Jennifer & Darrin

We can be reached at Friends in Adoption: 1-800-844-3630

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We admire your bravery in considering a compassionate adoption plan. With the careful consideration you are giving your decision, we know that you will make the best choice for you and your child. We would be honored to become the parents of a child who is blessed with a birth mother with so much strength and courage.

We are very excited about building our family through adoption. We will share with your child their own adoption story and the adoption stories of others in our family. These family members will provide invaluable support to your child and to us as our family grows. Our lifelong promise to you is a wholesome, loving, and nurturing family where your child will learn, grow, and be happy knowing of your love, courage, and trust.

We hope this brief summary and photos of our life, family, and friends gives you a glimpse into our hearts and shows you how much love we have to share with your child. If at any time you would like to contact us, we can be reached through Friends in Adoption. We wish you happiness and peace in the decision you make.

Who we are... We look forward to having a child to
share our travel adventures and love of animals.

Walking the trails in Congress Park

We have built our relationship on unconditional love, trust, and on Christian values and teachings, and have celebrated over ten years of marriage together. We are best friends and do just about everything together, even things like holiday baking. We are famous at our places of work for the Halloween “severed finger cookies” and Christmas mice made out of chocolate dipped cherries.

Jennifer is a professional engineer and Darrin is a software development manager. We each enjoy our jobs and the flexibility to spend a portion of the week working from home.

TeddyBear

EmmaBear

We have a common love for animals. We have three cats and two dogs. Our dogs occasionally get to go to work with Jennifer when she goes out into the field. What they even like more than going to work is going camping with us!

Ruby Falls, Chattanooga, TN

Getting outdoors to enjoy life is a priority for us, and one of our favorite pastimes is to just get in the car and make a day trip in a random direction to a place we’ve never been to before... some of our fondest memories were made this way. The mountains and the ocean are both just a couple hours from us.

We’ve taken longer vacations too, to Disney World, Colonial Williamsburg, Cape Cod, Montreal, and most recently a road trip down through the Appalachian Mountains to Chattanooga, TN. On our trips we enjoy hiking, site seeing, white water rafting, as well as dining and shopping. Darrin is very much a history buff and likes to learn about the places we visit, so often our travels also take us to state parks and museums.

We also enjoy planning trips with family. Recently, for Jennifer’s father’s 70th birthday, the entire family planned a history based trip to Plymouth, MA and Cape Cod. Every summer we also visit Jennifer’s relatives at their Pennsylvania lake home where we usually spend the weekend swimming, boating, and playing games.

Jennifer’s Aunt Beverly, Jennifer and her
cousin, Tim, having fun at the lake

Our Home... We cannot wait to hear the laughter of a child throughout our home.

We often enjoy a cold glass of iced tea on the front porch after a day of gardening

Our community is warm, caring, and friendly. We recently built our home in a quiet neighborhood on a cul-de-sac.

We have worked on several house projects over the last few years and have put much thought into making our home inviting and warm. Some of the projects have included a three-season sunroom, a Koi pond, and a hobby greenhouse.

Each winter we start vegetables and
flowers from seed in the greenhouse

In the evenings we watch the fish in the pond
from the sunroom while having dinner

There is a large fenced in yard with plenty of space for children to play and run around. There are also flower and vegetable gardens for children to play in the dirt.

The schools in our community are great, and many families have chosen our neighborhood to settle down in for that reason. Many of our neighbors are young couples starting families of their own. The neighborhood is safe and filled with children. There is a playground and a sleigh riding park within walking distance.

Most of our extended family lives close by so we see a lot of each other, at least weekly. We enjoy our home and share it with our family and friends who come over for barbeques, holidays, and for birthday celebrations.

Our home...after the snow melt!

Family and friends gather for a
barbeque in our back yard

Neighborhood playground with walking trails,
basketball courts, and sleigh riding hills

About Jennifer by Darrin... I can tell she just can't wait to be a mother.

Jennifer is the love of my life. I fell in love instantly with her light-hearted charm. She is always able to light up a room with her smile and friendliness, and always encourages others to open up as well. She’s happiest in the outdoors, having discovered vegetable and flower gardening as enjoyable pastimes. She’s so serious about this love that we built a greenhouse in our backyard so we can enjoy growing things for much longer than the climate in the Northeast allows.

Her sense of creativity truly shows in everything she does. Whether it is decorating our house, planning and maintaining our landscaping, or pursuing her other hobbies of rubber stamping and scrap booking, she always impresses me and others with her attention to detail and elegance.

A day at the county fair with nephew, Owen

Celebrating Easter with nephew, Owen

Playing at the park

She volunteers her time with the ACE Mentoring Program, which helps high school students learn about careers in architecture, construction and engineering. She also prepares the monthly newsletter for the local section of the American Society of Civil Engineers to keep members informed of upcoming events and news.

Jennifer’s interests and hobbies also include sewing and cross-stitching, collecting colonial pineapple items, baking and cake decorating, reading, decorating, shopping, entertaining in our home, and most importantly being with family and friends.

