Dear Birth Mother,

Who comes to mind when you think of “courage”? Maybe a superhero or strong family member or the cowardly lion from Wizard of Oz? In our minds, birth moms like you are courageous. We’re Josh and Erica. We are grateful that you’re considering adoption (and our family). When we got married, we had no clue what life had in store. After a couple of years as newlyweds we wanted to start a family. Our initial excitement turned to concern and ultimately became heartbreak when we weren’t able to get pregnant. But along the way, we met friends and coworkers who either chose to adopt or were adopted themselves. Their stories inspired us and opened our hearts. And 2 years ago we adopted Charlotte! Our first meeting with Charlotte’s birth mom, Lindsey, was at a Chili’s off the interstate. We were nervous and filled with questions: Would she like us? What would she be like? How open would she want to be with her adoption plan? It sort of felt like the butterflies you get before a first date. We fell in love with Lindsey instantly. After dinner, we stood in the parking lot chatting with Lindsey and her family as if we had known each other for years. It’s been almost 2 years since Lindsey had Charlotte, and we’re forever grateful that she entrusted us to be Charlotte’s parents. We desperately hope that we make her proud to have chosen us. For now we are showering all of our love and attention on Charlotte. She has a blast playing the piano with daddy, singing with mommy, sliding down the slide at the park, and imitating animal noises at the zoo. But we don’t feel like our family is complete. There is more room in our hearts. We hope that maybe you will become a part of our story, and in turn we become part of yours. We would love an open adoption with letter’s, pictures, and visits. We have a picture from one of Charlotte’s visits with Lindsey hanging on the wall in our upstairs hallway. Charlotte often points to Lindsey in the picture and says her name. We’re thankful that she’ll always know that Lindsey loves and cares for her. And we look forward to the day when there’s a picture beside it - maybe that one will be of you.

God bless you, Josh & Erica

Josh & Erica Ext. 4414 My parents provided an amazingly loving and supportive home for my siblings and myself. Erica’s Family My dad is a choir director.working first at the high school level, but now in the middle Zoo Boo school. My dad and I share a love of teaching music to teenagers. I am truly with blessed to have such an amazing mentor in him. My mom has also worked in schools since my siblings and I were school-age. She’s been a school secretary Grandma for almost 20 years. My mom is amazing with children. I have always been able & Grandpa! to talk to her about anything. I have three younger siblings: Stacie, Chelsea, and Daniel. Stacie and I have always been very close. We see each other quite often (especially since we live in the same neighborhood), and our dream has always been to raise our families together. She is definitely my best friend. Stacie married her high school sweetheart (Brandon), and they have 2 daughters (Mollie & Macie) and a son (Nolen). I love my nieces and nephew, and I love even more seeing how much Charlotte loves them! As the oldest of 4 children, I helped out a lot with Chelsea and Daniel. It has been really amazing to see Chelsea grow into an independent, intelligent woman and My siblings our friendship is growing every day. Chelsea and her husband Caleb just moved to California so I am sure visits to Disney are in our future! Growing & I bring out up, I was more interested in sports than my sisters, so I ended up spending a the silly in lot of time with Daniel. I loved throwing the ball around or shooting hoops with my little “Buddy.” He is now married to Kailyn and recently started each other! med school. I have always felt responsible for and protective of my siblings. I love them all so much and look forward to enjoying our adult years together with our families. When my siblings and I were young, my parents wanted to make sure each of us had a special time with just them. Our oldest family Charlotte & tradition is that my parents take the birthday boy or girl out to dinner to a restaurant of their choosing. It really made us feel Nolen love the special to have that time alone with them. They have continued this pool & water tradition to this day. (Although now we get to bring our spouse.) table at ☺ A tradition that has started just in the past few years is our annual Fall Party. We combine celebrating the October birthdays Grandma & with preparing for Halloween. We spend the morning at an apple Grandpa’s! orchard and then we get together to have chili, drink apple cider, make and eat chocolate/caramel apples, and we even have a pumpkin carving contest. My nieces Mollie and Macie are usually the judges of the contest, so somehow their Daddy always wins, Lots of summer although, that could be due to the fact that my brother-in-law usually carves the face of a favorite Disney character like Elsa! fun when your best Now that Charlotte and Nolen are getting old enough to get a vote, friend/sister lives I’m thinking Josh might have a chance at winning one of these in the same years. This year we even wore costumes to the party. Since Charlotte was Minnie for Halloween, Josh and I dressed up like neighborhood! Donald Duck and Daisy Duck. It was a lot of fun!

