370 South FiFth Street, Suite 2, ColumbuS, oh 43215-5433toll-Free: (800) 824-9633

We understand the importance of open communication ... You are your child’s roots; they need to know you in order to grow strong branches.

Craig & Kelly

toll-Free: (800) 824-9633

Job Description:Hospital Facilities Manager

eDucation:Master’s Degree in Healthcare

Administration

Favorite Quality about Kelly:Her desire to care

for others

Favorite MeMory With Kelly:Buying and updating/remodeling our home

Favorite chilDhooD MeMory:Camping with my family

Favorite chilDhooD toy:Lincoln Logs and Legos

Favorite color:Blue

Favorite holiDay traDition:Cutting our own Christmas

tree with my parents each year

Favorite vacation spot:Alaska — haven’t been there

yet, but I can’t wait to go

Favorite FooD:Country-fried steak

Favorite hobby:Hunting and fishing

Favorite tiMe oF year:Fall — the cooler weather,

changing leaves and campfires

Job Description:Genetic Counselor

eDucation:Master’s Degree in Medical

Genetics & Genetic Counseling

Favorite Quality about craig:How he interacts with our nieces

Favorite MeMory With craig:Our honeymoon in Jamaica — we rode ATVs and went

cliff-jumping!

Favorite chilDhooD MeMory:Going to Amish Country with

my grandparents

Favorite FooD:Macaroni and cheese

Favorite color:Ocean blue

Favorite holiDay traDition:Cutting our own Christmas

tree with Craig’s parents

Favorite ice creaM:Buckeye

Favorite vacation spot:A sunny beach near an ocean

Favorite thing to Do on a rainy Day:

Curl up with a good book and snuggle with our dogs

Favorite tiMe oF year:Fall — the colors and

preparations for the holidays

About Craig About Kelly

V isiting With Our Nieces

Our Home and CommunityWe have lived in our home for more than five years. We completely finished the basement, redid all of the landscaping and have put our design sense into every room. There is a good-sized fenced-in backyard that will be perfect for playing catch, a swing set and running around. We are blessed to have great neighbors who are always willing to lend a hand or allow us to borrow a power tool.

Our home is in an established subdivision with sidewalks and within walking distance to a large metropark. During most weekend mornings, Kelly can be found at the park running with our dog, Ruger. Our home is located within a great school district — the same one we both graduated from many years ago. We still have connections with many of the teachers and coaches as they’re part of the community. There is a recreation center within a bike ride that has great team sports for elementary aged children. Also, our home is connected to Craig’s childhood home by a bike trail running through our city.

Camping With Our Niece Carving PumpkinsOur Home!

Marriage Date: July 14, 2012birth year: 1987 birth year: 1987

toll-Free: (800) 824-9633

Our FamiliesKELLY: Kelly’s parents and younger sibling live about 10 minutes away. Her parents built their house on land from the family farm. Kelly’s great-grandmother lived two houses down and two of her great-uncles live on each side. Growing up, Kelly’s grandparents would baby-sit her from the age of 6 weeks on. Kelly always had a very special connection with her grandfather — those two were inseparable. Kelly and her parents went on frequent family vacations to lakes in Michigan with her grandparents.

Kelly has a younger brother who is currently finishing up college. Because of their age difference, Kelly enjoyed being very involved in his infancy — everything from diaper changes and feedings to baby-sitting. She always wanted a baby sibling and was over the moon when he finally arrived.

Kelly has a very large extended family as her mother is one of seven siblings. Kelly is the eldest of all the cousins. The majority of the extended family lives within a 20-minute drive of our home. One aunt and uncle even live right down the street. Coming from such a large family, the holidays always are huge, crazy get-togethers. Craig and Kelly love hosting family Thanksgiving and welcoming more than 40 people into their home.

CRAIG: Craig’s parents live about 10 minutes away and we see them several times a week. Craig’s dad recently celebrated his retirement and he enjoys doing pretty much anything outdoors — hunting, fishing, you name it. It’s something Craig and his dad have enjoyed doing together for years. Kelly enjoys going to Fall festivals with Craig’s mom and sister.

