Mackenzie’s older cousin adopted kids when she was younger, and our family has always loved them just the same as everyone else. Mackenzie also has a good friend from college who was adopted, and hearing about her journey always brought happiness. Her friend is of an African-American nationality, and was adopted into a white family in Wyoming. While part of this is hard on her, she is overall very much an advocate for adoption. She never knew her birth parents, and does not have the information that she wants about where she came from. However, she is very grateful for her adoptive parents who have loved and supported her for her entire life. She always speaks so highly of her extended family as well, and is thankful that her birth mother was willing to give her to such a great family.

As teachers we have also worked with students who come from a wide variety of family structures, including children who have been adopted. Because we are able to get to know our students so well, we often have conversations with these kids about their home lives and their feelings around many topics.

Our lives are often prioritized by our family, friends, dogs, and students!

We love to spend as much time as possible over the summers visiting family and friends who live in the lower 48. These include occasions such as holidays, a yearly sleepover, traveling to spend time with family, and getting together with Mackenzie’s family every Friday.

We also work hard to help our students, and coach several things at the school. Christian coaches ski/biathlon, while Mackenzie coaches Spelling Bee and High School wrestling. We are always up at the school for home events, and willing to help out when needed. These events are always very family friendly, and parents often bring all of their kids, who get passed around to their many loving aunties.

All of that being said though, we also make sure to make time for each other, spending time at home with our dogs, cuddling up on the couch to watch shows together, and getting together with friends for semi-weekly game nights.

We both believe that no home is truly complete without a dog. Our family right now includes two dogs: a 14 year old husky/border collie mix named Two Socks for his stark white front paws, and a 3 year old Australian Shepard named Daisy, who, as the rhyme suggests, is crazy - in a loving way. Apart from a brief couple years during college, both of us have had dogs our entire lives. We have seen these pups as members of our families because both of our respective parents instilled this belief in us. A belief that has grown into a complete trust that all dogs truly do go to heaven. They are loyal, loving, and kind. They know when our emotions are high, or when our spirits are low, and know just how to calm us with a simple look or snuggle. We know that Two Socks and Daisy will be wonderful big fur siblings to our future children. They absolutely love when kids in our community walk by the house just to pet them!

Our families are very different, but both full of love and happiness. Mackenzie grew up on a small ranch in Wyoming, where her mother still lives, along with a lot of family, both in town, and within a two hour drive.

Growing up, Mackenzie’s family enjoyed hunting, fishing, camping, and playing many games. We also often get together for holidays, such as Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. These are always filled with laughter, and more food than everyone can eat.

Across the pond in England, most of Christian’s extended family lives in a small village outside of London. His father, brother, aunt, and cousins live in Texas where he grew up.

Our kids would grow up with lots of family and friends to love and adore them. Both Mackenzie and Christian have many friends who have become just as close as family, and are excited to be a part of our child’s life.

We consider ourselves lucky to have two amazing communities that we call home. Our primary home is in White Mountain, a small village in Alaska, most known for being the last long stop for Iditarod mushers. We could not find a more close-knit and supportive community of people. Our school is Pre-K - 12th, and since we are teachers, we know all of the kids and their families. The community and school both put on many events for kids and adults to participate in, including Lemonade Day, family game nights, school picnics, sporting events, and holiday programs.

We live in a duplex provided by our district that is near the school, with a great view of the Fish River. With three bedrooms, and a cozy living room and kitchen, we often host friends and family who visit. While our village is small, we have three playgrounds that many children use, beautiful trails for driving and hiking, and riding snowmobiles or skiing on in the winter. We use our boat during the summer and early fall to go fishing and berry picking on the river.

Mackenzie’s hometown in Wyoming is where we spend most of our summers. We own a 3 bedroom house there with a spacious yard, and two car garage that is near the state park, and just down the road from her family. Just this summer, we turned one of the rooms into a library, perfect for curling up with a book.

Thank you for considering us in your search for a prospective adoptive family for your child! We know that this whole process is highly emotional, and all we want to do is help. We got married in 2023, and want nothing more than to expand our family. For various reasons you are welcome to ask about, we have decided that adoption is the best course for us in our lives.

As prospective adoptive parents, we promise to you that we will keep you, the birth mother, a very real part of this child’s life, if that is what you wish. We want nothing more than the absolute best for all involved, most importantly the child. We will send letters, pictures, updates, and whatever else you need to remind you that you made the right choice in choosing us as parents.

As educators, we both have a full understanding of what it means for a child to grow, as we have seen it in our careers. We have a unique experience of being a part of a close knit community working in a school system that serves children from Preschool all the way through High School. We are lucky enough to have taught and/or coached children when they were younger, and stuck around long enough to see them graduate. While we may not know what it is like to personally raise a child in our own family, we have helped many children learn and grow. The old cliche, “it takes a village” is most true where we live, a literal village, where we work together for the betterment of our youth. We are so proud to be a part of it, and want our own children to be a part of it too.

Growing up, both of us participated in extra curricular sports, camps, and academic activities. Mackenzie was heavily involved in wrestling programs, working as a statistician through high school and college, and Christian volunteered often at the San Antonio Zoo, later earning a paying job there in the education department. Throughout our lives, camps, sports, summer programs, the great outdoors, and other learning opportunities have been a huge influence on how we live and learn today. We want our children to have the same, so they can find their passion, and so we can support it, just like our parents did for us.

While we have almost reached ten years now working in our district, we understand that we may not always be living in White Mountain. We know that there may come a day that we say goodbye to our community and move on to other adventures. While there is no way to tell right now where we will find ourselves in the next five, ten, or twenty years, we will always strive to make sure that we build our home in a place where our children can thrive. We want our children to grow up with as many opportunities available to them as possible.

Whoever you choose to be the adoptive parents of your child will be lucky. We thank you immensely for taking the time to consider our profile. We hope you choose us, and help make our dreams of being parents a reality, as we promise to make sure your child grows up to be exactly who they are supposed to be.

With love,

Christian & Mackenzie