Ben and Amber

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From Us to You

We are so grateful you have chosen life. We are confident in knowing we can adjust to however you would like this journey to be. We are accepting of what may come of our relationship between us with you, us with the child, and you with the child. Your baby will be welcomed with the utmost of our love and affection, immediately accepted as a little sister to our boys, and she will forever be well taken care of. The uniqueness of our family history starts with Ben being adopted at birth as his parents first child. He then adopted Jaxen and Dominic after we were married.

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Why We are Choosing to Adopt

We are extremely excited to be using adoption as the way to add to our family. We had a 4th pregnancy but it sadly ended in miscarriage and Amber had to have a hysterectomy after that. Since then we have always felt like there is more for us when it comes to having children. Since adoption is such a big factor in our lives with Ben being adopted at birth and then him adopting Amber’s older two boys after we were married, it seems only fitting to continue with being chosen to love a precious baby.

Problem-solving together: We try our absolute best to be at our children’s levels when it comes to solving problems. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion as long as they are respectful about presenting it. Sometimes they don’t like the outcome but if things are done in a respectful manner, it doesn’t take long for them to bounce back from the disappointment of possibly not getting their way.

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Lifestyle

Our life is about making fun memories. We have been married for over 8 years. We have a pet friendly home. We love to travel, watch our children play sports, and we enjoy family time like eating good food, joking around together, and playing card games. We live in a small town. On any given day, our children are playing outside with friends or spending time at the park. After having our youngest child Benny, we miscarried which led to not being able to have more children. With only having boys, we feel our family would be more complete with a daughter/little sister.

Fun fact: We love music! While cooking or cleaning, music is always playing. We have been to over 22 concerts in the past 9 years.

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About Amber by Ben

Amber is a very passionate, kind, caring mother and spouse. She is always making sure that we are treated with physical and emotional support. She is outspoken about her feelings. If something isn’t right she’s sure to get to the bottom of it and look for a positive resolution. Education is important to us, making sure the kids keep up on their grades and try their best. She teaches our kids to treat others well. She is amazing at keeping organized with appointments, school, and sports events. She keeps the house well stocked, plans meals, and laundry done. We all pitch in to keep the home clean but it’s funny there’s not a day when she doesn’t get the vacuum out. When she starts to feel cooped up, that means it’s time for a weekend or day trip going to the zoo or movies or even visit a much enjoyed restaurant. She is so much fun always engaging us with fun sarcasm and good times. She loves keeping us a happy family and I’m so proud of all she does.

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About Ben by Amber

Ben is definitely more laid back and quieter than I am. He is gentle and soft spoken, which I see every day and how he treats others. As a parent, he sets a good example of work ethic and understanding our children at their level. He is quick to take them on many adventures such as fishing, boating, and playing sports. What I love about Ben is that he is a great partner. He is my best friend, easy to talk to, and a perfect person in my eyes. He is helpful, patient, and kind. Some of my favorite things about him are his sense of humor, the peace he brings to tough situations, and his goals for our family’s future. Ben brings a wonderful balance to our parenting skills. Our home is filled with joy because of his humor and fun-loving spirit. He is constantly making us laugh with his dad jokes. He is also extremely creative, he has built us a blanket rack, a coffee table, a large cat tree, two chests, and restored my great grandma’s mirror. I am confident he will always be a good provider and that type of security gives me peace everyday.

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Our Children

Jaxen is our oldest child. He is 13. He is already taller than mom. He has a wonderful sense of humor and goofiness. Jaxen and our middle child Dominic were from a previous relationship but adopted by Ben at the ages of 7 and 4. Jaxen would like the expectant mother to know that he is grateful for a sister and he cant wait to help her learn about many new things like using her imagination, reading, and how to play basketball.

Dominic is our middle child. He is more reserved, but is also very funny and is extremely kind. He is 10. Dominic cant wait to share his creative side with his little sister. He would like to teach her how to draw, play baseball, and make his favorite recipe “caramel crackers”. Dominic would like the expectant mother to know that a little sister would be a great part of our family.

Benny is our youngest child. He is 7. He has all the energy. He has a quirky personality, he enjoys his alone time but also enjoys playing with his big brothers and having conversations with anybody about anything. Benny cant wait to teach his little sister to go fishing, play soccer and baseball, and dance to good music.

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Our Home

We live in a house in a small town in Iowa. We enjoy that it is safe and quiet. Our children have many friends in our town that they can go visit with just a short bike ride. We have two parks, a city pool, an ice cream shop, a few mom and pop shops all within walking distance. We enjoy all four seasons, but we especially love Fall for the cooler weather so we can take longer walks with the dogs or bike rides as a family. While we do not live near mountains or the ocean, there are plenty of lakes and rivers for us to enjoy. At home, we enjoy relaxing with a movie, being in the backyard around a fire or watching the kids play basketball, and playing catch with the dogs in the fenced in yard.

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Our Family

Ben has two grandmas, great grandmas to our children. They live in Wisconsin. Ben’s parents live 12 minutes away from us. They have been married for 42 years. Amber’s parents live about 30 minutes away and they have been married for 42 years as well. Between the two of us we have 5 siblings, a brother-in-law, a sister-in-law, 3 nieces ranging from 19 years old to 13 years old, and 6 nephews in the age ranges of 18 years old to 5 years old. We spend every holiday with them. We also have aunts and uncles in various areas but we mostly spend time with Ben’s aunt and uncle that live in Wisconsin.

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Racial and Cultural Diversity

We are a family with mixed race children. We have an open mind about learning and teaching about their culture. We welcome any race.

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Our Pets

We have 12 pets! We have dogs, cats, ferrets, turtles, and a fish.

Our Careers

Ben is a home builder. He shares a home building and construction company with his dad. Amber has worked in the local school district for many years, first as a school bus driver, then the last 2 years she worked at the elementary school while Benny (our youngest) adjusted to kindergarten and 1st grade. Now she is back to driving the school bus in the morning and afternoon, leaving her in between time free to take care of home things like grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry etc.

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Family Traditions

• Family Gatherings: Holidays, birthdays, and many vacations are spent with grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews.
• Florida Visits: Our best friends are married and live in Florida so once a year we travel down to see them and their four children.
• Lake Trips: We travel to Wisconsin twice a year to Ben’s aunt and uncles lake house for a weekend, once in the summer for fishing, swimming, and boating and once in the winter for ice fishing.
• State Fair: When the Iowa State Fair comes around in August every year for 10 days, we spend at least 3-4 days there, seeing the farm animals and enjoying the rides and fair food.

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Our Promise to You

We promise to instill in her nature a good heart, kindness toward others, creativity and imagination. We promise to allow her to become her own person, develop her own likes and dislikes, develop a sense of peace with a family who loves her and cares for her. We promise to protect her. We promise that we have no doubt about the overwhelming amount of joy we already have about her joining our family, she will feel it immediately.

Thank you for reading about our family. We promise to love her as much as we love our own, and that is with our whole hearts. She will be protected by three big brothers who are eager to welcome her and help care for her. Our family prays for her. We will raise her with love, morals, stability, understanding, positivity, and no doubt that she is where she was meant to be. She will be spoiled as the only girl in our family. We are so excited to share our adventures with her. Our hearts are already prepared for her and we are anxious to see what her personality will be like. There is no doubt that she belongs here.