Our story begins at birth… well, almost. We were both born in the same hospital 13 days apart and the home that Maggie spent the first 3 years of her life in was one street away from the house I grew up in. If not for Maggie moving to Ohio, we would have had the same babysitter, gone to the same elementary school, and essentially grown up together.
After growing up in separate states, fate intervened, and Maggie transferred her sophomore year to the same university as me, where we finally met. Maggie applied for an on-campus job as a document librarian thinking it would be in the library. Turns out it was organizing blueprints for the engineering department where I was completing my student co-op.
The first time I asked Maggie out …and she said no, she was busy. So, I asked again, and not to be deterred, again. Persistence finally paid off and Maggie agreed to go on a date with me, and we have never looked back.
A few years later, I proposed, and Maggie said yes – THE FIRST TIME! We have been happily married for 10+ years during which we have lived in three states, traveled to several countries, rescued two cats and two dogs, and adopted our son Aidan. We love our life and the adventure it brings!
You will notice that we have chosen not to show our son’s full face in most photos online – this is to protect his privacy. Greater Hopes has photos with all of our faces and will provide upon request. Thank you for your understanding!
Jon is the most amazing man I know. He is an amazing father and role model and always has a “dad joke” ready to go. I am so lucky to have such a supportive and wonderful husband and partner to raise a family with. He has such a big heart!
Maggie is the most amazing woman I have ever met. She always puts 100% into whatever it is she puts her mind to and is my biggest cheerleader. She is an amazing mother, supportive friend and fierce advocate for those in her life.
Through the past 14 plus years of our relationship, we have navigated our careers, traveled to numerous countries, and best of all, grown our family. Through all of these adventures, our family and relationship has only become stronger. Our son, Aidan, joined our family in 2023 through adoption and is the absolute joy of our lives.
We also have four fur-babies: two cats – Stella and Sophie, and two dogs – Sadie and Ziggy. We love our ever changing, sometimes chaotic, and always joyful family and are excited to see it continue to grow.
For fun, we love to explore our town and region. We enjoy taking Aidan to parks, the zoo, and restaurants and watch him grow and explore new environments. His current obsession is trash cans – yes, trash cans. He will point out every single trash can he sees and has reinforced for us that joy is in the little things – such as taking a walk and seeing a trash can.
Jon’s grandma lives on a lake about 45 minutes from our house that we try and go out to as often as we can. Jon enjoys cooking and trying new recipes while I (Maggie) love to bake and decorate cookies and cupcakes.
In the spring and summer time Jon plays on a softball team with his brother. I am an avid reader who loves to curl up with a good book, a blanket, and usually a dog or cat.
We both love to exercise our competitive spirits with our friends and family in board game nights, whirly ball games or tailgating for college football. We enjoy traveling and exploring new places both locally and abroad. Any chance to be outdoors or on the water we jump at!
Sex: Any Gender, including an Ambiguous or Transitioning Gender Child
Ethnicities: Asian, Caucasian,
Age: Newborn to an Older Child
Total of: 1 to 4 Children or 4 Siblings
Child Care: Licensed Child Care Center
We Live In: Detroit Metro
Our Belief: Open to All Religions
Our Pets: Both Cat(s) and Dog(s)
Our Children: One Child Now
Aidan is an absolute joy paired with the typical toddler antics! He loves our pets and the first thing he does when coming home from daycare is reach to give the dogs “hugs” by laying his head on them. He loves joining in everything we do – from making coffee in the morning (he now runs the Keurig) to carrying the dog leash during walks. He waves at every car he passes and loves swinging and going down the slide.
We are fortunate to have a friend group which has been in place for years and continues to support each other as family would though moves, family changes, and whatever else life throws everyone’s way. Our best friends consider us family as we do them. They have two young girls who we consider our nieces just as they consider Aidan their nephew. The girls call us Aunt Maggie and Uncle Jon and we are pretty sure they will forever refer to Aidan as “Baby Aidan”, even when he is grown!
