Julie and Tyler
Hello! We are Julie and Tyler. We are so excited to share about our life and family with you! We met, and began dating, in our early twenties. Our careers brought us to Southern Oregon in 2012, and we were married in the summer of 2013. Southern Oregon is where we have created a home, and found our community. We love our neighborhood, town, and the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside.
From the start, we have felt connected over our interests. We both share a love of traveling, animals (especially dogs), live music, sports, and board games. After we got to know each other, we realized we also both had a passion for working with children. One of our favorite traditions is collecting magnets from places we visit, which are organized in the order of our trips on our refrigerator. Together, we love to go kayaking, build large Lego sets, go on dog walks, and visit new places. We also love having friends over for dinner, board games, and to watch sports. When we are kayaking, we love to keep an eye out for wildlife (turtles and birds are our favorites). We share our home with our dog, Pippin. He is half beagle, 4 years old, and has a passion for balls, digging, and socks. Our house has a great location near the center of town with a large, fenced front and back yard. Julie enjoys gardening in the yard and Tyler enjoys playing guitar on the back porch.
Tyler is a third grade teacher at an elementary school a few blocks from home where he has worked for 12 years. He loves his job because he gets to interact with and build relationships with children at a very fun age. His favorite parts of teaching are helping kids discover that they love reading, and getting kids to realize that they love math. One of Tyler’s favorite hobbies is playing music with people. He has been playing guitar and singing with a group of friends for years. Tyler also follows sports closely, and baseball and basketball are his favorites. When relaxing, he can be found snuggling with Pippin while reading. His favorite books are fantasy, such as The Lord of the Rings and The Name of the Wind, but he loves books from many genres. Playing card and board games are another hobby of his; he especially enjoys Cribbage, and Settlers of Catan. Finally, in the summers, he loves going camping with Julie and his family in the mountains, and disc golfing with friends. Julie would describe Tyler as caring, adventurous, and empathetic.
Julie works as a Student Advocate at an elementary school, which is 5 minutes from home. She loves her job and cares deeply for the students that she works with. The parts she loves most about her job are showing kids different tools to help them focus and helping kids build strategies for being mindful with their actions and words. Julie’s favorite show is The Big Bang Theory because it makes her laugh, though she also enjoys medical dramas like Grey’s Anatomy. She is a great cook, and some of her best recipes are pizza on the grill, homemade mac and cheese (Tyler’s favorite), and enchiladas with tomatillo sauce. Julie’s passion has always been for traveling. Her favorite trips have been to Ireland, and the islands in Greece. She also loves to travel closer to home, especially to go tide pooling at the Oregon coast. When she is relaxing, Julie often does puzzles, and loves playing with Pippin. On the weekends, she likes to sip chai with friends at a coffee shop, and loves having friends over for dinner and board games. Tyler would describe Julie as kind, selfless, and patient.
We both feel that family is very important. Our immediate families both live around the same city in Oregon, and have grown close over the years. As a family, we get together for holidays, traditions, and often just for fun. Both of our families are very excited about our decision to extend our family through open adoption, and will be very present and supportive throughout the process. It’s extremely important to us that our child grows up knowing their first family and being connected to their culture. Having that connection through open adoption will help our child understand where they have come from, who they are, and who they will become. Our dream is that our child’s first family becomes a part of our extended family, sharing in their joys, successes, and milestones as they grow up.
Thank you for taking the time to get to know our family!
Julie and Tyler