Sarah & Shawn In Pennsylvania

We are high school sweethearts. We met on a ski trip in the year 2000. We were both instantly attracted to each other. We became friends and best friends not long after, always spending time together. We then started dating in 2002 and were inseparable. We even went as each other's prom dates and forever dates going forward.

We became young parents to our first son, Shawn in 2004, at the ages of 18 and 20. It was not easy being young parents, but we did have the support of both families. We worked hard to get our family of 3 into our first home the same year our son was born. We both continued our education and received our college degrees. We both started our careers while raising our son. We were married on a destination wedding in Jamaica in 2008 and welcomed our next son, Riley in 2009. We moved into our current family home in 2009. Our third son, Noah was born in 2013, and our youngest son, Jaxon in 2018.

Shawn is the President/founder of our two state Medicare Provider agencies that provide various supports to adults with intellectual disabilities and autism. Sarah is now a stay-at-home mom and works part time from home managing accounts receivables/claims billing for our company. She is also a volunteer staff member of the kids' school, mostly in the PreK program.

The two of us have volunteered at the kids’ school since our first son started there in 2009, and we now run the special monthly pizza lunch program at the school. Funny enough, we are now referred to as the 'Pizza Power Couple', and we are thinking of getting funny shirts made to honor this as couple's goals.

Our family pet is Molly, she is an English Springer Spaniel. We adopted her from a farm in Lancaster, PA in 2020. She is an active and attentive dog. She races around the yard with the kids but also loves to just lay and have them pet her. She really loves her brothers and waits for them to get home from school every day.

Our family is all about adventure and making memories. We are a big travel family. In recent years, we have visited Costa Rica, St. Thomas, Jamaica, Turks & Caicos, Bahamas, Mexico and Curacao. We take at least 2 big vacations a year. Disney is a top spot, and we enjoy going there often. We also enjoy taking road trips and traveling within the USA. We have a trip to explore Jackson Hole Wyoming planned for this summer.

We are fortunate to experience both mountain and beach getaways multiple times a year. We have a vacation home about 2 hours away from where we live, and it's in a mountain area, so the kids get to experience many outdoorsy activities that range from kayaking on the lake and visiting waterfalls in the summer to sledding and snow tubing in the winter. Sarah’s dad has a home on the Jersey Shore where the kids enjoy long beach days playing in the sand and ocean along with many visits to The Boardwalk to ride the amusement rides and enjoy the water park.

We are a big sports family, whether it’s our own kids’ games or attending/watching the local teams play. We have season tickets to both our local NFL and NBA teams and really enjoy these experiences. Our boys have played sports from age 5 and up, and between all of them we have done soccer, basketball, baseball, foot hockey, lacrosse and track. Now, as busy as life sounds with school, sports and travel, we enjoy very much the quiet days at home where we watch movies or play board games.

We have devoted our lives to ensuring our family has a great life, but we of course are not perfect. We have been through and experienced hardships and difficulties over the years. Through struggles we've learned how to cope and manage. We come together to figure out anything we encounter to help our children have the best future. We have experienced loss through miscarriage and an unsuccessful IVF journey. Sarah has always wanted a daughter. Losing her own mother at the age of 23 taught Sarah to value the importance of a mother-daughter relationship that we hope to someday experience. Shawn and her future big brothers are more than ready to take on this role to guide and protect our future little girl. We are 100% dedicated, devoted and prepared to welcome your child into our family and love them with all our hearts. Always know you will be in our thoughts and prayers for giving us this truly amazing gift.

We live in a single family home located in a private, rural community in southeastern Pennsylvania and just a short drive from the city. This community is one of the most beautiful areas in Pennsylvania and neighboring states. It is surrounded by local farms with access to farmer’s markets. There are many historical landmarks in the area and local state parks that we visit frequently. Parks and trails are only a short walking distance from our house. This area is diverse in culture and there are many great schools in the area. Our children attend private school from Pre-K to high school.