We have several traditions that we have started with our friends that we look forward to continuing. In the summertime we do an annual crawfish boil and go to art festivals. In the winter we go to the zoo lights and decorate cookies with friends and family. In the fall, we love going to orchards and tailgating. In the springtime we try and take a trip to Traverse City. Most of our group has young children and it is a joy to watch everyone grow together and support each other.
We live in a family neighborhood with tons of families with kids and a common area with a pond and green space for playing. The kids in the neighborhood play hockey on the frozen pond in the winter and use it for fishing in the summer. There are several other families who we spend time with who have young kids Aidan loves to play with as well.
We are both fans of taking on home improvement projects ourselves and have renovated both the inside and outside of our house—and enjoyed the process! There isn’t a room in our house we haven’t renovated to make it what we want for our family. We love our large kitchen when we make dinners together and are teaching Aidan how to cook and bake. Jon built a large deck in the backyard which is the perfect spot for playing outside and having cookouts.
We live in a wonderful community with great parks and outdoor spaces. Our downtown always has a festival or community event going on which we attend as often as we can. We love participating in the traditional seasonal activities – pumpkin and apple picking, lights at the zoo, or drive in movies.
Education has played a large roll in our lives, and we want to instill a sense of learning and creativity in our children. We do not believe that college is the only route to be successful in life and we will discuss with our kids what they want to do as well as help them excel both in and out of school.
We have a great school district that has tremendous support for children at a very early age and provides educational options outside of the normal curriculum. Education occurs not only in the classroom but in everyday life and all opportunities to learn, explore and try new things should be offered. Everyone learns and approaches life differently and we believe in flexibility and providing the specific support each child needs.
Every child is different, has different needs, and different support requirements. We believe in meeting the child where they are in that moment and being flexible in our approach. With the caveat that safety is the top priority, we believe natural consequences are often effective as is waiting until the child is in a mental and emotional state to understand and learn from the situation.
We believe in time-ins instead of time-outs where the child will help us with a chore or task instead of being sent to their rooms or into a corner. We feel this allows a chance for us to explain why their actions were not correct, what are alternatives, and allows them to talk to us about it without a feeling of exclusion or isolation. We will never hit or spank a child or allow anyone else to.
I (Jon) grew up in the United Methodist church and have fond memories of youth group and taking trips abroad and retreats as a high schooler. When we moved back to Michigan, I volunteered as a youth counselor for several years and enjoyed the opportunity to act as a mentor for kids.
I also played on the church softball team for over 10 years from middle school through college with my dad and brother. I value the sense of community being part of the organization brought me. While we do not plan on forcing religion on our children, we are supportive of all religious views and any and all interest our children may express. We fully support any desire of our children to learn about or join different religions.
I design and inspection bridges throughout Michigan. I enjoy the unique challenge that every bridge site has. It really helps keep things interesting. I also take pride in knowing that I am helping to ensure safe travel and improving the overall condition of the roads and bridges in the state.
Being able to design, then see that design be built is one of the biggest draws to civil and structural engineering for me and I love seeing how the designs turn out after they get built.
I plan to continue working full time and utilize the awesome daycare that we have been using for our son Aidan. My job is very flexible and I can shift hours around as needed or work from home to meet any child needs.
Should a child we adopt need us at home, or a different special childcare arrangement, we will make that happen.
I am fortunate to work for a company with a mission of improving human health and safety. I not only enjoy my actual job as an attorney but even more so value that the work I do helps make the world a better place, such as by providing services to support safer water. It is extremely rewarding to me to work for a company whose purpose is to help others.
As an attorney, I love that I get to solve puzzles on a daily basis by identifying a problem and working with my colleagues on how best to solve it to keep supporting the company. By working for a company as a corporate attorney, I also have the opportunity to work on projects that involve more than just legal support and am constantly in a position to continue learning. With a global company, I have the opportunity to interact with team members across the world and learn about different cultures.
Should a child we adopt need us at home, or a different special childcare arrangement, we will make that happen.
