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So nice to meet you! We are Shawn and Leslie. We met online in February 2011, as many couples do now. Shawn was an Army transplant from Columbus, OH, while Leslie had lived in the Chicago suburbs her whole life.

Shawn: "I remember messaging Leslie and thinking, 'There is no way she will respond to me. She is way out of my league but what the heck. I'm going to try anyway.'"

Leslie: "When I got his message, I thought, 'Here is a guy whose heart is in the right place. He is a single dad and has his daughter living with him full-time. He...

When I first met Shawn, there was no doubt that his heart was bigger than any other man I had ever met. He was a single dad, but his caring demeanor went far beyond his loving fatherly tendencies.

Shawn joined the US Army at 19 years old and was trained as a Clinical Engineer. After his career in the army, including a tour in Iraq, he joined the civilian world and has worked hard to advance from technician to senior leadership roles for several Chicagoland hospitals. There is a sparkle in his eye when it comes to what he does. He has a deep desire to keep patients in our...

Leslie's determination to make her/our dreams become a reality is one of the biggest things I admire about her. No matter what challenges come her way, she always finds a way to overcome them.

By day, my wife is a certified kitchen and bath designer who mentors her peers. Given her successes, she was promoted to Interior Design Manager about five years ago in 2018 for a large remodeling company. Her talents have enabled her work to be published in magazines, and she has even been a judge for several prestigious design awards.

She is the glue that holds our family...

Home is truly where our heart is. We are lucky to live in a 1920 vintage colonial home about 15 miles outside Chicago. Our five-bedroom home has the vintage charm we LOVE, yet has modern updates. We moved here almost four years ago. While we love our home's quirky design details, we lovingly update sections to make it truly feel like us. We have made a fun play area where the kids can roam free and play in the updated lower-level basement rec space on cold or rainy days. When the weather is nicer, we love to relax in the fenced-in backyard, full of our flower gardens, swings, and...

We are so blessed to have such a close network of support and love surrounding us. Over the last ten years, our family has grown a LOT and blossomed. Shawn's side of the family still resides in southern Ohio, where he is from. We do our very best to get back and visit once or twice a year to see his family.

With Leslie living in the Chicago suburbs her whole life, her family is local. Family traditions are very important. Grandma and Grandpa live close, as well as many cousins, aunts, and uncles whom we spend the holidays with. We get to enjoy Easter egg coloring, Christmas...

We never pass up an opportunity to create meaningful memories. It was important for us to share traditions from our childhoods with our children. Some of Shawn's favorite childhood memories are from when his parents would take him to the Air Force Museum in Ohio. We visit once or twice a year. Our son has enjoyed this trip and now says he wants to be a soldier like his dad.

Every year, we enjoy apple picking, pumpkin carving, blueberry picking, and holiday baking, among a few childhood traditions of making homemade applesauce and roasting pumpkin seeds. These are now the...

Thank you so much for taking the time to read about us and our family and for considering an adoption plan for your baby.

If we are blessed to be chosen as adoptive parents, know there is no lack of love we have to give. We hope you see our family as more love, more fun in the comradery of sibling play, and more support.

We will love the baby to the moon and back and make sure they know how much they are loved, supported, and cherished as their own person. This love also comes from our three children, who are beyond excited at the prospect of a little person to call...