We are so excited to become first-time parents, and we are grateful that you have taken the time to learn about us. We have been preparing to adopt for the past three years of our marriage because we knew that adoption was the way that God was going to build our family even before we were married. We are excited to share the love and joy that we have found in God and in each other with your child.

We are an active family. Many weekday evenings you can find us at the gym, and on many weekends you will find us walking in our neighborhood or rollerblading on our favorite trail in town. We are also frequent beachgoers in the summer, like taking regular trips to the local national park, and enjoy walking through the mountain trails there. We love snuggling up for a Friday night movie night and reading books out loud together. These are activities that we are both so excited to share with our child.  Our families also instilled in us a love of learning. We are history buffs and philosophy nerds, and we look forward to instilling the same passion for learning that our families instilled in us in our child.

Russ is the wisest man I know. He is thoughtful, discerning, and patient. He is full of principles and convictions, is devoted to the truth, and he lives out his faith with sincerity and integrity. He is a wonderful listener, is generous, assumes the best in people, is understanding and compassionate, and is quick to forgive. He is creative and spontaneous, and, while being thoughtful and wise, he is also a goofball. He dances around the kitchen and in the car, and he makes more puns and “dad jokes” than I can keep track of. I know that he will be an amazing father. He is so excited to help our child fall in love with art and science through fun projects and to teach him or her to play or sing music.

Candace is an amazing woman and I know that she will be an excellent mother. She is constantly trying to find ways to be of service to those around her. She is also unwavering in her pursuit of loving God and in her efforts to reflect Christ. Our child will have a mother who will be as fierce an advocate as she will be an example of humility and as much a shoulder to cry on as she will be a relentless encouragement to any child to be the best that he or she can be. Candace is as interested in teaching wisdom and virtue as she is in teaching knowledge, and I know that a child in our family will receive all three from her. Candace (inexplicably) likes to run outside and loves to curl up with a good book. She cannot wait to read with our child and teach him or her to sing. She is passionate about her work but is prepared to raise a family full-time when the need arises.

We live in a warm and inviting two-bedroom apartment in a beautiful community in Virginia. We are making plans to turn our guest bedroom into a nursery and are also saving up to purchase our own home soon. We have a spacious kitchen where we love to bake (while dancing around, of course!) and a cozy living room where we have many movie nights. We want everyone to feel at home when they come to visit us, and our goal is to keep our home as inviting as possible. Our home is a safe place full of warmth and happiness. Our community is a wonderful place to raise a family. There are many children in our neighborhood, and our community has many amenities including trails, sports fields and courts, a pool, and a theatre. We plan on sharing all of these with our child. 

We were lucky enough to grow up in amazing families. We had parents who taught us wisely and thoroughly and siblings whom we cherished as friends. Both of us reminisce about our childhoods frequently, and we want our children to look back on their early years as fondly as we do ours. We are close to our families, and any child in our family will have doting aunts and uncles and four loving grandparents who value God, family, education, and virtue. Our child will also get to participate in many family traditions like family movie nights, summer beach trips, baking Christmas desserts, and singing Christmas songs together.

We promise that your child will be cherished, provided for, and nurtured. We will be diligent in teaching and caring for him or her, and we will faithfully seek God’s wisdom in doing so. Your child will know his or her story and grow up knowing that he or she is loved by God, by you, and by us. We promise to provide him or her with all of the support, love, and comfort necessary to grow spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Our home will be a place of love, safety, grace, and truth. It will be a place where cherished memories are made as a family. We look forward to getting to know you and sharing with you letters, pictures, and visits throughout the years. 

To learn more about us, please call or text Lifetime at 1.800.923.6784.