We were incredibly blessed to adopt our daughter, McKenna-Lynn, in November 2024. She has truly been the light of our lives and brings joy to everyone she meets. McKenna-Lynn is smart, kind, funny, sweet, and her personality fills our home with laughter and love. She is at the heart of everything we do, and we cherish watching her grow, learn, and experience the world around her.

We love including her in all aspects of our lives—from trips to the park and family adventures to traveling, movie nights, and what are now family date nights. Sharing these moments together has strengthened our bond and reminded us how meaningful everyday experiences can be. We believe children are a true blessing who enrich and enhance the lives of those around them, which is why it is so important to us to involve them in everything we do and create a home full of love, security, and connection.

We look forward with open hearts to the opportunity to welcome another child into our family. We are excited to grow our family through adoption again and cannot wait to see McKenna-Lynn step into her role as a loving, caring, and proud big sister.

In our leisure time, we love being outdoors and staying active. Most of our hobbies revolve around spending time outside together. One of our favorite things about our home is having a pool in our backyard. It allows us to host family and friends for gatherings where we can swim, relax, grill, and enjoy meaningful time together. These moments are some of our favorite ways to connect and create lasting memories.

We also enjoy taking advantage of a trail near our home, especially during the summer. On weekends, we often go for walks or runs, stop to dip our toes in the river, grab a coffee or smoothie, and enjoy time in the sunshine. Lake trips with family are another favorite pastime. We own two jet skis and a small boat, which we take to our favorite lake in Tennessee for boating, lunch on the water, and plenty of fun on the jet skis. In addition to outdoor activities, we enjoy spending time in our downtown area, where we attend professional soccer games, concerts, and participate in local races. We look forward to sharing all of these activities with our children—teaching them to enjoy nature, stay active, and value quality time together. Our leisure time is centered around family, staying active, and making memories we can enjoy for years to come.

Family traditions are very important to us, and we believe they provide children with a strong sense of belonging, comfort, and lasting memories. Growing up, we both looked forward to traditions that brought our families together and created meaningful time with loved ones, and we are excited to carry that same joy into our children’s lives. Some of our favorite traditions we have already begun with our daughter center around the holidays. We love decorating our home for Christmas, including putting up our Christmas village, which helps make the season feel warm and special. We also choose an ornament from every place we visit and add it to our Christmas tree, allowing us to relive those memories together year after year. During the warmer months, we spend summers at the lake with family, enjoying time outdoors and creating memories. We also travel to Florida once a year to enjoy the sunshine and family adventures. At home, we value simple traditions such as weekend barbecues by the pool and sitting down together for family dinners each night. These everyday moments allow us to stay connected, and share our days.

We are both incredibly blessed to come from loving and supportive families who play an active role in our lives. Family has always been a strong foundation for us, and we are grateful to have siblings, nieces, and nephews who bring joy, laughter, and connection into our everyday lives. These relationships have helped shape our values and reinforce the importance of raising children in a close-knit, supportive environment.

We live in Samantha’s hometown, just minutes from her parents and sister. Being nearby allows us to spend frequent time together, and they are kind, nurturing, and very involved grandparents. Weekends are often spent at our home sharing meals, celebrating milestones, or simply enjoying time together. One of our favorite traditions is weekly family dinners, where everyone gathers for homemade meals, meaningful conversations, and laughter around the table. We also enjoy creating lasting memories through family vacations, including beach trips, lake weekends, and special holiday traditions. These experiences allow us to connect, relax, and build memories we will cherish for years to come.

Each summer, John-Michael’s family spends time staying with us. During these visits, we enjoy trips to the local zoo, amusement park outings, and relaxing days together in our pool. We are incredibly grateful for the love and support of our families as we look forward to growing our family through adoption and welcoming another child into our home.

We live in a lovely ranch-style home with lots of room for our family to expand. Our aim when purchasing this home was to select something that would accommodate all additions to our family. We live in a quiet suburb within an excellent school district and a lot of local parks. We are blessed to have been able to purchase a home with a pool and backyard with intent on our future children and dogs to have room to enjoy and play.

The community is quaint and is one that has family centered events offered throughout the year. Our favorite tradition is the light show in our town in December where all the families join together to watch the show! We love that there are local art fairs, farmers markets, fundraiser runs, and trails to hike and bike. Our city offers a lot of different activities year-round that we enjoy spending time doing with family and friends. The zoo, acquarium, amusement parks, water park, local outdoor concerts, and lake/river offer fun opportunities to invest our time in.

It is with the utmost sincerity that we express how grateful we are to you as the birth parent and your decision to consider adoption for your child. We understand that decisions like this are not made easily and come with careful thought and consideration. Knowing that a birth parent is willing to give us an opportunity to adopt and raise a child as part of our family is a tremendous privilege. We feel that we have an opportunity and calling to help another child by welcoming them into our lives and loving home.

We met in the most unusual of circumstances eight years ago. Unfortunately (and fortunately), we both missed our connecting flights in the Atlanta airport. Although we had not officially met yet, we both had made the decision to turn down the compensated lodging for that evening to stay at the airport due to early flights. With the airport primarily vacated we found ourselves in a unique situation that led us to conversing all night and into the morning until we had to go our separate ways and board our departing flights. Afterwards, we remained in contact with one another while living in separate cities. We opted to pursue a long-distance relationship until life-altering circumstances were able to bring us together. We continued dating for three years until we were ready to pursue the next chapter of our lives together- marriage. Through the early stages of our relationship we talked about our hopes of having children. Both of us came from families with three children and it was our hope to also start a family. While we were originally hopeful to have our own children, God had other plans for our story. After years and many tests later, it was determined Samantha is unable to have children. While this was difficult news to hear, it didn't deter us from continuing forward and finding another way to start a family. We are lucky to have close friends who adopted a beautiful little girl and she has been the biggest blessing in their lives. They guided us and inspired us in our journey to find children that we can love, inspire and encourage to be their best.

In November 2024, we received the life-changing call that our daughter, McKenna-Lynn, had been born, and from the moment we met her, she became the light of our lives and our greatest blessing. Through her, we have clearly seen why this path was chosen for us, and our hearts have been forever changed. We are also grateful to have developed a meaningful relationship with her birth parents, built on mutual respect, admiration, and friendship. We maintain ongoing contact with both of them and are thankful for the opportunity to visit together each year. It has been an honor to get to know them, and we value the trust they have placed in us as we continue to support one another on this journey, always with McKenna-Lynn’s best interests at heart.

We want to encourage you as you work through this decision and journey. This baby will be loved not only by us, but our families and friends as well. They will have a community and support system around them to protect, uplift, and love them unconditionally. This baby's future will be filled with happiness, love, faith, and the fun of traveling. You are incredibly selfless and we hope this letter is just the first step in meeting you. Our hope is that we will get to know you and have the opportunity to tell you how we plan to raise this child and the future we hope to provide. We understand you may have questions about us and would love to tell you about our lives. We are both open to maintaining contact through various channels like letters and pictures and would like to understand your hopes and expectations for communication as well. Through these points of contact you will be able to see the child continue to grow and blossom as well as have the affirmation that by selecting us as the adoptive parents- you made the best choice for your child.

John-Michael & Samantha