Welcome! Meet:

Chase + Shelly

Business Owner / Fitness Instructor

Virginia

Caucasian

Christian

All About Chase & Shelly
Why Adoption?
Gallery
Family and Home
How We Met
Advice to Future Child
Perspectives on Open Adoption
Favorites

All About Chase & Shelly

Hello! We are Chase and Shelly. Our home is filled with laughs and love, kindness and caring, and energy and adventure each day. We are so grateful you have taken the time to look at our profile and learn more about our family.

Why Adoption?

About six years into our marriage, we decided it was time to start thinking about starting our family. Shelly had been diagnosed with PCOS, so we knew that getting pregnant would be a challenge. After two years of working with our fertility doctors, we welcomed our miracle, Brooks, into our family three days before Christmas 2017.

Even while we were dating, we knew that someday we wanted to adopt children. After having Brooks, we knew that we wanted our family to continue to grow, but this time through adoption. We are hopeful to welcome a child through open adoption!

Family & Home

We moved around a lot at the beginning of our marriage trying out new places, including Washington DC, Idaho, North Carolina, and Canada. We finally landed outside of Richmond, Virginia. We have lived here for seven years and love everything about it.

Our house has an amazing backyard, and we spend plenty of time there. Brooks loves to create a little city out of his sidewalk chalk or fill the yard with bubbles, and sometimes we eat lunch together picnic style! We love summer nights when we get to roast marshmallows over the fire.

Our favorite room in our house is the kitchen. We love to bake cookies as a family and share a meal with family and friends. When we gather around the table it's fun to hear Brooks's stories about the day and talk about what we want to do tomorrow.

The summers are super hot and humid, but we combat the heat by spending lots of time near water. We love floating in the local neighborhood pool with friends, taking weekend beach trips to our favorite spot in North Carolina, or wakeboarding behind the boat.

How others describe me

Chase described by Shelly: Chase is one of the most hardworking people you will ever meet. He dreams big and works diligently to make those dreams come true. These dreams have provided us the chase to live in many new places and meet great friends along our journey. We've enjoyed living in different states and countries, along with trying new things together. He is my go to for everything and I can not imagine life without him.

Shelly described by Chase: Being a mother is one of Shelly's greatest joys. Shelly and Brooks love to spend their time going to the park with friends, hitting up local children's museums or simply playing games together at home. Shelly is always coming up with fun new crafts and projects for Brooks to work on. When she is not on mom duty Shelly loves to run. She has run marathons and ultra-marathons, including two 50-mile races. Being active is an important part of her life and she hopes to set a positive example for our children by showing them they can accomplish anything you set their mind to. My wife is amazing in so many ways and I love watching her be a mom.

How We Met

Chase and Shelly met in January of 2006 through our roommates. We quickly became friends. In October of 2006, Chase left on a two year mission for our church. Over those two years, we continued to stay connected by mailing letters back and forth. Toward the end of Chase's mission, we began to realize we had more than just a great friendship. Chase arrived home in October of 2008, and we instantly began our courtship. It was not long before we realized that we had found our person, and we were married in August 2009.

Advice to Future Child

As parents our goal is to create an environment where our children can feel loved and safe and know who they are. We want you to know that you are a strong and capable person who has potential to do anything they want in life. We are here to support and advocate for you as you navigate this world. We would also want them to know that no matter what life hands you/us we will always love you.

Perspectives on Open Adoption

Shelly grew up with an African American brother who was adopted into her family at just 3 days old. Having Kye as a brother has brought her family a richness that breaks through the typical beliefs of what the traditional family is. This dynamic has helped to build their home into an impenetrable fortress of love and strength through times of challenge. Our greatest gift would be to duplicate that same experience for our family through adoption. We have seen the value of adoption through many experiences with Kye. Kye was adopted with little to no records, but through family history and research he’s been able to reunite with several family members.

Through this experience we value the opportunity to have an open adoption where you feel valued and welcomed into our family. By creating a healthy relationship through frequent communication and visits we believe that our family will be grounded in knowing who we are and how much we are loved by each other.

Favorites

Chase

Favorite Movie: Finding Bigfoot
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: summer beach trips to Wrightsville Beach
Hobbies/Interests: wood working, cars, CrossFit, fishing
Dream Vacation: anything with a beach
If I Could Choose a Superpower: be invisible

Shelly

Favorite Movie: You got Mail
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: summer beach trips to Wrightsville Beach
Hobbies/Interests: running, reading, cooking, CrossFit, puzzles
Dream Vacation: hike the Swiss Alps
If I Could Choose a Superpower: teleport