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Neal & Brenda are hopeful adoptive parents from Idaho waiting to adopt a baby.

If you are pregnant and considering placing your child for adoption, please read the following Dear Birthmother Letter.

Our Message We are excited to have the opportunity to share a little about our life with you. We want you to know about us and our plans for our family in a way that your interest and curiosity about us will continue beyond just these few paragraphs. We know that adoption is an inspired process and the difficult part is not in finding a good home for your child, but in finding the right home. Here is a small glimpse into our lives to assist you with the very important decision you have before you.

About Neal (from Brenda): The first thing that attracted me to Neal was his sense of humor. We could talk and hang out as friends for hours at a time and we really connected. This friendship has been such a great foundation for our marriage. Neal also has a wonderful ability to communicate and show affection very easily. He has such a caring and sensitive heart and he is selfless in giving of his time and resources to those who are in need.

About Brenda (from Neal): Brenda was the cute smart girl that I sat behind in some of my high school classes. She had focus in her life as well as direction and that was something that I admired in her. She is also very musically inclined and music was always something that I enjoyed. She has a love for nature and animals that brings out the tenderness in her personality, and her desire to always do the right thing keeps the spirit in our home.

As we have prepared for our roles as parents, we have realized that our greatest responsibility is to teach our children. We want to instill in them good values and a strong work ethic, a sense of responsibility, and independence through life experiences. We feel strongly that education is the key to their success, but each child is as unique as we are and each may require a different approach to learning. We will teach them that they can accomplish anything they desire and we will encourage and assist them in fulfilling their dreams.

Our Hobbies & Interests Weekends are usually reserved for family activities, and we are frequently outdoors. When we get the chance, our newest love is for kayaking and whitewater rafting. But our weekends are more typically filled with activities like going to the park or zoo, or exploring nearby mountains. If we are at home, we like to watch movies together or have a game night or a barbeque with friends.

We are very fortunate that Brenda is able to stay home with Halle. It has meant making certain sacrifices, but the rewards have been immeasurable. Brenda designs homes as a part-time business from home, but it is flexible enough to keep her busy only when she has the spare time. Otherwise, she and Halle spend their days visiting grandparents, going to the park, or just doing activities at home like playing dishes and dress up or play dough.

Neal's Interests:
My interests can be summed up in a few words. I love to build things. I guess that's a good thing since I work in construction. Our garage is filled with various wood-working projects, a hobby I recently picked up.

I do have other interests, like playing basketball, camping and rock climbing, or reading books about building things :)

But to be honest, any spare minute I have is usually spent playing with my daughter because it's too much fun. We like to walk to the park together after I get home from work and have long "conversation" about her day.


Brenda's Interests:
There are so many things that I enjoy doing in my spare time, but it usually comes down to something I can do with Halle. If I get the chance, I enjoy taking Pilates and Yoga classes at the local gym, downhill skiing, swimming, or riding a bike.

In a typical week, you will catch me working on the computer designing homes for my home business. I also have a passion for animals and exploring new cultures that I plan to pass on to our kids. I delight in coming up with new adventures and places to show Halle.

Our Family We met through mutual friends in the ninth grade. Our crowd of friends hung out together almost every weekend and we played ultimate frisbee about three times a week- even in the snow. Neal was shy though when it came to asking girls on dates, so our first date wasn't until the end of our senior year. We then started dating consistently until he left on his mission to Denmark. Meanwhile, we kept in touch through letters, and Brenda went to school and graduated from the Accounting program at Brigham Young University. Nine months after Neal came home, we were married.

One week later, we moved to Arizona so Neal could attend the ASU Construction Management program. After many years of school and work, he was offered a position with a company that recently moved us back to Idaho. We were excited to be closer to our families again after so many years of Arizona heat. The company has been really great to us and has been especially flexible when it comes to family.

We adopted our first daughter, Halle, two years ago and our lives have not been the same since. In fact, we can hardly remember what life was like before she arrived. She surprised us by comnig seven weeks early so we stayed in the hospital with her for two weeks until she was released. She is now a healthy, active little girl who loves to play with other kids and begs to go outside any chance she gets.

Neal's Family Background:
I am the fourth of seven children (right in the middle), and I grew up in Idaho which was perfect for a family with five brothers to run and play. It was also a great place for our parents to teach us the value of hard work.

My brothers and I would spend hours playing out in the sandbox or in the dirt. We would play with cars and trucks, building roads and bridges and towns all to have them destroyed by flash floods caused by the dam that we had built further up the hill.

The lessons in hard work came in all shapes and sizes. But the times we remember the most are the countless Saturdays we spent mowing our huge lawn with a push mower. At least it seemed like countless at the time, but looking back, Idaho doesn't have that long of a summer.

As we get together now as a family, we love to laugh and remember all the tricks we played and the stunts we did or didn't get away with. We played and we played hard, so we always have a lot to talk about.

Brenda's Family Background:
I am the oldest of four children. I spent most of my childhood in Idaho, although our family did move to Utah for a few years.

My dad enjoyed taking one or all of us kids out to do something fun on the weekends. There was one time I remember he tried to teach me how to downhill ski, but I was so uncoordinated that we spent the whole afternoon trying to get down the mountain just once. Fortunately, he has incredible patience and he didn’t completely give up on me that day, although several years passed before we went back.

I had a wonderful childhood filled with great memories from working in our yard to traveling the states in a motorhome. Aside from Neal, my siblings are my greatest friends. My sisters and I would sometimes just do goofy girl things like playing dress up or painting our toe nails, and I guess we still haven't grown out of that. As a family, we loved to have fun together, and we still do every chance we get.

Our Wish for You And now, as you are making your decision, you should know that there are many prayers for you that you will receive the inspiration and guidance you need. We respect and admire your selflessness as you put your child's needs above your own, and we want you to know that your child will know of your sacrifice and great love. We will offer you this last reassurance- you can trust that we will provide a safe and happy home for your child and they will be treasured and cared for as a special child sent from God. And most importantly, you both will be genuinely loved from the bottom of our hearts.