She is very close to our young nephews and niece and looks forward to spending time with them. They have nicknamed her “Aunt Jen-Jen”. The children bring an added sparkle to her eyes, and I can tell she just can’t wait to be a mother herself.

Jennifer and her grandmother going
to a surprise party in a limo

Jennifer's Family

About Darrin by Jennifer... he is equally as eager to share his life with a child as I am.

Darrin is the most caring and thoughtful man I know, and I am lucky to be married to him. For ten years, we have built our home together, and he has worked hard to fill it with love and tenderness. He always gives freely of his time and attention to others.

Darrin has maintained a life-long relationship with the Boy Scouts, having grown up learning and believing in Scouting’s ideals of honesty, self-reliance, and responsibility, and to this day still volunteers his time helping out in his troop as an adult leader.

Making a presentation to boy scouts

Practicing the guitar at home

His commitment to children goes far beyond our town, as his job involves him with the careful planning and tracking of over 2 million school children as they ride the bus to and from school each day. He does not see the children get on the bus, but he enjoys going to work every day knowing that he plays a part to ensure their safety.

Grilling on one of our camping trips

He is also an avid outdoorsman, and has gotten me interested in camping over the years. He’s also a skilled and seasoned hiker, having climbed all of the high peaks in New York, and he also enjoys skiing and bicycling. Darrin is working towards hiking the high points of each state.

Darrin’s other interests and hobbies include model trains, movies, coin collecting, riding roller coasters, and playing the guitar.

Darrin has always talked about being a father, and I know he is equally as eager to share his life with a child as I am.

Darrin & Jennifer with his parents

Playing with a toy train with our nephew, Owen

Whitewater rafting trip on the Sacandaga River

Dressed up for Halloween
with our nephew, Owen

Darrin hiking with his brother
in the Smoky Mountains

Our Families and Friends... are a positive source of
ongoing support and excitement throughout this journey.

We both come from very loving, close families. We live very close to our families and spend a lot of time with them. Both of our families often spend the holidays and celebrate birthdays together.

Jennifer’s parents have been married for over 37 years. She is the oldest of three girls. Darrin’s parents have been married for 50 years and Darrin has one younger brother.

Darrin’s mother with a holiday gift
handmade by Jennifer

Celebrating Jennifer’s mother’s birthday with Jennifer’s grandmother and nephew

Jennifer’s aunt and Darrin’s mother with our nephew, Patrick

Jennifer’s father and brother-in-law relaxing after Thanksgiving dinner

Keeping family traditions is very important to both of us. Jennifer’s grandparents passed down a Christmas Eve dinner tradition that is hosted at our home each year. We feel customs and culture are an important part of who we are and that they are carried down through the generations. We look forward to sharing these traditions with a child, as well as starting new traditions.

Celebrating Darrin’s mother’s birthday

Celebrating Jennifer’s
grandmother’s 80th birthday

Each summer we go to the county fair with family

Party table

Our Thoughts on Parenting... We look forward to every smile, every hug, and every kiss.

Visiting with our new niece, Megan, and our new nephew, Patrick

We cannot wait to become parents. We understand that some days parenting won't be all fun and games, and we are prepared to face whatever challenges lie ahead. We recognize that children need to develop by support, praise and encouragement. We believe that discipline involves teaching children to learn how to make correct choices in life. We both grew up in loving environments with support and praise from our parents and believe in the same parenting values that fostered our development. We are committed to raising our child with unconditional love, respect, and consistency. We will guide our child by what we were taught by our parents as children- to value learning and education, to work hard, to help others, and to treat all people with kindness and respect.

Jennifer’s sister and our nephew
Owen with EmmaBear

Jennifer’s sister, her husband,
and our new niece

Celebrating our nephew’s
baptism as godparents

We are also fortunate to have siblings who have begun raising children and who will impart their experience to us.

We will be very hands-on parents and will encourage our child’s natural interests in sports, music, and arts as they develop. We are committed to becoming actively involved in activities such as sports and school activities.

Jennifer’s aunt and uncle completed their family with the adoption of their son, Tim. Tim, now in college, and his parents will be an invaluable resource to us as we look to start our family. We also have extended family who have adopted and can provide us with insight as we make this journey and afterwards.

Darrin teaching our nephew
Owen how to “doodle”

Jennifer’s cousin, Tim,
and his nephew

Hiking along the Appalachian Trail in Vermont

Thank you for considering us as adoptive parents and for taking the time to get to know who we are. Please know that our hopes and prayers are with you as you make your decision. We will be forever thankful to you should you decide to allow us to be adoptive parents to your child. We are committed to providing him or her with a wholesome and happy life while knowing of the love that you will forever have for them. We look forward to hearing from you and would love an opportunity to share more of our story with you.

Jennifer and Darrin

We can be reached at Friends in Adoption toll-free at 1-800-844-3630