We are hoping to grow our family through adoption as we know we have so much more love to give. We both grew up with siblings and cherish our lifelong relationships with each other. We believe that sibling relationships transcend time and distance, rooted in the memories shared and experiences created. Lena adores her cousins so we know she will be an amazing big sister! There is something truly unique about having a sibling to laugh with, share life's ups and downs, and create adventures together. Our entire family and all our friends cannot wait to expand their love even more for your child!

In 2014, we met online through a dating website. We chatted for a brief time before agreeing to meet in person for our first date. We planned to meet up for a happy hour drink at a local bar and grill. Several hours later, we found ourselves deep in conversation learning as much about the other as possible. Our connection was instant! One of Lori's favorite stories about our first date was when Krista asked her about the one place where she truly felt relaxed and could unwind from the day-to-day grind. Lori's answer "sitting on a dock watching the water at a lake" just so happened to be Krista's exact answer as well. Little did we know that the dock at the lake Lori was referring to was just across a peninsula in the same lake as Krista's favorite dock! We both knew from the first date that we were meant to be together. We knew our lives would be filled with many adventures. Our greatest adventure by far has been becoming parents! We adopted our daughter Lena in 2023 and absolutely love every minute of being her Moms!

Krista is my best friend and the most genuine and kind-hearted person I have ever met. She makes me laugh every day! For that, I am forever grateful. I love how Krista is always up for an adventure. She is an amazing listener who devotes her full attention and open mind to every individual. Krista's love for family and friends is tremendously inspiring. Without hesitation, she will stop everything she is doing to help someone in need. She is always searching for a way to make someone's day. Watching Krista with Lena and our nieces and nephews brings me so much joy! She will crawl around the house, run around the backyard with nerf guns, let them climb on her for piggy-back rides, swing and play catch at the park, take the older kids on jet ski rides, help them fish, or shoot hoops for hours! My absolute favorite role to see Krista in is being one of Lena's moms. The connection Lena and Krista have is truly unique. She can make Lena belly laugh harder than anyone in the world! Seeing them together is my favorite part of every day.

Krista was born and raised in the same suburban area in which we currently live. Most of her family and friends still live very close in proximity. At work, Krista is a manager at an IT company. She is valued by her coworkers as an amazing mentor and coach with an unbelievably calming and encouraging presence. Krista's work ethic is admired by all.

Krista is an amazing cook! She loves making dinners in the kitchen or out on the grill! By far, her favorite place to be is outside in the sunshine. You can regularly find her doing yardwork, on a walk around the neighborhood, fishing at the lake, sitting in the driveway with our neighbors, or soaking up the sun at the neighborhood pool.

Lori is one of the strongest, most supportive, intuitive individuals I know. She is a pillar of strength, building a foundation of love for our family. Going through life with Lori is full of adventures, experiences, and unwavering source of joy. One of Lori's greatest strengths is anticipating the needs of others through her extremely empathetic and nurturing personality. Lori is a great listener and makes anyone she is talking to feel valued. She leaves a lasting impression of warmth and kindness to anyone she encounters. Seeing Lori as a Mom brings me tremendous admiration as she has an innate ability to understand Lena's needs. She has excellent parental instincts. When Lori and Lena spend time together there are rarely any tears because they are having fun on walks, blowing bubbles, drawing with sidewalk chalk, reading, or embarking on a new journey. Lori is at the core of our family, and I could not imagine life any other way.

One of Lori's greatest joys is traveling to nice warm places. Although she is fair skinned, she is always sure to put on sunscreen for a pool day, or even a walk on a sunny day. Her love for warmth means we try to travel during the winter to somewhere hot typically through cruising. We share the need for Vitamin D! I love her desire to be outside and travel as much as possible.

Lori was born and raised in a city not too far from where we live today. Many of her family and friends reside in the same city so we are often taking road trips to go visit Lori's family and friends. At work, Lori is a pediatric audiologist and is amazing at her job. She enjoys completing research to gain more in-depth knowledge and then sharing that with others in the industry. Lori is often requested to be seen by her patients, and practices with nothing short of compassion.

We live in a four-bedroom home with an open floor plan with tons of natural light. The first floor is our main living room, kitchen, nursery, and master bedroom. Our kitchen has a large island open to our dining area and living room where we frequently gather with family and friends. We truly enjoy spending time in the kitchen cooking and baking together as a family. Lena loves helping us cook dinner every night! Although the kitchen may get messy, it will be a sure way to make lots of memories. Outside of our kitchen and dining area, we have a large screened-in deck with ample seating, a grill, and a fire table. Our basement is Krista's office space as well as a lower-level living room, two bedrooms, and a bar area that leads outside to a patio with a firepit. We love to gather around the fire with family and friends for a night full of laughter, storytelling, and making memories. When the weather is nice, we spend many evenings on our deck or patio playing cards, dominoes, or just talking about the day's activities. Our home is truly a place where everyone feels welcome and comfortable!

Since our neighborhood is located within one of the best school districts in the area, it is full of young families and children. We have a community pool with a slide, gym, playground, basketball court, green spaces, and several ponds with a walking trail around the neighborhood. With so many kids in the neighborhood, there are always children playing flag football, shooting hoops at the basketball court, sliding down the water slide at the pool, sledding down hills, or building snowmen!

