Enjoying a Weekend with Buck’s Parents

Buck has one, younger, brother. They remain close and, along with swapping war stories about their practice - he is also a lawyer - they speak often to discuss Razorback highlights and politics. Buck's parents are both career teachers, his mother teaching second grade for more than twenty years and his father teaching fifth grade for nearly thirty. His father recently retired and spends his time tramping through the woods and playing with his dogs. Buck's mother continues to work as a reading coordinator for her local educational cooperative Living about three hours away, they are close enough to see frequently and offer occasional child care.

Buck's father was an army brat from West Texas and attended nearly 12 schools before he graduated from high school. He and his brother are, probably as a result, very close and live within 20 miles of each other. To this day, we enjoy family events. These typically involve lots of food and lots of laughter.

His mother's family is a huge, sprawling German clan that wound up in Central Texas. If anything, family events involve more food and more laughter than on his Father's side. Now spread across the country, these families continue to celebrate holidays with joy and laughter.

Tate Having Fun with DeAndra’s Mom & Niece

We have shared our plans to adopt with our family and they are excited to welcome this gift into our family.

DeAndra’s parents live about 3 hours away in a small, rural town and my sister lives about 1 hour away with my favorite and only niece! We enjoy getting together as much as possible and let my nine-year-old niece and our little boy play. He thinks she is quite "cool". My mother is an elected official and thoroughly enjoys public service. She comes from a large family and we all love to spend holidays together watching kids play and enjoying a lot of laughter.

DeAndra's father is a veterinarian and lives on a farm with all the "big" toys. Our 4 ½ year old boy loves to ride the tractor, four-wheeler and an occasional horse. It is a great place for kids to learn and play.

Her two grandmothers are still living. They have been a huge part of DeAndra's life and she loves them dearly. She also has several aunts that have been an integral part of her life and well as their children. The cousins love a family get together which also includes a lot of food and laughter.

Our families are very excited about our decision to adopt and cannot wait to watch our family grow. Our little boy tells every one of our plans to adopt and is very excited as well.

Our Home

We live in a fantastic neighborhood of older homes in a modest-sized central Arkansas community. Originally built in 1957, we are the second owners and we could not be more proud of this place if we had built it with our own two hands. We have four bedrooms and two offices with plenty of room to roam and play. We love to hang out upstairs and watch movies and play. Centrally located, there are children in the neighborhood and a church across the street. All these provide great places to ride bikes and enjoy the centuries old trees lining the streets. The city in which we live also has a bike trail around most of its borders.

Playing with Superman in the Backyard

We have two parks that are near our home and a playset in our own backyard! There are several parades throughout the year that we love to attend as well as an awesome county fair! We love to go to the fair every year and enjoy a few rides, the rodeo and of course, a funnel cake! Something else that we love to do is go trick-or-treating with our son at the city sponsored carnival around the square. We also enjoy swimming in the summer and playing golf. The church that we attend is about eight blocks from our house and provides numerous family focused functions throughout the year. We attend as many as we are able because we feel it is important to surround our family in such a loving environment. We love our church and what it has done for our family.