Travis has two children, ages 12 and 14, from a prior marriage and before coming out to his then wife and family at age 25. Josh has taken an active role in both of their lives since meeting nine years ago, but we also look forward to raising a child together from the very beginning.

We both continue to maintain a close relationship with the children's mother and her fiancé. Placement is shared, but because the children go to school within the district of our residence – we pick them up from school and visit with them every day. The child we adopt will have supportive older siblings to grow up with and we cannot wait to see the bond they will all share together!

Expanding our family has always been the goal for us, we looked into many different options when looking to grow our family, including surrogacy, foster care to adoption, and we eventually decided to pursue infant adoption. With Travis working as a Guardian Ad Litem and advocating for children's best interests, he has been able to be a part of many successful adoption stories.

We have quite a few pets, it all started with one dog and somehow evolved into 4 dogs, 11 goats, 2 pigs, 3 cows, mini donkey, pony, and a horse. Animals definitely play a big role in our lives, our family and friends sometimes refer to our house as petting zoo. Our neighbor regularly visits with his nieces and nephews for them to play with our animals. The kids also spend a lot of time outside playing with the animals and taking care of them daily. We couldn't imagine our family without all of our pets and the enjoyment they bring to our lives.

When not working on projects around our hobby farm, we enjoy spending time at the river that is a short drive from our property. Here, we like to fish, kayak, swim with friends and family, and camp occasionally. Additionally, we both enjoy tennis, golf (not great at it but still like it), and volleyball. Every year, we play with a group of friends in a fall volleyball league one night per week. Outside of these activities, we just like to relax at home and watch reality TV whether that be something on TLC, Bravo, or MTV.

Travis also serves on a couple local boards including a charter school for youth that may experience a more difficult time in a traditional school setting and also as an advisory member at a local residential drug and alcohol treatment center. In the past, he has served as a mentor to local youth for over five years.

We strive to maintain a balance of activities that keep our family active while also just enjoying the time together at home playing board games and cards. More than anything, we just always try to remain positive and keep a sense of humor, not taking life too seriously.

We live in a 4-bedroom split level home on a 3-acre hobby farm in Wisconsin. While our neighbors are limited to one within a half mile of our home, we are very close with the family. We are under 10 minutes away from a couple of cities that still offer many of the places we frequent along with some friend's homes that are within a few miles. As part of our hobby farm, we have 4 dogs, multiple outdoor cats, 3 highland cows, 2 pigs, 10 fainting goats, 2 horses, and a mini donkey.

Since 2017, we have been slowly working on renovating the large barn that's located on our property. While it used to be used for dairy farming, it is now converted into a recreation area that includes a pool table, darts, basketball, volleyball, and badminton. We are most proud of this project, although we have worked on many since living here, this is special as we got married in the barn. Most recently, we planned for and built two additional decks. We have shared so many memories up here with friends, family, and children that I hope one day will hold additional family weddings.

We are both very close with our immediate and extended families. We get together with both sides as often as possible in addition to spending every holiday together. Travis has an older sister who works within the pediatric endocrinology field and a younger brother that recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and is employed in his first job as an Engineer. Travis's father is currently a farmer and mother works at a mid-size police department as an assistant to the police chief. Travis's sister has three daughters aged 8 to 15 and we enjoy being uncles. Most of Travis's extended family live within 15 minutes of each other, approximately one hour away from our current residence.

Josh has an older brother who works in the medical field, and lives in Rhode Island with his wife and their 9-month-old daughter. Josh's father works in the automotive parts field and mother within the medical field. His parents live approximately 1.5 hours away from our residence, but visit as often as possible.

We normally play a game of Life, Monopoly, or Uno. We like to stay active so taking the dogs for a walk, playing a sport like basketball and throwing the ball around, or sitting around a campfire are typical too.

We want to sincerely thank you for taking the time to read this letter and consider our home and family for adoption. We understand that it may not be an easy process, but we are confident that a child would be the perfect addition to our family while we join this journey with you in always being their birth mother. This is a significant relationship and bond that we are open to nurturing throughout their life with open discussions. An open adoption with letters, pictures, and meetings each year is something we envision if that is an arrangement you are comfortable with.

To start, we have a bit of a unique story in meeting, life in general, as Travis was first married to his "high school sweetheart" and were together from age 15 to 25. Travis had two biological children, Cameron (14) and Gracyn (12). Travis "came out" at age 25 while remaining friends with his ex-wife and continuing to co-parent children. Fast forward to November, 2015, when we met for our first date at a local restaurant here in Wisconsin. We have remained inseparable since with first dating, moving in together, Travis proposing after 6 years, and officially marrying last October, 2023. We married at our home and barn that we have worked on restoring into a venue over the past 9 years together. Josh has been a great father figure and role model for Cameron and Gracyn and we chose adoption to raise a child together starting in infancy while growing our family. Both Cameron and Gracyn are excited to be big brother and sister and look forward to sharing their interests (and humor) with another sibling.

Travis is an attorney and serves as a guardian ad litem advocating for the best interests of children and vulnerable adults. As a result, he has provided recommendations and has been a part of successful adoptions, witnessing the benefits of an open adoption, more so of a partnership that is inherently created for life. With Josh's career within the insurance industry as a trainer and subject matter expert, he has developed a high level of patience and support to those around him. We both work remotely with some flexibility in schedules so the child would not require daycare. This will allow for extra attention to their development and education, while still having access to other children with family and friends. Our extended families and friends are completely supportive of our adoption journey and a child would have a ton of love and encouragement from our social circle.

Our family values are simple and include respecting one another, kindness, helping others, all while maintaining a sense of humor. In everything we do as a family including volleyball/basketball games in our barn, playing softball in the yard, card games, and outdoor activities, we are consistently laughing and not taking life too seriously. We will encourage these same values to a child where they will always be loved and supported by many. We appreciate the time for you reading through this and wish you the very best on this journey and hopefully we are able to connect further.

Travis & Josh