Jake & Sara
Jake & Sara
Our relationship began before we even knew each other! When Sara was in the 4th grade she told all of her friends at a slumber party that when she grew up she was going to marry a boy named Jake, or maybe Luke. As time went on she had really forgotten about this, but it was still in the back of her mind. When Sara was 11 her oldest sister bought a house on the same street as Jake, just 1 block down.
Jake and Sara lived parallel lives while one went to public school and the other to Catholic school, but lived quite close to each other. We went to the same places, had common friends but did not meet until that fateful day at the Aquinas College art building. Jake had noticed Sara in class, but she had not yet noticed him. One day Sara saw him walking out of a building on campus and she thought to herself “Hmmm, he should ask me out on a date”.
A few weeks later Jake and Sara met in painting class where he got Sara’s attention with his ridiculously funny tales of karaoke. Sara got sick of waiting for Jake to ask her out so she invited him to a Halloween costume party. After the first week of dating, Sara knew that she would marry Jake. Weeks later when meeting Jake’s mom and sister the conversation turned to our very common first names. Jake’s mom said, “Well, we were going to name him Luke, but when we saw him we knew that he was a Jake”.
Our Story
Jake & I met while attending Aquinas College in Grand Rapids the fall of 2002. I was taking my first painting class there and Jake would often come to class early during my studio time. We started chatting and joking around and I instantly knew there was something about him that I liked! About a month later I asked Jake if he wanted to join a friend and I to go to a Halloween costume party.
We all came up with costumes and went together. Jake and I had a great time, had our first kiss, and decided to see each other again the next day. We have been inseparable ever since. Halloween has always been an important holiday for us because of this. We spent our first few years working together in the art studios at school with all of our college friends.
We both received our Bachelor of Fine Art a few years later. We married in 2007. We truly are best friends and love spending time together.
Our Relaxation & Fun
Together Jake and I love to take on house projects, travel, go to the beach, go to art museums, galleries, concerts, watch design shows, go out to eat, cook and smoke BBQ, go for walks with our dogs, listening to music (especially Motown!), entertain and spend time with friends and family, and just be silly together.
Over the past 14 years, we have gone on many road trips but our favorite vacations have been abroad to Spain, Italy, and Greece where we saw some of the world’s most amazing art and architecture! We love immersing ourselves in the art, food, and culture wherever we go. In addition to all of this, both of us are artists and LOVE to create.
Right now I am painting a mural on the stairway down to our newly finished basement and plan to paint a mural on the nursery wall this summer.
our adoption hopes
Gender: Any Gender, including an Ambiguous or Transitioning Gender Child
Ethnicities: Any Race and Ethnicity
Age: Newborn to 18 months
Total of: 1 to 2 Children or 2 Siblings
a snapshot
of us
We Live In: Grand Rapids
Our Faith: Catholic
Pets: Dog(s)
Kids Already: No Children Now
Child Care Plan: Stay-at-Home Parent
Our Family & Friends
Jake comes from a very large extended family and has one younger sister and two younger half brothers. Jake’s family gets together often to have family parties where we play some pretty competitive games of cards, dominoes, and sometimes competitive jigsaw puzzling. We love spending time with them as much as possible.
We love to have his younger cousins and friends over for game nights and dinner. Sara’s family is smaller and also gets together often. Sara has two older sisters, three nephews, and one niece. We love to get together and have BBQs, play games and just enjoy each other’s company. We have a strong group of supportive friends and family who can’t wait for us to grow our family!
Our Home & Neighborhood
We live in a 2-story 1924 bungalow with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. We have a finished basement with a theater room, creative workspace, an additional den on the back of the house that is going to make a fantastic playroom, a nice sized fenced in backyard that is perfect for a future playset, and a vegetable garden next to our deck.
We love to spend time with our pups on the front porch in the evenings and chat with the neighbors. We have many wonderful neighbors and lots of young kids on our street. We also live one block from Jake’s mom and a few blocks from his Aunt and Uncle! Our household is pretty laid back and we both do our part to keep the household running smoothly. We plan to stay here for quite a while.
Education
Education is very important to us. We are dedicated to providing our future child with the best education possible. We are open to the many educational opportunities our community has to offer including public and private schools. We will explore all options and choose the one that fits the needs of our specific child.
Correction & Discipline
We really love the idea of giving our child limited choices when they are young and helping them to be prepared for bigger choices as they grow up. We definitely don’t want to be helicopter parents. Rather, we only really want to step in if the choice our child makes could have a major impact on their life.
