April & David
Aspiring Parents
#HopingToAdopt
Dear Friend...
Hello, we are the GrandPre Family! Thank you for taking the time to learn about our family on our adoption profile. We would love to meet you!
Here's a little more about us, our story, and why we are looking to adopt. If you are interested in learning more, we have included a deeper dive on the other pages/tabs (Photo Gallery, About April, About Dave). You can also contact us here or at oursweetesthope@gmail.com
How we met...
We met on the deck of a battleship in Huntington Beach, California, no joke (picture of the actual dance in the first slideshow). It was unforgettable!
David's take on meeting April
“I was determined to get to know this beautiful girl who stood out from everyone else on the ship. We danced one dance and she vanished without me knowing anything more than her first name. I was so disappointed and looked for her the rest of the night! We ended up crossing paths over a year later at another conference, and from that point forward I was in full pursuit. Capturing her unparalleled and radiant heart has been, and is, the greatest joy of my life."
April's take on meeting David
“I saw this tall, handsome guy walk by on the ship and thought he looked really sharp and intelligent (I'm a fan of glasses, which he sported well). We danced just once that night, but later on, we ended up dating and were able to take time to really get to know one another better. Like the sweetest kind of "slow burn," he fully stole my heart. Now he is my best partner-in-crime and we have a ridiculous amount of fun together! He's the real deal...and I couldn't be more over the moon for him. He's my total heartthrob.”
Our growing relationship
Initially, we were very taken with each other, but it was really over time that our relationship bloomed and deepened. It wasn't immediate, but it was steady. Our friendship continued to grow, and as we dated seriously, we began to understand where we were each at with big and small issues. We had so much fun just being together. We talked a lot about things that mattered the most to us. Like many couples, we considered and discussed our perspectives on raising children, how to approach disagreements, and what our goals were. We learned to talk through differences in a way that worked for us. Ultimately, we felt really good about the match and the connection we developed. And so our adventures together continued...
Our family begins...
We had the HAPPIEST wedding day. We didn't even notice that the clear cups delivered for our reception ended up being accidentally swapped for ones featuring the logo of a prominent home security company, which made it look like they sponsored our wedding, OR that our cute nieces were selling pieces of rolled-up leftover luncheon cookies to people waiting in line to greet us. Our sweet littles were trying to earn money for a wedding gift! The day was like a dream and we loved having family and friends by our side!
Our greatest desire, our sweetest hope, has been to add children to our family. We look forward to providing our kids a safe and loving home where family is most important, every family member is encouraged to blossom and grow, and adventures are a top priority.
What we love...
We love to laugh and we both love to be outdoors. Hiking, biking, and enjoying time in the mountains are some of our most loved outdoor adventures. We also like to kayak and sit in the patio garden we created last year. It has become our European garden escape! It is simple and not too big, but it is oh-so-relaxing and gives us the feeling of being in Europe.
Travel is very important to us. We have both had the opportunity to travel abroad a bit for touristy travels, work, and service opportunities. We plan to continue traveling with our kids and want them to experience many different cultures and people. Doing this has made a huge impact on our lives, and we hope it will do the same for them.
We are big-time fans of the arts and enjoy attending the theatre, art museums, symphony, dance performances, and local musicals. Oh, and did we mention we are huge Disneyland and Haunted House fans? Our travel plans with kids will, of course, include the Magic Kingdom! Whether indoors or outdoors, we enjoy just being goofy and making each other laugh.
A few fun memories include an impromptu French night in our dining room, "at home" quarantine travel dates, and putting up a blanket fort. David likes action/adventure movies and Star Wars...so naturally, we celebrate "May the 4th (be with you)!" April likes old classic films and documentaries. We both love the TV shows "Sherlock," "Downton Abbey," and especially "This Is Us."
What's important to us...
We both enjoy working out, and staying healthy has been a long-time priority for both of us. This includes having healthy meals in our home, though we do love our occasional treats, too! We plan to continue this when we have children. We know life doesn't always go according to plan, but we hope to give them a healthy foundation for life and encourage them to be active in what they love.
We hope to instill the importance of education in our children. We believe it is the gateway to opportunity. We know that education doesn’t always mean college or a formal degree and that learning can come in different ways; it just needs to be a match for each individual child. We want our kids to see the value of learning in their own lives and have opportunities to learn and grow.
God is an important part of our lives. We are Christian and do our best to live His teachings. For us, this means service in our local ward congregation and prayer and scripture study in our home. It means teaching our children to love and respect everyone, regardless of differences. We plan to teach the importance of spirituality and our Heavenly Father's love for us. We also believe it's important to let our children make their own decisions on belief and spirituality as they grow up. We want them to know we love them NO MATTER WHAT as they refine and discover their voice and beliefs on their individual paths/spiritual journeys.
