What we value

This is a tough post to write.  We hope that those of you reading this post are considering us to be adoptive parents for your child.  It's easy to say (and obviously very true) that we would love, care for, and nurture this child with all of our hearts.  We have known from the beginning that we wanted to be parents, and have always talked about the day when we'd have children.

But obviously everyone has different priorities for their children, so we hope our values align with what you hope your child will grow up with.

Things that we value include:

Spending time doing outdoor activities as a family.  Things like camping, riding bikes, visiting family and friends, doing activities at local outdoor attractions like state parks, hiking at scenic trails, and more are just a few of the things we do now and can't wait to share our love of these things with children.  Ben is a big fan of fishing and can't wait to take our future son or daughter along, just like his dad did with him.  Becky loves to go pick apples, cherries, and strawberries at the local orchards.

Snorkeling in an underground cave!

We also value local, healthy foods.  We think it's important to feed ourselves healthy, nourishing food, and just as important to support our local farmers and farmers markets.  Of course we love to go out to eat, but we do get a lot of enjoyment out of preparing dinner together, knowing that most of the ingredients came from within a few miles of our home.

Picking cherries at the orchard up the road from our house!

We value education.  Whether someone is too young for school, in school, or an adult out of school, we love learning new things.  We often talk about how we would love for our future children to spend less time watching tv and more time in creative play.  We love books and already have started a book collection for any child that joins our family.  Kids that come visit us now love to look at all the books we have!  Becky's mom is a great inspiration: when Becky and her siblings were young, her mom encouraged them to do fun science experiments, learn history through games, and to love reading stories.  Ben's parents encouraged his technical mind by providing him with Legos, Lincoln Logs, and other toys to build up engineering skills.  We love the thought of combining play with learning opportunities.  When our children are older, we'll encourage them to dream big and follow those dreams.  While we both attended college, we also had great life experiences in the military and by following a non-traditional path.  So we feel it's important to support many choices in life, whether it's college, the military, or some other path that will help create wonderful experiences and great memories.

Playing with our nephew at the local aquarium.

We value respect.  After five years of marriage, we can honestly say that we are happy and very much in love.  Going through several years of infertility wasn't easy, but we attribute our happiness to the respect we show each other.  We feel that children are worthy of our respect, and even when they disobey, they can be punished without being disrespected.  We think this is how little people grow up into happy big people. :)  With that said, we would like to know your thoughts on open adoption.  If you, as the birthmother/birthparent, want to be a regular part of our child's life, we would welcome it.  If you prefer to receive photos and updates on a regular basis but have little contact with us and your child, that is fine too.  (And did we mention Becky is a professional photographer?  We can promise adorable photos!) Of course, if you simply prefer to lead your own life without much contact from us, we respect your decision.

Finally, we value faith and family.  At the end of the day, this is what really matters.  Your child would lovingly be a member of our family and raised in the Christian faith.  Ben was raised Catholic and Becky was raised Protestant.  Faith in God and a relationship with Jesus Christ are important, and we would raise our family with respect for the Christian faith.  We are both close to our families, and can promise that any child joining our family will be loved more than they can imagine.  Their presence is both anticipated and welcomed, and we can't wait to introduce them to all of their grandparents and great-grandparents, aunts & uncles, and cousins!

Our goddaughter and Becky's cousin's son, playing with Great "Grandma Grape".  There were many giggles, silly faces,  kisses, and tickle monsters that day!