Craig’s only sibling is an older sister who is married with two young daughters. They live about five minutes away. Our nieces are active in sports and Craig and Kelly enjoy attending as many of their soccer, softball and basketball games as possible. The nieces love having sleep overs with Aunt Kelly and Uncle Craig; snuggling in the king-size bed with the dogs. Our nieces also enjoy coming to visit during fall camping trips so they can ride their scooters and make s’mores.

We enjoy frequent family dinners at Craig’s childhood home. During the summer, it’s a pool party and cookout nearly every weekend. When time allows, we also enjoy fishing out on Lake Erie.

Most of Craig’s extended family — grandma, aunts and uncles — live within a 20-minute drive. We enjoy taking Craig’s grandmother out to dinners and hearing different family stories. Craig has one uncle who lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan which makes for a great little family vacation to get up there and see them every few years.

Our Wedding Day!

How We MetWe have known each other since the seventh grade. We attended the same Catechism class and went on to attend the same middle and high school where we both ran track. While we were in some of the same classes, it wasn’t until several years later we re-connected. Kelly was attending graduate school in Cincinnati and Craig was working on his undergraduate degree outside of Columbus. Craig invited Kelly to come up and celebrate The Ohio State football season opener with him and some other friends from high school. After that, we really hit it off. Craig made frequent trips to Cincinnati while Kelly was there working on her degree.

Once Kelly graduated, we moved to Illinois together as that’s where Kelly got her first job. Craig proposed shortly thereafter and we spent the next year planning our Ohio wedding from two states away. Our family really stepped up for the wedding. Kelly’s grandmother sewed all the table runners, Kelly’s mother made her veil, Craig’s grandmother prepared and read the prayer. After about a year, Craig got a great job and we relocated back to our hometown — just in time for the wedding.

We were married in the same church Kelly’s parents were married in 32 years before. We wanted the pastor who confirmed us to officiate their wedding, but unfortunately, he relocated a few years prior. It was a beautiful, hot July day. Our reception including more than 300 of family and close friends and has been toted as the most fun wedding they’ve been to in years — lots of good food, laughter and dancing.

Kel ly’s Family

Craig’s Family

toll-Free: (800) 824-9633

Our PetsAbbe is a black labrador we picked out when we first got engaged. She has been part of our life together through all the major milestones and has traveled with us across state lines until we were able to settle back in our hometown. Abbe’s favorite things to do include riding in the truck and going camping. When our nieces were young, Abbe would creep along the floor with them as they were learning to crawl.

Ruger is a 3-year-old labrador mix. We rescued her when she was about nine months old. It was truly love at first sight. Craig knew the second he saw Kelly with that pup, she’d be coming home with them. Ruger is a great running buddy for Kelly and loves to be outside. She also enjoys sleepovers with our nieces and going trick-or-treating with them dressed as a lion!

What It Means To Become Parents It would mean the absolute world to us to become parents. Our desire to become parents is something that drew us to each other in the first place. While we both wanted to get a good education and establish ourselves financially first; we both were counting down until we were ready to start of family. When we thought that time came, we learned it would be very difficult for us to have a family the way we initially planned.

Through our disappointment and heartache, two things were always true — we loved each other and we wanted very much to become parents. After some soul searching and research, our path led us to the opportunity to adopt. While it wasn’t something we always knew we wanted to do, the more we learned about it the more and more it seemed like the right fit for us. Now, as we talk about our plans with our friends and family, it seems so natural, like something that’s always been meant for us to do.

Our Strengths As Parents Kelly feels her strength as a parent will be her unconditional love and patience. One of the things that drew Craig to Kelly early-on was her mothering nature and seeing her with his eldest niece — who was born three months after they started dating. Kelly understands often the best way for children to learn is for them to have the opportunity to try it themselves; she understands they always want to help. While this may slow the task down, those often create the fondest memories — both for the parent and child.

