Nathan and Emily

We met through mutual friends at a dinner they were hosting at their house. We had both lived over seas as single people and gained rich life experiences. This set us up for desiring pretty specific qualities in our future spouses such as; flexibility, a sense of adventure and awareness of social issues. We began dating right away and spent many of our dates with our families in real day to day scenarios. We got to know the "real" side of each other quickly. We found that our core values were the same and our goals for our future families were also very much alike. We both wanted to put God first and stay close to our families. We have now been married eight years. It has been eight years full of adventure and realizing that we made a great decision!
All of our immediate family lives in the area except one of Nathan's siblings. Our children are growing up close with their aunt's, uncles cousins and grandparents. This is super important to us. We know that though we desire to raise our kids perfectly, we are imperfect people with some great strengths and some weaknesses too. It is invaluable to have our families involved in our kid's lives.
We value our church family so much as well. We believe in having a strong network of community for our own well being and to provide a stable and nurturing environment for our children to grow up in.
We LOVE being parents!! It's one reason we know for sure that we want more children. we have also both spent time volunteering with kids ministries in our churches and also with some non-profit groups in our city. It's kind of our thing.
We desire to give our children a variety of experiences to help them become the best version of themselves that they possibly can. We take weekly trips to the zoo, library or museum so we can provide our children with an educated view of the world that is also fun. We put a high priority on spending time outside regularly and have taken up camping to be out in nature even more. We strongly believe in teaching our kids to be life long learners. Trying new things is something we continuously encourage our kids to do as well as ourselves.