In the end, it wasn’t timing or luck that built their family; it was everyday love, chosen on purpose, again and again. Their story began in 2016, when he was 26 and Jennifer was 24, both fresh from breakups and not looking for anything serious. Then she walked into his life, and everything tilted. He found excuses to talk to her, stretched out moments to be near her, and started a sweet morning ritual: a chocolate donut from Dunkin and a Mt. Dew freeze in a foam cup, because she swore foam made it taste better. She never asked, but she always laughed at his corny jokes when he showed up, and that laugh kept pulling him back.
He acted cool and failed miserably. Words tripped over themselves whenever she was around. Sitting in her room talking about hopes and plans one night, he noticed the little things: children’s drawings, toys tucked on shelves, photos filled with love. He realized that loving Jennifer would also mean loving her kids. And the thought didn’t scare him; it felt right. He met the boys, Patrick, six; Emmitt, three; and little Phillip, just one, and his nerves melted fast. Their faces lit up when he came over, and saying goodbye got harder every time. It wasn’t just Jennifer anymore; it was all four of them.
On February 15th, one day after Valentine’s Day, he asked Jennifer to be his girlfriend because she’d joked she’d say no if he asked on the cliché day. He even checked first with Patrick, the oldest, whose hug was the green light he needed. She said yes, and the house filled with grins. They moved into their first place the same year. Summer nights were for catching lightning bugs in the yard. He hated bugs, but the boys loved the hunt, and their joy made it worth it. There were dog walks with Sadie, messy family projects, and a growing sense that this wasn’t a phase; this was home. On March 8, 2017, he proposed. They set the wedding for July 2018, until one small, big question changed everything.
“Will you adopt me?” Patrick asked. His voice was steady, but it shook the ground under their feet in the best way. They met a lawyer who said adoption would be smoother after a year of marriage and a stable home, so they moved the wedding up. They married on September 2, 2017, in his parents’ backyard. He didn’t see her dress until she came down the aisle, and the reaction on his face told everyone what his words couldn’t. The day even got a funny twist when Jennifer accidentally locked herself in the bathroom and had to bang on the window for help. It wasn’t hilarious in the moment, but it became one of their favorite memories.
They spent the following year building routines. Jennifer stayed home with the boys, and he worked as a tech coordinator at an elementary school. Meetings with the lawyer dotted the months, and halfway through the school year, Patrick announced he wanted his new parents’ last name. He got so passionate that he’d correct teachers who used the old one. Thankfully, his teacher understood. Adoption day finally arrived on June 19, 2019. Jennifer made matching shirts; her nerves made breakfast taste odd.
Family filled the courtroom. His parents had adopted four children, including him, so they whispered calm into his worry. The hearing took about fifteen minutes, but it felt like forever until the judge said the words that made them a legal family. They took their first official family photo in the judge’s chambers and exhaled. People sometimes ask why he adopted Patrick and Phillip but not Emmitt. The answer is simple and kind: Patrick and Phillip’s fathers were not in their lives; Emmitt’s dad has been there from the beginning. They all co-parent with respect, putting Emmitt first. Love isn’t diminished by sharing; it grows.
In 2020, stuck at home, he downloaded TikTok “just to look” and made videos on a private account, posting them to Facebook for friends. A year later, his younger brother pushed him to go public. By June 2021, one video with Patrick took off, then another. Messages were poured from people curious about their story, cheering them on, and asking about adoption. They opened YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and even partnered with an app that lets followers see extra slices of their life. Their TikTok climbed past 115,000 followers, but the best part wasn’t the numbers, the connections, the chance to tell families that love can stitch together any last name.
Their home is the kind where kids tumble in from outside with grass on their knees; where dinner can be homemade or takeout and still count as “together”; where two people who didn’t plan to fall in love learned that choosing each other means choosing every small, noisy, beautiful piece of family life. If you ask them what made it all possible, they’ll point to the donut runs, the foam cup superstition, the lightning bug nights, the nerves in the courtroom, and that brave question from a little boy who asked for a parent and got one.
