Dear Birth Parent,
We are so grateful to you for taking the time to get to know us. We know how difficult this decision must be and our thoughts and prayers are with you. Please know that you are giving us the hope of becoming parents and having our own family, something we could not have with you choosing us. Your sacrifice is selfless and we will be eternally indebted to you. We are very excited about an open adoption and sharing pictures, letters, emails, etc. with you. We know that without you our family would not be possible. We would love to keep you updated!
Our story began six years ago when we met after Sheldon returned from his mission to Germany and Julie was a junior in college. We met through common friends and Sheldon not to long afterwards asked Julie out on a date. That date turned into many more dates and us spending all our time together. We dated for six months, were engaged, and then were married nine months after we met in the Salt Lake Temple. Needless to say it was fast, but we were so sure that we were supposed to be together as husband and wife.
The last six years have been very happy for our family and we have enjoyed learning and growing together as a couple. Julie graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in elementary education and has taught school for five years while Sheldon graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in biology and chemistry. Sheldon is attending optometry school and has three more years to go until he becomes an optometrist. Julie always jokes that Sheldon is a science geek but of course she is so proud of him for accomplishing his academic goals and preparing himself to provide for our family. Julie loves spending time with children and enjoys teaching them. We were also able to save enough money to purchase our own home. We love our new house and taking care of it.
Our plans for the future hopefully include the opportunity for us to be parents. Sheldon will work as a doctor of optometry and Julie plans on being a stay at home mom. Julie also plans on teaching elementary school once our children are old enough to attend school. She is also going to start working towards her master degree in education in the next few years. We can not wait for our chance to have children in our home and to be parents.
We are both close to our extended family. Julie has three sisters, who really are her best friends, and Sheldon has two brothers and two sisters with whom he is very close. In total we have nine nieces and nephews who we absolutely adore and love to spend time with. Our nieces love their Uncle Sheldon because he teases them and plays fun games with them. He is such a fun uncle and our nieces and nephews always want to be around him when we visit. Julie loves to play games with them and just be silly. Our extended family is very important to us and we keep in touch often. Our parents are important to us and are great examples of kind and loving parents. We are so blessed to know we can go to our parents for anything and they will always be willing to help us or lend advice. They love being grandparents and their lives revolve around their grandchildren. We know our children will be loved so much by aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.
We love spending time together and just having fun. We love to travel and one of our favorite places to go is California. Sheldon loves boogie boarding in the ocean and Julie loves swimming and being on the beach. We also love Disneyland and we have been way too many times since we have been married. We went there on our honeymoon and we were hooked. We are definitely beach going people and enjoy our time at the ocean. Sheldon even has said he wants to live in Hawaii for a few years just for the experience of living so close to the beach. On the other extreme we also love snowboarding. Julie taught Sheldon how to snowboard and now he is way better than her doing jumps and flips. Julie just enjoys riding down the slopes in a more relaxing way and Sheldon is full speed going straight down the mountain. Needless to say beach trips and snowboarding trips will definitely be part of our future family vacations. Some of the other things we love to do together are exercising, playing sports, going to movies, playing Guitar Hero, camping, hiking, going hot tubing, spending time with friends, and going out to eat. We really just love being together and having fun! We also have our own individual interests. Julie loves baking, scrapbooking, reading, and talking on the phone and Sheldon enjoys riding his motorcycle, playing basketball, and working on our yard.
We are also very active in our church callings. Sheldon has served in the scouting program, ward missionary program, and the young men’s program. He served as the young men’s president and also as the 2nd counselor in the bishopric in our ward. Julie has served in primary and also in the young women’s organization as camp director, advisor, counselor, and also as the young women’s president. We have loved our service in the church and how we have grown so much spiritually because of it.
Julie’s thoughts on Sheldon: I love Sheldon! He is such a fun guy with so much personality. He is always making me laugh and helps me to not take things too seriously. Sheldon is a hard worker. He paid for all of his undergraduate college education working the night shift for five years. When I would go to get bed he would just be leaving for work and would then go to classes the next day. I seriously don’t know when he slept. But one thing I admired about him was that he never complained about it. He knows how to work hard and be happy. He is optometry school right now and is working diligently to achieve his academic goals. Sheldon and I rarely fight because Sheldon has such a calm manner about him and he is really easy-going. Sheldon gets excited over small things and makes me feel like we are always on an adventure, a fun adventure. I love him so much and am so grateful to have him as my husband. I know he will be a terrific dad!
Sheldon’s thoughts on Julie: Julie has been a great wife and example to me. She is always pushing me to be my best and accomplish all my goals that I have set for myself. I don’t think I would be as far along in life and with my education if she had not been helping me along. This will be an amazing quality she will share with our children. I know she will always love them and help them to be the best that they can be. Julie has many qualities that will make her a great mother. She is very caring, loving and fun to be around. I love how she is so outgoing. We love to snowboard, boogie board and go on walks together. I love Julie and am so blessed to have her in my life and I know that she will make a great mother.
Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We know you will make the decision that is right for you. Please know how special you are to us already.
With gratitude, Sheldon & Julie
When I woke up this morning it was snowing and now we have about three inches of snow outside. Church was canceled today and school has been canceled for tomorrow. Everything is white outside and it feels like we are in Utah again, except when it snows here everything gets canceled. I have been watching it snow outside all day and am so grateful for our home that is so warm and cozy. I am also excited for a day off of work to just relax. Since the funeral over Thanksgiving both Sheldon and I have been going non-stop trying to get everything done for school. Sheldon's almost done with finals and will finally have some time to relax. He's been so busy that he hasn't had time to go to his physical therapy for his knee and go to the dentist for a toothache that is bothering him. I am so excited for him to be done with finals and to take a break from the craziness of the last three weeks. If his finals were canceled tomorrow than we both would be enjoying the snow day. We are still waiting for the good news-hopefully it will come. 
Another thing I wanted to post about was how grateful I am for good family and friends who love and care for us especially at this time with Sheldon's dad passing away. 
My older sister, Heather, sent these flowers to us as well. I have been enjoying them so much in our kitchen. Thanks Heather for thinking of us and we both felt so comforted by the thoughtfulness.
My parents sent us this beautiful arrangement. They have looked so nice in our house and it's nice to know that my parents care so much about us and will always be there to support me and Sheldon. Thanks mom and dad!
The last thing-our tree is pretty small this year. When we got back from the funeral both Sheldon and I thought it was just too much work to get out all of our Christmas decorations with us being so busy and we decided not to get a tree. I decided to surprise Sheldon with this little tree and we had fun decorating it. Usually we get a much bigger tree but I had to get a tree I could set up all by myself. It's fun to get into the holiday spirit even though we both didn't really feel like it at first.
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