Hello! We are Rachelle and Will from Dallas, Texas. Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We admire your strength and courageous spirit to consider adoption for your child. We have always dreamed of growing our family and while we weren’t able to get pregnant naturally, we know that everything happens for a reason. If we are blessed to be chosen by you, please know that your child will be raised in a loving and stable home with lots of friends and family surrounding them with love and kindness.

We are excited about the possibility of our lives crossing with yours in this beautiful way.

We met on a chilly Friday night at a board game night event. We spent several hours playing pool, talking and connecting over our careers, interests, and our families. A week later, Rachelle invited Will to attend the 12 Days of Christmas event at the local botanical garden after her best friend had to cancel. This twist of fate ended up being our first date and where Will proposed two years later. This has now become a tradition we attend regularly as a way to remember our love story.

We planned a large wedding in 2020 followed by a trip to Europe, but the pandemic had other plans. Our minister helped us pivot our plans and we got married in the park across the street from our house. While it wasn’t the day we had planned, it ended up being a very special and intimate wedding surrounded by the people who love us the most, our family.

We enjoy spending time with others engaging in shared and individual hobbies and interests. Together, we enjoy cooking, traveling, and watching movies.

In Will’s free time he enjoys rock climbing, lifting weights, and playing video games.

In Rachelle’s free time she enjoys reading, attending water aerobics, and watching true crime documentaries on Netflix.

With friends we enjoy attending game or trivia nights, cooking classes, and exploring various events around the city. Our bucket list is full of states and countries we can’t wait to explore and learn about in the future.

We love traveling to new places! During our travels we always make it a point to buy a magnet that commemorates our new travel destination. We love adding them to our fridge as a fun way to remember all of the wonderful places we have been.

During the summer of 2022, we traveled to New England. We visited 5 states we had never been to before. We toured beautiful museums, historical mansions and landmarks, lighthouses and spent some time at the ocean. We can’t wait to share these adventures with our future child!

Will is one of the kindest and most thoughtful human beings I have ever met. I’ve never met anyone who is as patient and forgiving as Will is. His capacity to love, understand, and help others is what I admire most about him. I have had the privilege of seeing him help so many people in his role as an IT administrator for a local hospital group. His company frequently calls on him and the team that he leads to help when the computer system at the hospital is having major problems. Over the years, I have had the fortune of watching him develop his relationship with our niece, nephew, and the children of our shared friends. He regularly spends time with our teenage nephew playing video games and taking him rock climbing; and our niece enjoys spending time with him playing games and working on puzzles together. My best friend’s young twins lovingly refer to him as “Uncle Will”. When they see him coming, they run to greet him. He’s always ready and willing to play hide and seek, chase them around the playground, or help build the most epic fort.

I see in everyday life how patient and understanding he is and how excited he is to be a father one day. I know that when the time comes, he will be ready to step into this new role and be a loving and understanding father.

Rachelle is funny, caring and dedicated to what she loves most. She is there for people when they need her. Whether providing assistance or emotional support, she will be there to help. Additionally, she has an amazing ability to connect with anyone. She can meet a complete stranger and within minutes be talking and laughing with them as if she has known them for years.

Before becoming an instructional coach, Rachelle was a teacher who managed her classroom with a warm and friendly atmosphere. She treated students in a kind manner and built strong connections with them. Because she treated them with respect, they were much more willing to focus, follow directions, and learn. I know she will be able to use these same skills to raise children and ensure they learn all the life skills and lessons that we want to teach them.

We love our home in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. We bought our home in 2019. We love this location because we face a beautiful park with two playgrounds, a duck pond, and gorgeous walking trails. Our neighborhood regularly holds community events and parades as well as a community clean up and tree planting days to keep our park looking beautiful. Every spring, the park is full of brightly colored wildflowers as part of our city’s wildflower program.

