We are Reney and Shawnda from Texas

Dear Expectant Mother,

 We would like to say thank you. Your courageous consideration could bless us with the greatest gift in life, a baby. You’re truly making our dreams come true. Thank you for looking at our profile and taking time to learn a little more about who we are. The journey and experience that you are on is difficult, and we are grateful you have chosen life. We could not begin to understand this tremendous decision that you have to make and how overwhelming this must be. We want you to know whichever path you ultimately choose, we want to make sure that you feel cared for and supported.

 Our story started 23 years ago when we first met in 1996 and we have been together ever since. The first 10 years we were young newlyweds in our 20’s and we focused on our careers and did a lot of traveling. Having children was always part of our plan. When we were ready to start our family, conceiving did not come naturally for us and after couple of years of no success we contacted a fertility specialist. After a few years of working with the fertility specialist we still had no luck conceiving. I was told by doctors the next step in trying to conceive would be IVF and we decided it wasn’t for us. To say the least, we were really upset at the idea of never becoming parents. We needed to take some time to decide what we wanted to do next.

 One day we had this great conversation about adopting. In that moment we both realized that adopting was God’s plan for us. We opened up and shared stories about how we felt God had been guiding us to adoption. We know that we will not have biological children of our own, but the lord has given us a purpose, to enrich a child’s life as if that child was our own flesh and blood. Since the day we made the decision to move forward on our adoption journey I have already noticed a change in us. We purchased our new home with dreams of it being a great place to start our family. One of the guest bedrooms has already begun to evolve into the nursery so your newborn will have everything he would ever need as soon as he arrives home. We say he because we have always wanted a boy, Manuel is an only child and hopes to continue the family name.

 Our family and friends are over the moon excited for us as they know about our journey and how important this is to us. My mother and sister have already purchased way too many baby gifts for your child. Shawnda’s sister just had a baby in June and also has a 2-year-old son. Shawnda is a very hands-on aunt and she has a lot of experience with babies. This is great as the cousins will be close in age to play with each other and they live just 40 minutes away. Your baby’s future grandparents are just 15 minutes away and live very active life styles. Manuel has a very large family that live 8 hours away that we regularly visit.

 We have truly been blessed in so many ways, and hope soon to be blessed with a child to love and cherish as our own. We love life and to have fun whether it’s with our friends, family, or just the two of us. Our evening dinners are important to us, it’s a time to disconnect from our cell phones and talk about our day. Shawnda enjoys cooking and creating healthy meals. We have a passion for traveling and we can’t wait to share new experiences with your child. Shawnda loves to be outside in the garden, working on the flower beds, maintaining the yard, the bird feeders and bird baths. Sharing these outdoor activities with your little one will be so much fun. We love to be active and outside, as we live near a big lake where we go boating, fishing, and swimming over at our parents houses. Both of our parents have pools and we are looking forward to those wonderful moments. Manuel also loves golf and played on team when he was a kid. He lights up when he speaks of teaching his child to play golf one day. We both enjoy golfing and talk about how awesome it’s going to be to have your child join us. During the winter we love to have a nice fire pit going outside where I can see us sipping on hot cocoa and making s’mores. We sincerely hope that we could be the couple you chose to raise your baby, whichever path you choose we wish you the best.

We talk about our future and are looking forward to creating new beautiful family memories. Shawnda recently retired so she can be a stay-at-home mom. We have been so blessed to be able to travel all over the world, and now we’re ready to show your child the world.

Sincerely,

Manuel & Shawnda