Our home is a custom built farmhouse and sits on close to 2.5 acres of wooded land and backs up to 16 acres of farmland. Our home has 8 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms across three 3 full stories of living space which will allow us to expand our family with ease. Our children are all very active and play soccer, football and basketball along with other activities across the property. We have an inground pool with waterslide alongside a cabana where we spend a great deal of time with our family, extended family, and the kids' friends.

We have a fully finished basement with a game room and media room. It is a pirate themed hangout equipped with ping pong, air hockey, and gaming systems for the kids. It is a popular spot with the kids’ friends especially on big sports game days. We have a playroom dedicated to younger age children, decorated colorfully and full of toys for all ages. We have office space as well, which allows us to work from home almost all the time, which gives us the opportunity to drop off and pick up all the kids from school daily and any other needs the kids have. The boys’ bedrooms are typical boys’ rooms decorated in a way that represents what they like. We have a nursery off the master suite for the beginning and have a child’s room decorated and ready to go. This space is fully stocked with all the necessities to care for our newest member of the family. This includes a shelf of books that our children picked from their own book collection that they wanted to pass along to their future sibling. We have stored away all the items that will be needed as the baby grows. Bassinet, playpen, swing, highchair, stroller, car seat, baby developmental toys are all ready to be used as needed.

We worked very hard and saved and were able to get a vacation home for our family in 2020. It is located 2 hours away from where we live and is in a mountain area. Here is where we go away for various weekends all year round. We bring extended family, and the kids bring friends there as well. We have even celebrated Thanksgiving there and the past few years New Years there as well. There is plenty of room to play outside, we also have lots of games and activities to keep busy while there. There is a shuffleboard table and hot tub. The lake is within walking distance where we have our canoe, and we fish and swim in the summer. This is a place where we go to relax and decompress and make fun memories with the kids. We are in short driving distance from a beautiful natural waterfall that we visit often.

We currently have 4 boys, and they range in age from 5-20, so we have all age brackets which we love. We have always wanted a big family. We spaced each child out to give them and ourselves adequate time to care for their needs in the younger years. Having younger children and teens/ young adults is nice because it keeps the older children engaged and involved more because they want to still do the things their younger siblings are doing. We do so much as a family, the age differences have yet to be an issue.

We have been complimented countless times by friends, family and even strangers about how well the boys behave and it is very much noticed that there is a strong bond between them. They are always doing things together. They spend endless time outside in the yard playing a variety of sports, jumping on the trampoline and playing video games. They have a blast together when we are on vacation. Of course, they still have normal sibling arguments, but that is a normal part of growing up with siblings.

Over the years, they have all at one point or another said they wished they had a sister. There will be no shortage of big brothers here ready and willing to take care of their little sister.

We follow many family traditions; some we brought from our childhood but many we have started within our own family unit. Our family is big on celebrating holidays and birthdays and all big milestones for our children. We decorate our home inside and out for all the major holidays. We host both sets of grandparents, uncles, and their significant others in our home for all these types of events.

Each birthday is celebrated big. The birthday child wakes up to a room full of balloons and surrounded by us singing. The day consists of meals and fun activities of their choosing. Sarah always makes the birthday cake that goes along with their birthday theme that year. We also have parties in our home or at a local kids place that includes our extended family and friends and their children.

Christmas traditions are full and plentiful starting after Thanksgiving until mid-January. From playing holiday music and decorating the tree together to baking cookies and ice skating. We also visit many local holiday events in the area, such as a walk-through Christmas Carol display and drive through holiday light show that we do in our pjs. We even visited a reindeer farm where the kids were in awe of meeting one of Santa’s reindeer.

The most beloved tradition by all is our annual Christmas Movie Pajama Party. It is a cozy day for everyone in their holiday pjs and enjoying a day long spread of everyone’s favorite finger foods and desserts. Every year we host Christmas Day dinner where we are joined by our parents, siblings and their significant others.

Adoption is always something that we have talked about for a long time to be in the position to lovingly welcome another child into our family. All roads led us to this journey and the timing is perfect.