Amanda & Chase In Texas

We are 26 and 25 years old and have been dating for 10 years. We got married nearly 4 years ago and have enjoyed living life together. We know that marrying your high-school sweetheart is not common, but we feel so blessed to have basically grown up together. We were each other’s first serious relationship and quickly realized how much fun we had together and how well we meshed with each other’s families.

Our favorite thing about our marriage is that we are not only married and in-love, but also best friends. We have always bonded over our competitive nature and love for sports. We are huge Astro’s fans and love watching the games together. Chase is an Industrial Engineer and Amanda is a Financial Analyst. We both love our jobs and see ourselves staying in these jobs long-term. We have realized how short life can be and have always focused on having a work-life balance and focusing on family.
We spend a lot of time at our church and love that it feels like family. Our whole family goes to the same church, and we typically have family lunches after service. During our free time, we both enjoy spending time with our family, playing softball, spending time outdoors, and traveling. We also enjoy seeing other parts of the world, going on Missions trips, and learning more about other cultures. Between the two of us, we have been to Haiti, Africa, Panama, Dubai, and China. We find it fascinating to learn about other cultures and hope to be able to instill the same values in our children.
If I had to describe the environment of our home life, it would be happy and peaceful. We are constantly joking around and making each other laugh until we are in tears.

We live in a new, beautiful neighborhood. We own a four-bedroom, three-bathroom, one-story home. The neighborhood has several awesome trails, parks, outdoor games, and pools. Our best friends live less than a mile away in the same neighborhood, so we have dinner with them a couple times a week. There is an elementary school in our neighborhood and everyone on our community Facebook page talks about how great it is. The community that we are in is very diverse and is made up of people with all-different types of backgrounds. While driving through the neighborhood, you will always see people fishing, walking, or riding their bikes. We have a large community center where they also do events for the neighborhood.

Our family is such a blessing in our lives. Amanda comes from a smaller family and Chase comes from a larger family. We are very close with both sides of our family and spend a lot of time with them each weekend. Amanda has an older brother and a baby sister. Amanda is very close with her siblings, but especially close with her little sister and strives to set a good example for her. Chase has two older sisters that are a huge part of who he is today. Between the two of us, we have six nieces and nephews that spend a lot of time at our house. We take pride in being an aunt and uncle to amazing kids.

During the Holidays, we go to Amanda’s family functions first which are small and then go to Chase’s grandma’s house where there is at least 30+ people, including aunts, uncles, cousins, and lots of littles running around. We start every family function off by gathering around the kitchen, holding hands, praying, and thanking God for the beautiful chaos that a large family brings. Most of the time, we have new people popping in to spend time with our family as they didn’t have a place to go for the holidays.

Another tradition that we have is a father/daughter date night that Chase’s dad takes his two daughters and Amanda to each year, which typically consists of a Lauren Daigle concert, dinner, and the carnival. Each Thanksgiving, we go to Amanda’s mom’s house for lunch and then head to our family’s ranch to spend the remainder of the weekend with Chase’s family. It is full of laughs, game nights and good food. The ranch has a large room full of bunk beds, so it is a very fun weekend each year for us to all spend time together. Another tradition is the “Christmas Eve Eve” movie night. Basically, the night before Christmas Eve, the entire family goes to the movie theater together. Whether, it is our Christmas cookie decorating contest, dying Easter eggs, reading a short book about the true meaning of Christmas before opening gifts, etc., each holiday brings its own tradition that we plan to carry on with our children.

Our family is the best part of our lives. The traditions that we have are something that we can’t wait to carry on with our kids!

Adoption has been on our hearts for several years now and we have always felt that it would be a part of our story. We have since learned that Amanda cannot have children and feel that God was preparing our hearts. We want to be able to give a baby a loving home with an amazing extended family.