When we received the phone call that would change our lives forever in January 2023, we dropped everything to drive to meet our healthy, beautiful baby girl, Lena! We were overjoyed with the opportunity to become parents. Lena is truly the light of our lives. She is smart, communicative, and extremely sociable. She loves to make everyone she meets smile and laugh. A simple wave and "hi" to strangers then seeing them return the gesture with a smile or wave brings her an immense amount of joy. Lena loves to explore and learn about the world around her. She enjoys having a job in the kitchen, always helping us cook each meal as a family. Lena is an outdoors girl for sure! She loves spending time outside whether on a walk around the neighborhood with her dog, playing with chalk on our driveway, swimming in the pool or lake, or out on the playground. We love watching her soak up the sunshine, catching rain drops, or eat snowflakes! Lena has a way of teaching us to slow down and take in each moment of every day.

Lena attends school near our home where she is learning so much each day! It seems as though she learns a new word or task daily. We are amazed at her ability to effectively communicate her needs or wants at such a young age. She is very inquisitive and a quick learner. We can almost see her brain working when reading books and playing with her toys!

We know Lena will be an amazing big sister! We cannot wait to watch her teach and love a little sister or brother!

Roxy is our 4 year old goldendoodle. She is the sweetest dog with an incredibly loving, playful, and loyal personality. She plays extremely well with Lena and other children of all ages, especially when they run around and play ball with her! Roxy's favorite things in the world are sharing snacks with Lena, playing fetch with her football, adventures around the neighborhood, and running around with kids!

She is a huge part of our family and goes with us on all kinds of outings and adventures. She especially loves car rides to the lake, the dog parks, or visiting with her cousins.

We have a large community of family and friends. We believe family is defined by more than our blood relatives; rather, it includes those that love one another, support one another, and are always there in a time of need or joy. We love getting together with family and friends weekly for game nights, grilling out, taco nights, or simply to enjoy being outside together. Some of our favorite evenings are spent in our cul-de-sac with our neighbors hanging out, playing yard games, or enjoying a fire night. There is never a shortage of laughter, hugs, and making memories!

Together we have nine nieces and nephews with whom we share a special bond. Our weekends with them are spent swimming, running around the backyard playing basketball, soccer, or walking up to a local park for a friendly game of softball. This is usually followed by adventurous climbs on the playground, games, water balloon or nerf gun fights, and many times a family dinner.

In addition, many weekends are spent down at the lake taking in the sunshine and beauty of southwest Missouri! Our favorite things to do are helping our nieces and nephews fish or sit on the dock with our family and friends talking the night away. Our family truly enjoys each other's company, and we are all thankful for the unique bond we share.

Within our family we have many traditions that have lasted generations and some that are newer. One family tradition we have is spending Christmas Eve at Krista's parents' home. All of our local extended family gets together with the hopes that Santa might show up for the little ones. Around this season we also gather with family to have a Christmas lights tour around the city.

A couple other traditions revolve around food celebrating Easter and Thanksgiving. At Easter we make Lebanese Easter cookies and knead the dough by hand as Krista learned from her Grandma. Thanksgiving is sure to have a large spread including lots of options, but our favorites are Lori's family's sweet potato casserole and homemade mac n' cheese.

Since adopting Lena, we have created a new tradition within the family to honor her heritage by celebrating Juneteenth with a seafood boil and games. In the fall, we visit the pumpkin patch, and host a Halloween party for family and friends complete with costumes each year!

Our favorite vacation spot is hard to narrow down. Traveling opens our minds and hearts to other cultures and ways of living. It allows us to create lifelong memories through many different experiences. Some of our favorite places we have visited on cruises include Venice, Barcelona, Barbados, Alaska, and Aruba. As much as we love warm places, visiting Alaska topped both of our lists. We love the vast wilderness, cuisine, and uniqueness of the towns. The views were incredible and full of colors, particularly at dusk. The trip gave us sense of awe and peacefulness. Alaska truly took our breath away!

We believe that exposing your child to new cultures and places is one of the best ways to spark their sense of curiosity and desire to learn. In hopes of experiencing the world, learning about different cultures, and meeting new people, we often embark on cruises. We feel that traveling will create unique and tangible opportunities for your child to learn outside of school and their local community. An added benefit of traveling is, as a family, we will be able to spend time together through being brave while hiking in a forest, exploring different creatures in the ocean, or trying new foods at a local market. We are excited to embark on many different adventures with your child!

Our promise to you is that we will provide a loving home for your child and give them the very best life filled with laughter, friendship, family, music, pets, and travel! When we imagine having a family, we envision playing catch in the backyard, spending all day at the neighborhood pool with friends and picnic lunches, reading bedtime stories, cozying up on the couch for a movie night, road trips around the country, and lake time.

As your child matures, we will guide them to be a well-rounded individual. We will teach them the importance of integrity, compassion, and respect. We will continually demonstrate the need to have a strong work ethic while maintaining a work/life balance. We will teach your child that they have the ability to act and make decisions independently but will always be responsible for their decisions. We will encourage him or her to critically think prior to making any decisions. It will become our life's mission to ensure they have the guidance, support, encouragement, and confidence to live their authentic self while reaching their life's ambitions.

Our promise to you is that we will love your child with all of our hearts. We will support them in all ways possible and encourage them to follow their dreams. We will teach them to be good role models in what they say and do and treat others how they want to be treated. We will encourage them to stand up for what is right and always be kind to others. We will celebrate how much effort they put forth, not just how good they are at things.

We want you to know that you will forever be a part of our and your child's life. We believe open adoption is a healthy way to raise a child to allow them to always feel connected and confident about themselves. We look forward to having open communication and learning the role and relationship that you aspire to have with your child. Thank you for considering us as potential parents for your beautiful baby!

With Love, Krista and Lori