We met in 2007 when we were both 16 years old. Katie had just moved from Washington to Texas and started her first job at Sonic. Cody happened to be the person assigned to train her on her very first day. Apparently, we spent a little too much time laughing and flirting because Katie ended up getting sent home early! She loved Cody's blue eyes and sense of humor, while Cody immediately noticed her smile.

Not long after, school closed early one day because of a broken pipe. Katie suggested we spend the afternoon together, Cody happily agreed, and the rest is history. What started as two teenagers having fun together quickly grew into a relationship where each time we said goodnight, we felt a little more certain we had found our person.

After nearly ten years of dating and growing up together, Cody proposed on a snowy Christmas Eve while visiting Katie's family in Washington. We later married at the clubhouse in the Texas community we still call home, beneath a wooden wedding arbor Cody's dad built for us. Nearly two decades after that first day at Sonic, we have grown from two teenagers into best friends, husband and wife, and parents. We are opposites in many ways, but humor, love, and everything we have experienced together have only made us closer.

Due to infertility and miscarriages, we actually began meeting with adoption agencies before pursuing IVF. Our journey eventually brought us our daughter, Skylar, and becoming her parents changed our lives forever. Even during Skylar's short life, we discovered just how much being Mom and Dad meant to us. Katie realized that being a mother was what she wanted more than anything and hopes to devote herself to being a stay-at-home mom. Cody dreams of hearing a child call him Dad and passing along the same love, guidance, humor, and traditions he received growing up.

After losing Skylar, adoption returned to our hearts with an even greater sense of purpose. Katie was adopted herself and knows firsthand how profoundly adoption can shape a person's life. Through our faith, we believe this may be the path God has placed before our family. Adoption does not erase the difficult parts of our journey or replace the daughter we will always love. Instead, it represents hope for the next chapter of our family. We have so much love left to give and a wonderful extended family ready to share in it. We hope to provide a child with a stable, loving home where they are surrounded by family, encouraged to become exactly who they are, and grow up always knowing how deeply they are wanted and loved.

One of the things we love most about our relationship is how different our strengths are. Katie is incredibly compassionate and notices the little things others might overlook. She remembers Cody's favorite snacks, checks on friends and family, worries about the cats, and makes sure the people she loves feel cared for. Cody especially admires her empathy and her ability to make people feel heard. That nurturing side of Katie comes naturally with children. She gets down to their eye level, listens, and earns their trust. The first time she met a friend's young daughter, within minutes the little girl had named her baby doll "Katie." She still regularly asks where Katie is and when she will see her again. Katie admires Cody's leadership, humor, and ability to solve problems. When something goes wrong, his first instinct is to figure out what needs to happen next. She knows he will always work to keep our family safe, secure, and cared for. We truly are opposites in many ways. Katie is artistic, organized, and emotional, while Cody is technical, analytical, and more likely to improvise. Over nearly two decades together, those differences have made us better. Katie has taught Cody greater empathy, while Cody has helped Katie learn not to sweat the small things. Together, we balance one another and approach life's challenges as a team.

We have called our Texas home ours for nearly 15 years and chose it with raising a family in mind. Our one-story, 2,500-square-foot home sits on a quiet cul-de-sac surrounded by the beautiful green spaces of a golf course. This community is especially meaningful to us because we were even married at the golf course clubhouse! We already have a bedroom waiting for a child, conveniently located near our bedroom and Cody's home office. Just outside our door are walking trails, a playground, fishing pond, dog park, and large fields where families can play and explore. Neighborhood kids regularly ride bikes, play basketball, and spend time together outside. We also love our neighbors and genuinely look out for one another. When Katie once needed help with a leaking water heater while Cody was away, our neighbors immediately came over to help.

What we love most about our home is imagining all the memories still waiting to be made here. We picture a child riding bikes with the neighborhood kids, fishing at the pond, playing in the fields, and watching Fourth of July fireworks. We are excited for trips to the zoo and science museum, just as Cody enjoyed with his grandpa growing up, and for creating new traditions of our own. Whether it is teaching them to play games, exploring local attractions, or simply spending an afternoon together at home, we look forward to giving a child a childhood filled with fun, adventure, and memories with family. helping hands—or people ready to spoil them!

