Welcome! Meet:

Jon + Jenn

Superintendent / Stay-at-home mom

California

Asian / Caucasian

Christian

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

All About Jon & Jenn

Our home always smells of coffee and bacon or something sweet baking in the oven. Breakfast is 100% our favorite meal. We have been married for nearly 12 years and look forward to many more together. We are Jon & Jenn, and we have three little girls who all joined our family through adoption. We love others big and we love to laugh. Our family is a team, always.

Why Adoption?

We have a deep desire to adopt and have chosen that over pursuing having children biologically. Jenn was diagnosed with UCTD (Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease) in 2012. It is an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue, pain, and inflammation. It comes and goes in flares, so at times she feels perfectly fine, while other times she has to slow down and take care of her body. She manages her symptoms with medication and a healthy lifestyle. Although it is not fatal or contagious, it has turned our lives upside down. Jenn has since had to adjust to a new pace of life, while Jon has taken on extra responsibilities at home and at work. However, even with all of that, we are happier than we have ever been. We are happy to report that Jenn is feeling great and is thriving, even as a mom to three little girls! She currently shows no symptoms of disease.

Our lives have been forever changed because of adoption. In July of 2016, we got a phone call from our social worker. There was a baby girl born the day before and a potential birth mother wanted to meet us. We brought that baby girl home 3 days later and she has been our whole world since then. In April 2019, we got a call from our social worker that once again changed our lives forever. We had been chosen to parent another baby girl! Charlotte came into our lives and our hearts are bursting full of love for her. In May 2021, we rushed to the hospital after getting a call from our social worker that a baby girl was waiting in the NICU for us. Our love has grown even more through every adoption process.

Family & Home

We live in a beautiful modern craftsman style 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom home that we renovated. We want our home to be a safe place for our family, a place of peace, comfort and good books. We live near the base of the mountains. We currently homeschool our girls- we value time at home together, time to slow down. We live near a cute downtown area. We love to be part of our town's events from holiday strolls to parades to local sports teams. We love living close to the beach & Disneyland and go to both as often as we can. We love our home, and look forward to many years here.

We are a part of a community of other adoptive families whom we see often. We are also a part of a church community that has many other families with young children. We value serving together in our church.

Our families are a huge part of our lives, and we are so grateful. Jon’s entire family lives around 45 minutes away, while Jenn’s parents regularly come to visit, usually 3-4 times a year. We also try to visit Jenn’s extended family in South Dakota at least once a year.

How others describe me

Jon is gritty and committed to what he sets his mind to. He is intentional with how he lives his life. He is the most amazing husband and father, he does everything he can to take care of us and provide for us. Ever since Jon was young, he wanted to be a dada. He absolutely loves our girls and watching them grow.

Jenn loves being a mom. She is the best stay at home mom for our girls and is loving learning alongside our girls during their home schooling. Our family is her whole world and my favorite thing about her is how she loves us so well.

How We Met

We first met in college when Jenn was a freshman and Jon was a junior. We were both on the track and field team together. Jenn pole vaulted and Jon ran short sprints and did the long jump. Every year the track team would go on a mission trip to Mexico during Thanksgiving break. That is where our relationship started. We fell in love hard and fast and made our relationship work despite living in different states, multiple surgeries, medical uncertainties, finishing four degrees and all of life’s other surprises. We truly consider ourselves a team and our relationship continues to gain strength every day that we are together.

Advice to Future Child

We value truth telling, authenticity, intentional living, and loving others big. We value Monday night date nights, Friday night pizza and movie nights and eating Sunday sundaes together. We value time outside together, especially at the beach or Disneyland. We value slow mornings together. Mantras we live by are: “we can do hard things,” “be brave, be strong, be kind, and “attitude and effort.” Most importantly, we are always a team.

Perspectives on Open Adoption

We dream of adding to our family through adoption once again and seeing our love grow even more. Our greatest hope is that the children in our home grow up feeling loved by their entire family, including their birth families, and loving others well. We promise that your child will grow up knowing their story. We pray for our girls' birth mothers every night. We promise to never stop loving your child. We promise to read books together, to play outside together and eat so much ice cream.

We are very interested in maintaining a lasting relationship with our children's birth families. We value open adoption. We value diversity. We have three beautiful girls who aren't like us on the outside. When we look at them we think of the world that we want to pass off to them, and that's not the world we live in now. It starts with us. We currently have relationships with varying degrees of openness with each of our girls’ birth families.

Favorites

Jon

Favorite Movie: The Prestige
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: New Year’s Day eating traditional Japanese foods
Hobbies/Interests: playing guitar, collecting watches, woodworking, running
Dream Vacation: taking the girls to Japan
If I Could Choose a Superpower: teleportation

Jenn

Favorite Movie: We Bought a Zoo or The Greatest Showman
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Christmas! We love spending Christmas morning just us and then seeing family in the afternoon. We also love sending yearly Christmas cards. Our favorite holiday activity is going to our downtown’s holiday stroll every year.
Hobbies/Interests: going to the beach or Disneyland, exercise, reading, playing the viola
Dream Vacation: Hawaii
If I Could Choose a Superpower: flying