Prospective Parents

We both went to college at Texas A&M University. Claire majored in mathematics and Jeffrey in Industrial Engineering. We both joined the Baptist Student Ministry our freshman year. In 2015 we were both Bible study leaders of different groups and slowly got to know each other over the year. We began dating and most of our dates consisted of studying, getting coffee and snacks, and taking breaks by driving around exploring our town. We got engaged October of our senior year (2017) while finishing school, applying to jobs, and student teaching. It was a wild year but God was oh so faithful in each moment. We graduated from college and three weeks later got married! We moved to McKinney on a whim – about 30 minutes from each set of parents – and fell in love with the city. We absolutely LOVE doing life together and getting to explore the DFW area!

A primary factor of who we are as a couple is quality time spent together! We find lots of joy in time spent together, or with community even in the mundane things. We are avid board game players, coffee shop visitors, and amateur food enthusiasts. Some of our favorite moments with friends and family have happened just on a couch in deep conversation or over a cup of coffee!

We have been so blessed to have friends who live close by and that we get to see often! They are our chosen family and who we get to do life with. Our community has comforted us and rejoiced with us and we hope to continue walking with them as we get older! We have found a lot of joy in prioritizing our community and growing it! They love Jesus and us so well!.

In 2023 we adopted our son, Eliezer, and are absolutely obsessed with parenthood. He is in full toddler mode which has been the sweetest season of our lives (even with the hard tantrum moments). We are so incredibly thankful for the way God has blessed us in our marriage and are very excited for the years to come. Parenting has definitely been our favorite adventure yet!!

I would like to introduce you to our family. My name is Julie, and my wonderful husband's name is Will. I am 30 years old, and Will is 31 years old. We have been married for a little over eight years. Will and I met at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. We had both grown up very involved in our churches, so it seems appropriate that we met at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry. We were friends for two years before we started dating. Will's kindness drew me to him. We dated and were engaged for a year and a half before getting married in 2015. Will and I love to travel, and some of our favorite places that we have visited are Spain and Portugal, the Grand Canyon, cruises to the Caribbean, and camping at State Parks, beaches, and other beautiful campgrounds around the Southeastern United States. We can't wait to share our love of travel and the world with a child. We spend a lot of our weekends going to football games, camping in our camper, hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains, and spending time with family either in East Tennessee or Middle Tennessee. I love to capture family adventures and memories with my camera. Since I am a professional photographer, I love to take pictures while we travel and around the local area. I look forward to capturing precious memories of our adopted child as they grow up.

Howdy! We are a quiet and slightly nerdy family of three. Our home is full of love, laughter, and play, and we are looking forward to increasing in these wonderful gifts as our family grows.

We met in 2010, while we were both graduate students in Chemistry. Tyler was shy at first, but he eventually asked Carrie out for a date in 2011. We married in 2013 and have lived in Texas, Indiana, and Illinois since then. Our son Caleb joined our family through adoption in 2022, and life has never been the same!

Carrie is creative, scientific, and an avid reader, while Tyler is more interested in playing sports and games. Together we cherish our time with family and friends, whether we are in person or connecting through video calls or greeting cards. We travel for work and for pleasure, but we love being together at home as a family best of all!

We both attended Oklahoma State University and started dating after we graduated and moved back to our hometowns, in September 2011. On our second date we had a pizza baking competition, since Matt is the pizza connoisseur! Other favorite dates included going to museums, taking the dogs to dog parks, Thunder games, annual trip to the State Fair, and going to the local drive in movie. 

We were engaged in December 2013 on a ski trip. After discussing with Shae's mom how to do it, Matt decided he just couldn't wait any longer and proposed while our group was playing cards - right after Shae ate a blue sucker and had changed into her comfy clothes for the night. Shae's blue sucker caused her mouth to look like a Smurf, but love is blind! 

We were married on May 3, 2014 in the church that Shae grew up in and where we are now members. We asked our guests to wear orange, black or white and had Pistol Pete as a surprise guest at our reception!

Karsten was born in the crazy year that was 2020! Her birth mom choosing us to be her parents is truly a gift and an honor. Some of our favorite things to do as a family include going to OSU football games, visiting the zoo, and playing outside! 

Thank you for taking time to look through our family's profile. We know the magnitude of the decisions you're making right now, and although we do not know your name, we are praying that you are safe and healthy, and that you feel loved, supported and at peace.

With love,
Matt and Shae

Hello! We're Dave and Ashley!

We met in a college class when we were assigned to do a group project together. We began dating a few months later. A week after our first date, Dave found out he was going to be deployed after graduation. We spent a year communicating through emails and video chats. We married a few months after he came home. We've now been married over ten years and our life together continues to be an adventure. Dave finished his military career and is now an ICU nurse. Ashley is a junior high/high school teacher. We have two children, Audrey and Bryce, and love spending time together as a family.

