The Story of The Shacks

~A Love Story~

Once upon a time, there was a boy who fell hard for a girl.  But the girl did not feel the same way about the boy at all so she tried to push him away.  After the very persistent boy finally convinced the girl to go on a single date with him she accepted.  Three dates later, the girl still wasn’t really feeling anything for this boy and was ready to break if off.  The boy and girl already had a trip planned to Houston to see the boy’s best friend so the girl thought it was best if she waited until after that trip.  While the girl can’t explain it, and the boy was completely shocked by it, the girl fell head over heels for the boy while in Houston.  You could blame the long car ride, the boys annoying Incubus sound track, or maybe even it was his really awesome friends that the girl met for the first time there.  But when it comes down to it, no one can explain the real reason she fell for him.

Two years after the magical Houston trip the boy and girl, Josh and Kayla were getting married.  Who would have thought that would have happened? While life has thrown them some serious curve balls, they have only become stronger though it all.  If we could give any type of marital advice it would be this: Marriage is not easy.  It takes a lot of work and perseverance.  But, if you truly love each other, then it really isn’t all that difficult.

~Disney~
Disney holds a very special place in both of our hearts.  We first went to Walt Disney World together in the summer of 2009.  Since then we have done 9 trips to Walt Disney World and 2 trips to Disneyland as of May 2015.  We have done the holiday parties, RunDisney races, 24 Hour Events, you name it and we have probably done it.  We got engaged in Walt Disney World in the summer of 2010 and then honeymooned there in 2011.  We then became Disney Vacation Club members in 2013 and it was the best purchase we could have possibly made.  Josh has promised Kayla that she will at least step foot in the Magic Kingdom every year until they are physically not capable to do it (Disney is wheelchair friendly so I don’t see us ever not going!).

We know how fortunate we are to be able to take all of these crazy Disney vacations.  We have always wanted to find a way to spread our love of Disney with those whom may never get the opportunity to experience it.  Enter the early thoughts of adoption.  When we first got together we had joked that we were going to adopt rather than have children of our own because neither of us have the best genes in our families.  In the fall of 2014 we began to think about adoption a little bit more seriously.  Then around Christmas of 2014 we decided to make the plunge.

~Adoption~
When we first fully decided to adopt rather than have children of our own it was an overwhelming feeling of hope and fear.  We decided that we wanted to adopt twin newborn babies.  Twins are considered “special needs” in the adoption world because they are a sibling group.  Most people that go into adoption want to bring home a perfect single new born baby.  The more we looked into Adoption, the more we realized that the demand for new born babies is extremely high.  What there is not a demand for, is older children.  We began to look more and more into DHS and the children that are in orphanages, group homes, and foster homes.  The thoughts that these children were passed over because they had already left the “adorable baby age” was a feeling we as a couple could not bear.  We have now officially decided that we would like to adopt a sibling group of 2-3 children somewhere between the ages of 0-7.  (of course we are open to other options but we needed a starting point of some type).