Hello friend! It’s a pleasure to meet you! We’re Matt and Amy, and we live in the mountains of Virginia. We have one son, Benjiro “Benji,” and one daughter, Sylvia, who is in Heaven. 

While our home base is outside Lynchburg, we have the coolest opportunity to travel to different states for Matt’s job. Over the last three years, we’ve gotten to go to 14 different states, and we’ve also received the opportunity to visit friends in Germany and England recently. Each of these travels provide a variety of experiences to try and a variety of people to interact with. 

As a family, we love spending our free time playing board games, hiking, or watching soccer. Our favorite team is Charlotte FC, and we try to see games in person once or twice a year. We post semi-regular on our family Instagram @theevanhoes if you want to see more of our daily life. We hope you enjoy getting to know our family! 

We have been married for six years. Allison is Oklahoma born and raised. Nate was born in Missouri, but lived in Pennsylvannia, Arizona, Oregon, and California before finally settling down in Oklahoma. We have one wonderful little boy named Adrian, who is three years old. The pregnancy was very hard on Allison, and we were advised to not have any more children.

We are a fairly active family. We enjoy going fishing, hunting, or to the local park on a nice day. For the past couple of years, we have gotten zoo passes. Adrian really seems to enjoy getting to run around and see all the animals. We also really enjoy spending time with our friends. We have been greatly blessed by having several families that attend our church who also have young children. We have made it a habit to have lunch with them on Sundays, so we can enjoy each other's company while our kids run around and be kids.

We have also been blessed by two wonderful sets of grandparents that enjoy being involved in our and our son's lives. Nate's parents live about 30 minutes away. We attend church with them (Nate's father is a pastor), and hang-out with them at least a couple of times a month. Allison's parents live even closer. They are both retired and graciously volunteered to watch Adrian while Nate and Allison work. We see them fairly regularly including when we go on our annual family trip to Branson, Missiouri.

We both attended Oklahoma State University and started dating after we graduated and moved back to our hometowns, in September 2011. On our second date we had a pizza baking competition, since Matt is the pizza connoisseur! Other favorite dates included going to museums, taking the dogs to dog parks, Thunder games, annual trip to the State Fair, and going to the local drive in movie. 

We were engaged in December 2013 on a ski trip. After discussing with Shae's mom how to do it, Matt decided he just couldn't wait any longer and proposed while our group was playing cards - right after Shae ate a blue sucker and had changed into her comfy clothes for the night. Shae's blue sucker caused her mouth to look like a Smurf, but love is blind! 

We were married on May 3, 2014 in the church that Shae grew up in and where we are now members. We asked our guests to wear orange, black or white and had Pistol Pete as a surprise guest at our reception!

Karsten was born in the crazy year that was 2020! Her birth mom choosing us to be her parents is truly a gift and an honor. Some of our favorite things to do as a family include going to OSU football games, visiting the zoo, and playing outside! 

Thank you for taking time to look through our family's profile. We know the magnitude of the decisions you're making right now, and although we do not know your name, we are praying that you are safe and healthy, and that you feel loved, supported and at peace.

With love,
Matt and Shae

Hi! We're Darrin and Rachel. We first met in 2006 and started dating in 2009 right before I (Rachel) moved to college out of state; so we were long-distance for 3 years. We found a mutual love of comics, card games, adventure, and music. After getting married, we also enjoyed playing volleyball together and watching Seahawks games. We both grew up in the greater Seattle area and after our daughter Ellie was born in 2016, we bought a house here, near family and friends.

Some details about us: Darrin is a former truck driver, who now works in a school district. Rachel is an Aerican Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. Our daughter loves making friends and playing with every kid she meets, and her second grade school year is off to a great start. We have a 4 fish and 6 chickens, and our daughter would love a cat someday.