Chiedo & Kelsey
Hey,
We’re honored to have the opportunity to introduce ourselves to you.
We can only imagine how hard of a decision this is for you to make. We see you as courageous for choosing life for your child. We hope you’ll be a part of this child’s life, & our life if you choose to go on this journey with us!
When we started dating in 2013 after an extremely memorable encounter salsa dancing, we both shared our desire to adopt children some day.
After getting married, we started trying to get pregnant, with no success, so we realized the Lord was calling us to adopt sooner than we had originally planned.
In 2017, we adopted our first son, Shiloh, as an infant. In 2021, we adopted our second son, Atreyu, as an embryo.
We never had the chance to meet Shiloh’s birth parents, or Atreyu’s genetic parents, yet it’s a deep desire we still have. So getting to meet you would touch our hearts!
We’re fun, nerdy, love Jesus, value education, love books, & love children!
This book is just a glimpse of us & our life in Virginia, but we hope it will give you a sense of who we are and what we value. We hope to meet you and learn more about your hopes and dreams for your child’s future.
With gratitude & respect,
Kelsey and Chiedo
Reside in Virginia
Chiedo’s Occupation: Works from home as a Director of Engineering at a Microsoft company
Kelsey’s Occupation: Has a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education & is a full-time homeschooling mom of our two kids.
About Us: When we first started dating, we both shared that we had a desire to become parents & to adopt someday. There have been a few adoptions in Kelsey’s extended family, so adoption is close to her heart. After getting married, we struggled with infertility, & felt God calling us to adopt sooner than we had planned. We now have two sons by adoption, born in 2017 & 2021. We LOVE being parents, & are so excited to adopt another child! We believe it is impossible to spoil a baby, or to hold him/her too much. We love to hold our babies close & be a trusted source of calm for them as they adjust to life outside the womb. Over the years, we have become committed to responsive, respectful, gentle, & peaceful parenting. Our goals are to help our children regulate, develop a secure attachment & trust, & discipline (lead/teach) instead of punishment. We try to model grace, conflict resolution, respectful communication & behavior, & emotional intelligence. We highly value time outdoors, reading, letting our kids have unstructured time to play freely, & homeschooling. We have a strong desire to fill our house & our bellies with wholesome, nourishing food. Food is medicine – we love to bake from scratch & cook lots of fresh foods! We are always trying to find holistic & natural approaches to our health. Our faith in God is very important to us. We have been members of our church since around 2014, & it is a huge blessing in our lives. We strive to share the gospel with our children & teach them more about the Lord as they grow.
- We are big nerds about sci-fi & fantasy. Especially Star Trek, Star Wars, & Lord of the Rings.
- Chiedo loves anime, especially Naruto & My Hero Academia.
- We love reading, especially listening to audiobooks & reading aloud to our kids.
- We enjoy our small homestead: backyard chickens, a garden, peach trees, an apple tree, & berry bushes. We both grew up in the DC suburbs, but after college we decided to stay near the rural, small town. This slower pace of life is so refreshing.
- Kelsey loves to forage wild edibles.
- We adopted our older son as an infant. He spent about 2 months in the nicu. We were so overjoyed to become parents!
- We adopted our younger son as a donor embryo. Kelsey gave birth to him naturally at home!
- Chiedo’s parents are from Sierra-Leone. His mum, step-dad, & two brothers live in Australia. His dad lives in Miami.
- Kelsey’s grandmother was from Norway. Our kids call Kelsey’s parents the Norwegian terms for grandparents, Bestemor & Bestefar.
- We enjoy getting outside as much as possible. We love taking low-key family hikes.
There is a diverse group of prospective adoptive families waiting to adopt through Family Life Services! This is a sample representation of the couples who hope to build their families through adoption. If you are on a mobile device, click on the three lines above to see the list of waiting families.
If you are interested in learning more about any of our prospective adoptive families, email us at info@familylifeservices.org. Please note that all families may not be available for consideration at a given time, for various reasons.
