Gretchen and David

We are Gretchen and David and we appreciate you taking the time to look at our profile!  We have been on quite a journey in our attempt to start our family and all roads have led us to adoption.  We have been married for almost 7 years and during that time have been firm on three things: our love and commitment to one another and our desire to start our family!

We commend you on opening your heart to the possibilities of adoption and understand the difficult choices you face.  We know you will view many other couples and we pray your heart guides you to the perfect fit for you and your baby.  We can make this promise to you if you would like to go on this journey together… we will love and cherish this baby with all our hearts and can’t wait to welcome him or her into our lives.  We are so very excited to be at this point in our journey and have never been more ready to be parents!  Thank you so much for looking at our profile.

About Us

We met when we were living 839 miles apart.  David was in Alabama and Gretchen was in Pennsylvania.  We knew almost instantly that we would be Mr and Mrs someday.  We traveled back and forth via plane and car any chance we could get for almost 2 years.  David then moved up to Pennsylvania and we began to plan our life together.  We were married on a beautiful sunny fall day with our closest friends and family looking on. David and I love spending time together.  We are happy to spend a night in watching a new movie with some take-out or going on a new adventure.  We enjoy traveling- mostly to coastal locations for relaxing time at the beach.  We like going to museums, the zoo, aquarium, conservatory, the Aviary or for a day hike at a National Forrest.  We also like the occasional night out for dinner, movie or shopping.  Meeting up with friends and family for good meal and some laughs.  We’ve cruised to the Caribbean where we snorkeled off a catamaran and on a barrier reef.  As former foster parents we enjoyed planning birthday parties and holidays for the babies and spending a fun day with friends and family celebrating life and love.  Life can be stressful, so we try to take moments together to enjoy each other and make memories together and we plan to continue to do so once we are parents.

We love the ocean!  David has a degree in marine biology and Gretchen is a lifelong avid beach goer.  We have visited Orange Beach, Panama City, Flagler Beach, Miami Beach, Bethany, Rehobeth, Dewey, Bimini Beach, Nassau, Roatan Bay, Cozumel, Belize, Freeport, Mossel Bay, Cape Cod, Boynton, Virginia, Cape May, Stone Harbor, Ocracoke, Manteo and all of the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

About David, By Gretchen

David is the most kind, gentle and loving man I have ever known.  I had the pleasure of witnessing him as a father to our foster sons and daughter.  He endured the late nights without sleep, the many pediatrician appointments and all of the bottle feedings with grace, ease and loving kindness. Beyond any doubt David loved those sweet babies as his own without hesitation.

David is loved by my family and friends.  He is liked and respected by his coworkers, managers and clients.  He is a very hard worker and provider.  He is a man of God and leads in his decision making based upon his faith.  David is the best friend and husband I could have ever been blessed with and I can’t wait to see him be a father.

Hometown:  Birmingham, Alabama

Favorite Place:  Outer Banks, North Carolina

Hobbies:  Hiking, Grilling, Nature/beach/ocean enthusiast, Snorkeling, Diving,

Fun Facts About David:

• David has a degree in Marine Biology.
• David used to live on a research vessel in the Bahamas where he was a shark wrangler.  He was the guy that jumped in the ocean and got the shark on the gurney to be tagged and released.
• David is a United States Airforce Veteran.
• David holds 2 black belts in Karate and was the Alabama state champion in Shokodan Karate 1^st degree black belt division.

David’s Favorites

Actor: Robert Downy Jr.

Animals:  Dog Lover

Fav Athlete: Troy Polamalu

Author: Tracy Hickman

Dream job: Marine Biologist

Historical Figure:  George Patton

Holiday:  Christmas

Sentimental keepsake: picture of my parents

Source of inspiration: God

Sports team:  Steelers and Auburn University- War Eagle!

HS subjects:  Math and Science

Superhero:  Ironman

Superhero power I would like to have:  Flight

Vacation spot:  Pick a beach!

Collect:  Seashells

Perfect day:  Spending time with family

About Gretchen, By David

Gretchen is a wonderful wife and an amazing woman.  She has such a kind and loving heart.  She spent most of her career teaching children and adults skills to help them better their lives.  Recently she has started her own business which allows her to use her artistic talents to create beautiful artisan goods.  She also loves working hard to make our home beautiful.  She has painted, wall papered and decorated our home since the day we moved in.