I’ve always been interested in sports. I started baseball at age 7. (The girls softball league didn’t start until age 9, but I didn’t want to wait Movie night that long, so I played in a baseball league primarily made up of boys.) After 2 years of baseball, I made the switch to softball. I continued while playing softball until right before high school. I attended a large high babysitting school, and I knew that it would be difficult to play softball and Mollie & Macie! perform on stage. Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I have always loved to sing, dance, and act. In high school, I did show choir, vocal jazz choir, and concert choir. I also was highly involved in theater, performing in 11 high school productions by the time I graduated (including The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, and Music Man). As a choir director myself, now I get to teach 7 choirs and co- direct a Musical each year. One of my choirs is a competitive show choir, and I love the creativity involved in planning and running a Annual show choir show. I also get to do some choreography throughout the family trip year. I recently started golfing. I have loved the challenge of learning a new sport, and I really love that it is something Josh and I can do to the together! I’m not great yet, but Josh has been great at helping me pumpkin modify my old baseball swing to a swing that will work for golf. patch! My dad is very analytical. He once built a spreadsheet to catalog my mom’s Josh’s Family cornucopia of Christmas tree ornaments. Train Computers are a natural fit for his ride at the logical nature. I was fortunate to grow up around computers and zoo with understand some of the basics of how they work. My dad also taught me to have a solid work ethic and strive for excellence in my profession - Grandma regardless of who might be watching. My mom is amazing. She grew up & in a very poor family. As the oldest of 9 kids, she helped raise her siblings. She moved out of a bad home environment when she turned 18, Grandpa! supporting herself as a waitress while living at the local YWCA. A local pastor encouraged her to visit a college. By the time she finished the visit, she was enrolled for the next semester. Mom had an interest in science and chose to study biology. She worked in a hospital lab when I Charlotte was growing up. Sometimes she had to work on holidays, so Dad and I loves would eat Thanksgiving or Christmas meals in the hospital cafeteria (The food is surprisingly good on these special occasions). Now mom spending works for a medical company that installs laboratory equipment for time with some of the top hospitals in the world. She’s looking forward to Grandma & retirement in a couple of years so she can spend even more time with her grandchildren. I grew up as an only child. But my grandparents, aunts, Grandpa! uncles, and cousins lived within 10 minutes and attended the same church. We had frequent family dinners on Sunday afternoons. We were close enough that my 4 older cousins were like pseudo-siblings.

