Our Feelings About Adoption

My sister placed a baby for adoption about 5 years ago. Through that experience, I gained a true love and respect for any birth mother or father. It was a hard road for her and our family. What has made it a bit easier for her is knowing where her baby is and how she is doing, receiving emails and pictures and visiting from time to time. This made choosing an open adoption an easy decision for us.

We were blessed with our second son, Ben, through the miracle of adoption. Words cannot express the gratitude we feel everyday to his loving birth parents. I know that we will never truly understand how hard that decision was for them but we hope they always know that they changed our lives forever. Our relationship with them has only grown stronger since Ben was placed with us. We hope to offer you the same open relationship knowing it to be helpful for you, for your baby and for us as adoptive parents.

We can only imagine the extraordinary decision that lays ahead of you. We sincerely hope you find the peace and answers you need, whether it be through adoption or not. Regardless, thank you for visiting our profile and our prayers are with you.

Brady and Emily

Brady

Age: 36

Height: 5'11"

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Brown

Education: Bachelors in Biology Composite Teaching and Masters in Educational Leadership

Occupation: I am a High School Science Teacher. Currently I am science department chair, head varsity softball coach and help coach the freshman football team.

Hobbies and Interests: Playing and watching sports, spending time with family, bird watching, bug collecting, fishing, hiking, bike riding, reading, collecting Batman memorabilia, eating pizza and cookies, watching movies (mostly romantic comedies with my Emily) and planning fun trips and vacations. I also like to workout - enjoy running 5k races and lifting weights.

Weaknesses: I am pretty easy going and like to joke around, and sometimes I can take my sarcasm a little too far. Additionally, I find myself being a little overbearing at times, especially when I want someone to do something in a particular way - most often my way :).

5 Favorite Childhood Memories: Playing "Dukes of Hazzard" with my best friend, visiting my grandparents and extended family in the summers, anything involving my closest group of friends from junior high school, winning 2 high school baseball state championships, and playing varsity football with my younger brother my senior year.

What I do to Relax: Most often I take a 15 minute "power nap," but if I have a lot of time I try to find a sporting event on TV that I can lay on the couch and watch.

Emily

Age: 32

Height: 5'0"

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Dark Brown

Education: Bachelors Degree in Dietetics

Occupation: I enjoy being home with JC and Ben during the day. I am a Registered Dietitian and own my own nutrition coaching business, scheduling clients when Brady is home with our boys. I am passionate about food and nutrition and love making a difference in my clients' health and relationship with food.  I work with individuals with eating disorders and disordered eating, which is very rewarding work.

Hobbies and interests: Playing the piano, teaching, writing, reading, running, exercising, biking, yoga, weight training and hiking. I enjoy shopping, especially for shoes and groceries. I love to cook and bake while experimenting with new ingredients and recipes. I enjoy looking at food blogs and Food Network for ideas. I love reality shows, which is probably something I shouldn't readily admit. And...last but not least...I LOVE eating ice cream. Preferably Cold Stone. A Love It (or Gotta Have It...) Peanut Butter Perfection Creation to be exact.

Weaknesses: We all have them right? I can be a bit too serious at times. I become too focused and am working on being more spontaneous and fun loving. I think I am doing pretty good!

5 Favorite Childhood Memories: Family trip to Disneyland, making forts with my best friend Andrea in her amazing backyard, swimming all summer long, going to Washington DC for the National History Fair and being Valedictorian of my high school.

What I do to relax: Read a magazine or book, watch game shows with JC or color with Ben.

JC

Age: 9

Height: 46" (less than 1.5 feet and he'll pass me up!)

Weight: 55#

Eyes: BLUE!

Hair: Blondish brown

Favorite color: Red

Favorite book: The Maze Runner

Favorite inside activities: Practicing gymnastics, shooting baskets, playing games on the iPad, making baseball card books, playing board games, playing the wii (Just Dance, Batman, Indiana Jones, Mario Kart and bowling), reading, writing stories and making sports brackets.

Favorite outside activities: Playing tennis, soccer, football and basketball, swimming, geocaching, playing at the park, going to sporting events, and riding his bike.
Proudest achievements: Winning his last tennis tournament, 3rd place at the science fair, reading on a 7th grade level, playing on a competitive soccer team.
Currently working towards: Getting even better at basketball, advancing reading levels, making his own geocache, and collecting more football, baseball and basketball cards.

Ben

Age: 4

Height: 35"

Weight: 40#

Eyes: BLUE!

Hair: Light brown

Favorite color: Green

Favorite book: Where's My Mummy?

Favorite inside activities: Coloring, play doh, hide and go seek, driving his cars all over the house, coloring, playing with bouncy balls, putting together trains and tracks, legos, shooting baskets, playing in his Thomas the Train tent, reading books, and doing whatever JC is doing.

