Introduction

Dear Expectant Parent(s),

We are Nate and Brianna, a couple hoping to grow our family of four further through adoption. We have been married for five years and together for eight years. We have a 19-year-old daughter, Noelle, who we adopted when she was 14, and a biological daughter, Lucille, who is a toddler, so all together we are an active, close knit, supportive, faithful family of four. Our daughter, Noelle, currently attends college three hours away from us. Although adding Noelle to our family was a surprise, and required a quick learning curve, as we became parents to a teenager essentially overnight, her presence in our lives continues to be one of our most treasured experiences. As for our daughter, Lucille, although we had tried to have a biological child, we had accepted the fact it was not meant to be, so when we became pregnant with her we were quite surprised and delighted.

Now, that we have one adopted daughter and one biological daughter, we feel strongly about growing our family further by adopting again. We are committed to providing a home environment that helps our future child see their adoption as a special and immensely positive aspect of their life, just as our oldest daughter views her adoption. We will help them feel that way by openly talking about their adoption, sharing loving information about you, ensuring they interact with other adopted children, and raising them in a supportive, loving home full of extended family members who will all reinforce how special their adoption is.

One of the deepest desires of our hearts is to grow our family through adoption, so we can pass on our unconditional love, values, sense of adventure, and unwavering commitment to our children. In light of this, we want to take the time to thank you. We know that your decision is a journey within itself, so we want you to know that we admire the endurance, selflessness, and strength you are showing as you consider adoptive families for your child. We hope that our profile book gives you a better idea of what your child’s life would be like as part of our family and, most importantly, how much love we have to give a new addition to our family.

How We Met

We met in Mexico on a college study-abroad trip in 2009 and knew pretty quickly that our relationship was the real deal. When we first started dating, Nate would go to some of Brianna’s classes just to have a chance to talk with her. He “pretended” that he needed to be in the classes because he was a teaching assistant, but he really ended up spending most of the class just slipping Brianna silly notes. Ultimately, we connected over our zest for adventure, strong relationships with our families, faith, and our passion to find the positives in life wherever we can. Since then, we have enjoyed the adventure of getting married and starting our family. In our relationship, we both strive to be there to help one another when we need help and have fun with each other on a daily basis. It’s almost cliché to say we are best friends, but we really are best friends who enjoy simply being with one another! We often spend weeknights just cooking together as we catch up about our days. Then, on weekends, we love spending time with friends or family, being outdoors, eating delicious food, and just enjoying our time together. We work hard, but we enjoy the simple things in life and try not to take ourselves too seriously, a way of life we hope to encourage our daughters and future adoptive child to live.

Nate by Brianna

Nate is the storyteller of the family. He loves to make sure people are included, is very thoughtful, and is extremely proud of each member of our family. Nate is also really close to several friends with whom he grew up, especially his cousin Jack. He’s as dedicated a friend to them as he is an amazing father and husband to us.

Nate enjoys relaxing by reading a good adventure book, watching an action movie, or telling us a random story of the day. He is extremely optimistic and loves to see the people around him happy, so it’s not shocking that summer is his favorite time of the year; he loves it because everyone can have fun outside and dinners can be barbequed right up.

Some of Nate’s favorite memories from growing up are of him and his brother playing outside. He is so excited for Lucille and her future sibling to also be able to share that type of experience. Nate really looks forward to teaching Lucille and her future sibling to swim so we can spend a lot of time as a family in the water, whether it is the recreation center pool in the winter, the beach down the road in the summer, or vacationing somewhere that has a lake any time throughout the year.

Brianna by Nate

Brianna is an extremely dedicated mother, wife, and friend. She loves to help people and make sure everything is squared away for the family. She is also extremely thoughtful; she is always there for family and friends, whether it be to support them through hard times or to celebrate with them during the fun moments. This is because Brianna is a people person. She loves to meet new friends and makes sure to stay close in touch with all of our extended family members, always making it a priority that the whole family stays connected.

In her downtime, Brianna loves to travel, relax over a good meal, volunteer, and just genuinely connect with the people around her. She is really looking forward to traveling as a family and showing our kids places in Europe where she used to live/visit as a small child.

Brianna also enjoys cooking and, let me say, she is a fantastic chef! She loves whipping up new things in the kitchen, which our family and friends always love to try. Brianna is especially excited to teach Lucille, and hopefully our future adoptive child, how to cook as they get older. Cooking is something that she is incredibly passionate about, so she looks forward to sharing the meal preparing experience with the whole family. For example, Brianna makes sure that the traditional family pizza night isn’t delivery at our house – instead, it is homemade personal pizzas for every family member that each person gets to help make.

Lucille

Lucille is a very energetic little lady. She loves books, climbing, eating cashew butter, and playing with other kids. Lucille loves to try new activities and is a big fan of playing in the pool. There are lots of younger children in our neighborhood, so we have play dates with the neighbors and their kids at least 2-4 times a week. Our next door neighbors have a daughter, just two months older than Lucille, who she adores. Lucille also has an adventurous spirit and loves to be close to her family. We have no doubt that she will be thrilled to have a younger sibling, as she lights up anytime she is with other children.

