Waiting Families
Joel & Joy
You must be a very special person! We cannot even begin to imagine the emotions you are feeling as you search for just the right mom and dad for the precious gift you have to give. Although we don’t know each other, please know we have been praying for our future child’s birth mom. We deeply admire your courage and strength as you make a decision that will bring incredible joy to whichever couple you choose.
After struggling with infertility and a miscarriage for over six years, God blessed us with a daughter and a son through two successful adoptions. It has been our hope to grow our family and to share our love with another amazing little baby. To nurture and hold a child helps make our life complete and fills an emptiness we have in our hearts. To have the opportunity to love and raise your child would be an awesome gift…breathtaking to say the least! As we patiently wait for a child, we will trust you feel God’s arms of love and peace wrapped around your heart as you make this life changing decision…both for you and the adoptive parents of your choice. Written with much love and respect for the decision you are making,
WHERE WE LIVE
We live on a private drive in a rural community on 1½ acres of land. We have many children on our drive and live in a quality school system. A short 15-20 minute drive will bring you to a zoo, museums, libraries, and beautiful parks. We are also a 10-minute drive from our church that has outstanding youth programs for all ages. We renovated our 4,500 square foot Victorian farmhouse seven years ago (Joel is very talented!). Our home includes four bedrooms (one is ready to be a nursery!), four bathrooms, a spacious family room with a built-in child’s playhouse in our walkout basement, and a backyard ready for playing games. We are excited to watch our family grow up physically, mentally, and spiritually in our home!
A BIT ABOUT JOEL AND JOY
Loving, laughing, living! Joy grew up in a loving home with amazing parents as the youngest with three older brothers all of whom are married and have provided lots of nieces and nephews to play with. She is of Dutch ancestry and loves outdoor activities, exercising, gardening, playing the piano, mentoring kids, and living life to the fullest. She graduated from college with honors and a Bachelor of Science Degree in teaching; she also completed 18 master’s degree credits in educational leadership. Joel says, “…her magnetic personality and warm smile helped her become a well-loved and admired middle school and high school math and physical education teacher.” Along with teaching she coached girls’ basketball and softball for eleven years. Joy has now “retired” from teaching to pursue being a stay at home wife and mom. She loves staying at home to create an environment to nurture loving, caring, respectful, intelligent children.
Joel, who is of Dutch and German ancestry, grew up with two awesome parents, two older brothers, and one younger sister. His brothers and sister are all married and all have little children (more future cousins) to play with. He graduated with an Associate’s Degree and journeyman’s card in tool and die. He is the owner of a business he started that markets, manufactures, and sells an invention to which he has a patent. Joy says, “…he is extremely motivated and intelligent (an inventor…like Thomas Edison) and is an awesome provider. His tender eyes speak volumes as to the love and integrity Joel represents. He is an amazing dad…he loves investing time and energy in his family.”
OUR STORY
It all started in 7th grade when we met. Joy wrote about how cute Joel was in her diary! We became friends quickly and also became president (Joel) and vice-president (Joy) of our class. Who would have thought our friendship would become an amazing marriage 8½ years after we met when Joy finally “gave in” and started dating that “cute boy”, Joel, she used to write about in her diary! After dating a few years we married, and as Joel says, “…have been married thirteen wonderful years.”
We are active in church and were youth group leaders for fifteen years. We both share a love for kids and enjoy encouraging them as they go through life. We have gone on many mission trips in the summers with the youth group and loved every minute.
We have many hobbies and interests we share together which include spending time with our daughter and son, watching them grow and develop. We enjoy reading to E.J. and Jace, taking them on walks, playing interactive games such as ball “throwing” and “catching”, peek-a-boo, patty-cake, and one of our favorites, making baskets in our basketball hoop. Also, we enjoy golf, skiing (water and snow), gardening, walking/running with our yellow lab, Pearl, and vacationing as a family.
We lean on each other for support and are married to our best friend. Our marriage is extraordinary and has continued to get better and grow through the struggles we have faced as we tried to start a family. We are excited to think you might provide us with the gift of your child so we can share our love with a new little life. Our stability, both emotional and financial, will allow us the opportunity to devote love, time, and resources to developing our future child’s talents and gifts. We enthusiastically anticipate the joy another child will bring into our life and have deep admiration and respect for you and the decision you have chosen to make.
THE FUTURE
We trust you have a glimpse of who we are. We often tell people “what you see is what you get”. We are two people who are honest, hardworking, genuine, and dedicated to each other and our family. We dream of raising children who know their boundaries yet still have the freedom to make choices and learn from their mistakes along the way. Through positive reinforcement and lots of love, we hope to instill values of love, integrity, and honesty in our children. We desire to introduce them to Jesus Christ through daily life, as well as church activities. We would be honored to meet you and we thank you for taking time to learn about us. We have deep admiration and love for both E.J. and Jace’s birthmoms and communicate with both of them. Jace’s birthmom has offered to talk with you about our adoption journey if you would find this helpful. (You can contact AAI for her information.) Our home study is on file at AAI. Blessings to you, your baby and your future!
Call Adoption Associates, Inc. at 1.800.677.2367, email adopt@planadoption.com, or request a free adoption information packet to learn more about making an adoption plan for your baby.