Gretchen has always wanted to have a loving family.  She adores her nieces and nephews.  She also loves planning events, parties and holiday get togethers to make them full of memories and delicious food.  I watched her love and care for our foster sons and daughter while advocating for them every step of the way for years.  She is so strong and puts others before herself.  I witnessed her kindness, love and devotion as a mother to our foster sons and daughter.  Her faith has been tested during our attempts at creating our family, but it is her faith in God that keeps her pushing forward to our dream of growing our family.

Hometown:  Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Favorite Place:  Outer Banks, North Carolina

Hobbies:  Hiking, swimming, gardening, baking, painting, crafting, photography, decorating, DIY projects, bird watching and anything to do with the beach

Fun facts About Gretchen:

• Gretchen is a Reiki Master Practitioner and loves practicing energy work on her friends and family.
• Gretchen loves decorating and secretly wishes she were an interior designer.
• Gretchen loves children and dedicated much of her career to helping children reach goals and milestones- 2 of her former clients just started college this year and she is so proud of them.
• Gretchen loves the water!  She is usually the first one in the pool, lake or ocean and the last one out of the water.

Gretchen’s Favorites:

Animals: love all animals big and small.  Was an equestrian for many years so horses are one of her favorites.

Author:  Currently reading The Book of Joy- co-authored by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu

Can’t live without:  My husband

Childhood activity:  Ballet, Skiing, Equestrian(English style)

Children’s book:  Goodnight Moon

Children’s TV show:  Care Bears

Dessert:  My Mom’s Strawberry Pretzel Pie

Dream jobs:  Interior designer or Photographer

Game:  80’s Trivia

Hobby:  Quite a few but Painting at the moment.

Holiday:  Christmas- love decorating the tree and baking cookies

Ice cream flavor:  Pistachio

Place to take a child:  Beach

Superpower:  fly- it would be awesome to fly to my favorite places and avoid traffic or airport security!

Vacation spot:  Hatteras, NC

Perfect day:  On the beach with my loved ones

Youtuber:  Omar Gosh

Nickname:  Gretch

Zodiac:  Libra

Family is so important to us.  David’s parents, Cindy and Bruce have passed and he misses them dearly.  Gretchen’s parents consider David as one of their own.  Gretchen has 2 sisters Stephanie and Leslie and between the 2 of them they have 6 children ranging in age from 3-17(Landon, Haddie, Henry, Kayla, Emily and Abby).  They spend every holiday and birthday together and often have spontaneous weekend picnics, shopping excursions or swim parties at Stephanie and Greg’s pool.  Gretchen and David are very close with Gretchen’s parents and live just 15 minutes away so it’s easy to have impromptu visits, meals or shopping trips together.  The entire family is very excited Gretchen and David have decided to adopt and can’t wait to shower the baby with love and gifts.

Our Pets

We love animals!  Bailey is our 3rd rescue dog and we believe she is a toy fox terrier and jack russell mix.  She is high energy, very smart and wonderful with children.  The ultimate nanny dog!  She loved cuddling with the foster babies and was always the first at their side when they woke up from naps or wanted a bottle.  Meow Meow is our other rescue who was found as a tiny kitten in a shed all alone.  Gretchen bottle fed her for weeks and they never parted ways.

We live in a very quiet country setting in a 3-bedroom brick ranch home.  Our home is nestled on a hill among a ton of pine and maple trees on just under an acre.  We have a patio and a pavilion off the kitchen which is fun for play time and grilling.  We purchased this home because we love nature and we literally live in a park!  We have deer, bunnies, turkeys, woodpeckers, raccoons and just about every species of bird in our yard daily.  It is so peaceful.  We love looking at the stream below, it is relaxing to hear its running water while outside enjoying the sunshine.  The other things that make our home great for a family is the school district which is ranked in the top 2% of the state!  We have spent many hours updating, painting and sprucing up our house to make it a home.  While we live in a country like setting, we are just 10 minutes from major shopping and restaurants and 15 minutes from the mall.  When we want to enjoy all that a bigger city (Pittsburgh) has to offer such as the zoo, aviary, museums, water parks and amusement parks we are just 30 minutes from the heart of downtown.

In Closing

Just as we pledged our love to each other on our wedding day and to God to keep our foster babies safe and loved, we promise you that we will love your child to the ends of this earth.  That he or she will never want for anything that is within our means to give them.  That we will spend time each day making them feel important and special.  That we will fill their life and heart with not just the basics of good food and a happy home but of beautiful memories filled with love and laughter.  We will never be too tired to snuggle, too busy to teach, to preoccupied to play because nothing will ever be more important to us than this child.  Nothing.  We understand you are faced with much uncertainty right now and we want you to know that regardless of what you decide for the future of you and your unborn baby we wish you both a life full of blessings and love.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read our profile.