In my family, the Christmas season begins the day after Thanksgiving. We decorate the Christmas tree, make a pot of hot soup, and watch Christmas movies (family favorites include Elf, Being silly wearing Grinch, and White Christmas). On Christmas Eve we attend a Grandma’s candlelight service at church. And the next morning we wake up early sunglasses! to make cinnamon rolls and open presents at home. After opening gifts, we spend the rest of the day with either Erica’s family or mine (or sometimes both). On the 4th of July we fire up the grill and enjoy the outside weather with our families. Erica’s parents have a pool. So everyone jumps in for a family pool party. Charlotte and her cousins love to swim. Then we grill out and wait for the sun to go down so we can light sparklers in the drive-way. Our neighborhood is filled with other families who go all-out on fireworks. So usually we keep the kids up to see the fireworks displays. The best vacations are at the Cuddling cozy beach. As a kid my family often visited Myrtle Beach in the with Grandpa! summers. It’s still one of my favorite places to go as an adult. In the evenings we’ll play putt-putt and go for a walk on the beach to listen to the waves. In college my family went on a vacation to the Grand Canyon. The views of the canyon are breath-taking. Our trip’s highlight was a helicopter ride over the canyon at sunset. In high school I played 4 years of varsity basketball and 3 years of varsity soccer. I grew up watching Michael Jordan and cheering for the Indiana Hoosiers, so basketball has always been my sport. Several of my friends were on the soccer team My family loves and talked me into joining them as a sophomore. I sang in both coffee & games! school and church choirs in high school as a bass. When I was a kid, my mom enrolled me in piano lessons. After 7 years I was no Mozart, but I could play a mean rendition of the Pink Panther. I acted in several school plays, landing the lead once. And for my senior year I had the opportunity to be the assistant director. Today I still love to play basketball. Occasionally I play open gym basketball with several friends, although most exercise comes from early morning kettlebell classes at the local high school. In the summers I enjoy golfing. A few years ago Erica decided to take up golf also. Sometimes we’ll play a round of par 3 together. She’s pretty cute in her golf attire☺ My favorite band is Switchfoot. I’ve been into their music since Grandma high school. But really my interest in music is pretty diverse. I reading with like Pentatonix, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, etc… When I was Charlotte! growing up I even went through country music and rap phases. Josh and I both attended Ball State University. We met through some mutual Our Relationship friends through Campus Crusade for Christ. A friend of mine from high school, who also attended BSU, had contacted me over Christmas Break of my Junior year expressing interest in one of my roommates. I told him that I would try to set up a casual hangout after the first CRU meeting of the semester. Well, when the meeting was over, I found James to tell him we were going to go hang out at Steak n’ Shake. James was already talking to a friend of his (Josh), so I invited him to come along. I had seen Josh from afar at the CRU meetings before, but I didn’t really know much about him yet. (Although, he did attend a Sorority Dance with my sophomore dorm roommate as friends. She had a crush on another guy, and after the dance she showed me a group picture. When I asked her which guy she had a crush on, she replied, “the cutest guy in the picture.” Without knowing who he was, I pointed to Josh. She replied, “No that’s just Josh…he was my date.” When she pointed to the guy she actually had a crush on, I thought she was a little crazy, because Josh was way better looking…but I didn’t tell her that.) Anyway, as a group of us headed to Steak n’ Shake, I knew that Josh was cute, but since I was trying to set up my two Cancun friends, I wasn’t really looking for someone to date. Well as the evening vacation! progressed our whole group ended up in this deep conversation about life and relationships. Every time Josh spoke, I was mesmerized! He was so intelligent, well-spoken, and insightful. By the time I got home that night, I gushed to my best friend Katie like a 13 year-old girl. Needless to say, I was hooked.

