We met at our church’s youth group when we were 15 and 16 years old. Bo was this funny, goofy kid who loved to laugh, whereas Willa was very shy and quiet. Little did she know that Bo liked her from the very beginning. It wasn’t until college that we began dating. Our memories of our first coffee-shop date are hilariously different. Bo, not being a coffee-drinker himself, copied Willa’s drink order and promptly burnt the fire out of his mouth by nervously gulping down his coffee too quickly. Willa remembers sitting close to this cute boy in front of the fireplace at the coffee shop, and the conversation coming easily when normally this would have been a struggle for her. Something about him made her feel lighter; the shyness simply melted away.

After dating for about 2 and 1/2 years, we got engaged. The story goes that one day Bo took Willa out to the shooting range (Willa was a terrible shot and mostly did this to humor Bo and to watch how good of a sharp shooter he was). He had her stand, gun pointed downrange, waiting on the targets to be pulled. He stood to the side, and when Willa yelled “Pull!” he pulled the rope that raises the targets. On them were the words “Will You Marry Me?” to which Willa of course said yes!

After a 6-month engagement, we were married and December 2025 will be 12 years of marriage for us.

Willa: "In my leisure time, I love to play the piano. I hope to incorporate music lessons in our child's education - It is something that has helped me throughout life to relax, refocus, and process my emotions. In fact, when we bought our house, my parents gifted me the grand piano that I spent most of my life playing on growing up! We will always have a "piano room" at our house - it is that important to me! Besides that, I love to make cookies. My specialty is salted chocolate chip. They keep selling out at our favorite coffee shop, so this summer and fall I will be selling them at our local farmers market. I also love scouring thrift stores and yard sales for cool vintage clothing and decor, and what I don't keep I like to resell."

Bo: "I enjoy golfing. I've always gone to play golf with my dad, and this is something even when Willa and I were first married we talked about would be a cool thing to pass on to our child one day. I would love to take our kid out on the course - boy or girl - and teach them how to play. I also really enjoy competitive axe throwing. My ranking is currently 50th in the world. I find that sports that require a lot of skill and focus are the ones that appeal to me the most. Willa and I also love to hike and travel together."

Discussing adoption with our child is something that we have been planning from the very moment we chose American Adoptions. We started keeping a scrapbook album containing a timeline of events, photos, and notes for our child. Our favorite note so far is from Willa's sister, Hannah, who has already agreed to be our child's godmother. We are collecting notes and letters from prospective cousins and other family members to include as well. As we build a relationship and begin communicating with our child's birth mom, we want to include everything in the scrapbook - including the birth story and photos/letters that are exchanged in the first years of life together. Depending on the development of our child, we hope that this is something we can start sharing with them as early as 5-6 years of age. We don't want there to be secrets. We don't want them to wonder about their heritage. We want to build a trusting, loving relationship with our child, and let them know that their mother made a courageous and selfless choice in honoring us with being her child's adoptive parents.

Willa's family is very large! There are 7 girls and 2 boys, and many nieces and nephews. Although all of the nine siblings are all adults now and many have moved to other areas, we get together at holidays and sometimes we are able to get together for reunions/vacations throughout the year.

Willa's parents and oldest sister, Carrie, live just a few minutes away, and they very much want to be involved in child-care for our child when Willa goes back to work after the three-month adoption leave is up. Willa's mom is retired and has done a lot of work with local pregnancy resource center helping young moms. Willa's dad runs a local farm supply store. They live in a cabin on some land where the grandkids run and play. There is access to a creek, wildlife, and a pool on their property.

Bo has one older brother, Curt, who is married and has three school-age children. They are all very involved in school and have excellent grades. They participate in a lot of school activities ranging from football to volleyball to FFA. Bo's parents are both retired. Bo's dad enjoys playing golf daily, and Bo joins him when he is able to. Bo's mom, Deb, is very modest about her painting abilities, but she is an excellent artist and makes beautiful crafts. They hard-core love and support their grand-kids and show up for all of their school events.

Our home is a modest, but very pretty ranch style home. It is 3 bedroom/2 bathroom. We have some beautiful trees and a big, 1-acre yard that is very well-kept. It isn't fancy, but we love it! We have a big comfy couch and TV in our living area, and a large kitchen where we love to make home-cooked meals. Our favorite room right now is the nursery/kids room for our waiting kiddo -- It was painted a beautiful light yellow by both of their grandmas! As our child gets older we plan to convert our large shop building in the backyard into an air-conditioned jungle gym/play area for our kiddo. The houses in our neighborhood are not very close together, so there is plenty of privacy, but still neighbors close-by if any needs arise.

It is a very safe and quiet neighborhood outside of the city limits. We often see our neighbor's children out riding bikes and families/elderly folks out walking their dogs. We live within 10 minutes of both of our parents' homes. Our child will have close access to land with woods and a creek to play in and explore.

As far as our community, we love our Farmer's Market every Saturday in the Spring thru Fall. There are lots of fun community events, our favorite being the annual Red White and Blue Festival/Rodeo.

We are grateful to you for considering us (Bo, 34 years old, and Willa, 33 years old) to be the adoptive parents of your child. We have been married for nearly 12 years, and have a loving, stable home to welcome your child into. We love to laugh, work hard, have fun, and we love each other very deeply.

To us, adoption is a calling, not a second choice. We have wanted to start a family for 10 years, and sadly have had 3 pregnancy losses even though there was no determining factor as to why these losses happened. We have been told by our fertility specialist just to "keep trying" to have children. However, we have felt God's calling on our lives to adopt, and feel that God has already chosen a specific child for us as our first child.

We have already started a memory book to give to our adopted child when they are old enough, explaining their adoption story. We are including notes from us and from family members about how excited we are to meet them and welcome them into our family. We plan to include correspondence and photos that will be exchanged between us and you, our child's birth mom. Even though we are not even matched with a child yet, we are confident that just the right little one has been pre-picked for us - one who will perfectly fill that empty place in our hearts and in our family.

We do not mean to discuss our pregnancy losses to drum up pity or special consideration - we simply want to make known to the birth mom who is reading this that we have experienced loss. Although we cannot fully understand the experience of placing a child for adoption, we can relate to the emotional rollercoaster - ranging from excitement, to apprehension, to doubt, and to the devastating feeling of loss. We want you to know that in our experience of starting a family we have felt this range of emotions, too. We plan to walk hand in hand with you through the process, respecting your feelings and emotions through it all.

We plan to be respectful of your needs and desires throughout the adoptive process. We would like to have communication with you through planned letters/photo exchanges. If you are open to some contact prior to the birth, or if it is feasible for us to be of assistance with prenatal care/being there for doctors appointments (even if it is via phone/FaceTime due to distance!), that is also something we would be very excited to be a part of. Willa's background is in nursing, so if there is anything she could be of assistance with, we want to keep that door of communication open.

Post-adoption, we would like to continue exchanging updates with you as previously discussed. Depending on the situation and if you are open to it, we would be willing to set up some post-adoption visits as well. We want you, the birth mom, to be completely at ease and rest assured that your little one has gone to a healthy and loving home.

Very Sincerely Yours,

Bo & Willa