hello we are tim & christina - graceful adoptions · 2019. 1. 25. · maryanne has started...

Hello we are...

Tim & Christina

Our Hopes and Dreams...Tim and I met more than eight years ago when we were in our late 20s. We have a lot in common and we agree on most things. When we don’t completely agree, we can find an easy compromise or agree to disagree while respecting the others opinion.

Tim is a United States Naval Officer which means we have a different lifestyle than many other families. While Navy life has its challenges, it also has amazing benefits. Navy life means we move every few years and sometimes Tim has to spend time away. However, it also means we more fully appreciate our time together. Moving gives us the opportunity to get to know different areas of the country. We have developed an ability to make home be wherever we are. We are also very practiced at getting to know new people and building networks of friends which we now have all over the country. The Navy community offers a unique support system that reaches far beyond where our extended families are.

It is against this backdrop that we started our first adoption almost four years ago. Adoption had always been a part of our family building plan, even before we were married. We knew infertility was a potential problem and we talked a lot about what that could mean for us. We both agreed it is more important to share our lives and love with children than sharing genetics. We did pursue some infertility treatments; we decided very early on that IVF was not for us. After some medications and four rounds of IUI over three years were unsuccessful, we decided it was time to start the adoption process.

Two years ago we adopted our daughter, MaryAnne. She had already been born so we met her mother for lunch. We had a nice time together and were able to spend time getting to know each other. We met MaryAnne for the first time that day too. The next day we found out that her mother chose us to be her parents. This was the happiest day of our lives. We were finally going to be able to start our journey as parents. We love our journey as parents and sharing our lives with MaryAnne. Watching her grow and helping her learn has been the most rewarding thing we have done. We are very excited to do the same with our second child.

We look forward to sharing our lives with another child and including them in our journey. We look forward to having a baby to take care of again, celebrating their milestones, and watching our next child and MaryAnne grow up together. We both grew up with siblings who became our first friends and playmates. Siblings are an important part of growing up and we would like for our children to experience and benefit from sibling relationships as well.

If you select us as the parents for your child, we want you to feel supported throughout this process. We want you to feel you are being heard and know your hopes and concerns are important to us. We want you to feel you are making the best choice for your future and the future of your child.

Respectfully,

Tim & Christina

515.225.6351 / 877.628.1415 GracefulAdoptions.com

We focus on what matters to make every adoption a beautiful experience.

Family – Family is the most important thing. We spend as much time together as we can. We visit our families as much as possible, even making special trips when someone close to use is ill or having a special event like a wedding. We believe that it is important to support, respect, and help each other. We will teach these values to our children by example and encourage them to help and support each other and always strive to know, understand and value their immediate and extended families. For us this also includes close friends who have become family. When someone in the family needs help we do what we can to help them. We also make a point to have family visit for holidays and take lots of family vacations. We love to travel and it is a great way to spend time as a family. We are also trying to start a tradition of meeting Tim’s parents and siblings at a National Park once a year to spend time as a family. Work Ethic – Tim and I both work hard at home and in our jobs which for us starts with showing up when you are supposed to be somewhere and doing it on time. We will help teach our children a work ethic by giving them age appropriate household chores. MaryAnne already helps with little things around the house. She picks up her toys, takes the kitchen towels into the laundry room and helps move the laundry from the washer to the dryer.

Volunteerism – We think helping others teaches compassion. Volunteerism also helps provide a sense of community and belonging to something bigger than yourself. We show this in our lives by providing service to our community. Christina has been volunteering since she was 14 and able to work as a candy striper at the local hospital. Tim has been able to take MaryAnne with him to a few volunteer events that he has done with his command. We donate toys and household items to people in need and also donate to food banks for holiday drives.

Courtesy – Treat others as you would like to be treated or what Tim likes to call “good dudesmenship.” Treating others the way you would like to be treated is a good general rule to live by, a little kindness improves most situations. We show this in daily life by being kind and courteous to others while we are out and about. This can be seen in the way we treat each other. Saying please and thank you at home as well as helping each other with things around the house.

Honor and Integrity – It is easy to do the right thing when someone is watching. Honor and integrity is doing what is right even when nobody’s watching. It speaks to your true character if you can be trusted to always do what is right and you will do what you say you are going to do. We do our best not to take on things that we cannot give our full commitment too. Sometimes this means stepping back or not taking on a project so that you can fulfill your duties. We will show this by doing things as small as picking up trash dropped in the park, to bigger things such as returning a wallet left by someone in a public place or pointing out when we are not charged for something at a restaurant or store. We feel demonstrating small acts of integrity go a long way when teaching it as a value.

Our values and beliefs

as parents...



We currently live in small town with easy access to all the amenities of a larger city. The local community has lots of activities during the day. We enjoy story time at the library as well as playing at the park. There are lots of great parks in our area, some have playgrounds and others have nature areas and trails. There is also a butterfly house that we look forward to sharing with our children. We also look forward to taking them to the local “pick your own” farm as well as lots of historical sites and places that make nice day trips including the mountains and beaches. We live right next to a navigable section of the Merrimac River where we love to take our boat out on weekends.