As cheesy as it sounds, Josh and I just complete each other. I am naturally a pretty shy person, but Josh helps me feel confident to try new things and meet new people. He is bold, adventurous, and a risk-taker. I balance that out by being a practical planner. We both, however, love to laugh and have fun. I have always admired how intelligent and well-spoken Josh is, but the thing I admire most is his heart. He really loves me and wants me to be happy. Josh is very much a “fixer.” He can’t stand the thought of me being sad or hurt, so his first response is always to try to find a way to make things better. He has even adopted my younger siblings in a way. I am, of course, extremely protective of my younger siblings, but it has been neat to see Josh take on the role of “protective big brother,” even though he is an only child. Josh is strong and confident, but also loving and tender, and that is a combination that can be hard to find. I guess I’m just lucky! ☺ Becoming a father changed Josh from the moment Charlotte was We have a born. He loves her so much and is super protective! He even joked with the weakness for chips nurses in the hospital about moving her bassinet further away from the boy & salsa...& Coffee! babies. ;) The first night home from the hospital, he insisted that someone always be awake with her (even when she was sleeping) to make sure she was ok. It’s a good thing my mom stayed with us for the first couple of nights to help take shifts! Watching Josh love, take care of, be silly with, and cherish Charlotte has only made me love him more. He is an amazing husband and father, and I am I knew Erica was “the one” when I realized that she was the first truly blessed by him. and last person I wanted to talk to every day. It might sound simplistic, but that is literally the revelation I had when I decided to ask her to marry me. Erica is very beautiful which of course attracted me to her, but she is just as beautiful on the inside. Erica Date night! is loyal. I’ve never known anyone more protective and loyal to her family and friends. She is absolutely trustworthy and always thinks of others before herself. One day she came home from teaching with the declaration that we needed to go buy a backpack. One of her students was financially unable to buy one. So we went out that night and got one so it would “anonymously” show up at the student’s desk the next day. Erica is also very funny, energetic, always positive, always pushing to be her best, and always looking for fun things our family can do together. She’s always saying something clever and can make me laugh till I We love going out cry. Erica is the most nurturing, loving mother to Charlotte. She to a Indians’ reads to her all the time, sings lullabies to soothe her to sleep, and lets her try on mommy’s pretend make-up. game! We started trying to start a family in 2008. At first Infertility, we assumed we weren’t getting pregnant because of timing. After 2 years of trying, we were Cuddles Adoption, & referred to a fertility specialist who ran a battery of tests and then recommended artificial with Openness insemination. We underwent 2 back-to-back Mommy! rounds of unsuccessful IUI attempts. When the IUI didn’t work, we were pretty devastated and we decided to take a break to regroup. In 2012 we decided to try invetro fertilization. In pursuing IVF, our second fertility specialist doctor discovered endometriosis in Erica, so she underwent corrective surgery. We went through the process of IVF in the Fall of 2012. The process was demanding both physically, emotionally, and financially, and in the end, we were not Charlotte successful. We have always loved the idea of adoption, but we wanted to has had make sure that we were ready to view adoption as our way of starting our family, not a second choice. And now we are incredibly thankful that Daddy adoption led us to Charlotte and now to this incredible journey of adopting wrapped again! Both sets of our parents have backed our decision to adopt. They couldn’t be more excited to welcome another grandchild into the family! around her Since Josh is an only child, his parents are eager to have another grandchild to finger spoil! We look forward to getting to know another birth mother and would be from day thrilled to have another open adoption, with letters, pictures, and visits. one!

Helping Daddy make a basket! It’s never too early to learn how to swing the bat!

