Dear Birth Family,

We cannot possibly understand the complex emotional roller coaster you are on, but we admire your courage and strength for even considering adoption as an option for you and your baby. It is strange to discover the paths life takes us on and although ours have both been undoubtedly bumpy at times, we are glad that our paths are crossing now.

As you face one of the most difficult decisions of your life, we want to let you know that should you choose us to have the blessing of being parents to the baby you carry, we would be overjoyed! Parenthood is something we both have dreamed of and hoped for.

Please take a minute or two to get to know us a little better and see if we might be just what you're looking for. If you have questions for us or want to know more please feel free to email us at nathanholly7@gmail.com.

Here's the Reader's Digest version of us:

We were married almost eight years ago and have enjoyed having that time to getting to know each other and building a solid relationship. Through the trials we've shared we have grown to love each other more than we ever imagined possible. We both have a deep love of music and hope to pass that on to our children. Nathan plays the French Horn and is a sound/recording technician as well as a French Horn player for the US Navy. He hopes to someday open his own sound studio. Holly plays the piano, flute, piccolo and drums...and will sing if no one is listening.

We love the outdoors. Our summers are filled with days at the lake, hiking trails and camp fires. Holly is quite the dutch oven cooker and Nathan can build a mean campfire.

We love sports. We support the local teams as well as watching our favorite national teams on TV. Holly is an avid football fan - and Nathan is an avid basketball fan. We love to go to NBA games and someday we will make it to an NFL game.

Holly loves to be crafty and jokingly refers to herself as the 'New Martha Stewart'...without the jail time. She loves to paint and decorate, in fact she has already picked out the paint and all the decor for the nursery along with (way too much!) fabric for numerous projects for a baby. She loves to shop - but by far, her biggest addiction is shoes. She is a sucker for a cute pair of shoes, especially if they are on sale!

Nathan is very handy and loves to work on things - whether it is a broken remote or a car. His talents for repairing things have come to the rescue more times than we would like to admit! Nathan loves music, especially Jazz and Funk. He loves to crank up the music on his surround sound system and get lost in the beat. Nathan grew up on a wheat farm and still helps his dad out every now and then. He can't wait for the day when we have children of our own to take out to the farm and ride the tractors with. He also loves basketball, and don't be put off by his small stature...he has a pretty wicked jump shot.

Waiting to hear the pitter patter of little feet in our home has been hard, but has taught us a great amount of patience. We have years and years of plans already made and cannot wait to add a child to them. We promise to give your baby all the love and care you could ever hope for them. Thank you or taking the time to get to know us, and we wish you all the best, whether that includes us or not.

Respectfully,

Nathan & Holly

Our Story

We first met in college. We had seen each other around campus for a year or so in classes, and in the bands. Holly says she asked Nathan out once and he rejected her - although he 'claims' not to remember the occasion. We hung out on several occasions, as his roommate had a crush on my roommate. We were also in the same congregation at church for a short time.

In the summer of 2001 we were both on the leadership staff for the marching band at the university (band geeks) and we 'met' again at leadership training. We started dating and knew we were meant to be together. We were engaged in November and married in February. It was quick but we wanted to have it all done before Nathan went to Navy bootcamp.

In May of 2002 Nathan left for Navy bootcamp. Holly stayed behind to pack up our apartment and then met him in Virginia in August. We lived there while Nathan was completing his training and then moved to Newport, Rhode Island in February 2003. He got out of the Navy in May 2006 to finish his degree. Now that he's completed his Bachelors Degree we've decided to go back into the Navy. As a Navy Musician, Nathan (and Holly) really get the best of both worlds: all the perks of military, but with permanent shore duty. That means he'll never be deployed to a war zone, or spend extended time on a ship. The best part is that he gets paid to utilize his talents! It was a tough decision to make, as joining the military will take us away from family, but we are excited at the adventures that wait for us on the shores and ports of the world.

Why Adoption

{this is Holly}

In my neighborhood growing up, there were two ladies who adopted children and were very open about their adoptions. I was fascinated by the adoptions and I just knew, even that young, that adoption would be a part of my life at some point.

When I got older and started to have some woman problems, my doctors told me it would be very difficult for me to bear children. I was upset, but the little voice deep inside whispered sweet comforting things about adoption.

When I met Nathan and we began dating we talked about adoption and I was relieved to find out that he was all for it. Once we got married, we wanted to spend some time getting to know each other more before we added children. When we had been married two and a half years we decided it was time for children. We thought we would be like every other couple we knew and have babies right away. Even though in my heart of hearts I knew our children would be added to our family through adoption, I hoped that just once I could feel a baby move inside me and be able to experience the joys (and even the pains) of pregnancy. Through the course of many years of fertility treatments, I was able to conceive three times, but sadly none resulted in a sweet baby to bring home.

Looking back now part of me wishes we would have gone straight for adoption, but I have learned so much through our struggles and I think it has made me more compassionate towards the suffering of others. Going through what we have has made us better people and will make us better parents. I have heard many times that God works in mysterious ways, and I am convinced of that now.

{ok, back to us}

We think the idea of open adoption is a wonderful one. It puts the birthmother's mind at ease, knowing she can keep an eye on her child as she grows and it also helps when explaining adoption to our child. We want our children to grow up knowing their adoption stories, we don't feel like it is a secret that should be kept from them. While we would like an open adoption, we understand that you may not be comfortable with that and so we are completely flexible.

Our families and friends are excited for us and enthusiastically support our plans to adopt (you can click here to see what some of them have to say). Nathan has a large family, he's the youngest of seven and there are already twenty nieces and nephews that will be excited for a new cousin (or cousins!). On Holly's side of the family there are only three grandkids so far so her side is just starting.

We are open to children of either sex and of any race. We are aware that having children that do not look like you will present special challenges, but we feel up to the challenge!

Us As Parents

We have had a lot of time to discuss the type of parents we want to be. We got to live near two of Nathan's brothers and their families for a few years and more recently we have been near Holly's brother and his three young children. It has been great for us to watch them and learn from their parenting styles.

Holly and her nephew Blaine.

We believe education is very important. We will do everything to help our children succeed in school. We believe a fundamental step to a good education is reading. Both of us love to read, and although our tastes in reading material differ, we both see the effect reading has in our lives. We plan to read to our children from the very beginning, in fact we already have a bookshelf full of books waiting for little hands to take them off and read them (or better yet - have Mommy and Daddy read them).

Us at Nathan's college graduation.

We believe in encouraging the talents in our children, whatever they may be. Growing up Nathan took music lessons from a young age, and Holly was involved in softball and piano. Each child is born with special talents and it is a parent's responsibility to help their children pursue their dreams. If that means driving them to music lessons or sitting in the bleachers or taking them to space camp, count us in!

We want to teach our children sign language from the very beginning. Neither of us are deaf, but Holly has seen first hand that a child can communicate earlier through signing than through speech.

We know that you cannot parent all children the same way, that your parenting styles must adapt to the personality of the child. We know it is important that regardless of style that you always making sure to let your child know that you love and care about them. It is important that you be a good role model for your children, and be able to show them that everyone makes mistakes, and that you can learn from them.

We cannot wait to get sticky kisses, make macaroni necklaces and have crayon colored drawings to put on the fridge. We anxiously await the time we can proudly wear the titles of Daddy and Mommy.