Something about April...
April loves her profession as a singer-songwriter and studio vocalist. She graduated from BYU with a Bachelor of Music in Media Music Studies and Sound Recording Technology and minored in Marriage, Family, and Human Development.
Since then she has enjoyed touring with her music and loves the challenge of recording in many different genres (and in a few languages)! More recently, she has enjoyed the convenience of recording and performing locally. April has a deep passion for her work and loves that music has the power to create meaningful connections with other people. One of her favorite memories was surprising David on their wedding day with a song she had written for him about their love story. She can't wait to share her love for music with her children...beginning with singing them lullabies.
April is a fan of excel spreadsheets and technical writing. For many years, on the side, April worked an additional 4-5 hours a week for a law firm in the Bay Area, California. To accommodate her full music schedule, she often worked these hours remotely in Utah, drafting trust and estate plans and their associated documents. She loved it so much she even considered getting her paralegal.
April's hobbies consist of reading/listening to Audible, nature-ing (her word for enjoying the great outdoors), traveling (including by train), cooking and eating different kinds of food, learning all she can about different subjects, doing our budgets, organizing (yes that's a legit hobby!), teasing Dave, and doing amateur interior design. David often finds April researching and listening to different education podcasts. She loves staying current on the news and appreciates listening to a variety of perspectives. Read more fun & funny facts about April.
Something about Dave...
David has a bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Thunderbird School of Global Management. He currently works for a technology company that creates cutting-edge medical imaging products. These products help patients get better treatment in hospitals. He loves his job and the impact it has on people at their greatest times of need.
David spent several years teaching high school students math, economics, and science. Even though it was somewhat outside his career path, he found these experiences very rewarding and loved helping the students learn and grow.
His hobbies include building stuff, going on a plethora of fun outdoor adventures, working in the yard, quoting every insanely great movie, drawing, watching a favorite film while cuddling and eating take-out, traveling, being MacGyver-esque, and listening to music. Some of his favorite things are doing fun surprises for his wife and catching her rehearsing. He loves to dance, and while they were getting to know one another, he scored points by teaching April Bachata.
David likes learning new things. He also enjoys a challenge, whether it be building something new he designs, handling a difficult work situation, or creating a new recipe in the kitchen. He loves to cook and grill! Read more fun and funny facts about David.
Blending Work and Family...
We are both fortunate to primarily work from home. David works from home full-time and April’s music allows her to primarily work from home as well (about 90%). After we have children, our plans are for David to continue to work full-time, and April is excited to move to part-time work, to accommodate and attend to the many and growing needs of our family. That work/life balance and blend will shift and flex according to what we feel is best for our family and what we feel guided to do.
We feel deeply that as our children watch both their father and mother pursue and develop the God-given gifts we have felt inspired to cultivate, while trying to thoughtfully blend and balance an engaged and active family life, our family will be blessed. We believe by doing this, our children will be given an example of following their own divine instincts and paths, guided both in their crucial and significant work as involved, loving parents, and also in their unique contributions to the community and world around them.
Our bunny Benny...
We do have one more adored family member who has been with us for several years. He is a Netherland Dwarf rabbit named Benedict Cumberpatch. He is named after the actor that played Sherlock in the TV series. He is such a cute and cuddly rabbit and loves to be around people. He will also actually sit on a chair next to us for hours just watching us work, and we love him being part of our family! We let him run around in parts of the house at times and he will stamp his foot when we are about to pick him up to go to bed for the night (like an angry teen). Haha. He totally knows when it's bedtime.
Our home...
We live in a comfortable 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home with plenty of room to expand into the unfinished basement when needed.
We have two parks within a five-minute walk from our house, and the elementary school is a seven-minute walk from where we live. In addition, we are close to an area frequented by antelope, geese, cranes, and other wildlife, and we have a spectacular view of a lake and mountains...honestly, it feels very surreal and we feel so fortunate. The pictures included above show our house when it was being built a few years back. We love living "where the deer and the antelope play" in the local fields near our house. We live in a safe neighborhood with many young families, so our child will have lots of little playmates.
Our heart's desire...
We have been blessed with many experiences over the years that we feel have helped prepare us to fulfill our deepest heart's desire to be parents. More than we can possibly express, we have yearned and prayed for a baby to cherish. We are hoping to be the heart and home for a child. We want our child to have siblings and we are hoping for both girls and boys as we grow our family.
We hope that through this brief introduction you were able to get a small feel of who we are and what we love! We would love to get to know you better and would be honored to be considered. We would love an open adoption but will support any arrangement you feel comfortable with should you choose to consider placing your baby with us.
We can't wait to cherish and adore a newborn of any race or gender and have already completed our home study!
We hope your child can be part of our "happily ever after" and us a part of theirs!