Oh the pig tails! Charlotte lives life to its fullest! She was a happy baby and is now becoming an active, Charlotte rambunctious toddler... And we love it! Her energy and personality bring joy to everyone around her. Charlotte loves to play, read books, and enjoys anything Mickey Mouse. She is very verbal and has been speaking in full sentences since before she was two. She loves music and is constantly singing songs (even when she is supposed to be napping). Recently Charlotte has been all about babies. Her grandparents bought her a baby doll stroller for her birthday and she Enjoying uses it with her baby dolls. She is so adorable and pool time at nurturing and I can't wait for her to become a big Grandma & sister! I always loved having siblings and Josh always wanted siblings, so we are so excited for Grandpa’s! Charlotte to have the bond of adoption to share with her new baby brother or sister! When I first walked into the adoption agency, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. A note from After telling my story and getting a stack of biographies of couples, I was even more Charlotte’s Birth overwhelmed. Opening up the folder, my mind was instantly at ease. It was just a Mom, Lindsey feeling I had that I was in the right place and doing the right thing for my baby. The first bio I read was Josh & Erica. Their picture on the front was of them holding hands jumping through the air on the beach, and as I always say, they literally jumped off the page at me. After reading their bio, I instantly fell in love with them. I was sympathetic to the fact that they wanted a baby so bad, especially after trying everything in their power to do so. I could see they had a very large and loving family. They were both successful in their jobs, and followers of Christ, which was important to me. At that moment, I pictured my life in 20 years, and saw the kind of life they have now. Completely in love with one another, close with family, working hard for a living, and wanting to expand their family. That’s the kind of place I envisioned myself. That’s the kind of life I envisioned raising my future child in. Of course I wasn’t anywhere near ready to have a child. I was 22, just finished my junior year in college, and my boyfriend at the time was the furthest from great that you could think of. Adoption was not a light decision by any means, but reading Josh & Erica’s words, was what could be described as a warm blanket on a cold night. Comforting, heartfelt, and where I wanted to be. Meeting them for the first time I was very nervous of course. I wanted them to like me, because I knew I wanted them to be the parents of my child. I went into the meeting as myself, and they fell in love just as much as I did. Erica even baked me chocolate chip cookies! When that initial meeting had ended, I knew 100% that they were going to be in my life forever. After more meetings in the months ahead, we discussed what we all wanted in terms of communication and visits about the baby. At first I wasn’t sure that I wanted to have visits with Charlotte because I figured it was going to be too hard. After I had her, I immediately changed my mind. Josh & Erica wanted an open adoption from the beginning, complete with visits, and they were willing to compromise with whatever I wanted. They went to a doctor’s appointment with me, and were even in the delivery room when Charlotte was born. We spent a few days in the hospital after the birth, where I bonded with Charlotte and Josh & Erica even more. I left the hospital before they did, and when they got home that night I got a text from Erica letting me know they made it home safe. That was the biggest sigh of relief at the end of the hardest week of my life. After about a week at home, I got a card in the mail from Josh & Erica, complete with pictures. There were pictures of Charlotte’s first bath at home, going to the doctor, and even meeting her older cousins for the first time. I wasn’t expecting to have communication right off the bat, but it was very comforting. I got pictures in the mail every Friday for the first month, and then pictures once a month for the next year. I was honored that they were being so open with me, because I was only expecting updates every few months or so. I can admit that it was hard after that first year to only get pictures and updates every few months, but I knew that I was somewhat spoiled to get them so often in the beginning. When Charlotte was around 4 months old we had our first visit at the agency. It was great to see how big she had gotten, and amazing to see how she interacted with Josh & Erica. I cannot thank them enough for taking such good care of her. I know how much they love her, and can see it in their eyes when they speak to her. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Charlotte, but I know Josh & Erica were put into my life for a reason. Charlotte is safe and so greatly loved, and has every opportunity in the world with Josh & Erica. I knew I wouldn’t be able to provide for her like they can, and I am eternally grateful that they are so willing to let me be a part of her life forever. I can honestly say I can’t imagine any two greater people to be the parents of my baby girl.

We all look forward to our visit with Charlotte’s birth family! Charlotte is blessed to have so many people that love her We live in a 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom home located within a private, safe neighborhood. Our Home & The local school system is award-winning and highly desirable. We have a finished Community basement and large fenced-in backyard with swingset. Many of our neighbors have children who play outside on sunny days. Grandparents and Aunt/Uncle/ Cousins all live within 1 mile. Our church family has been an amazing source of support for us over the years, as well. Our faith is the center of our lives. Within our church community, we attend a small group that includes other families who also have kids and we enjoy so many activities with those families. We also enjoy being a part of our community. We especially love attending local sports events. Most of our Friday nights in the Fall are spent at high school football games; and we love attending basketball games in the Winter. Making Mommy, Daddy & Birth mom Lindsey proud, Charlotte is starting early as an IU fan!

Family fun at the zoo!

Everybody making the “Charlotte” face!

Charlotte is getting so big! She is ready to teach a little Family brother or sister fun on a everything she walk! knows!

Erica: Josh:

Born: 1983 1982 Height: 5’2” 6’2” Complexion: Fair Medium Hair/Eyes: Blonde/Green Brown/Blue Religion: Christian Christian Education: Bachelor’s Degree Bachelor’s Degree Occupation: Teacher VP, Software sales & Marketing Mat/Pat Lv: Yes, 3 months Yes

We have been married since 2006. We adopted our daughter Charlotte at birth in 2013. Thank you for considering our family!