Hoping to Adopt...Again

Who We Are

2009-01-20T16:51:00.001-08:00

Tyrell

Age: 31

Height: 6'4"

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Brown and short

Ancestry: Caucasian- English & Italian

Education: Master of Science, Mechanical Engineering

Occupation: Aerospace Engineer

Tarrin

Age: 28

Height: 5'5"

Eyes: Green

Hair: Brown and straight

Ancestry: Caucasian- English & Danish

Education: Bachelor of Science, American Studies

Occupation: Full-time Mom

McKinlee

Age: 3

Height: Tall for her age

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black and curly

Ancestry: Black, French

Education: ABC's and counting to 15

Occupation: Being cute, laughing and playing

McKinlee is adopted, we have an open adoption with her birth family.

Tatum

Age: 1

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black and curly

Ancestry: Black, Jewish, Native American

Education: walking, laughing and clapping

Occupation: following his older sister, playing and being happy

Tatum is adopted, we have an open adoption with his birth family.

Our Beginings...

2009-01-20T15:01:00.000-08:00

We met while attending college at Utah State. Tyrell was actually my home teacher for an entire year before he asked me out! When we returned from the summer to our same apartment complex, Tyrell requested of the bishop that he NOT be assigned my apartment to home teach, so he'd be free to ask me out! After a few weeks of Tyrell dropping in, I densely asked my roommates, "Why does Tyrell keep coming over? He's not our home teacher anymore." They informed me that he must have the hots for me! Just a few days later, he finally asked me out.

After our first date (we had lunch), I came home and told my roommates, "He's too immature, I could never date him." Tyrell came home and told his roommates, "I think I could marry her." Luckily, I smartened up and five months later, he proposed (I had no idea it was coming- my response was "Are you kidding?") Happily, he wasn't kidding, and we were married two months later in the Logan Temple.

McKinlee's Adoption Story

2009-01-19T16:05:00.000-08:00

Adoption is an answer to our prayers. Not long after making the decision to adopt, we were blessed with a birthmother who had chosen to place her baby with us!

It was Christmas time, and the baby was due on Christmas Eve.

We were headed to visit Tarrin's parents for the holiday and spent the weekend anxiously awaiting any news.

On Christmas morning, right after opening our gifts we got a phone call telling us our birthmom was in labor! So we jumped on the first plane we could and headed to Louisiana!

After being snowed in at the Denver airport...we finally made it to the hospital and met our day old baby girl! What an amazing gift for Christmas!

We have an open adoption with McKinlee's birth family and though we live far away from each other, we keep close with letters, photos, emails and phone calls. Her adoption is something we celebrate together.

We feel such joy in knowing that our family comes through the amazing blessing of adoption.

Tate's Adoption Story

2009-01-19T13:14:00.000-08:00

We always have wanted many children, and when McKinlee was nearing two year old, we felt it was time to start the adoption process again. So we got all our paperwork in order and began to wait. That was in October.

New Year's weekend, we got a call from our agency about a potential adoption situation. It wasn't quite right for our family, but the social worker said she was getting some information that day about a birthmom in Louisiana. We felt it was fate! So we said, "show her our profile. She'll pick us."

The next day, the agency called to tell us that indeed, she had chosen our family. Another bayou baby was on it's way to our family!

Tate was born in New Orleans, in the middle of Mardi Gras, the week the Saints played in (and won) their first superbowl. It was as if the entire city of New Orleans was celebrating his birth!

We feel so lucky again that we have an open adoption with both Tate's birthparents. We are grateful for the blessing of adoption and the opportunity to not only add a child to our family, but also two wonderful birthparents, whom we consider a part of our family.

Tyrell

2009-01-18T16:51:00.000-08:00

Tyrell loves:

Basketball

Woodworking (including Norm from New Yankee)

Tinkering with mechanics

Airplanes

Fishing

Camping

Baseball (Go Rockies!)

His family

Being a dad

Tarrin

2009-01-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

Tarrin Loves:

Books

Museums

Shopping

Chick-flicks

Blogging

Art & painting

Baseball & volleyball

traveling

The ocean

Being a mom & wife

experimenting with recipes

McKinlee

2009-01-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

McKinlee Loves:

Curious George

Disneyland

Steak

Green beans

Her Skippy Jon Jones books

Dancing

Walking the dog

Coloring and painting

Dressing up

Play-dough

Playing hide-n-seek with Tate

Being outside

Tatum

2009-01-17T14:02:00.000-08:00

Tate loves:

playing peek-a-boo

eating

taking baths or showers (anything with water)

playing in the dishwasher

trucks

milk

being outside

chasing McKinlee

He's a Daddy's boy

snuggling

tickles

Everything is Better Together

2009-01-16T16:15:00.000-08:00

We love camping, fishing and being outdoors.

We love going on bike rides together (even Tate, who is asleep!)

Even just hanging out at home is fun when we're together.

We love our dog Wilson- he and the kids are best of friends! We loves going on "Wilson walks" every day!

We love the ocean and visit as often as possible.

Tyrell and Tarrin in Hawaii

The whole family at the Oregon Coast.

More Fishing! We love to spend time on the farm and time visiting our families.

We also love to bowl, so much infact, that we held our wedding reception in a bowling alley.

Tarrin even bowled in her wedding dress!

Our Families Love Adoption

2009-01-15T16:01:00.000-08:00

We are thankful for families who love us and love adoption! When we first decided to adopt, they were behind us 100% and continue to hope and pray with us for another child in our family. Throughout our adoption of McKinlee & Tatum, they supported us, comforted us and loved both kids from the instant they were born! We look forward to adding another grandchild, cousin and niece/nephew to families that will care for them, and dote on them without hesitation. They can't wait to hear the joyful news of a new baby to love.

Tarrin is the only girl in her family, with four brothers who always make spending time together fun! Our family loves traveling together (we all LOVE Disney World...even though we're adults!) and spending time camping, playing the Wii, playing crazy card games, and going through scrapbooks. Tarrin's parents are photo-frenzied, and have over 7 volumes of scrapbooks for each child's life. We love reminising and telling stories about each other!

Tyrell is one of six kids in his family: 4 boys and 2 girls. His parents taught him the value of a good day's work on the family dairy farm. Even though we live far away from them, we love visiting and spending time together milking goats, making cheese, playing games, watching movies...and eating! Tyrell's grandma is Italian, so we all look forward to the holidays and her home made gnoccis!

What a wonderful blessing a close family is!

We Love You

2009-01-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

More than anything, know that we love you already. We love your courage, strength and determination to do the best thing for your child. We love adoption and look forward to the wonderful child it will bring into our home!

All our Love,

Tyrell, Tarrin, McKinlee and Tatum