Adoption is a journey shaped by love, courage, and complexity—for everyone involved. As we’ve walked this path, we’ve come to deeply respect the strength it takes to consider adoption. We want you to know that we’ve been holding you in our thoughts and prayers, whatever your story may be. We’re praying for clarity, peace, and support as you navigate this incredibly personal decision. We believe that even in difficult circumstances, hope and beauty can emerge.

We have always dreamed of having children. Little ones to carry, read stories with, giggles to hear, tears to wipe, and boo boos to kiss. Later years of school days, sports, clubs, or activities to watch and cheer them on.
After years of trying to conceive without success, our house feels quiet and is missing the presence of children. Since beginning the journey of adoption, we have felt hope and excitement for the future. Our story is being redeemed. We can’t wait to see where this journey will take us.

We met while attending college at Stephen F. Austin State University during Sonja’s freshman year and John’s junior year in August. By October, we were a couple. We enjoyed the early days of dating by sharing meals at the campus cafeteria and attending campus events like football games, movies, and game nights. After 2 years of dating, John proposed, and Sonja eagerly said yes! We were married in Houston a year and a half later, the June after Sonja graduated.
We began our married lives together in North Texas, where John lived before those college years. We have grown in love and friendship over the last 11 years of marriage. We learned how to live together and create a home together. We bought our house 4 years into our marriage in 2018 with the plan to raise a family here.
We enjoy doing many things together, like cooking, outdoor walks, watching movies, and trying new restaurants. We spend a lot of time at home together playing with our pets, playing board games, doing yard work, gardening, and different home projects.

John is my best friend and a wonderful husband. He is passionate about health, which aligns with his career in the medical field and as a CrossFit coach. He makes exercise and good food a priority. John is caring and responsible. He takes care of me, our pets, and our home. He can smoke a delicious brisket, as pictured below. He also likes to make protein ice cream and pancakes. John enjoys a good activity – anything that he can do that is up, physical, and moving. If someone has an idea for an adventure, John is ready to join in. He will also initiate activities like going to the neighborhood pond to fish. John wants to learn new skills in building, cooking, and ways to improve our home. He is a good friend and intentional about making time for the people in his life. John has a knack for remembering dates and times. I frequently ask when things happened or will happen. John loves movies and remembers quotes and actors’ names like no other. He keeps up with Star Wars and Marvel universes. He likes playing video games. He also likes building and collecting LEGO. He enjoys keeping up with scores for his Dallas teams – Mavericks, Rangers, and Cowboys. John loves to joke and play with our friends’ children, nieces, and nephews. I know he will be an amazing father.
Fun Facts about John:

• John has competed in the CrossFit Open for the last 10 years
• John has completed the Spartan Race Trifecta of Races
• John is afraid of spiders, but also likes to scare others with spiders
• John grooms our dogs, including haircuts and ear cleanings
• John likes to make up songs about our pets

Sonja is a caring, gentle, creative, and wonderful woman. She enjoys crafts, gardening, cooking, jazzercise, taking walks, and spending time with family. She is very passionate about her work as a speech therapist. She won speech therapist of the year for the first company she worked for in her first year as a speech therapist. She spends time creating therapy games and activities for kids at the school where she works. Her cooking is excellent, especially when she makes sourdough bread or other baked goods from sourdough starter. Sonja is very helpful with giving me ideas on home projects. This helps me create productive tasks. She is a wonderful wife and encourages me to grow closer to God. This has also helped me prioritize serving at our church. She is also an amazing aunt to our nieces and nephews, and will be an amazing mother one day.
Fun Facts about Sonja:

• Sonja likes to dance and Jazzercise
• Sonja likes to thrift shop for different books and games for students or family members
• Sonja loves being outside
• Sonja enjoys Christian fiction audiobooks
• Sonja made sourdough toaster pastries for fun for John’s birthday

• We promise to dedicate our lives to parenting our child with unconditional love, open communication, patience, and grace.
• We promise to allow them to grow into the person they wish to be by showing interest in their ideas and passions as they grow.
• We promise to share our child’s adoption story with them– sharing with them that their birth mother was brave in choosing us to be their parents.
• We promise to teach our child about the redeeming love of God and Christ our Savior.

Love,
John and Sonja