Thank You!

Thank you for taking a look at our family. We love you, and we are thankful for you! We understand that you have an extremely difficult decision to make. Know that we will support you in your decision, whether or not you decide to develop a relationship with us. We are confident that you will make the right decision, with the help of Heavenly Father (He can and will help you in your decisions). We can promise you with all of our hearts that if you select us to be the adoptive family for your precious baby, we will love your sweet child with all the love that we have.

Our Beginnings

We met in Sept. 2002 at a Single Adult Dance in Moses Lake. Jenny was playing basketball at a junior college and Eric was running track for WSU.
We did the long distance thing, talking forever on the phone and seeing each other on the weekends. We became best friends so quickly and were able to build a great friendship foundation thanks to Eric getting mono for 6 weeks during our courtship.
We had the opportunity to watch and support each other in our athletic aspirations.

We love spending time together and raising our family together.
Eric surprised me with his proposal.

We were married June 5, 2003 in the Spokane, Washington Temple.

We have now been married almost 6 years and life really didn't begin till we found each other. It is so wonderful to be in love with your best friend.

All about Eric

(by jenny)
Eric is so wonderful! He is so much better than I could've imagined when we got married. Eric loves people. He makes everyone around him feel welcomed and loved. People are drawn to him and his kindness. He has gone through some tough trials, but he has never once complained. Eric is the best dad. When he comes home the kids get so excited and light up. He takes time with each kid to have a special relationship with them. He always shows and gives them so much love. I'm so grateful for Eric.

All About Jenny

(by eric)
Jenny is the lady of my dreams! She is such a wonderful person. I thank Heavenly Father for the blessing of being married to her, every day. She is a supportive, kind, patient, cheerful, and righteous wife, while being the most gentle, loving, sincere, and dedicated mother I have ever met. I love her with all my heart; she is the best wife and mother I know.

All About Aubree

Aubree is 3 years old, and acts like she is 13. She is such a sweet heart. Aubree is the best big sister to her brothers. She loves to get dressed up. She is really smart and loves to learn.

All About Tanner

Tanner is 2 years old and loves life. He is enthusiastic and has such a charming personality. He is serious about having fun, and he makes life fun for everyone around him. He is a pleasant and sweet boy.

All About Travis

Travis, our 18 month old, is happiest when Aubree and Tanner are around. He loves reading and taking us by the hand to show things to us. Travis is a great and loving boy.

Better When We're Together

As a family, we love having picnics, playing games, making things, reading books, going to the park, camping, riding horses, riding bikes, cooking, and visiting friends and family. Most of all, we just love being together. It seems that as long as we are together, we are happy and having fun. The kids love playing together, and they are sad when they are not all together. Whichever kid wakes up first always asks if he or she can “please” wake up their siblings – they think that life is boring, when it is just mom and dad . Indeed, life is much more exciting, when all of the kids are awake; they are a fun and exciting group.

With these three kids, life is a blast! We have felt strongly that Heavenly Father is preparing our home for a precious baby, and that is what we care most about. We want to provide a loving and righteous home in which Heavenly Father can trust us to love the children he blesses us with.

As we said, being parents has been a huge blessing to us. We have several resources that help us in this: several great books, the gospel of Jesus Christ, each other, great examples from our parents, and lots of love. Our greatest resource has been our supportive and loving families.

Our Miracles: The Story

AUBREE

We were married in June of '03 and we tried to start our family soon after, but had no luck. After we'd been married a year and a half, we both had a strong feeling that we should adopt. We were able to get completely approved right on our 2 year anniversary(2005). Our family was surprised that we were doing this, cause we really hadn't been trying to get pregnant for too long (even though to us it felt like forever). On October 24th Eric was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He had a surgery within the week to remove the cancer and his Dr. gave him a clean bill of health(had to have one of these in order to adopt). On December 15th, we got a call from our caseworker telling us a birth mom (Bridgette) had picked us and she was due the end of January. We were so excited! We scheduled the time when we were going to meet with Bridgette for the next week. On the morning of December 20th, our caseworker gave us a call and let us know that Bridgette was heading to the hospital because she was having so much labor. Aubree was born that evening. We couldn't believe it. We had 5 DAYS to prepare. We hadn't even met Bridgette. That was officially my last day of work. YEAH! We packed up and headed a little over 2 hours from our home to adopt Aub. Aubree ended up staying in the hospital for nine days because she had RDS (respitory distress syndrome) because she was 5 weeks early. With this time she spent in the hospital we were able to spend time with Bridgette and get to know her. Bridgette is our hero.

We finally brought Aubs home after the placement. Adoption placements are some of the most emotional and spiritual experiences that I have ever had. So, back to the story. Aubree was a great baby, and we thought everything was perfect. Eric was training for track season again and we were looking forward to his senior season. On January 11th(before Aubs was due) Eric was on his way to a Track meeting to give his teammates an inspiration speech, when he got a call from his Dr. His Dr. had gotten Eric's blood work back and the cancer had returned. We couldn't believe it. Eric started chemo by the end of January. He had nine weeks of some hard, hard chemo. He lost his hair, couldn't eat, and was as sick as I have ever seen anybody. If he held Aubree or showered or got dressed, he'd have to take a nap after each because he'd get so worn out.

Eric's Last Day of Chemo That little girl, our little Aubree was my angel. She was my miracle. She helped me take my mind off Erics' sickness. I really don't even want to imagine how I would have got through that time without Aubs. I am so grateful for Bridgette and that she placed Aubree with us and allowed us to have a family. Aubree was sealed to us on June 17th, 2006.

The day Aubree was sealed to us.

