Your presence and love will always be an important part of their story, and we are committed to speaking positively about you and the strength you’ve shown. We want your child to always know how much you love them and that your decision was guided by your hope for their future.

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Why we are Choosing Adoption

Our journey to becoming parents has been a long and meaningful one. We actually began as foster parents because, even before we were married, we both volunteered at a camp dedicated to foster children. We loved that experience, which eventually led us to foster a teenage boy for a while. It was an adventure, to say the least, but definitely a blessing for him and for us.

From the beginning, we knew we wanted to adopt children. We also believe that the main goal of fostering should be to reunite children with their birth families. With that in mind, we decided to start the process of infant adoption and plan to return to fostering later in life, after raising our own family.

We cannot have biological children, but we discovered that after we had already decided adoption would be part of our family’s story. For us, it wasn’t heartbreaking; it felt like confirmation that adoption was always meant to be our path. Our extended family and friends were thrilled when we shared our plans to pursue infant adoption. They have made it clear that any child who joins our home will be a well-loved member of the family.

We are so excited to take this step with lots of love and support surrounding us and to begin this next chapter of our journey!

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Lifestyle

A child growing up in our home would be surrounded by warmth, play, and adventure. Living in a small, close-knit neighborhood filled with children, they would have friends to play with right outside, where kids often gather in each other’s yards for games and laughter. Our two friendly dogs and three sweet cats are very much part of the family and would be loving companions to grow up with.

We’re always exploring together as a family, whether it’s a camping trip at a local state park, a road trip to discover new places, or just a spontaneous day trip for some outdoor fun. Our extended family and friends who are a huge part of our lives, would embrace them immediately and provide a strong, loving support network from the start.

Our Christian faith is central to our family, and we attend a welcoming local church that focuses on loving our community through acts of service. Here, a child would learn the values of compassion, generosity, and kindness toward others. We’re committed to creating a nurturing home filled with love, support, and faith, and we can’t wait to share it all with a child.

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What we Love to do Together

• Board game nights with friends
• Fishing trips with Amanda’s extended family
• Hiking with our dogs
• Paddle boarding on our local lakes and rivers
• Backpacking in National Parks and Forests
• Visiting aquariums all around the country!

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About Amanda, by Nate

Being married to Amanda never has a dull moment. She is adventurous, loving, and dedicated to everything she does. I love how spontaneous she can be, whether it’s going for a last minute paddleboarding adventure before it gets dark out or planning a road trip in just a few short weeks. I am constantly amazed by how intelligent and creative she is. It seems to be a daily thing that I tell her how impressed I am with the way she can figure out problems, dream of new ways to do things, or making projects look beautiful. I love that we share many of the same hobbies and that whether we are at home or halfway across the world, we always find things to be passionate about together.

My wife is an amazingly strong women and will be a fantastic mom. The sparkle in her eyes when she is with little kids brings joy to my heart. I know that she will be a great role model to a child and will teach them how to work hard, love tenderly, show mercy, and dare to dream.

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About Nate, by Amanda

Nate is the most loving and caring person I know. He never ceases to amaze me with his boundless compassion and the way he will drop everything to help a friend or even a stranger. I love how he doesn’t think twice about it; it’s just who he is. Just this past year, he used several of his vacation days to enjoy some of his hobbies, only to turn around and ask me if I’d be willing to join him in spending those days helping friends move into, clean, and paint their new house down in Kentucky. He never mentions the sacrifices he makes for others because he’s genuinely happy to do them. I also can’t wait to see Nate as a father. He has always had a special love for children, and his face lights up whenever a child enters the room. Over the years, he’s been a mentor and a big brother to so many kids and preteens through coaching and working with foster children. I love that it’s his dream to become a father through adoption as it is such a beautiful reflection of the man he is.

