John & Laura
Hello! We are John & Laura. Thank you for taking the time to read our profile and to learn more about us. We are grateful that you are considering adoption and hope you will consider us as adoptive parents.
In the Beginning
We remember the exact date we met because it was the day that John had a job interview at the college that I was working for in the mountains of North Carolina. I actually served on the interview committee for the position he was applying! Neither of us knew how important that job interview was or what kind of long lasting changes it would make in our lives. Needless to say, John got the job! We quickly became friends and started dating several months later. We got engaged a little over a year after we began dating. John proposed during a picnic lunch on the Parkway in the North Carolina mountains on a hot July afternoon. Not only was it hot, but a thunderstorm was rolling in! John was obviously nervous…I still tease him today that I knew that something was up because he only ate one piece of fried chicken. We got married two years to the day of our first date. Our wedding was beautiful. It rained several days straight before but on the afternoon of our wedding, the rain stopped and the sun came out! We had so much fun at our reception, dancing and laughing with our friends and family.
We always knew that we wanted to be parents and we used to talk about having children while we were dating. Before we got married we knew that we were going to be faced with infertility issues because I was already experiencing gynecological problems. My doctor recommended that we start infertility treatments immediately. As soon as we were married, we started trying to have a baby. After a few months of taking fertility medication, we found out that we were pregnant. We were ecstatic! Then the bottom of our world fell out a few days later when we were told that we miscarried. Our miscarriage wound up being an ectopic pregnancy. We endured two emergency surgeries within two weeks of each other just to save my life. I was released from the hospital (after the second surgery) on our first wedding anniversary. We were heartbroken. A year and a half later, we had another ectopic pregnancy and once again lost our baby, along with our ability to have a baby naturally. After years of infertility treatments and procedures, we knew that we would never be able to have our own biological children. We prayed for God’s healing and guidance. It was through much prayer that we came to know that it didn’t matter if the child was physically born from us…he or she would be born of our hearts and our love for one another.
About Us
I (Laura) was born in the north and moved to the mountains of North Carolina when I was ten. John was born in North Carolina. We both work in the Education field at the same college. The great thing about our jobs is that we both have flexible schedules and can work from home when needed. Outside of work, I enjoy photography, scrapbooking, shopping, reading, and spending time with our nieces, nephews, and Goddaughters. John enjoys reading, working out, and attending sporting events. Together we enjoy Bible studies, going to movies, traveling, visiting friends and family, and going on walks. We do love to travel and we try to take a big trip every three years or so. We’ve gone to New York, Boston, Chicago, Arizona, Charleston, D.C., Virginia and Florida for vacations. The years that we don’t go on “big” vacations, we go to the mountains or to the beach for long weekend stays. We also love going to hockey games and enjoy tailgating with John’s fraternity brothers and their families at college football games. We love every season: Spring brings trips to the mountains and Easter celebrations. We love to dye eggs and to attend our church’s annual Easter picnic. Summer is filled with us hanging out at the pool, cookouts, outdoor concerts, and trips to the beach. Fall is our most favorite time of the year and we love everything associated with it…trips to the mountains, hikes to enjoy the changing colors of the trees, picking out pumpkins, football, and passing out candy at Halloween. Winter brings hockey games, Christmas cookie baking and many holiday celebrations with family and friends.
Our Home
We live in a new, young, and culturally diverse neighborhood with many families with small children. We have a big, fenced-in back yard, and we can’t wait to fill it with a swing set, sand box, and play houses!! Our neighborhood has a community pool equipped with a cool “playground” in the pool for young children. It also has a walking trail, a playground and a huge ball field where soccer, football, or kickball can be played. A couple times a year, our neighborhood gets together for special events like block parties or the annual fall festival.
Our home is a spacious two-story house with three bedrooms, two and a half baths and a large bonus area that we use as a family room. We have the room picked out for the nursery and can’t wait to paint it blue or pink and move in the crib! The nursery has a good-sized walk in closet for all the clothes and shoes I’m going to buy for this cutie pie!
Our Family
Unfortunately, both of my parents passed away six years ago. I had a wonderful childhood with parents who valued family and were always there for each other. I have two brothers. My older brother, Larry, lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife, Tonya, and his three children (Amanda, Rebecca, and Austin). My younger brother, Eric, lives in Biloxi, Mississippi with his wife, Anita, and his two daughters (Emily and Danielle). I talk on the phone with my brothers and nieces and nephews weekly and I get to visit my brother who lives in the mountains regularly. Unfortunately, I don’t get to see Eric as much as I’d like to because of distance. John and I were lucky to spend Thanksgiving with Eric and his family this past year in Biloxi and we Skype often. I have extended family in the mountains of NC and we get together whenever possible. John’s parents live about 15 minutes away and his brother lives about 20 minutes away. His brother, Nick, and his wife, Elisabeth, have an eight-year old son, Nicholas, who we see on a weekly basis. We are so lucky that we get to spend so much time with our nieces and nephews. We enjoy going to their basketball, football, and baseball games, going to the movies and amusement parks, beach trips and sleep over’s. We love hearing about their friends, school, and dreams. John has family (aunt and uncle and cousins) who live in Arizona that we get to see on a yearly basis. They always come for 2-4 weeks in the fall. It’s a big sleepover in our cozy home! We enjoy cookouts, family dinners, and trips to the beach while they’re visiting.
Friends & Church
We are so fortunate to have such loving friends (who are really more like family). John grew up with a group of friends from church and they are more like brothers than friends. As each has gotten married and had children, the group of friends has evolved into one large family. Our friends and their children are very important to us. We are Godparents to two of our friends’ daughters (Zoe 13 and Lila Kate 18 months). We treasure the role of Godparents very much. We feel so lucky that our friends allow us to have such a big role in their and their children’s lives and let us spend a lot of quality time with our Goddaughters. As a matter of fact, I am sitting on my friend’s couch as I write this…we just finished giving our 18-month old Goddaughter her dinner, bath, and putting her to sleep…there is nothing in the world like doing so; it brings us great joy and comfort. We love sharing church, holidays, cookouts, birthdays, and trips with our friends and their families. I can’t begin to tell you how excited our friends are about us adopting…they are ready for a new member to enter into this family of friends that we hold so dear.
We attend the church that John grew up in and we have such wonderful friends and support there. Our church is family-focused and offers many activities for children. So many people come up to us on a regular basis asking how the adoption process is going and tell us how they can’t wait for us to adopt. John and I are both very involved in our church. I am the Director of Sunday School and active in the church’s outreach ministry and women’s group. John is a Sunday School teacher for 10-12 th graders and heads up the men’s group. Our church and faith is very important to us and we know that we wouldn’t have such a blessed marriage or have gotten through the loss of our babies and our years of infertility if it wasn’t for God’s grace and love.
About Adoption
We know what a hard decision this must be for you and that you must be scared. We’ve been scared along the way too, but please know that your child will be safe in our arms, always. We will love him/her unconditionally and can’t wait to be there for them through all of life’s ups and downs. Adoption is our only avenue to parenthood and we feel so blessed to just have the opportunity for you to consider us. May God give you peace and comfort as you make your decision.
If you’d like to learn more about this family contact us by either calling our birthmother hotline operator at 1-877-890-4673 (HOPE) or by e-mailing us.