Family & Home

Our Home and Community

Our two story home sits on a cul-de-sac in a family friendly neighborhood. We have four bedrooms, 2 full and 2 half bathrooms. The inside of our home has a large open space which includes the living room, eating area and kitchen. This is where we spend most of our inside time. We have a shelf of toys and games that our nieces and nephews know they can dive into whenever they visit. We look forward to the way our space will change as our child grows and develops their own tastes and interests. We have a large yard where we currently spend a lot of time with the dogs playing fetch and watching Max chase squirrels. We have plenty of room for a child’s play set, tag, kickball, other outdoor activities, and countless memories.

We often walk our dogs through our neighborhood which has helped us get to know our neighbors. Young children live in the houses on either side of us. We sometimes join them and their parents in the cul-de-sac for evening chats and playtime. We love greeting our neighbors as the dogs make friends during our regular walks. Many of our neighbors have young children who ride bikes on the street. We can easily see adding a stroller to these walks and later letting a child ride their bike around our neighborhood.

In addition to walking the neighborhood, we also visit our local parks of which there are several. We live in a mid-size community near St. Louis, Missouri. We enjoy being close enough to visit the city, but in a large enough community to have almost all we want locally. In addition to the many parks, there are excellent schools, restaurants, festivals, youth sports teams, regular library events, fun runs, live band concerts, community plays, church picnics and many other children’s activities. We appreciate the seasonal festivities like the Summer and Fall festivals in our town center as well as a Christmas Float that travels through the community in December.

We are also active in our Catholic Church. It is the same church Lauren grew up in. We also occasionally visit the church where Steve grew up. Both churches are very family friendly. Over the last several years, the priests at our local church have been missionaries from Nigeria and we have appreciated learning their perspective on our Christian faith. In the past we have been involved with youth ministry, adult faith, the church picnic, youth retreats, adult retreats, parish administration boards and additional volunteering. We typically attend weekly services, often catching family and friends at those services. We are very excited to include our child in our weekly attendance and provide them with a Christian foundation. While we embrace our Catholic faith and hope that our child will also, we also recognize the need for each individual to build their own faith and relationship with Jesus. We would welcome questions from our child and provide the Catholic Church teaching as well as encourage healthy debate on Christian teaching and their application in the world. Our love and support for a child is not dependent on their continued belief or participation in any faith.

Extended Family

Both of our families have been supportive through our journey and are hoping to add a niece, nephew, or grandchild to the family. They have already been asking how soon they can visit if we are blessed with a child.

Steve’s family consists of his parents, his brother and sister-in-law and their four children. They all live in the town Steve grew up in which is about an hour away from our home. We visit with Steve’s family about once a month often ensuring they have the opportunity for extended stays so they can spend plenty of time with family. We celebrate birthdays and holidays with Steve’s family and they are very excited about the potential adoption. Steve’s sister-in-law is an only child, but has always wanted to be an aunt. Since she is an only child, our nieces and nephews on Steve’s side don’t have cousins. Our oldest niece on that side is especially excited at the prospect of her own cousins.

Lauren’s family consists of her parents, older sister and her two children and older brother, sister-in-law and their two sons. All of Lauren’s family lives in the town where we live. Lauren’s extended family owns farmland and lake property where they have full access and larger extended family functions are sometimes held. We attend community and church events with Lauren’s family as well as birthday and holiday celebrations. Everyone in Lauren’s family is supportive of our adoption plan. We have consulted Lauren’s cousin who is adopted in addition to sharing our hopes with many family members. All of our family members are supportive. The one family member outside of us who is the most excited for adoption is our oldest nephew. He often shares that he would very much like another cousin and that biology is not important.