Nicole and Erin
Nicole and Erin have recently welcomed a baby into their home and are no longer available to be matched with. View some of our other waiting families online, or contact an adoption counselor at (512) 477-1122 to learn more about your options.
We are a couple who loves adventure and new experiences. When we can, we choose the unique experience over the well-traveled path. For example, when given the chance to leave our house in the suburbs, move to 400 acres in Westlake and serve as dorm parents, we jumped on the opportunity — trading our fenced-in backyard and dinner table for two for hundreds of trails and dinners with students and adults from all over the world. Nicole, or Nikki as she is known to family and dear friends, is outgoing and silly, never meeting a stranger or leaving a room without making people laugh. Erin is patient and laid-back, always willing to remain calm through any situation and leveling out Nikki’s extra energy. Together we balance each other and challenge each other!
Nicole
When I grew up I wanted to be a plastic surgeon or a famous pop singer like Debbie Gibson.
I am really good at wrapping presents, thanks to my job gift wrapping at the mall in high school!
I am terrible at losing fishing lures. I always get my fishing line hung up on a rock!
My favorite quote is “How bravely beautiful it is, that sometimes, the sea wants the city, even when it has been told its entire life it was meant for the shores.” – Christopher Poindexter
My best mom joke: Knock, knock. Who’s there? Broken pencil! Broken pencil who? Oh, nevermind, it’s pointless!
I realized I was no longer cool when… I am totally still hip with the
kids!
Erin
When I grew up I wanted to be a veterinarian.
I am really good at it’s a toss up between untangling knots and finding the lost fishing lures in the lake.
I am terrible at walking in high heels. I will seriously break my ankle.
My favorite quote is “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” -Dolly Parton
My best mom joke: What did one volcano say to the other?
I lava you!!!
I realized I was no longer cool when “late night” became anything after 9pm.
PETS
We really have such an energetic group of pups: Roxie, a Cairn Terrier (like Wizard of Oz), Cow, the French Bulldog, and Charlie, the Morkie. They love to go play on the football and baseball fields, and we take them there once a day! They also LOVE playing with the students on campus. They think that they have 200 people in their family who can pet them and snuggle them. Roxie loves to look for squirrels, Cow loves to roll around in dirt and mud, and Charlie loves playing with toys. They are so excited to have a new member of the family for pets, snuggles and playtime.
OUR HOME
We have a very unique home. We live as members of a boarding school community on nearly 400 acres in the Westlake neighborhood of Austin. We
enjoy a pool, every sports court imaginable, more than 20 hiking paths and private access to Lake Austin. In addition we have a built in community filled with adults and students from all different countries, states, backgrounds and ethnicities. We love seeing the students every night on campus and at dinner, and the kids on campus are so excited to have a new neighbor!
HOBBIES
There are lots of things we love to do together! First, we love to travel! We have a huge scratch off map on our wall and when it is time to plan a vacation, we pick somewhere we have never been together! We were so excited to add visiting Hawaii and swimming with the sea turtles to our list this year! We also love to craft. We made all of our own wedding flowers and decorations and we have already started working on decorations for the nursery of the new little one who joins our family!
OUR EXTENDED FAMILY
We both have a tremendous extended family. Nicole hails from Kentucky and has over 20 cousins, a brother, 2 nieces and a nephew. We love to get together during the year at holidays and for celebrations as a huge extended family! Nicole’s favorite aunt and uncle live in California, and we enjoy visiting them, taking trips up and down the coast together and going skiing in the winter. Erin’s family hails from here in Texas. With her grandparents in Odessa and her parents, sister, brother-in-law and two nieces and a nephew living right here in Austin, we love family dinners on Thursday nights and frequent family gatherings at the lake house.
WHAT ADOPTION MEANS TO US
In Merriam-Webster Dictionary, adoption is defined as “to take by choice into a relationship”. We love this definition, but we realize that adoption is far more than these few words. Adoption is coming together in challenges, losses, hopes and dreams. Adoption means that by choice we, along with the first family, will choose to enter into a life-changing and powerful relationship together and with the child. Ultimately, adoption will allow us the joy of becoming parents–a deep desire we have in our hearts that could never happen without it.
Things We Can’t Wait to Do as a Family
Nicole
Cheer on the Kentucky Wildcats
Take a vacation to Disney World
Read A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo
Sing Broadway songs from Hamilton
Spend the weekend at the lake house! I can’t wait for you to learn to kayak!
Watch A Christmas Story on Christmas Day
See New York City at Christmastime! Ice skating under the Rockefeller tree, seeing the holiday windows and going to a Broadway show!
Eat a Kentucky Hot Brown or Burgoo at the Derby!
Make homemade Playdoh
Play cornhole
Erin
Cheer on the Texas Longhorns
Take a vacation to anywhere in the world we haven’t been together!
Read The Berenstain Bears
Sing High Hopes by Frank Sinatra
Spend the weekend at the lakehouse–on the boat and swimming!
Watch Swiss Family Robinson and The Goonies
See sunsets at the lake! My grandma taught us to countdown until the sun disappears behind the horizon.
Eat my sisters Christmas sugar cookies. They are SERIOUSLY good.
Make mud pies after a good rain!
Play in pillow forts in the living room
