Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know our family. We hope you have had a chance to see how much we will love and adore a child. As parents, we are confident in our ability to care for and nurture a child. If we are chosen as adoptive parents, we are excited to provide a child with an ample amount of stability, comfort, love, and laughter. We strive hard to give every opportunity for the children to dream big and grow up living life to the fullest.

We are excited not only for a new addition to our family but new friends and family as well. We seek to have an open adoption where a little one can always know how much everyone around them loves them. Thank you again for reading about us. We wish you the best and peace in your decision.

After living for a brief period in North Carolina, we fell in love with one of their coastal beach towns. It has become our family tradition to visit four or five times a year. We love the slower pace of life while there and spend time fishing, building sandcastles, going for walks, and hitting up the local ice cream stand.

Both Shelly and Chase enjoy living an active lifestyle. Shelly is an accomplished distance runner, having completed dozens of marathons and a handful of ultra-marathons, including a 50-mile race. Chase has also run several marathons and a 50-mile race but is currently working on other fitness goals. With our active lifestyle, we are often outdoors. On weekends you can find us hiking, fishing, or spending the day at the park.

Brooks loves our activities and has spent much of his life being surrounded by the outdoors. We look forward to sharing our active lifestyle with our family and will always encourage having fun and exploring the world around us! We can’t wait to teach a child how to fish and take them on fun hikes - we are also looking forward to the many fun beach days ahead. Our life is upbeat and full of variety, and we are so ready to welcome another child into our family.

Have you ever wondered how spending time together can build strong and lasting family relationships? If so, we invite you to imagine a week with our family; we are focused on spending time with the ones we love the most. From weekday afternoons to weekends together at the beach, we try to do as much as possible with each other and our extended families. We cannot wait to share this love of spending time together with future generations.

Our parents are excited to welcome another grandchild. They have track records of going over the top with holidays, vacations, and even the occasional sleepover. They take time weekly to call or facetime or meet up with us at the zoo for an afternoon of feeding the animals. In the summer months, Shelly’s father will stop by and pick up Brooks in the convertible for a surprise ice cream run. We love how active they are in our life and are so grateful for the love they give to Brooks - we truly believe they are creating beautiful memories that will last a lifetime. We can’t wait to see them with another child! 

Our family has some amazing holiday traditions. Halloween is one of our favorites to decorate for. Brooks and Chase spend hours looking for the best inflatable pumpkin or ghost to add to the collection. Last year we went all out and got a smoke machine to fill the yard with a “spooky” layer of smog for all the neighborhood kids to come and enjoy. We like to make life fun and exciting, especially for the children. A child would love our family traditions and we are hopeful to have another little one join in on our fun. 

We moved around a lot at the beginning of our marriage trying out new places, including Washington DC, Idaho, North Carolina, and Canada. We finally landed outside of Richmond, Virginia. We have lived here for seven years and love everything about it.

Our house has an amazing backyard, and we spend plenty of time there. Brooks loves to create a little city out of his sidewalk chalk or fill the yard with bubbles, and sometimes we eat lunch together picnic style! We love summer nights when we get to roast marshmallows over the fire. 

Our favorite room in our house is the kitchen. We love to bake cookies as a family and share a meal with family and friends. When we gather around the table it’s fun to hear Brooks’s stories about the day and talk about what we want to do tomorrow. 

The summers are super hot and humid, but we combat the heat by spending lots of time near water. We love floating in the local neighborhood pool with friends, taking weekend beach trips to our favorite spot in North Carolina, or wakeboarding behind the boat.

Winters are perfect. We quickly became acclimated to the warm temperatures in Virginia and now consider anything below 40 degrees freezing! We get only two or three good snowstorms a year that end up shutting down the city. These days are magical! We all stay home, play in the snow, spend time together, and either sit by a fire reading a book, or drinking hot chocolate.

Brooks was born on December 22, 2017, just in time for Christmas. He is like many 3-year-olds, full of energy and laughs. If you are willing to listen he will talk. 

Brooks loves to play outside. He is often ready to go out to his playhouse, slide down the slide or cook you a meal in his “clubhouse”.  He runs around the yard with our dog, Shatze, and often they are begging to stay out longer to finish a game of tag or fetch.  After a hard day of playing they share a popsicle as a treat.  

Brooks has a kind heart. He is very caring for other kids and his parents. He loves to ask how he can help around the house. He loves his mom and dad, Grandmas and Grandpas, and all his cousins. Living close to family allows Brooks to get plenty of time playing with them. We are excited to see the bond he will create with a sibling and all the love he will give them.

Chase grew up in Denver, Colorado. After high school, Chase’s family moved to Idaho, where he attended the same university as Shelly. He graduated in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in construction management. Today, he works as a project manager and oversees large projects. 

Chase is one of the most hard-working people you will ever meet. He dreams big and works diligently to make those dreams come true. These dreams have provided us the chance to live in many new places and meet great friends along our journey. We’ve enjoyed living in different states and trying new things together. He is my go-to for everything, and I can’t imagine life without him!

Chase has many activities he enjoys. One of his favorites is working on cars. When he was 16 he rebuilt a 1969 mustang mach1. This passion has continued into adulthood and he is now passing that love onto Brooks. They are currently working to restore an old 1989 Range Rover together.

Most of all, Chase loves being a dad. When he is not at work, he is home spending as much time as possible with Brooks. He has loved getting to share his hobbies with him, already teaching him how to work on cars, build furniture, fish at the pond, or tinker around with any other project he might have. You can generally find the two of them in the garage together having a great time. Seeing the two of them together is amazing and I love the bond they share and father and son. I can’t wait to see him share his love with another child.

Shelly grew up in a small town in central Ohio. She graduated in 2009 from a university in Idaho with a bachelor’s in health science. After graduation, she went on to discover her passion for health and fitness. She was able to turn her passion into a full-time job as the director of a corporate fitness center and loved being able to spend her time helping others realize and achieve their potential. 

She recently stepped away from corporate America to be a full-time mom to Brooks. She loves spending her days playing with and teaching Brooks. While some days can be exhausting, she would not change it for the world. 

Being a mother is one of Shelly’s greatest joys. Shelly and Brooks love to spend their time going to the park with friends, hitting up local children’s museums, or simply playing games together at home. Shelly is always coming up with fun new crafts and projects for Brooks to work on.

When she is not on mom duty, Shelly loves to run. She has run marathons and ultra-marathons, including two 50-mile races. Being active is an important part of her life, and she loves tackling challenges head-on. She hopes to set a positive example for the children by showing them that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to. My wife is amazing in so many ways, and I love watching her be a mom.

Hello! We are Chase and Shelly. Our home is filled with laughs and love, kindness and caring, and energy and adventure each day. We are so grateful you have taken the time to look at our profile and learn more about our family.

Chase and Shelly met in January of 2006 through our roommates. We quickly became friends. In October of 2006, Chase left on a two-year mission for our church. Over those two years, we continued to stay connected by mailing letters back and forth. Toward the end of Chase’s mission, we began to realize we had more than just a great friendship. Chase arrived home in October of 2008, and we instantly began our courtship. It was not long before we realized that we had found our person, and we were married in August 2009.  

About six years into our marriage, we decided it was time to start thinking about starting our family. Shelly had been diagnosed with PCOS, so we knew that getting pregnant would be a challenge. After two years of working with our fertility doctors, we welcomed our miracle, Brooks, into our family three days before Christmas 2017.

Even while we were dating, we knew that someday we wanted to adopt children. After having Brooks, we knew that we wanted our family to continue to grow, but this time through adoption. We are hopeful to welcome a child through open adoption!