We met through mutual friends during our early college days. We happened to be in the right place at the right time the night we met. A friend introduced us and to his surprise we hit it off within the hour and ended up talking all afternoon. The rest is history. We have not spent a day apart since that day! We have been married for nineteen years and are best friends. Our time together over the years has led us to truly study one another and pay attention to the each other on a more sincere level. Marriage has grown us so much. We both have learned to communicate, love, and serve one another. 

Our infertility journey started when we made the choice to tie my tubes after our third son was born via c section. We were told since our second and third children were delivered via c section that it would be hard to have any more babies. We accepted this and decided to tie my tubes. We had instant regret. We knew we wanted more kids. We loved them so much and dreamed of more. So, one day Pete surprised me with money he had been putting away so I could have a tubal reversal. I scheduled it immediately and had my tubal reversal. After the surgery we had many complications with pregnancy. Many tubals that eventually led to me having to have both tubes removed. Our next step was trying IVF. We saw a specialist and tried round after round of IVF. It was very hard on Kayla's body. During all this time adoption was heavy on our hearts. We discussed it many times and prayed over the idea constantly. We have felt called for over a decade to welcome a child into our home to raise with abundant love and support. We want to share our lives with this precious child and believe adoption is a beautiful way to grow our family. 

Quote we like-

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that Oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure" 

-Peter Marshall 

When I first met Kayla, I was drawn to how deeply she thought and cared about others. She was especially skilled in working with young kids with all of her early babysitting and training working in childcare. She said she wanted to be a mother since her earliest memories playing with her dolls. Kayla's ability to plan and organize has brought so much fun to our family. You will find her planning weekly meals, homeschool activities, fun vacations, and themed family nights. Some of our favorite things are the family movie nights complete with an entire meal to match the movie theme, tickets to the living room movie show, and even games or artsy type crafts to match. On other days, you can find her planting all things. She learned over the years that she loves plants, flowers, and the smell of fresh dirt and everything about gardening. I love how she lights up and comes alive doing something she is passionate about. Kayla is patient and intentional with our three boys, taking the time to listen and make them feel heard and valued. She makes sure to provide one on one time with each of our children and shows excitement about the things that interest them. 

Facts about Kayla-

-Loves Everybody Loves Raymond re-runs

-Enjoys walks in nature

-Adores our French Bulldogs

-Fav Vacation spot- the Beach, anywhere outdoors

-Fav Food- Chips and Salsa, sweet tea, sour candies

-Enjoys relaxing in our outside hammock and hearing the birds chirp

-Loves riding electric scooters with the kids

-Enjoys playing Phase 10 and Sequence with the hubby(and winning of course)

- Is a night owl

Pete naturally draws people to him by his humorous character. He is always cracking jokes and making people around him laugh. He is so talented and always finds ways to nurture his creative spirit. Not only is he highly skilled in house leveling and construction of all types, but he has fun hobbies that really let him express his creativity. He loves 3D printing and knows all about how to build and fix the machines and additionally how to create files to print and bring his vision to life. He paints a lot of his work and astonishes me how attentive he is to detail. Something that instantly drew me to him long ago, was his abilitiy to be patient and gentle. Pete may appear to have a tough exterior, but he is as gentle as they come. He is a protector and loves with his whole heart. He would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need. Pete is a fun dad and loves to rough house with his boys. He is always setting up fun games and competitions with the kids. They love the fun nature of the competition. You can find him on a weeknight, after working hard all day, at the outside basketball hoop with our kids challenging a friendly game. He is full to the brim of dad jokes. He is steady in all aspects of life and parenting is no exception. 

Facts about Pete-

-Loves 3D printing all things

-Enjoys Friends re runs 

-Likes vintage arcade games

-Is a collector of hot wheels

-Loves fishing 

-Fav Foods-Tacos, my wifes chicken fried steak, and oreos dunked in milk

-Enjoys sarcasm and dad jokes

-Fav vacation spot: the beach and building sandcastles with the family

-Is a morning person

All three boys are eager to be big brothers and are so happy to welcome a little one in to the family. Isaiah is our oldest, he is 18 years old. Isaac is next in line, and he is 14 years old. Ian, our 12 year old, is our youngest. Our family enjoys activities that allow us to spend time together. We enjoy hosting dinners and game nights for our extended family and friends. We especially love smores over a fire in our backyard, a family game of water kickball with our slip and slides during the summer, and family board games such as Scene It and Ticket to Ride. Riding bikes or the electric scooters is also oen of our favorite pasttimes. Waterparks, swimming, anything involving cooling off from the Texas heat is what you will find us doing in the hot summers. 