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Our Home

We live in a small town that has a very closeknit community. We are friends with most of our neighbors and their children are out every night in summer playing through everyone’s yard. It is a neighborhood where when someone starts a bonfire in their backyard at least two more families come out to enjoy it with them. We also like to walk to the local theatre in the summer where they have live music in the courtyard every week for the community to enjoy. It is a safe neighborhood which we immediately fell in love with and knew we wanted to raise children here.

We are also nearby many lakes and a state forest where we frequently go swimming, fishing, paddle boarding and hiking. When we are not hiking in the woods we take the dogs for neighborhood walks and can walk to four parks with playgrounds within ten minutes of our house.

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Our Family

On Nate’s side of the family, we frequently go out to lunch or dinner with both of his parents along with one or more of the four grandparents. Nate’s younger brother will occasionally come visit from Chicago and join in these family meals or join the whole family as we spend hours just hanging out with the parents and grandparents after the meal.

Amanda’s parents have us over for dinner frequently at their farm house. In the summer we go there and play yard games with them or just sit on the back deck and watch the sunset while we catch up on life and watch their horse out in the pasture. Everyone month we see Amanda’s oldest brother along with his wife and son. We love to go out to eat with them or have board game nights at one of our homes. Amanda’s other brother lives farther away in Western Wisconsin so when we get to see him and his wife and son it is very special since we are all very close.

In addition to each side of the family, we have many friends that we share life with through church.

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Our Traditions

Our families take every opportunity to get together and celebrate holidays and accomplishments. Nate’s family has large family parties at his parents’ and aunt’s lake cabin every month during the summer. We also get together with this side of the family for large Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving gatherings. They celebrate any graduations, birthdays, engagements, and births or adoptions with overwhelming joy and love.

Amanda’s family loves the outdoors and most traditions are centered around this shared passion. Every summer we have a family fishing tournament at a local lake. The whole family goes camping together and the cousins all see who can catch the nicest fish for the weekend. It is always a blast! We also have “story night” during deer hunting season where all the hunters in the family share how their season went and the nonhunters still come to celebrate and enjoy having the whole family together. Family get togethers also happen spontaneously around large projects as we frequently go help aunts and uncles with anything they need done in their yards or homes.

We also look forward to creating new traditions as we start our immediate family through adoption!

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Our Pets

Our home is filled with beloved pets! We have two rescue dogs—Hops, a sweet couch potato, and Belle, an adventurous spirit who loves backpacking and paddleboarding. Our three cats—Raji, Toby, and Badger—act more like dogs and are especially gentle with toddlers. We can’t wait to see them bond with a little one of their own.

We also share a passion for fishkeeping, with multiple aquariums in our home. Amanda, a marine biology enthusiast, manages an aquatics store where she cares for saltwater fish and corals. Nate’s large basement tank and Amanda’s vibrant saltwater reef are highlights, and friends’ kids love visiting to see “Nemo” and “Dory,” calling it their own mini zoo!

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Faith and Adoption

We are open to adopting a child of any race and will honor their heritage, traditions, and culture as part of our family. Your child should always know where they come from, and if their traditions differ from ours, we will embrace and incorporate them with love and respect.

Our faith in Jesus is the foundation of our marriage, and we are blessed with a supportive church community. We gather often to share meals, pray, and spread Christ’s love. Any child in our home will learn about Christ’s love and biblical teachings, but we believe faith is a personal journey. They will be guided by example, not pressure, and will have the freedom to choose their beliefs as they grow.

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Our Promise to You

We want your child to be as much a part of our lives as we are theirs. We will raise them up according to our values and faith in Jesus, recognizing him as our Savior, friend, and Lord. We want the life of your child to be enriching both at home and away from home. Traveling around the country and world will provide so many lifetime memories, as well as cultural enrichment and meeting so many people of different walks of life. They will always be loved by so many of our family and friends, and will always be surrounded by kids their age. Our promise to you is that your child will be raised to be loved and to love others, to find resilience in hardships, and to know their mother’s sacrifice was done out of love.