Favorite outside activities: Anything...he LOVES being outside! Swimming, playing at the park, playing with side walk chalk, running, riding his bike, taking walks playing at the splash pad.
Proudest achievements: Being able to wrestle with JC, using the iPad like a champ, coloring in the lines, having great dance moves, reading and writing and flashing his dimples to get anything he wants.
Currently working towards: Practicing easy math, writing all his letters and spelling words, doing everything himself (and I mean everything), dunking the ball, running faster and tackling JC.

Together

Here is the story of how Brady and I met. Yes...the WHOLE story.

Brady and I met in August of 2001 when we took a chemistry class together. The first week of class Brady followed me out into the parking lot to ask me out on a date for the following Friday. He had seen me around campus the previous semester and took the opportunity to ask me out once we actually had a class together. I couldn't since I already had plans so I told him I would love to another time. Apparently I did some damage to his ego because he didn't so much as look at me for the next two months. In the meantime, I was struggling with a few concepts we were working on in class and was worried about an upcoming test. My mom asked me if there was anyone in class that could help me. I told her there was one boy, the teacher's pet, who knew all the answers and got A's on all the tests. I told her that he had asked me out on a date a couple of months previously but that he hadn't talked to me since. She said that she felt like I should ask him for help. I brushed it off and had no intention of doing so. So imagine my surprise when the following Monday morning after class, Brady walked me to my car. I took the opportunity to ask for his help and he agreed to meet me in the library for a study session. We hit it off immediately (I don't know how much studying we actually got done) and he asked me out on an official date the following Friday night.

We had a great time on our first date. We saw "Bandits" and got ice cream at Dairy Queen afterward. I was so impressed with how relaxed and kind he was. Our second date was even more fun. He actually took me to a conference room at a hotel he worked at where he had set up a pretend fire (made of paper and wood with candles for the flames) in one corner. We roasted marshmallows and played 20 questions which was a great way to get to know each other. Our third date was watching Pride and Prejudice...the entire 6 hour A&E version. Brady actually read Pride and Prejudice while we were dating once he found out it was my favorite book. Don't even try to get him to pick it up now! That was the date of our first kiss so I guess reading my favorite book paid off.

We continued to date for a few more months. I was planning on transferring to BYU the next semester so it seemed to be make or break time. He proposed on Christmas Eve of 2001 and then followed me to BYU in January. We were married in April of 2002; the best decision I ever made.

The proposal is the best story of all. For his birthday the previous month (November) I had written "our story". I made it a fairy tale where he was a knight and I was a princess (I know, way cheesy, you may roll your eyes). I left the ending alone telling him that we would finish it ourselves. Which we have, I update it every year for his birthday. Anyway, for the proposal he built a castle balcony in the same conference room at the hotel of our second date. He lit it with candles and Christmas lights. He wore a shield and carried a sword and he gave me a tiara to wear. He said all sorts of sappy things that I will spare you from hearing. Needless to say I said yes and he lucked out with passing the ring off as a Christmas present too.

We lived in Provo and Salt Lake while we finished school and internships. Brady has a great worth ethic which is best illustrated by the fact that he went to school full-time and worked full-time as a hotel night auditor. He was often tired but it didn't stop him from receiving straight A's. While I went to school, I worked as a teacher's aide in nutrition classes and in a Newborn Intensive Care Unit as a dietary tech. We enjoyed the time we spent in Northern Utah. We were blessed with a fantastic education, great occupational experiences, and fabulous friends.

Growing Up

Emily

I grew up in a great neighborhood with lots of kids my age. We loved getting together for bike rides, jump rope, shooting baskets, playing with dolls, building forts, movies and especially night games. I was always interested in school work and reading, even asking teachers for homework and organizing "read-a-thons" with my friends (I know, so nerdy!). It paid off though, resulting in good grades to qualify me for valedictorian for my graduating class and full-tuition scholarships for college. I experienced a lot of personal satisfaction for my academic achievements but It was also satisfying to see how much it pleased my parents. I was blessed with friendships in childhood that carried over into high school. We were good influences for one another and kept each other in check.

Brady

Growing up, the best word that could describe me was "curious". I was always asking questions and trying to figure things out (something that I continue to do to this day). I took an interest in athletics at an early age due mostly in part to a desire to be like my older brother who loved the sports of football, basketball and baseball. Additionally, once I entered school, I found myself working hard to follow the example of my older brother and sister who had always done really well in school. Little did I know that one day I would be a teacher! I also remember how much I enjoyed the neighborhood where I grew up. Outside of my school and athletic pursuits, my favorite thing to do was hang out and have fun with my group of friends from my neighborhood. Some of the things we would do together included riding 4-Wheelers, swimming, playing night games, watching movies, going on vacations together, riding bikes and horses, collecting baseball cards, building "forts", and even hunting on occasion.