We enjoy the privacy afforded by being in a neighborhood that has acre sized wooded lots that back to a state forest. We have a large yard with lots of room to run around. We also have a back deck to play on and a big driveway that is great for drawing with sidewalk chalk or riding tricycles. There are always birds on the feeders and sometimes deer and wild turkey visit the yard as well. We also have a koi pond where our daughter loves to watch and feed the fish. We spend a lot of time outside in the yard watching the fish, blowing bubbles, running around and taking care of the flowers and plants.

Our home is very welcoming, fun and personal, but can be a little hectic with a two-year-old, dog and bird. People feel welcome and at ease in our home as we are fairly laidback. There are often toys and games around for everyone to enjoy. We take pride in making delicious food for our guests. My cousin always tells me we are his favorite restaurant!

Our home has a big living room with lots of room for little ones to play and for us to spend time as a family. We spend most of our time in the kitchen or living room. There is space set up in both rooms for our daughter. She has a little kitchen and tent in the living room and her own toddler size table in the kitchen where she eats and does activities. Most of the pictures hanging in our home were taken by us on different trips. The living room photos are all from Missouri and Illinois representing both of our home states. The photos allow us to bring a little bit of where we grew up into our home.

Christina works from home and will stay home with our next child. Christina is looking forward to making all the baby food and using cloth diapers for our child, just as she did for MaryAnne. We will include MaryAnne in helping care for the new baby. She can help with laundry, get things for the baby and play with him or her as they get older. MaryAnne has started reciting some of her favorite books and we are sure she will want to share them with her brother or sister.

We are planning for the baby to stay in our room until MaryAnne is ready to move into her big girl’s room. We want our next child close to us while they are little. We have gender neutral owl bedding and decorations that are turquoise and green that we will use to decorate the baby’s room. We even have a quilt Christina’s cousin Heather made when we adopted MaryAnne that we are very excited to share with our next child too. We have a glider in our room that is all ready for the baby. As with the other rooms in the house we have incorporated photography that we have taken to decorate the walls.

Our home...

• Both non-smokers

Hobbies:

Adoptive Mother:

Photography, cooking, travel, boating,

volunteering, gardening, writing

Adoptive Father:

Photography, cooking, travel, boating,

running, reading, history, playing

trombone

Professions:

Adoptive Mother: Thirty-One Independent

Senior Consultant

Adoptive Father: US Naval Officer

Education Level:

Adoptive Mother: Master’s Degree

Adoptive Father: Master’s Degree





Our family...We met in graduate school more than eight years ago. At the start of Christina’s second semester her advisor told her there was a new part-time student, he was in the military and in the same statistics class. We both attended a seminar. Tim was in uniform so Christina figured that he was the new part-time student. We didn’t have the opportunity to meet that day but a few days later Christina found Tim in class. The next day Christina sat by him and asked about the seminar. He went on and on until class started, so much so that Christina didn’t get another word in. This has become somewhat of a running joke between us.

After that first meeting we started sitting together in class. After a couple weeks Tim started walking Christina to the garage where she parked and about a month later asked her to dinner. We talked until the restaurant was getting ready to close. We dated for a year and five months before we were married. We fit perfectly together. Christina is loyal, she has a great sense of humor, is intelligent and caring. Tim is dedicated, he is a quick study, has proven himself to be a great teacher on many levels, and is very compassionate.

We currently have one daughter, MaryAnne, who is two. She is very interested in babies right now. She is always pointing out if they are sleeping or crying. The family in her favorite show, Doc McStuffins, recently adopted a baby. MaryAnne asks to watch the episode about the day they bring home the baby almost every day. We have been using the show as a way to talk to her about having a new baby join our family.

We enjoy spending as much time together as possible. Music is a big part of all our lives. Tim is a trombone player, he even got to play backup for The O’Jays once. As a family we spend a lot of time listening to music, and have varied interests, although Tim has a soft spot for Jazz from his days playing trombone. We are also very adventurous and love spending time outdoors doing activities like traveling, hiking, and boating. However, we also have those times when we need a low key weekend where we curl up on the couch, pop in movies and cook wonderful meals at home. The key is that we are together and having fun.

Both of us have large extended families with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins living throughout the U.S. When we moved here, Christina’s father moved in with us. He lives here about half the year. MaryAnne enjoys having grandpa around. She loves to cook pretend meals for him and have him read her books. Even though we live away from most of our family we try to see them as often as we can, usually several times a year. We also have a great group of friends who are in the Navy and are like family to us. They are our support system when we are not close to our relatives. We started a great Thanksgiving tradition. We invite our relatives, Navy Family, and friends to our house to share the holiday. We have come up with a great menu that we always tweak with something new each year. It’s a wonderful way to share the holiday with so many people.

Our family and friends are very excited at the prospect of our new family member. On Tim’s side this child will be the 2nd grandchild. The baby will be the 4th grandchild on Christina’s side of the family. When we shared the news that we were hoping to adopt again, they had the same response you would expect if we would have told them we were pregnant. Our family and friends can’t wait to get news about welcoming a new child into the family.

hello we are tim & christina - graceful adoptions · 2019. 1. 25. · maryanne has started...

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