Dear Birth Parent(s)

Dear Friends, It is with a great love and respect for you as we write this letter. We would like to thank you for taking the time to get to know us more. We are humbled by the courage you have as you are considering this path to adoption. We know you want what is best for your child and for you. We pray continually that you will find the help and comfort you need in making your decision. We have been married for 8 years. We both come from large loving families and have many nieces and nephews whom we love and adore and have so much fun with. They are an important part of our lives and have created that longing and desire for our own children. Most of our marriage has been spent attempting to fulfill our dream of becoming parents. Our path has been a long one and through prayer we know that it is because our children are to come to us through an alternate route. We have found strength and comfort with the miracle that adoption can bring us. We have been able to witness both sides of the adoption process within our own family. Several years ago Laura’s close sister at the age of 18 placed her son with a loving family . It was a very hard time for her and Laura's family. Laura remembers going to the hospital and holding her sweet little nephew, knowing it would be the only time she would see him. As time passed it was so exciting to get pictures of him and seeing him grow and to be reassured of his happiness. Laura’s brother and his wife have a beautiful 3 yr old daughter who came to them through the blessing of adoption. She is the light of our lives. She knows who her birth mom is and is learning more about adoption as she gets older. We are so excited that our child will have a cousin to share this with. Witnessing both sides of the process gave us a great respect and understanding of the adoption process. We have a great love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and know that it is what secures the strength of our marriage today. We plan to apply the principles of the gospel in our home with our children each and everyday. Laura is so excited to be a stay at home mom and is thankful for Derek's dedication in earning his Bachelors Degree in Human Resource Management. After placement we are happy to continue our relationship through photos and letters and are very willing to explore additional levels of openness. We will also be open and honest with our child about the adoption process. We will let our child know of the deep and unselfish love that was given by his/her birth parents. If you have anymore questions please contact us or Please come and learn more about us on our blog at www.derekandlaurasjourney.blogspot.com We are so lucky to be blessed with the opportunity to adopt. We are here to help you through this process and are excited to welcome a Child of God into our loving home.

About Us

We met 3 months after Derek returned from serving his mission in Spain. After our first date in the Spring of 2000 we became inseparable and spent every waking moment together. We dated for 4 months until we got engaged and 2 months later we were married in the Boise Idaho LDS Temple. We have created and continue to create many wonderful memories each day. About a year into our marriage Derek joined the Army National Guard and served in the Military for 4 years. Derek has pursued his career with a degree in Human Resource Management. The last few years he has enjoyed playing on a city league baseball team and has always loved playing sports ever since he can remember. In her spare time, Laura loves to come up with new decorating projects around the house and the yard and loves to watch HG-TV (home and garden TV). She loves helping others decorate their homes on the side. Together we love to watch Boise State and Denver Broncos. When there's a game on, the party is at our house! We have enjoyed many opportunities to travel through out our marriage. Our favorite is to the warm beaches of sunny Southern California. We LOVE camping, hiking and on hot summer days we head to the lake with our family. We both in the last few years have learned how to wake board. Derek has mastered it while Laura can barely make it over the wake. :)> We love spending time with our families and are thankful for the blessing of Eternal Families. Each day we continue to build a strong marriage. We make it fun and joke with each other, we also know the importance of putting Christ at the center our marriage. > On a casual evening our favorite thing to do is to order take out and watch a movie together. We cherish these moments and are thrilled to be able to add children to these moments and create new memories that involve a child's laughter because its just too quiet in our home. We are ready for the joys of parent hood no matter how noisy our home gets!!!>

Our Families

We both come from large families. We love having large families and have a lot of fun traditions we've built through the years with them. We are lucky enough to have most of our family live close by. We have so much fun spending time with them and do a lot of fun and silly things together! We all believe that having a sense of humor is important, it makes us who we are. Together we have 35 nieces and nephews! Wow, right?!? We LOVE it!!! They are so much fun. Laura is the youngest of 9 children (5 boys 3 girls) and absolutely loves it. Derek is the middle of 5 boys who are all very close to each other. All of our siblings are married and we are the only couple without children. So we are feeling a little left out and lonely in our ginormous home. :) We absolutely love spending time with our families and they are so, so excited for us and very supportive about our decision to adopt. Again thank you so much for considering us and please if you have anymore questions please contact us or visit our blog. Know that anything you share with us will be held in the safest confidence. With love and respect, Derek & Laura

For More Information

http://www.derekandlaurasjourney.blogspot.com Contact our adoption caseworker Brenda Brown PH: 208-376-0191 or LDS Family Services 1-800-537-2229 email: BrownBH@Ldsfamilyservices.org