Isaiah is a respectful and responsible young man. He is outgoing and has never met a stranger. He is much like his dad when it comes to entrepreneurship. He has always been inquisitive and ready to learn new skills. He is a self taught learner and has many hidden talents. He loves modern art, knows all things cars, website design and coding, just to name a few. His latest interest is his clothing brand of hoodies and shirts he designs and sells to people all over the world. Homeschooling has allowed him the time and resources to find his talents and succeed with them. Isaiah is an amazing big brother and protector as well. He takes his role of the oldest very seriously and teaches his siblings with patience and love. He is respectful to them and wants them to succeed so he teaches them every chance he gets. 

Isaac is quiet and reserved until he gets to know the person. He is loyal and very honest. He easily keeps friends as they know they can rely on him and trust him. Isaac is an all-star athlete at basketball, whiffle ball, and pretty much any sport he tries. He has won trophies and rings with his teams. He likes weighlifting and competition and is always up for a challenge. Isaac also enjoy video gaming in his down time. He livestreams in a safe online environment and has loyal followers. His newest hobby is teaching himself how to play his acoustic guitar. He is truly talented in so many things. He too is very kind to his brothers. They never argue and have been raised to be best friends and support one another. Isaac enjoys spending time with them every day and laughing at their silliness. He is gentle and quick to lend a hand. 

Ian is our family clown. He never keeps a serious face and is always making us laugh. He is outgoing just like his oldest brother and is always ready to learn. Ian has a talent in creating food dishes in the kitchen that are always amazing us. He watches cooking competition series and then goes to the kitchen to create his own spin on dishes. He is always having us taste test and judge his masterpieces. He takes cooking classes with a local chef where he learns all types of unique skills in the kitchen. He enjoys opurtunities where he helps the chef with local catering events. Ian is a kind hearted child. When he loves something, he will love it with his entire being. He is loyal and loving to his big brothers. He admires and respects them and desires to be just like them and his dad. He cannot wait for his chance to officially be a big brother too. 

Our home is a ranch style home nestled in between big shady trees. It sits far back on eight acres of land down a long driveway. It is full of windows we often open when the weather is nice to let the cool breeze flow through. It is right outside the city limits, giving it a country feel without being far from the stores in our town. We are just a few miles from our church where we have been members for a lifetime. 

Our community has been Kayla's hometown since birth. Her family dates back past 130 years in this town on both her mom and dads side. There is even a historic home that is still family owned. Our town at one time was a small town, however over the years it has expanded. Even with big stores that have come in, it is very careful to keep that small town feel. Friday night football is the happening event and little league baseball on Saturdays is where you can find a lot of the community. 

A typical week in our life consists of homeschooling four days a week and leaving Fridays for fun outings with friends. Since we own our business, Pete is able to adjust his schedule to work with the outings and often joins us. On school days, we do lots of fun hands on activities first thing and then we break off after lunch where the boys will do their individual lessons. Afternoons are usually filled with down time and cooking dinner. Evenings include outside family fun like jumping on the enclosed trampoline, basketball, or walking the land. Nerf battles are known to partake the evening as well. Since we homeschool, our days and nights are slowed down and not rushed. We make our own schedule so there is no need to hurry our days.

We are a little obsessed with all things Frenchie at our home. We have three French Bulldog: Fiona, Ruby and Ellie. They are small and very well behaved. They are the gentlest canines and a shadow to Kayla. They live for belly rubs and sitting in our laps. 

Our exteded family is large, and our gatherings are filled with fun and laughter. We have had monthly dinners for years now. We like to do themed dinners and its fun to see what we come up with. When months are busy, we typically will do our family dinner out a restaurant. We all look forward to this time to catch up on everyones lives and spend time together. Our family is very supportive in our adoption journey. They are equally excited and cannot wait to extend love to the newest member. 

Our family has a tradition each Christmas to bake holiday recipes that have been passed down for generations. Some of the favorites include Nanie's pressed sugar cookies made with our antique family cookie press, Papa's pound cake using his secret recipe, and of course a ton of different types of candies- new and old recipes. We enjoy doing our annual 12 days of Christmas countdown. Each day we open a new family activity. These include things such as driving around in our pajamas looking at lights while drinking hot cocoa and singing carols or decorating gingerbread houses. Another favorite is Fourth of July which consists of the nearby towns annual parade, fresh watermelon, cooking out and our local fireworks show to end the day. Every holiday holds its own tradition and we always look forward to them. 

Our most recent vacation was our road trip to Florida last Fall. We relaxed with our toes in the beautiful white sand at Destin. We explored the town and ate a ridiculous amount of seafood. Then we headed further in to Florida to Orlando. We stayed at an Air BnB and visited Universal and Disney Springs. we had a blast in Harry Potter land and rode all the big coasters. Overall, our trip was filled with amazing family memories. We love finding fun wherever we go and are sure to make moments with lots of smiles.