Our Family

Hi! We are Tommy and Lorraine. We have been married for over 12 1/2 years. We have 3 wonderful kids. TJ is 7, Tyra is 5 and Braxton is 3. We were lucky enough to adopt TJ and Tyra just after their births. Braxton is a foster child who has been a part of our family for 2 1/2 years now. Hopefully we will be able to adopt him soon. We are looking forward for a new little one to come into our family.

Tommy and I both grew up in small towns of Idaho. We now live about 6 miles from where I grew up. When we first got married, I wanted to get the heck out of dodge, but once we realized what it would be like far away from family, we both decided that Idaho was the best place for us to be. We live out in the country on 15 acres of land. We just added onto our house and love having double the space. We are so thankful for where we live and for what we have. This last spring Tommy decided to get 10 chicks. 1 died pretty quickly. It drowned in the water. 7 more were killed months later, (by my cats) just after Tommy made them a great big chicken coop. We are thinking of getting a couple little baby goats this next spring. But who knows?

Tommy owns his own insurance adjusting agency. He has been working in this field since he was a teenager and worked for his dad. I am a happy stay at home mom. My funnest jobs so far were being a travel agent and a dance instructor. When I was a travel agent, we were able to visit lots of fun places; Brazil, Spain, Mexico and others. This has given us a real love for travel.

Later, I opened up a dance studio and ran that for a few years, but eventually sold it because I didn't feel like I was able to give my children the attention they deserved. Now our little Tyra is in dance and that is enough dance for me, for the moment. I keep telling Tyra that if she ends up loving dance and being very good at it, then when she gets old enough I will help her open another studio. But we will see.

Tommy and I both are playing soccer together. We have such a ball doing this. Our team has several family members and friends on it, so it really makes it fun. All three kids are signing up for soccer again this next summer too. I have never liked running, so I was so surprised when I realized how much I like soccer. I am so glad that the kids love it too. We have so much fun watching their games. Our summers our full of soccer, soccer, soccer!










All three of our children really are such blessings to us. Each one of them is a miracle in their own way. If it weren't for Heavenly Father and our children's wonderful birth parents and all that they have gone through, our lives would not be what they are today. We are so grateful for them.

TJ was our first little blessing. He was placed with our family on Christmas day of 1999. It was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives. We love his birth mom more than she will ever know and miss having regular correspondance with her. TJ has an open adoption with his birth Great Grandparents. The kids love to go visit them, especially on Halloween. TJ is now in second grade and doing very well. He is a very healthy child, surprisingly by the way he eats. He is a VERY picky eater. TJ is my little man and always will be. It is sad to see him grow up so fast. He is such a handsome young man.

Tyra was our second blessing. We met her birth mom the day before she was born and she came to our home a few days later. We have a completely open adoption with her birth family and absolutely love it. They all mean the world to us. Tyra just started kindergarten this year and thinks she is 5 going on 16. She always says she wants to be all grown up. She is always such a huge help to me. She is definitely the person in my life that keeps me grounded. She always helps me remember what is most important in life. That is our families and the relationships we have with them. She is my little dolly.

Braxton is our third blessing. He came to our home just after he had turned one. His birth mother has had so many trials in her life and has not been able to overcome them. We continually pray for her and hope that she can get her life straightened out. His birth father actually signed his rights off this past March so that we would be able to adopt him. We are so thankful for him and his support. Both of Braxton's love him so much and I think ultimately want the best for him. We are hoping to be able to adopt him soon, but we are unable to say at this time if that will happen. I would die without our little guy.

We now have our papers in for adoption with LDSFS. We have had them in since April 15, 2006 but have only had our profile online since this past April. We have had one contact with a birth mom and wrote to her for a little over a month. She did end up placing her baby with another couple but just having her write to us has blessed our lives so much. She has inspired us to teach our children spanish, which I think will be so fun. TJ has wanted to learn it forever. She also has helped me put my faith back in the Lord about adopting. I know that when the time is right, he will help our next birthmom find us some how. We are so excited to have her and her baby become a part of our lives and family.

Our little Pomeranian, Meeko, is now 1 1/2 years old. She loves to play with the kids, as long as she is in the mood. She is my shadow. If I ever want to know where she is, I just have to look down by my feet. Anytime I sit down, she is up on my lap. At the moment she terribly needs a haircut.
We now have 1 Tom cat and 3 momma cats. We also have 2 kittens. We seriously need to get rid of some cats. 3 cats is about the most I like to have. 6 is WAY too many. At one point this summer we had 17 cats and kittens. Yikes! I love cats but not THAT much. Our cats are Utah, Jayce, Lisa, Maggie, Roofus and Dottie.
Well, this was just a little bit about our family. I will go into more detail about each of us on other pages. I will update soon.