We have tons of great restaurants, cultural events and activities, museums, and a zoo within 20 minutes of our home. Our neighborhood is quiet and peaceful, on early mornings we see ducks and geese walking around the park. We also watch the Fourth of July fireworks from our front yard. Many of the neighbors gather together in the park to watch the city’s firework show after our neighborhood cookout. Dallas is a great city to raise a child in and we can’t wait!

Cupcake loves to play with kids, run around our backyard, and take walks around the neighborhood park.

Rachelle adopted Cupcake seven years ago after years of fostering dogs for the local humane society. When we started dating, Cupcake and Will became fast friends.

Cupcake loves to cuddle with everyone including family and friends. She especially loves curling up under a blanket with our niece or nephew. We’re certain that one day she will be a wonderful companion to our future child.

We are so fortunate to be surrounded with lots of love from our families and friends. Our parents all live within 30 minutes of our home, so we are able to see them regularly for meals out, trips to the lake, and an afternoon of swimming or grilling out. Our niece and nephew regularly spends the weekend with us so that we can spend time with them enjoying shared activities like cookie and cake decorating classes or rock climbing and video gaming.

Rachelle’s parents own a boat and live near the lake, so when the weather is nice, we all get together to grill out and spend some time on the lake.

We also have a small but wonderfully diverse friend group. Most Friday nights we meet up with a group of friends for game night. We also enjoy spending time on the weekends with friends going to dinner, an afternoon movie, or enjoying one of the various hobbies we make time for such as cooking, shopping, or working out. On Sundays after church, we typically go to lunch with some friends from our church and their children.

Fourth of July:
• Pool party with family and friends
• Evening neighborhood block party BBQ with a live band
• Watch the city’s fireworks show in the park with all our neighbors

Halloween:
• Annual Halloween party
• Dress up in couples costumes
• Pass out candy to neighborhood kids
• Decorate the house with pumpkins

Christmas:
• Watch classic Christmas movies
• Wear matching Christmas pajamas
• Decorate Christmas cookies to share with friends and family
• Assemble a festive Lego kit for our Christmas village

Fun Fact: The neighborhood kids call us “The Dino House” because we have many t-rex inflatables that we put up for each holiday. We love when our neighbors stop and snap a family selfie in our yard with our t-rex.

Will’s parents own a vacation condo in the mountains of Durango, Colorado. During the summer, we pack up the car and our dog and head to the mountains. Because Rachelle is on summer break and Will works from home, we are able to travel and stay in the mountains for a few weeks. During our time there we enjoy hiking the trails, swimming, local attractions, and road trips to other nearby towns for exploring on the weekends. We look forward to being able to share this experience with our future child one day.

We believe that nurturing a child through gentle parenting strategies would be most beneficial to children. Gentle parenting teaches children that they can be actively involved in the world around them, set personal boundaries, express their needs, and that their voices matter. Gentle parenting involves parents modeling the behaviors they want their children to use such as speaking about their needs, expressing when they are frustrated but using a calm tone, and acting with empathy and kindness. Gentle parenting works from a place of discussion and understanding, while holding firm rules and values.

We also want to implement Montessori principles in our home. Montessori gives children space to play and create, children help prepare food (such as pouring, measuring, mixing), selecting what clothes they want to wear, and helping tidy up the spaces they use. Montessori allows children to be involved in the day to day activities of the home with their parents so that they feel a sense of belonging and they are an important part of the family structure.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us and consider our family as you make this very difficult decision for your child. Our hope is that as you have a better sense of the type of people we are and the wonderful community we surround ourselves with every day. We are excited for the opportunity to welcome your child into our family and give them a warm and loving space to grow and thrive. We hope to honor and include you in this journey as we build our family.

We promise to love and nurture your child everyday so they feel loved and protected. We are committed to helping your child explore the world around them through travel and educational opportunities that allow them to reach their potential and aspirations. We hope to share a home that values kindness, empathy, mutual respect, and responsibility.