Noelle

Noelle is dedicated, thoughtful, and very kind. One of her favorite things to learn about is outer space and she loves to teach Lucille everything that she can about it. Currently in her second year of college, Noelle loves school so far. When she’s not studying, baking is one of her favorite hobbies and we love getting to try all of her delicious creations. Noelle also loves to read, go on runs, and spend time with our dog, Arrow. She is a wonderful big sister to Lucille and loves to hear about all of her milestones. She often comes home to visit on weekends just to hang out or for special events like birthdays and extended family visits. She is super excited about having another sibling, as she is looking forward to being able to take Lucille and another younger sibling out on hikes someday in the near future.

Arrow

Arrow is our three-year-old Rhodesian ridgeback. She is extremely mellow and loves sunbathing in our backyard. She’s not a big fan of catch, but she thrives on finding sticks. Arrow also loves to snuggle and take naps. She is extremely gentle with Lucille and all other children she meets, so we know she’ll welcome the addition of another little one into our family.

Our Home

We love our home, not only because it has a massive backyard and is just two miles from the beach, but also because we live in an awesome neighborhood full of active families that are constantly spending time with one another. Part of the reason we have become especially close with our community of neighbors is that both of our extended families are in California. At this point though, our neighbors are no longer just neighbors to us, they are some of our closest friends. Because of how close we are, it is not uncommon for us to get together for playdates, walks with the dogs, dinners, or to help each other out multiple times a week. We even have a neighborhood group chat to coordinate all of the social events, or just in case anyone needs something. This means we always have someone to lend a helping hand when we need it, a fact that we know will come in handy when another little one joins our family.

Our Extended Family

We both grew up eating meals, spending time outdoors, supporting life accomplishments, and celebrating holidays with our families, so we are both still extremely close with our extended families. Nate has fond memories of Family Pizza Night on Fridays, while Brianna loves remembering the chapter books her dad use to read her and her siblings at bedtime. These are all things we still do now and look forward to doing with Lucille and our future child in the years to come.

We both have adoption within our extended families and our families can’t wait to grow again through adoption. Everyone in our family has been incredibly supportive of Noelle’s adoption, incorporating her into the family and making sure she knows she belongs every chance they get. They didn’t hesitate one bit about opening their arms to a teenage granddaughter/niece and they are so thrilled at the prospect of doing so again soon.

As we mentioned before, both sides of our extended family live in California. We love traveling to visit them in California to – where we get to spend a lot of time at the beach, in the backyard pool, and with friends with whom we grew up, along with their children. Fortunately for us, our family and friends also all visit us quite often in Virginia. Between our parents, aunts, uncles, and siblings, we constantly have family visiting. We also Facetime with our parents several times a week so that Lucille gets to see her grandparents on a regular basis. They can’t wait to visit or Facetime us and another grandchild when we welcome another child into our family.

Our Jobs

Nate is an analyst for the United States military. It has truly been an honor for him to provide support to some of our nation’s finest men and women and, as a result, his job satisfaction is through the roof. The military will grant him paternity leave when the baby arrives and his command leadership has routinely acknowledged the importance of family, so they have pledged to adapt his work schedule to enable him to take care of his family at all times.

Brianna has worked for the same major bank for the last five years and now works exclusively from home as an analyst. Her job involves extensive research and writing on current events, which provides for a dynamic day-to-day work environment. Her work is also extremely supportive of adoption and a proper work-life balance. Brianna will have at least two months of maternity leave and she plans to take extra time off to take care of our future adoptive child during their first year with us, along with to help the family transition to being a family of five.

Education is an area of life where we want to fully support our children. Because of this, even though Brianna works from home, Lucille attends a school down the road that focuses not only on education, but also on art, music, Spanish, and the outdoors. It’s a really warm and loving school where faculty and fellow students’ families truly feel like extended family. They also have lots of experience with families of all types, especially biracial and adopted families, so we are excited for our future child to attend school there as well.

Our Community is Filled with Adoption

We make it a high priority to make sure that all of our children have experiences connecting with others with whom they have things in common. This can range from similarities in interests, personalities, sports, hobbies, areas of passion, and/or activities that are made even more enjoyable when shared with others. This commitment to community has helped our daughter, Noelle, approach her adoption as an immensely positive part of her life. We know each of us is made differently and that it takes a village to raise children. We take this quite literally, so we make sure to surround ourselves with friends and family that, among many other important things, can help Noelle and our future child embrace their adoption experiences, while also feeling supported and loved.

There are so many people in our lives that can personality relate to and be friends, mentors, or role models for our future child, as they have all been involved in their own adoption journeys. Our church has dozens of families that have been built through adoption. Lucille’s school has both teachers and children that have been adopted. Finally, our future child will even have a big sister who was also adopted.

Thank You

We are a family full of love, support, and adventure. We believe the best moments are spent together, so can’t wait to have another child join our family to enjoy these moments with them. Thank you for taking some time to learn about our family. Please call Full Circle Adoptions at 1-800-452-3678 if you would like to learn more about us or speak with us.

Warmly,

Nate & Brianna