We know it will be painful to watch our child make mistakes, even when they’re small ones, but we know that this will help them be able to make better decisions in their life and be able to have better interactions with the people around them. We will utilize the 1,2,3, Magic discipline plan.
Our Faith Views
For Jake, it’s really the thing that brings order and purpose to the craziness of life. He’s found it to be a good influence in his own life, especially the idea of forgiveness and how you can come back from the mistakes you have made in your life.
While Sara doesn’t really practice any religion, she recognizes how it can be good for a child as they grow up. Even if the child doesn’t choose to be religious once they grow up, we at least want to pass on the values that will help them thrive in life.
Jake's Career
I really enjoy figuring out challenging technical problems while trying to make life easier for the people I work with. I try to attend all of the meetings to ask questions and make all the witty comments. I really enjoy mentoring other team members and helping them write better code.
I will continue to work in my current position. I get some paternity leave, which I will definitely use. I do get to work from home whenever I want, so it makes it easier for me to help out at home.
Sara's Career
I am a middle school art teacher. I love helping young people expand their creativity and imaginations! I taught k-8 at my previous school and did some really fun community art projects! The biggest and most fun project that I did was with a group of eighth graders and community volunteers. We designed and painted a 16,000 square foot parking lot mural at 6th Street Bridge Park.
The murals purpose was to create community awareness about storm water runoff. I love teaching students of all ages. At my current position I teach both 6th and 8th graders and truly enjoy the freedom that I get to create a creative and innovative curriculum for them. I love to help put on the school musicals by helping create the sets, props, and making the costumes. Creating costumes is one of my absolute favorite parts of my work!
I hope to take a leave from teaching for the 1st few years to be a stay at home mom, and then plan to return to teaching after that.
Jake
My family has lived in the Grand Rapids area for a few generations. My family is Polish, Lithuanian, Dutch, French, and German. My family likes to have parties for all of the holidays, birthdays, graduations, first communions, baptisms, etc. We usually have food, cake, and then play games.
Sara
My family comes from the Grand Rapids area and has been here for 3 or more generations on both sides. My ancestry is Swiss, French, French Canadian, Dutch, and English. My family traditions revolve mostly around holidays. We always come together for holidays, birthdays and just for fun BBQs.
One fun fact is that growing up we never had Christmas stockings, we had Dutch wooden shoes that we received little gifts and candies in. We also went on a family road trip every summer, and I always looked forward to helping my Dad navigate and playing fun group travel games in the car.
Hello, We recognize that we are both having very different experiences at this time, and while we are full of joy and hope we want you to know that we truly thank you for taking the time to consider us. Our hearts are with you as you make this very difficult decision and we hope that you feel our love and respect for you while you are trying to find someone to possibly parent your child. Becoming parents has been our dream as long as we have been together and while we have had difficulties we truly believe that adoption is what was meant for us all along. We want you to know that we would love, cherish, and nurture your child.
- Child Separation, Attachment, and Bonding
- Child Development, Including Safe Sleep Practices for Children
- Behavioral and Emotional Needs of Adoptive Children
- Impact of Adoption on the Family
The ideal relationship with you would be an open adoption relationship where you can set your own boundaries. While we will be the child’s parents and set boundaries for our family, we truly want you to be a part of this child’s life.
We understand that this is a painful and difficult situation, and want to support you in a way that is healthiest for you and this child. We would love to share pictures, videos, milestones, and some special events with you! We hope that you will always be a special part of our child’s life.
OUR COMFORT LEVEL WITH DIFFERENT ADOPTION OPTIONS
- Very Comfortable
- Mostly Comfortable
- Unsure
- A Bit Uneasy
- Not Comfortable
The ideal relationship with you would be an open adoption relationship where you can set your own boundaries. While we will be the child’s parents and set boundaries for our family, we truly want you to be a part of this child’s life.
We understand that this is a painful and difficult situation, and want to support you in a way that is healthiest for you and this child. We would love to share pictures, videos, milestones, and some special events with you! We hope that you will always be a special part of our child’s life.
Just one more thing...The ideal relationship with you would be an open adoption relationship where you can set your own boundaries. While we will be the child’s parents and set boundaries for our family, we truly want you to be a part of this child’s life.
We understand that this is a painful and difficult situation, and want to support you in a way that is healthiest for you and this child. We would love to share pictures, videos, milestones, and some special events with you! We hope that you will always be a special part of our child’s life.