Ray & Sherrill

Hello! We are Ray and Sherrill. Together, with our son, Jacob, we’re honored to tell you a little about us and the life we’d love to share as an adoptive family for your child. We are faith-led, family-first, sports-loving, and easy-going. We’ve prayed for many years to expand our little tribe with another child and are excited about adopting a boy or girl of any race, from newborn up to 4 years old. As parents, we often ask God to help us raise kindhearted, humble, loving children, and consider it a blessing to watch our kids grow into amazing people. We’re so glad God has chosen this path for us to grow our family through adoption!

We’ve love to get to know you through this process and promise to honor our commitment and connection with you now and always. Our goal is for your child to know about you, their heritage, and the things that matter to you. We are so glad you’re here and appreciate the time you’re taking to learn about us. May God comfort, guide, and protect you as you make plans for your child’s future. We are praying for you as you make your decision. If we are the right choice for you and your child, we are here to listen, share, and make an adoption plan that respects your individual wishes.

A Little About Us

We met through Sherrill’s cousin, who taught at the same school with Ray when he moved to North Carolina. After Sherrill visited the school one day, her cousin played matchmaker and set us up on our first date. We’ve been happily doing life together ever since!

We enjoy traveling to the mountains and the beach (less than 2 hours away!), taking trips to Indiana to visit family, and going to Disney and Universal Studios. We spend a lot of time with our close-knit and multiracial family or at church functions (which has an awesome children’s program!). Our backgrounds in teaching and nursing have been helpful to us as we’ve grown as parents. We appreciate the simple things in life, like quality time and making sure others know how much they mean to us. It’s important to us to teach our children kindness, love, humility, and to make the most of each day.

Together we enjoy:
• Cooking dinner together (our favorites are BBQ chicken, pasta, or pork chops!)
• Playing games (we love Uno, Monopoly, and Heads Up)
• Visiting museums or the zoo
• Trying new restaurants
• Volunteering at church
• Spontaneous weekend getaways

Meet Sherrill

Ray says: Sherrill has a big heart and a humble spirit. She enjoys putting others before herself and loves to laugh. I know she loves her work as a nurse because she gets to help and love on people during their greatest time of need. Sherrill would do anything for others, especially her family, and is always there for our son. She has so much love to give as we grow our family!

Sherrill likes:
• Talking with her sisters
• Watching movies with a cozy blanket and a snack
• Going for walks
• Cooking new recipes
• Shopping

Fun Fact: Sherrill has 5 sisters and 5 nieces and ALL of their names start with “Sh.”

Meet Ray

Sherrill says: Ray truly enjoys spending time with our son. He’s hard-working, helpful, and honest. His work as an IT Trainer is fulfilling for him because he can help others learn something new that is useful in their day-to-day work. Ray is always up for anything he can do as a family, whether it’s going to the store, playing games, taking a weekend getaway, or visiting relatives. He’s a great dad who our son looks up to.

Ray likes:
• Exercising and working out
• Playing video games
• Reading or researching
• Watching movies or TV

Fun Fact: Ray likes to collect and learn about men’s colognes.

Our Family

Our son, Jacob, is 14 years old and into video games, like Minecraft and Fortnite, playing soccer, cooking, and playing outside with friends. He is smart, caring, and he will be a loving and helpful big brother!

We have talked with Jacob about adoption for years and as eager as we are to grow our family this way. He is great with kids and loves spending time with his younger cousins. Raising Jacob has been an incredible joy and we’re all excited about sharing life and making more memories together with the child we’re meant to adopt.

Extended Family: We come from big families who are diverse, fun, and loving! Our parents enjoy making memories with their grandchildren and we love that they are a big part of our son’s life. Most of Sherrill’s family lives in North Carolina, with one sister in Texas. Ray’s family lives in Indiana and we take turns visiting each other. Because Ray’s father was adopted, it’s especially sweet to see adoption through his immediate family. Our extended family has loved ones of all different backgrounds and everyone is excited about our hopes to adopt a child.

Traditions our family loves:
• Homemade holiday potlucks
• Family shopping trip on the Friday after Thanksgiving
• Christmas Eve party with games
• Mountain cabin trips in Tennessee with Ray’s family

Our Home in North Carolina

We live between the beach and the mountains, which is great because we love going to both! We’re close to great restaurants, tourist attractions, shopping, minor league baseball, and museums. We’ve just moved into a newly built 4-bedroom home that has lots of living space and a nice backyard with trees behind it. We have a nursery set up and ready for our future baby or child. Our neighborhood is quiet and has a community pool. We love raising our son here and know it will be a great place to grow our family!

Our Dog: Lucy is our sweet dog who loves to play and be included in everything we do.

Our Promise

We like the idea of open adoption and will be happy to share updates and planned visits, if you want an ongoing connection. We will honor our commitment to you and your child.

As parents, we promise to:
• Praise positive behavior and help our children grow or learn when they make mistakes.
• Provide a peaceful home where we treat each other with kindness and respect.
• Encourage our children in their education and offer opportunities to pursue goals and further learning.
• Teach our children to love God and love others.
• Honestly answer questions about how our family came together through adoption, always speaking of you with love and gratitude.

Thank you for considering us as a family for your child. We hope to talk and learn more about you! To learn more about us, please call or text Lifetime at 1.800.923.6784.

With love, Ray & Sherrill

In Closing

We're truly thankful for your time to consider us as possible adoptive parents for your child. If you have questions or want to talk, we'd love to hear from you! Our whole family is excited to embrace and welcome the child we adopt. We'd enjoy getting to know you and the type of relationship you'd like to have after the adoption. You would always hold a special place in our family! We'd be honored and excited to share our lives with your child.