Family is a huge part of our lives, and we are fortunate to have a big, close-knit family that is incredibly excited to welcome a child. Cody is especially close with his dad and grew up surrounded by siblings. Today, family gatherings are full of cookouts, board games, laughter, and Cody giving his sisters a hard time, usually followed by stories about the pranks he pulled on them growing up! Katie's parents live outside of Texas, but talks with them regularly and visits when she can. She has also become incredibly close with Cody's family and fits right in with his sisters. Holidays and birthdays are almost always spent together. Christmas usually includes silly games, like everyone competing to unwrap a giant plastic-wrap ball filled with prizes. Our families stood beside us throughout our journey with Skylar and showed us just how deeply they love us. That same love has surrounded our decision to adopt. Cody's stepmom recently reminded us that although she isn't related to us by blood, she has always loved us completely as her son/daughter and that she will love our future child exactly the same way. Katie's mom, who adopted Katie, is also incredibly supportive and believes adoption may be part of God's path for our family. Everyone is already talking about babysitting, sleepovers, holidays, and special Grandparent days. With a teacher for a grandma and two nurses for aunts, there will certainly be no shortage of helping hands—or people ready to spoil them!

We know that right now we are strangers meeting for the first time through these words. We cannot pretend to understand everything you are feeling or the circumstances that brought you here. What we can recognize is the incredible strength it takes to consider such a life-changing decision for your child. If you choose us, this letter would only be the first step in a relationship that will change all of our lives, and we want you to know that we are here for you. Our story together began when we were just 16 years old, and we have been side by side since 2007. After nearly a decade of dating, we married and continued building the life and family we had always imagined together. Through nearly two decades, we have celebrated wonderful moments and faced challenges we never imagined we would encounter. Through all of it, we have become closer, learned to trust one another completely, and built a marriage centered around love, humor, family, and supporting one another.

Adoption is especially personal to us because Katie was adopted herself. She understands firsthand that biology is not what determines whether someone is truly your parent or your family. Her adoption gave her the opportunity to grow up surrounded by people who loved and supported her, and that experience has shaped how we view adoption today. We also understand that every adoption story is different. Your child's story will always be their own, and we promise to honor where they came from and make sure they know that their story began before they ever entered our home.

We have also experienced the incredible privilege of becoming parents to our daughter, Skylar. Although her life was incredibly short, being her Mom and Dad forever changed us. She taught us more about love, parenthood, and what truly matters than we could have learned in a lifetime without her. No child could ever replace Skylar, nor would we ever expect them to. She will always be our daughter and part of our family, and because of her, we know just how deeply we are capable of loving a child and how much being parents means to us.

If you choose us, your child will grow up with unconditional love, strong morals, encouragement to learn, explore, and discover what they love, and a large extended family already excited to welcome them. Katie plans to be a stay-at-home mom, while Cody works from home, giving us the opportunity to be present for so many of the everyday moments that childhood is made of. We want to be there for school pickups, bedtime stories, homework, sporting events, crafts, family vacations, bad days, big accomplishments, and everything in between. Whatever interests your child discovers, we will be beside them encouraging them to explore, learn, and become their own person. Our journey has taught us that family truly is everything. We cannot promise that life will always be easy or that our family will never experience stressful days. What we can promise is the kind of home your child will return to during those moments. When life feels overwhelming and it seems like the world is falling in around them, Mom and Dad will be there to help hold it back. They will never have to earn our love, and they will never have to wonder whether they belong.

We also want you to remain connected to your child's life. We will send letters and pictures regularly and are open to exchanging emails and phone calls. We are also committed to a visit once each year and hope those visits can become meaningful memories as your child grows. We will always speak about you with respect and make sure your child knows that there are many people who love them. We may be strangers today, but if our paths come together, we hope this is only the beginning. Above all, we want you to know that your child would be loved with everything we have, every single day, and we will always honor the love that brought us together.

With love,

Cody & Katie