We have spent our dating years and the beginning of our marriage taking advantage of our pre-child lives by traveling the world (domestically and internationally).

When we travel, we like to explore and immerse ourselves into that region's culture. We specifically like to find "off the beaten path" hikes to breathtaking views. We recently took two weeks to Europe where we hiked the Alps in Italy and Switzerland. It was a dream trip of hiking, kayaking, and exploring the quaint European towns.

We also have many things to do right around home. The family farm has a network of trails in our timber to ride ATVs on. We usually have our family friends join us and bring our dog, Rookie, to enjoy being outside and explore.

We also both love skiing and have tried to make an annual trip out of it. We commonly go to Colorado or Utah to ski in the Rocky Mountains. However, last year we tried something new and went to Banff, Canada to ski. While we were there we spontaneously tried dog sledding, which was a blast!

While we know that with children our trips will look different and may not happen as often, we cannot wait to share our experiences and adventures with our child and encourage their curiosity to see what this planet has to offer!

We love to take advantage of our leisure time between all of life's busyness. We live only 20 minutes away from Iowa State University, where we both attended college, so a portion of our weekends are spent with our friends and family at Iowa State football and basketball games. Because we live so close to where we both went to school, we have a lot of friends in the area. We love that we get to get together with our friends often for dinner, concerts, etc. With more of our friends having kids, our get togethers are starting to look more like dinner parties at someone's house. Still fun nonetheless!

Garrett's family is very active in their county fair and state fair. Our nieces and nephews show bottle lambs (they raise baby lambs with a bottle, then walk them around a show ring). They also exhibit at the Iowa State Fair which is one of our favorite times of the year! Garrett's parents have set up their camper at the Iowa State Fair for over 20 consecutive years. We can't wait to experience the fairs with a child while checking out all the animals and riding all the carnival rides!

While we love socializing, we also enjoy our peaceful quality time together at home. Desiree loves reading and baking sweet treats. She is excited to share these passions with her children some day. We also both love to get outside whenever we can. We spend a lot of time sitting on our patio or deck throwing the ball to Rookie, grilling out, and just chatting.

We have a third member of our family named Rookie. He's a 1.5 year old mini sheepadoodle (Old English sheepdog and miniature poodle) and we love him to pieces. He absolutely thrives with children. Our nieces and nephews volunteer to babysit him at their house every time we go out of town. He is very gentle and cautious around our friends' babies. We love taking him to the dog park to run around and play with other dogs. He's always one of the most social dogs there, and loves to greet every new dog as they come in the entry door. Rookie also loves to go to the farm to ride in tractors, help with chores, and be a farm dog. Although he is very social and loves joining us in every activity we do, he also can be quite the couch potato. He loves snuggling up next to us on the couch every morning while we drink our coffee and every evening as we are unwinding. He's been such a blessing in our lives. He has given us someone to love on while we wait for our family to expand.

Our home is situated in a social, family friendly neighborhood within a suburb 15 minutes outside of our capitol.

We live in a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house located across the street from one of our community's elementary schools and only two blocks from our neighborhood's park. We spend most of our spring and summer evenings taking long walks around our neighborhood with our dog, Rookie. Every street is lined with sidewalks and there are always neighborhood kids riding bikes and playing outside. Rookie is quite popular in our neighborhood and our walks take frequent pauses so kids can pet him.

We chose our current suburb because of the level of safety and fun it offers. There are summer festivals, bike trails, trampoline parks, dog parks, and much more. We regularly ride our bikes on the trails and take Rookie to the dog park to play and burn off energy with other dogs.

Our house is very open and has a finished basement with games that we love hosting in. Our open backyard has a lot of room to run around and is loved by our dog and our nieces and nephews. We are good friends with our neighbors and always have conversations while out doing yard work or out for walks throughout the neighborhood. We frequently get together with our neighbors to watch sports games together or go out to eat. We also have good friends from college that live only a few blocks away. We feel blessed to live somewhere where we can be surrounded by so much support.

Our extended families mean the world to us. We both come from close knit, extremely loving, and FUN families. We have a total of seven nieces and nephews, including triplets and twins, that we absolutely adore!

Garrett's entire extended family lives around their family farm which is less than an hour away from where we live. We have the privilege of spending a lot of time with them and witnessing the kids grow up. Garrett and his family are passionate about agriculture and share their love of raising farm animals with the kids. Garrett goes back to the farm frequently to help with farm chores and to help our nieces and nephews with their 4H projects (raising and showing lambs). Garrett's parents' favorite job is being Grandma T and Papa to their grandchildren.

Desiree's mom and step dad currently live in Michigan, but are actively searching for houses closer to us in Iowa. Desiree's mom was a third grade teacher for over 30 years before retiring. She cannot wait to watch her grandchildren learn and grow. Now that they are both retired, they visit frequently, especially around the holidays when we get to bake, decorate, and look at neighborhood Christmas lights together. Desiree's sister is married and they live 20 minutes away from us. We get together often for different events and fun outings!

It is not uncommon for us to get together with both sides of our families together, as our families were friends before we even started dating!

We are overwhelmingly thankful that you are taking the time to learn more about us.

It is impossible for someone who has not been in your position to fully understand what you are going through. All we can do is promise you that we would devote our lives to protecting, nurturing, and loving your child.

We have known each other most of our lives. Desiree grew up in California but both of her parents were from Iowa. Her family spent every summer in Iowa visiting family. One of their annual stops was at Garrett's family farm because Desiree's mom is a longtime friend of Garrett's aunt. This is how we originally met. Fast forward to college when we both attended Iowa State University. Desiree often went to Garrett's family gatherings for holidays that she was not able to go home to CA for. Garrett was always very kind and welcoming. He eventually asked Desiree to go out to dinner. We both knew immediately, on this dinner date, that we would be getting married.

We talked about children and our future family as soon as we started dating because we both value family above all else. Desiree has always felt drawn to adoption. She has a close cousin that was adopted and works with multiple people who have adopted. After being unsuccessful at conceiving biological children, we knew we wanted to pursue adoption over reproductive technologies. We feel God has put adoption on our hearts for a reason and we are excited to see how He works this calling into our lives.

We both are practicing Christians and want to raise our child knowing God and just how much they are loved by Him. We also believe that along with showing our child unconditional love and compassion, being a parent involves helping our children grow into people who have confidence, integrity, and respect for others. Our roles as parents will be the most important roles we ever play. We have made the decision to have Desiree return to her job as a nurse only part-time once we welcome a child into our family. A lot of Garrett's job allows him to work from home. With that said, there would be a large portion of our day-to-day lives where we would all be at home together! We are very grateful that we both have the luxury of getting to be so present and hands on in our child's life.

We consider it vital to be very honest with our child about their adoption. We want to explain to them that God brings families together in many different ways. We will be honest and open about the adoption, but will not make it their entire identity. They are just as much a part of our family as anyone else. We want to share with them how loved they are to have so many people who care so deeply about them.

We are excited to get to share with you your child's life through photos, letters, and in-person visits. We feel that you being a part of the child's life will solidify for them how many people care about and love them, which is extremely important to us. You are a fundamental part of our life and we want our child to understand that. We will always speak of you in high regard and we look forward to maintaining a healthy relationship with you.

Wherever you are in this journey know that you are an exceptionally strong and selfless person. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for considering us and allowing us to share our life with you.

Garrett & Desiree