I plan to stay home for a minimum of three months following placement. I am very lucky to have a flexible work environment and supportive team. If circumstances require additional time, I have that opportunity. My direct team as well as my boss all have young children and value providing support to each other. I am able to work from home on a regular basis and my hours are flexible.
Once I return to work full time, we will use the same daycare our son, Aidan, attends. It is a five-minute drive from our house and the staff is extremely supportive and caring. I also work from home a few days a week which provides flexibility in my hours. Outside of daycare, both of our parents routinely ask to babysit to spend time with Aidan.
Jon’s parents live 20 minutes away, are a consistent presence in his life, and are available to support when extra hands are needed on short notice. My parents live a bit further away and visit at least one Friday a month to spend the entire day just with Aidan while we are at work.
My dad’s side of the family comes primarily from Sweden, Ireland, and England, but they emigrated to America before it was a country, so I like to consider them American as much as European. My mom’s side of the family hails from Germany and northern Europe. I grew up with my extended family on both sides all nearby with multiple aunts and uncles and all four grandparents being big parts of my life.
Our traditions would be to meet for every holiday and celebrate everyone’s birthday separately, even if there was several in the same month. Over the Christmas holiday my family will always get together and decorate Christmas cookies. It is one of our most cherished traditions which we continue today. Another tradition we have started the last five years is to go to my uncle’s house and tailgate before Michigan football games in the fall.
I grew up with one brother who is four years younger than me. We got along about as well as brother can. Occasionally annoying each other to no end but always looking out for each other when it counted. He now has two daughters who we see as often as possible.
My family loves to travel to different countries and experience new cultures. My parents lived in China and Germany for several years recently and have incorporated various traditions into our family, such as celebrating Carnaval and the Chinese New Year. Growing up, we created neighborhood traditions with our neighborhood family such as an annual 4th of July bike parade where all of the kids decorated their bikes and paraded throughout the neighborhood.
We also had an annual Halloween party where our backyard was turned into a haunted maze. I have never been a fan of being startled or scared so I would be on decoration duty instead! We have started building our own traditions within our neighborhood and in our close group of friends and look forward to expanding this as our family grows!
My sister is a year younger than me and has two young children. We are extremely close and although we live in different states, we visit as much as possible and prioritize being in our childrens’ lives. My three-year-old niece will call on a regular basis to talk “at” Uncle Jon and Aunt Maggie and we love the relationship we have!
Please know that we will love your child unconditionally. We will devote our entire lives to raising your child to know that they are safe, healthy, happy and most of all loved. Your child will be surrounded by the love of us, our families and our community. We want your child to know where he or she came from and for you to be part of their life. Thank you for considering us to raise, love and cherish your child.
We will always do our best to prioritize your wishes and comfort level. Our hope is to support an ongoing relationship which evolves through the course of the child’s life. To be in a place where visits occur, photos are shared, and communication is consistent.
Our approach has been and will continue to be full disclosure, in an age-appropriate way, to the child of their story – adoption is not a secret and we want it to be an ever-known fact, not a surprise later in life. That your relationship with the child is not a built-up event but an ever-present reality.
We will always do our best to prioritize your wishes and comfort level. Our hope is to support an ongoing relationship which evolves through the course of the child’s life. To be in a place where visits occur, photos are shared, and communication is consistent.
Our approach has been and will continue to be full disclosure, in an age-appropriate way, to the child of their story – adoption is not a secret and we want it to be an ever-known fact, not a surprise later in life. That your relationship with the child is not a built-up event but an ever-present reality.
Just one more thing...We will always do our best to prioritize your wishes and comfort level. Our hope is to support an ongoing relationship which evolves through the course of the child’s life. To be in a place where visits occur, photos are shared, and communication is consistent.
Our approach has been and will continue to be full disclosure, in an age-appropriate way, to the child of their story – adoption is not a secret and we want it to be an ever-known fact, not a surprise later in life. That your relationship with the child is not a built-up event but an ever-present reality.