We recently attended a “marriage night” at our church, and we were asked to define our “superpower.” We chose the word “perseverance.” We have been through a lot together, but our faith in Christ has been our firm foundation through it all. We have been incredibly blessed in ways would could never have imagined, and we have also leaned on God for strength during times of loss, waiting, and unexpected difficulties. But through each season, we are so grateful for the love we have for each other, and even more for our faith in God, who is strong when we are not.

When we were first introduced by a mutual friend at dinner one night, little did we know all that God had planned for us. We recently celebrated our 10th anniversary. We have supported one another through late nights of studying as we were completing our degrees and celebrated graduations and job offers. We have danced together at many weddings, but we have also cried together at funerals. We have held hands in hospital rooms and nursed each other back to health. We have been isolated together in quarantine (and as it turns out, we really do enjoy each other’s company!). We have poured each other more morning cups of coffee than we can count. We have laughed together almost every single day. We have prayed through it all, and we cannot wait for the next adventure.

Alyssa was living in Jackson, MS dancing and touring with a ballet company when Jon moved to California (where Alyssa is originally from) after college. He met Alyssa’s family through a mutual friend, and eventually met Alyssa when she was home on break.  Jon was immediately attracted to her composure, beauty, and secure identity in Jesus.  Jon was able to convince Alyssa to move home. We were engaged for 3 months and married 3 months later.  I (Alyssa) was attracted to his confidence, his looks, and his love of Jesus.  I knew that if I married Jon, I would feel secure and cared for the rest of my life.

Both transplants to South Alabama, we met via Facebook in 2010, after mutual friends suggested getting to know one another, and hit it off immediately! We initially spent hours chatting via messenger until Mark conveniently misplaced his phone during one our conversations and asked Katy to call it–an easy way to get her phone number. Since that time, we have never gone longer than 48 hours without talking, and that was only because Katy was out of the country!

Though born in Tennessee, Mark spent his early years in Alabama before moving to Colorado in elementary school. As an only child, Mark quickly made friends with the neighborhood kids and kids from church–some of these relationships have spanned not only miles, but years! A childhood cancer survivor, Mark, is resilient and determined, qualities that serve him well in his position as a project manager and architect. Mark loves being outside, woodworking, anything sports related (especially the Atlanta Braves and his alma mater, Texas Tech), and making memories!

Born and raised in North Mississippi, Katy is the oldest of three; each of her siblings is the answer to her little girl prayers, and they are two of her best friends and biggest supporters. Married for almost 40 years, Katy’s parents instilled in her a love for God, the value of hard work, and the importance of family, all of which Katy, along with Mark, is working to teach to their own child. A teacher/librarian at a small private school, Katy enjoys reading, baking, crafting, watching girly movies, and traveling!

Our son, Jaxon, was born in the summer of 2018. He is an absolute joy, even in his most stubborn moments, and inspires us each day to be better and do better! Knox was born in the fall of 2023 and placed in our arms by his wonderful birth mother shortly after. The perfect addition to our growing family at just the right time, Knox is hands down Jaxon’s favorite person and the feeling is mutual! Our life can be a little crazy and a little messy, but we wouldn’t have it any other way because it is also absolutely amazing, and we cannot wait to share our life, our love, and our family with a new precious little one!

Hi! We are Brie and Kevin. We first met each other in college and married soon after graduating. Kevin works in developing and maintaining safety programs in a science foundation while Brie works in accounting.

Brie has been called to adopt since very young.  We also tried to have children of our own but were unsuccessful, we lost a daughter at 16 days after birth, a son after 20 weeks early birth/miscarriage as well as two early miscarriages.  These events have caused us to go through with our adoption plans a bit earlier.  Our family is also made up of several adopted people and this is something we wish to continue out of other’s need as well as our love, Kevin’s mother, uncle and Brie’s aunt are all adopted.  You don’t need common blood to be family.  After considerable prayer, now also seems the right time to look into and start the adoptive process.

We live in a safe and comfortable suburban house with our very friendly corgis (dogs). Our neighborhood has many wonderful resources for a developing child to be able to thrive, including many parks, trails in the woods and along local beaches, libraries, schools, and museums within walking distance. As well as restaurants and grocery stores from a incredibly diverse range of cultures and ethnicities. We also have valuable resources including medical offices and hospitals in the immediate vacinity.

We like to spend our time with constructive hobbies, including cooking nutritious and delicious meals using food from our gardens. We also enjoy traveling to the coast and exploring areas in our state and neighboring ones. We have a love of enjoying games together, be it board games, video games, puzzles, or books.