Josh & Shelby In Wyoming

We met through a mutual friend. She had been trying to set us up for years prior to us actually meeting, it just never worked out. Until one day she invited Shelby over to hang out at a"friend's" house, which was in fact Josh's house. Shelby showed up and hadn't even been there five minutes when our friend got up and left. We had just met for the first time and weren't sure if we should stay and get to know each other or leave because we didn't know each other at all. We decided to stay to see what would happen. We got to talking, and the next thing we knew it was 5am! It made for a very long next day at work, but there was definitely a smile on our faces! The rest is history, and we officially started dating in October 2013. We moved in together, dated for 5 years before Josh proposed and got married in our backyard in June 2020 surrounded by family and friends.

We live in rural Carpenter, Wyoming in a 4-bedroom, 3-bath ranch style home on 10 acres of land where we can do almost anything we've ever wanted. We enjoy anything that gets us outside in the fresh air. We love an adventure!

Shelby has been working for Wal-Mart for 11 years now. She started as a cashier and has moved up to an asset operations position. Josh works for a small mom and pop automotive shop where he is the lead automotive technician with his own apprentice and helps run the day-to-day operations. He works to grow the business and improve customer relations.

In our free time, we are usually outdoors, camping, hiking, fishing, riding in our side-by-side, or hunting. We enjoy anything that gets us outside in the fresh air. We love an adventure! When it is too cold to be outside, we love to go bowling with friends or play board games. If we aren't doing any of those activities, we are working on some kind of project around the house. We spend a lot of time with friends and family and see them at least once a month.

We have one dog, Roxy, that we rescued about 7 years ago, she is now 9. She is a Healer mix and is the size of a Healer with a spotted tongue. Roxy is the sweetest and very protective of her humans. Any time one of our friends' kids or our nieces are over she guards them like they are her puppies. She is so gentle with little babies and bigger kids. Any time one of the babies are crying, she will make sure that we (the humans in the house) know it and make sure we take care of whatever may be causing them to cry or be upset.

We live on 10 acres in the rural part of southern Wyoming. Our 4-bedroom, 3-bath ranch style home is our forever home and little piece of heaven. The schools are smaller, so class sizes are small, and children get more one-on- one time with their teachers. Most children in our area are involved in 4H or sports. We plan on turning one of our current offices into the nursery, and once our child is older, we will move them into one of the bigger spare bedrooms.

Our family is pretty big with Shelby being the oldest of 6 children and the oldest of 26 grandchildren. Josh is an only child but the oldest of 17 grandchildren. Josh's parents only live 5 miles up the road from us, so we frequently have dinner or get togethers with them. Shelby's mom and stepdad, Paul, live about an hour north of us, so we try to get together with them at least once a month.

Evey year, we throw a huge 4th of July BBQ and invite all of our family and friends to celebrate. We usually end up with about 30 people. We spend every Thanksgiving with both of our families at Josh's parents' house. Shelby's mom, stepdad and grandpa come down, as well as Josh's grandma, aunt, uncle and two youngest cousins.

Every Christmas Eve, is spent with Shelby's family (her mom, stepdad, dad, grammy, grandpa and all her siblings) at her mom's house. Christmas day is spent with Josh's family (his grandma, mom, dad, aunt, uncle and two youngest cousins).

What led us to adoption was the fact that we want to start a family together. With Shelby not being able to carry past 12 weeks, we sat down and came to the decision that there are so many children out there that need a loving family and home, and we can and want to provide that.