Welcome! Meet:

Mark + Katie

General Sales Manager / Community Development Officer

Arkansas

Caucasian

Catholic

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

All About Mark & Katie

Thank you for taking the time to read a bit about us and we hope to meet soon! We started our relationship as friends in college. Life is always the best when you begin as friends but little did we know there was a lot more there. We started dating in 2013 and were married in 2014. We started our marriage together in St. Louis, MO, then after seven years, moved our family to Mountain Home, AR. We have an adorable, outgoing, funny little four-year- old boy, named Finnley. Our new addition is a golden retriever, named Lollie. Our favorite things to do as a family are to enjoy the outdoors, travel, and spend time with our family and friends. We can’t wait to add another little one to our family. We stay busy in our community with sports, civic organizations, and our church. We are a very faithful, Christian family. We always believe to live our days like it’s our last. Both of our families love to spend our summers at the lake doing water sports and relaxing. We are grateful to have three rivers and two lakes in our backyard. As a couple, we’re both very hard-working but know how to have a lot of fun too! We teach our son to be positive and kind, and that all people are different but to love them for who they are.

Why Adoption?

We love all children! We struggled for many years to naturally get pregnant. After years of trying, we decided to do fertility, and gratefully got pregnant, with our son Finnley. After having Finnley, we knew we wanted a sibling for him and discussed adoption. We felt that adoption was something we wanted to do for our family, but more importantly to help a child and provide a loving and caring home. God has surrounded us with many friends that have gone through adoption or have been adopted. One of Finnley’s favorite baby-sitters was adopted when she was 8 yrs old. Two of Mark’s best friends were both adopted, and our friends from college adopted both of their children. God has guided us to adoption and we believe in our hearts that we will get our next baby. We are excited to share the love of our family and community with our future child.

Family & Home

We live in North Central Arkansas in a town called Mountain Home. It’s a community that takes care of its own and looks out for our neighbors. We live in a 20- year-old beautiful two- story brick home with 4 bedrooms and three baths with a large fenced- in backyard. Our house is very bright with pops of color. Our neighborhood consists of newer homes with families of all ages and backgrounds. Parents and children are seen riding their scooters, big wheels, bikes, and walking their dogs any time of the year. Everyone in our neighborhood is very friendly and stops and talks to each other. The neighborhood is like living in Mayberry, we live in a wonderful community surrounded by three rivers and two lakes (Buffalo, Norfork, the White River, Norfork,and Bull Shoals Lakes).

Katie and I have an outstanding relationship with both families and love spending as much quality time with them. Whether it be at home, spending time outside, riding bikes around the neighborhood, on several lakes during the summer, or vacation. We were both raised in loving, Christian, hard-working families.

How others describe me

Katie and I met in college, and we both attended several classes together and worked at the college TV station. The more time I spent with Katie, I quickly realized we had a lot in common. Both of us grew up in very similar families and both only have one sibling. We were both very close with our siblings. Katie is the most beautiful, faithful, funny, loving, adventurous, friends with everyone, and go-getter human I have ever met, and I’m beyond lucky to call her my wife. She is as beautiful on the outside as she is on the inside. God has blessed Finnley, Lollie, and me. She is truly the best person on the planet. We have so much fun together even if we are just driving somewhere, creating memories, walking around the block with Finnley and Lollie, day or weekend trips. Katie is the rock to our family.

Mark is the best husband and father. He is the kind of guy that I always dreamed I would be with. He truly is my best friend. God set Mark aside for me. A lot of people say Mark and I are the same people. Mark is so reliable, faithful, funny, kind, very loving, and hard working. He’s the guy that everyone calls on to help out. Everyone can rely on Mark. We both parent together and lean on each other. I always know Mark will be there for me and is such a role model, and fun dad to Finnley. He’s a big kid in a way. Any child will be blessed with Mark as their daddy.

How We Met

We met at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, AR. Mark was a junior and Katie was a freshman. We were both communications majors and worked on a tv news station together. Mark was the producer and Katie was a reporter. We stayed good friends throughout college and stayed in touch through social media following school. After about eight years, we met up in St. Louis for dinner when Katie was in the area. After that dinner and the next couple of months we talked every day on the phone. We quickly realized that there must be something more than just friends. We reconnected in Arkansas for a weekend, started dating long-distance, and were engaged in eight months. We survived the back -and -forth long distance from St. Louis to Mountain Home, AR each weekend. We had a large wedding in Branson, MO ,and Katie then moved to St. Louis with Mark.

Advice to Future Child

We’ve been praying for you and know that you are already loved. You will be welcomed into a faithful, loving, funny, and kind family. We are so excited to be your parents, to love, and cheer for you throughout your life. We will always be there to listen, encourage, and provide our love. You can set any goal and dream that you are capable of achieving. We will encourage our child to be who they want to be and work hard towards it. By empowering them to make their own decisions and to choose their own path for their life. We will present faith, education, and teaching of respecting all cultures and people. Our goal is to give you the best, safe, loving, fun, happy life.

Perspectives on Open Adoption

We look forward to building a relationship with the birth mother, if she wishes to be. We are willing to meet and provide updates throughout the child’s life.

Favorites

Mark

Favorite Movie: The Family Stone
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: I love summer holidays, Christmas and Thanksgiving. I love reliving my childhood through our son’s eyes.
Hobbies/Interests: spending time with family, wake surfing, spending my summers on a lake, fly fishing, working in our yard, updating our house, spending time with great friends and creating awesome memories and meeting new people, coaching Finnley’s soccer/baseball
Dream Vacation: Italy, Greece
If I Could Choose a Superpower: freeze time and staying young, life goes too fast

Katie

Favorite Movie: My Best’s Friend's Wedding
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: I love Christmas. The family traditions, celebrations, wonder/ magic in children.
Hobbies/Interests: serving on civic organizations, event planning, decorating, and enjoying the outdoors
Dream Vacation: Italy and Greece
If I Could Choose a Superpower: fly to destinations in moments