Welcome! Meet:

Jacob + Makena

Electrical Engineer / Counselor

Kansas

Caucasian

Christian

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

All About Jacob & Makena

We are excited for you to read our profile to get a quick glance into our lives. Writing here in our living room, we can picture sitting on the floor playing with a baby as movies from our childhood play in the background. We excitedly await the time when we get to introduce our child to their cousins and our friend’s kids, as our child will be blessed with these friends waiting for them. As you read more about us, we hope that something about us connects to your hopes and dreams for your child.

Let’s dive into our world a little more. We are high school sweethearts who have been best friends since our teen years. We’ve now been together for over a decade. Makena can be found with her nose in a classic novel, making a mess while baking in our kitchen, running around exploring the world of imagination with our nieces and nephews, organizing or cleaning something around our home, or laughing and talking with her close friends. Jacob can always be found adjusting our garden on nice days or tinkering around with a new project he is building, playing strategic board games with friends, or trying new food at a yummy restaurant he discovered. Together we enjoy wandering around different gardens and parks near our home as our little dog excitedly sniffs every flower and greets every person we pass. We love having a night in watching movies or packing the car to go on an adventure somewhere new. Our friends and family are dearly important to us, and we spend a lot of time with them doing life together.

Why Adoption?

A few years ago we decided we were ready to become parents, so we started trying to have kids. After a while, we found out from our doctors that we are unlikely to conceive, so we began looking at our options. Pretty quickly we both decided adoption is the only avenue that felt right for us. Jacob has two siblings who were adopted, Makena has a cousin who was adopted, and Makena has a cousin who adopted an infant last year. Adoption is already intertwined into our family, which made it feel like the right choice for us. We know our family and friends will love and care for any child who is part of our lives, no matter how they became part of our lives.

Family & Home

Imagine driving through a typical suburban neighborhood, when suddenly you come across a big stone house that takes you back in time. This house sits on a large corner plot and has an antique red well pump in the yard. This is our home. We found this beautiful 100 year old home with an acre of land that Jacob is diligently creating a garden in. Our neighborhood is a pretty typical suburban community that also has a mixture of people with different types of jobs, young families and older families, and diverse cultures. We are within walking distance of several restaurants, a park with a pretty lake, and our city’s mainstreet area.

Besides this house and yard being a dream home for us, another major selling point is that this home sits merely 10 minutes from both sets of our parents, Makena’s sister’s family, and many extended family members and close friends. We want our children to grow up around these important people who helped shape us into the people we are today. We both have strong relationships with our parents, siblings, and extended families. Family is important to us, and we spend a lot of time with both sides of our family. We’ve been together for well over a decade, so we’ve become friends with each other’s siblings and love spending time with them. These people are our strong support system.

How others describe me

Jacob has been my best friend since we were 15. He is incredibly smart, highly driven, and is always teaching himself something new. Since I’ve known him, he has taught himself how to cook delicious food, sew and tailor clothes, build tables, and design and grow a garden, and so much more. As an architectural engineer he knows how to design buildings, and being a specialist in electrical circuits, our friends know they can call him anytime they have electric issues in their home. Jacob is reliable, responsible, consistent, caring, and always up for a challenge. I know he will be an amazing father, and parenthood will be the biggest and most rewarding challenge in his life.

Makena is a blessing. She’s goofy and enjoys a good book, often something written long before our grandparents were born. Her friends know her to be reliable, caring, and a person they can share their triumphs, defeats, and thoughts with. Many days I’ll come home to her singing along with music, which always brings joy to my heart. There’s no doubt that she will be an incredible mother, and I look forward to walking through parenthood with her.

How We Met

(Jacob’s Version) We met through our friend group in junior high school. After building a friendship, we started dating without any real expectations. How many relationships last after high school after all? Yet when it came time to go to different colleges, we decided to stay together and give the long distance relationship a try since we were both happy with one another. While the distance wasn’t fun, it never really got in the way of our relationship, and so after college we decided to commit to one another for the rest of our lives.

(Makena’s Version) Our story goes all the way back to high school where two nerdy introverted teens found each other and fell in love - at least that’s the simple version of our story. In high school, we met through a mutual group of friends, and we were drawn together like magnets. We spent a year becoming really close friends, until we finally admitted our feelings for each other, and then our friendship turned romantic. We’ve been together ever since. We dated through high school and college, even though we have always gone to different schools. We got married right out of college, and have been building a life together ever since.

Advice to Future Child

Be yourself, because there is only one you in this whole world, and that’s something special. Be bold, be brave, try new things, go on adventures, don’t let the unknown stop you from trying something you believe in. Ask questions. True genuine kindness and empathy will always be strengths needed in this world. You have a big, quirky, messy, loving, strong support system always here for you whenever you need us. Don’t be afraid to show your heart to people who are meaningful to you. Always know how loved you are.

Perspectives on Open Adoption

Our main priority for any child that we get to raise, parent, and love is that they grow up feeling loved and surrounded by people who make them feel safe and supported. We believe that having an open relationship with our adopted child’s biological family is an important part of that priority. Nature and nurture intertwine in important ways, so we want our child to know about their biological family, and have that part of the family be part of our family too. There are a multitude of ways open adoptions can function, so we don’t have one set idea in mind. We want to talk with and work with the biological family and figure out what is the healthiest way forward for the child regarding the open adoption plan.

Favorites

Jacob

Favorite Movie: The Big Lebowski
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Spending Thanksgiving with each of our families. Nothing quite like a holiday that is all about eating and drinking with people you enjoy.
Hobbies/Interests: gardening, cooking, quoting Archer and Psych
Dream Vacation: traveling to the south of Spain and exploring the Moorish architecture there
If I Could Choose a Superpower: teleportation (the morning commute is a drag)

Makena

Favorite Movie: Beauty and the Beast, Les Miserables, Crazy Stupid Love
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Every year around Christmas time I get together with my mom, a few aunts, and a few cousins to have a baking day where we laugh and act silly while making yummy treats for our friends.
Hobbies/Interests: reading, baking, yoga, photography
Dream Vacation: traveling around Ireland, visiting the countryside and cities
If I Could Choose a Superpower: teleportation