Craig feels his strength as a parent will be his ability to teach his child the way he learned from his father — working with each other side-by-side. Everything from building projects, household repairs, cooking (yes, he can cook!), outdoor hunting and fishing traditions. Besides seeing it as a strength, teaching his children is also something Craig is looking most forward to.

Traditions We Would Like To CreateThere are SO may traditions we simply cannot wait to start with our growing family. We cannot wait to include our children in our family Christmas Tree cutting trip because it’s always such a fun day with Craig’s parents. It’s not unusual for us to search several different Christmas tree farms across SE Michigan and NW Ohio to find two perfect trees. We cut them down ourselves and load them into the back of the pickup truck. Then, we usually finish the day grabbing a bite to eat and warming up with some hot chocolate (for Kelly!) and coffee for everyone else. Christmas Eve is always a special day for Kelly’s family at her parent’s house. Santa always visits their house a day early and we can’t wait for a new generation of young believers to be excited for his visit. The evening usually starts with Christmas Eve church service followed by a home-cooked family dinner and finishing up with opening presents around the Christmas tree.

Kelly is excited to bring our children to a pumpkin farm to pick out a pumpkin, go on a hayride, walk through a corn maze and just create some great memories. There is a great one in our hometown which is perfect for families and even has fresh pumpkin donuts — yum! Also, our area has a really great zoo. While we’ve taken our nieces several times over the years we would love to take our children to see all our great zoo is able to offer.

Craig is hopeful our children will share his passion for being outdoors. He would love the opportunity to pass on his knowledge of camping, hunting and fishing.

Otherwise, we really hope to create many great everyday memories with our children. Cooking with each other, family dinners, spending time with great-grandparents and extended family, watching T-ball and soccer games — all the “regular” things families do on a daily basis. Over the years, we’ve gone on family vacations with both of our families and can’t wait to create lots more memories with children of our own as well.

toll-Free: (800) 824-9633

Ready for Hal loween

On Vacation!

Ruger

Abbe

Craig’s Big Catch

V isiting Traverse C ity Race for the Cure

Date Night

Dear Expectant Birth Parent(s),First, we would like to say how much we respect you for considering an adoption plan. We cannot imagine how difficult of a time this must be but wish you strength and peace as you move forward in making a decision. Thank you for taking the time to look at our profile.

We want you to know if you choose us to adopt your child, we will never forget how much of a gift you have given us. We understand the importance of open communication and plan to make adoption a normal part of their birth story by including it from the very beginning. We never want them to question how much their birth parent(s) cared for them while they were creating an adoption plan. We will always talk about you with unwavering gratitude and respect and plan to include you in our lives to the extent we are both comfortable with. You are your child’s roots; they need to know you in order to grow strong branches.

We promise to provide your child with everything they need to grow up happy, healthy and loved. We promise to not give them everything they want and help them understand the importance of hard work and perseverance. We promise to support them, celebrate their successes and help them learn from their mistakes. We promise to teach them courage to spread their wings and chase their dreams. But above all, we promise to love this precious gift unconditionally.

Sincerely,

Craig & Kelly

toll-Free: (800) 824-9633

How We Will Talk About AdoptionOur nieces are always very interested in learning about the day they were born. Therefore, we understand how important it will be to be able to share everything we can about the adoption process and their birth parent(s). We never want them to question how much their birth parent(s) cared for them while they were creating an adoption plan. We understand how much of a gift adopting a child is and we want to express our unwavering gratitude and respect for the birth parent(s) when we are talking with the child.

We plan to make adoption a normal part of their birth story by including it from the very beginning. We’ve purchased children’s books about adoption for us to read so they’re able to understand age-appropriate information about where they came from and how much they are loved. We are also talking with our family so they have a better understanding of the adoption process and can help answer any questions that arise as the child grows older.

Our goal is for their adoption to be something the child is proud of and not something they’re afraid to ask about.