Without question, the greatest joy in our lives has been becoming parents. Nothing has brought us more happiness, purpose, laughter, or love than raising our son and building a family together. We truly love being parents, and we cannot wait to welcome more children into our family.

Some of our favorite parts of family life are cuddling on the couch and reading stacks of books together, hearing our son laugh, taking evening walks through the neighborhood, and sitting together at the dinner table talking about the day. We love watching a child’s personality slowly unfold — discovering what makes them laugh, what excites them, what comforts them, and what makes them uniquely themselves.

We want our home to be a place where children feel safe, joyful, encouraged, and unconditionally loved. We hope to raise children who are kind, confident, curious, and secure in knowing they always have a family cheering them on.

We met on the very first day of law school at the University of Georgia when we happened to sit next to each other in class. At the time, neither of us could have imagined that a simple seating assignment would eventually lead to marriage, parenthood, and the life we now share together. Our relationship began as a friendship. During law school, we spent time studying together, talking between classes, attending football games, and getting to know one another through everyday life. About a year and a half after meeting, we went on our first date, and from that point forward, our relationship grew very naturally. One of the things we both appreciated most was how easy it felt to be together. We quickly realized we shared many of the same values: deep faith, love of family, loyalty, hard work, and a desire to build a joyful and welcoming home one day. Even now, after many years of marriage, we are still best friends. We genuinely enjoy spending time together, whether we are traveling, grilling in the backyard, taking family walks, or just sitting on the sofa in the evening while Tory watches tv and Thomas reads.

Our lifestyle is centered around family, friends, and creating a home that feels peaceful, accepting, and joyful. We are intentional about slowing down and being present with one another, even in the middle of busy careers and responsibilities. Some of our favorite moments are often the simplest ones — Saturday morning cinnamon rolls, cooking dinner together, walking to the park after work, or ending the day piled together on the couch reading books. We love gathering people in our home and hosting friends and neighbors. There is almost always something happening — neighbors stopping by our house, dinners with close friends, or playdates in the backyard.

Our faith is also an important part of our everyday life. We attend church weekly and try to build a family culture rooted in gratitude, compassion, humility, and service to others. While we certainly value traditions and structure, we also want our home to feel joyful, relaxed, playful, and full of laughter. We enjoy spending time outdoors, especially in beautiful weather. Some of our favorite things: visiting the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, cheering at a Braves game, grilling outside with friends, gardening, or simply playing in the yard together.

Family is at the center of our lives, and one of the greatest gifts we hope to give a child is the experience of growing up surrounded by people who love them unconditionally for who they are. We are fortunate to have a large, close-knit extended family and wonderful lifelong friends who feel like family. One of our favorite traditions is a bi-annual beach trip with Thomas’s extended family. From sunrise to sunset, the week is filled with play, laughter, and friendly competition. We play card games around the kitchen table before heading to the beach, spend the day playing beach ball games in the sand, and end evenings with board games and charades. Being playful, encouraging one another, and learning to laugh at ourselves when we lose are big themes in our family. We usually spend Fourth of July, Easter, and New Year’s Eve with Tory's family, often celebrating together on the beaches of South Carolina. Easter is especially meaningful to us. We love attending church together, sharing a big family meal, making beautiful floral arrangements, and putting together Easter baskets for one another and the children in the family. Our adoption journey has been met with overwhelming excitement and support from our family and friends. They already speak with joy about welcoming a child into the family, and we know this child will be deeply loved from the very beginning.

We live in Atlanta, Georgia, in a historic neighborhood called Ansley Park. One of the things we love most about our neighborhood is that it has the warmth and closeness of a suburban community while being right in the heart of the city. The neighborhood was built over 100 years ago and is filled with beautiful historic homes, wide tree-lined streets, and curving roads that make it feel peaceful and welcoming. Walking through our neighborhood often feels like walking through a garden. Throughout the year, the streets are filled with blooming flowers. We especially love taking family walks in the evenings and stopping to visit with neighbors along the way.

Our home is a two-story house with plenty of room for children to play, grow, and feel at home. We also have a fenced backyard with a lawn where children can safely run and play. Some of our favorite spaces are outdoors — our front porch where we drink coffee together in the mornings, and our back deck where our son loves playing baseball while Thomas grills on the Big Green Egg. We spend a lot of time outside together as a family.

Ansley Park is an incredibly family-friendly neighborhood filled with children and young families. There are two wonderful neighborhood parks with playgrounds, including one park where neighbors leave outdoor toys their children have outgrown for younger kids to enjoy. The neighborhood hosts events for kids throughout the year-including a May Day celebration of spring, an Easter egg hunt (complete with the Easter bunny), and a Halloween party with streets so children can run from house to house.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about our family. We want you to know that we already have enormous respect, admiration, and compassion for you. We feel deeply honored that you might consider us as part of your story.

We are Thomas and Tory Powell, and we have been together for more than thirteen years and married for nearly eleven. We met on the first day of law school at the University of Georgia when we happened to sit next to each other in class. We became friends first, and over time built a relationship grounded in friendship, trust, faith in God, and a shared love of family. Today, we live in Atlanta, Georgia with our son, Dixon, and our golden retriever, Hwin. We both still work as attorneys, and while we are grateful for careers, family is unquestionably the center of our lives and the thing that brings us the most joy. Our Christian faith is also a core part of who we are as a family and shapes the way we approach marriage, parenting, and everyday life. We attend church together every week, pray together, and try to build a home centered on love, gratitude, compassion, and joy.

Although we have been blessed with our son, we have experienced years of infertility and pregnancy loss while trying to grow our family. Those experiences were painful, but they also strengthened our desire to welcome another child into our lives. The opportunity to adopt would truly be an incredible blessing to our family. And Dixon already talks excitedly about becoming a big brother and loves playing with younger children. We have intentionally shaped our lives around being present and engaged parents. Our days often start with coffee on the front porch while we read books to our son, baseball games in the backyard, family walks in the evening, and bedtime stories at night. We love to take family beach trips, have family dance parties in the kitchen, and cuddle together on the couch. One of the things we value most in our marriage is that we are true partners in parenting and in life. Thomas is a patient and deeply involved father who never hesitates to jump into the hard work and joy of parenting. Tory is nurturing, thoughtful, and creates a home where children feel safe, encouraged, and deeply cared for. We both believe children thrive when they are surrounded by consistency, laughter, and unconditional love.

If chosen as adoptive parents, we promise to love your child wholeheartedly for exactly who they are. We promise that your child will always know their adoption story and understand how deeply loved they are by you. We promise to always speak about you with love, respect, and admiration. We promise to speak about you regularly with your child. We will always honor the important place you hold in this child’s story and in our family’s story. We are committed to giving the child any and all information that they want about you and their origin because we believe in honesty and openness. We know that adoption is complex and deeply personal, and we understand that a child may experience many emotions about their story as they grow. We are committed to standing beside this child through every part of that journey-through questions, curiosity, joy, grief, identity, and everything in between. We want the child to feel complete freedom to talk openly about adoption and to know that every part of their story is welcomed, honored, and loved in our home.

We are eager to have as much openness as you would like. We would be happy to visit annually, talk over the phone, email, or text, and we will always send letters and pictures so you can continue to see your child grow and thrive over the years. No matter what you decide, we are praying for peace, clarity, and support for you in this journey. Thank you again for considering our family and allowing us to share a small glimpse into our lives and hearts.

Thomas & Tory