John & Nora

Hello! We appreciate you taking the time to read about our family. We hope it gives you a sense of the love and happiness that fills up our lives. We admire your bravery and pray that you find peace through these emotional decisions.

In the Beginning

We are John, Nora & Cooper. John and Nora met in 1999 and quickly became close friends. For the next 4 years, we traveled together, cooked dinner every night, went to concerts. We were the perfect couple, except that we were not a couple! In December of 2003, our feelings for each other changed and we realized our friendship had grown into love. We had a big, beautiful wedding with lots of friends and family. It was truly a magical day. One that Nora likes to relive by watching the wedding video!

About Us

Soon after we were married, we learned we would not be able to conceive a child. Our plans for adoption began soon after. We adopted our son, Cooper, in 2009 through an open adoption. Cooper is an amazing little boy and we are in constant awe of both him, and the depth of our love for him. He makes every day brighter and we could not imagine our lives without him. We have a wonderful relationship with Cooper’s birthmother and we see her and her family often. We are so happy that Cooper will always feel the love that she has for him. Cooper has many children’s books about adoption and we talk about his adoption story regularly. We like to tell him that there are many ways to become a family and everyone has a different story.

Cooper loves to play ball and crawl around exploring. We go to the library twice a week for an interactive story class, visit our local children’s museum and take a 3 mile walk everyday around our neighborhood park.. Our family belongs to a local pool & tennis club so Cooper has been taking swimming lessons to get him comfortable in the water. Every day Cooper discovers a new game or skill – it is very fun to watch.

Nora worked for a gourmet food and candy broker prior to Cooper’s adoption. She now stays home with Cooper full time and occasionally works from home or does weekend food demos at gourmet stores. Nora loves to plan parties, cook and work out with her trainer. John and Nora both love the outdoors and take full advantage of the state parks and lakes in our area. We take a yearly camping trip, visit the mountains in the Winter for snow activities and take several beach trips every year.

John works for a software company and enjoys his job very much. He is able to work from home occasionally and does not have to travel much for work. He works close to home and is able to come home for lunch to spend a few minutes with Cooper in the middle of the day. John loves sports and working on projects around the house. He also loves to make barbecue in his smoker. The neighbors always come round when the smell makes it way through the neighborhood. John also plays tennis and usually has a home improvement project in the works.

Family

We are very lucky to have close relationships with both of our families. Nora’s parents visit from SC twice a month and John’s family is only 1 hour away. Nora’s brother lives in town and takes Cooper to the park to feed the ducks every week. John & Nora both have close relationships with their siblings and have wonderful memories of growing up with them. We want the same memories for our children.

Both families are very excited at the prospect of another grandchild.

Fun Times

While we both have outside activities that we enjoy, our focus is being the best parents possible. Both John & Nora spend as much time with Cooper as we can – not only because it is so much fun, but because it is the best scenario for any child. We love being parents and we are very excited to share our love with another child.

Faith

We attend church weekly and enjoy helping out with special functions like picnics and receptions. Our church and the priests of the parish have become an important part of our lives.

Friends

We have a very close group of friends that we see on a regular basis. They have become an extended family and we are very grateful to have them in our lives. We have come to rely on each other and provide support in all aspects of our lives. Included in this group are 15 children that we love dearly. We take beach trips together and get together for dinner monthly. Some of these friendships are nearly 30 years old and we treasure them.

Home

We have lived in our current home for 4 years, though it feels like we have been here a lot longer. Our neighbors have become very close friends and we feel very lucky to have found such a wonderful neighborhood. We live on a cul de sac with lots of children, big back yards and impromptu get-togethers. One of the first things that drew us to this neighborhood was the kid-friendly atmosphere. There is a swing set in every yard and everyone is waiting patiently for the new kid on the block!

About Adoption

It is hard to sum up a life in a profile. We hope you get a sense of the love we feel every day, not only for each other, but for everything around us. We feel very lucky to have each other, our beautiful little boy, wonderful friends and family and a life we love.

We thank you so much for considering us.

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.