TANNER

So, around the time Aubs was sealed to us, Eric and I were looking forward to when we could get approved and adopt again (Aubree had to be 1). We were visiting Eric's family for a weekend in August (Aubree was 8 months old) and we went to a wedding reception. The reception was at a house of a Relief Society President. She asked us about Aubree, and we talked to her about how awesome adoption was. She told us a young girl (Andrea) in her ward was going to be placing a baby, but hadn't yet picked an adoptive couple. She was getting worried that she may not place if she didn't find a couple soon. So, we really wanted to talk to Andrea about adoption and make sure she really would place (we thought there would be no way she'd be able to place with us, Aubs was 8 months old, we were not approved). The RS president told her about our family and got her email address for us. We ended up calling our caseworker and telling him about the situation and he told us there would be no way for us to adopt her baby (she was due in Oct.), but we still wanted to share with her our family and our love for adoption. On our way home the next day, we got a call letting us know that if she did decide to place with us, then we could adopt her baby. We were so excited! We couldn't sleep or even think of anything else. We started emailing, and we talked to Andrea on the phone a few times. We planned to meet her the next weekend. We ended up going out to lunch with her. As we were sitting there in the middle of lunch, Andrea asked us if we'd adopt her baby. So crazy! We were so overwhelmed and thankful for this opportunity. It was really cool when we first got to know and meet Andrea. It was like we already knew her. She is wonderful. Tanner weighed almost 10lbs, 43 hrs labor, and ended up C-section. Andrea mentioned multiple times that she thought Aubree and Tanner were meant to be siblings. They are such buddies.

Tanner was born October 23, 2006. We now had 2 babies, 2 cribs, Eric was healthy, and life was great.

The day Tanner was sealed to us

TRAVIS

We had been told by multiple Drs that we may never be able to bear children. At this time it was OK because we had our hands full. In March of 2007 Eric's routine cat scan came back with a tumor in his abdomen. The good news was that it was non-cancerous, the bad news is he'd have to have his whole stomach opened up, all his guts taken out, the tumor removed and guts put back in. This would be a very in depth surgery with a long recovery. So they scheduled the surgery for April 16th. This meant that we had to move up Tanner's sealing date so that we wouldn't have to wait for Eric to recover. On April 9th, I was feeling kind of crampy and I knew I should be "starting" soon. My sister had given me a pregnancy test a couple years before all the cancer stuff, and I still happened to have it. Eric had just left to go exercise and thought that I might as well take it (I was only a couple days late). I couldn't believe it! It was positive. I kept saying, "There is no way, there is no way." Never in a million years did I think now of all times would I be pregnant. I was sitting there with a 5 and 15 month old and now I was pregnant. Crazy. I ended up being due a week before Aubree's 2nd birthday. It seemed like it took Eric forever to get home (he didn't take his phone). When he walked in I told him to go look in the bathroom. He thought it was a joke. So, I got to experience my first pregnancy with two babies in tow. It was nice to not have time to think about being tired or feeling sick. Travis was born December 8th, 2007.

Newborn Travis

Life is so great and we couldn't be more grateful to be parents. A quote that we love about adoption is something like, Adoption means you grew in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy. With experiencing childbirth, it did give us a deeper appreciation and love for Bridgette and Andrea. We are forever in their debt. They blessed us with the nicest, greatest kids. We are so grateful for our relationship with each of them. We feel like they are part of our family.

As we look at our life, the Lord's hand is so obvious to us. We can see that He is actively involved with everything that happens, and are so grateful for His love and mercy. We feel so blessed and grateful. Even after giving birth to a baby, we have been told by multiple doctors that our chances of conception are not very high, because of all that Eric's body has been through. We would like more children, but we understand that the outcomes of our lives are not always the same ones that we would have picked for ourselves, but if we are faithful, the outcomes that the Lord chooses for us are always better. We have complete peace in our hearts and assurance in our souls that the Lord's will is going to be accomplished in our lives. We have trusted in Him in the past, and He has taken care of us. We will continue to trust in Him, and we know that we will be watched over.

Our Miracles!

Open Adoption

We have been blessed with the opportunity to love two angels in our lives – the birth mothers of our first two children. They are two of the most amazing people that we have ever met. We are better people because of our associations with them, and we love them like family. We communicate openly with them and enjoy them very much. Aubree and Tanner understand that they are adopted. We have used family home evenings and bedtime story time as opportunities to share with them the miraculous manner in which they came to our family; they love the understanding that they were loved by a birth mother (and father) enough that their birth mothers chose to selflessly allow them to join a family where they could be blessed with a mommy and a daddy. We celebrate their sealing dates on a similar level of celebration to that of their birthdates and Christmas, since the days we entered the temple to have these precious children sealed to us were two of the most amazing days of our lives.

Our Families

Eric is the oldest of 9 kids and Jenny is the 4th of 9 kids. Our kids have 17 cousins, all of which are within 3 years of their ages (the oldest cousin is 6 years old). Our families love adoption! On both sides of the family, our families have been eternally blessed by adoption.

After we adopted Aubree, people asked us if we loved her as much as a biological child. Since we had never had a biological child, we didn't know how to honestly answer that question. We did know, without a doubt, that we felt an overwhelming and deep love for Aubree, from the first time we saw her. It is a love that is more than words can describe - it was as though Heavenly Father allowed our hearts to be filled more fully than they had ever been filled before. We felt an immediate, penetrating love for her. That love has grown and become even deeper, and it consumes us. The amazing thing is that we felt the same feelings and connection with Tanner, and again with Travis. Each child is sincerely and deeply loved. We can honestly say, with all our hearts, that we love our adopted children just as much as our biological son, and we will love our future children the same.