Clayton and Leslie

Our names are Leslie (age 31) and Clayton (age 33) and we live in a suburb of Houston, TX.  Leslie is a high school English teacher and Clayton is a loan coordinator and works part-time at our church as a worship leader.  We met when we were in college, dated for three years, and have been married for almost 9 years.  We will be first-time human parents, but we have a fur baby named Lucy; she’s a corgi dog and keeps us laughing all the time with her sassy personality.  We live in a friendly neighborhood; most families have young children, so there are always kids playing in our driveway or riding bikes in the cul-de-sac.

We are very involved in our church and enjoy leading worship together every Sunday.  Clayton is a talented guitar player and Leslie loves being able to sing beside him.  We love music of all kinds and enjoy attending concerts and performing live music.  We also like to play board and card games,  hang out with our extended family, cook and eat meals with our friends, and travel.

We both enjoy the outdoors—the lake, the river, the mountains, the beach—it’s all good!  We can’t wait to take vacations to the family lake house and make memories there with our child.  Both of us love to read (mysteries/crime novels for Clayton; fantasy and historical fiction for Leslie) and we also like low-key Netflix nights.  We also have a tight-knit group of friends with elementary and junior high aged children; they can’t wait to be able to spoil and play with our baby!

From the earliest days of our relationship, we knew that we wanted to be parents together.  At first, we weren’t in a hurry to start a family, so we waited a few years before trying.  However, when we were ready, we were unable to get pregnant.  We tried unsuccessfully for about 4 years before feeling led to adopt a child.  It is so incredible how a child cannot have too much love from his or her family members—whether that love comes from birth family, adoptive family, or just influential people in his or her life!  We feel very strongly about building relationships based on trust, love, and respect; if chosen by an expectant parent, we would be honored to include a child’s birth family as a part of our own and maintain openness with each other.

We have so much love to give a child.  Biology or genetics doesn’t matter to us; we are ready to open our hearts, arms, home, and lives to a special baby and we are ready to experience the joys and challenges of parenthood.

We can’t imagine the difficulty of the decisions you are faced with.  I’m not sure what we can say to encourage you, other than that at this point, only you know what is best for your child!  We do want you to know that we pray for our future child and birth family every day and love them so much already.  Even if we never meet, know how strong, brave, and loving you are!