A bit about Jeremy

I grew up in Orem, UT, which is a town about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.   Some of my favorite things growing up were video games, books and our tree house.

In a large way video games shaped how I am today. Not because of the actual games, but how we got into them. When I was 8 or 9, before we got a Nintendo . My dad got us an atari, with a book full of games. The problem was we had to actually write the code for the games ourselves.

The issue with this is he didn’t get us a disk drive to save them on. So we only had a game until the power went out, then we had to start over. This seemed like torture at the time, but has been a skill that I have used throughout my life, and into my professional career as a software developer. I always look back fondly at the things my parents did for us as kids to entertain us.

Another thing that has always remained with me in life is my need to always have a book to read. Growing up my grandma had a room that has Sci-Fi and Fantasy books on every wall. I would spend hours down there just trying to find the book that I wanted to read. Reading Lord of the Rings and Dune in elementary school didn’t really help out my social standing, but it has for sure helped me out in life. I can’t count how many times I have read Dune, and read it at least once a year… usually more.

Another fun thing my parents did for us as a child was give us a bucket of nails and some wood. My older brother and I of course did the logical thing with this and build a treehouse. We spent countless hours in the tree house making it higher, and most likely more dangerous. From the treehouse we could easily get on top of the roof of our home. We had to be sneaky about that because my parents would yell at us if they could hear us walking on the roof. One summer my dad gave us some semi-thick electrical wire and a pulley so we could make a zip line out of the tree house. This was a fantastic idea! We would zip down from the top of our tree house to the edge of the yard where it was connected to the fence. The only drawback is the wire would stretch over time, so we did the natural thing and would wrap it around a branch. We would wrap this multiple times until the inevitable would happen and the wire would snap. Surprisingly no broken bones happened during this fun. That didn't happen until we had a water bed mattress filled with air by a vacuum, that we would launch each other across the yard on, similar to this... Water Bed Launch

Growing up as a kid was always a fun adventure for me, my parents always tried hard to make sure we had the best time ever, all while using our imagination to do it. Imagination is something I already love to pass along to my nephews, and I am looking forward to passing that along to whatever kiddo we are lucky enough to adopt.

Getting to know Kara-musicals, popcorn, & couch forts

Every time I hear the phrase "getting to know you" this song pops into my head https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MNANgFCYpk. Yep, I grew up watching musicals and The King and I is one of my favorites. Some of my other favorites include:

• My Fair Lady (https://youtu.be/pwNKyTktDIE?t=10 "just you wait Henry Higgins, just you wait" my sister and I have this tattooed on our shoulders because we love it so much and watched it so often as kids)
• 7 Brides for 7 Brothers
• Hello Dolly
• The Sound of Music
• Oklahoma (yes, I think of singing it every time I hear someone say they are from here)
• https://youtu.be/ZbrnXl2gO_k?t=51
• Disney ones including Beauty & The Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Mary Poppins, Summer Magic, and Babes in Toyland

As the second of four children, I grew up spending a lot of time with my siblings watching these movies. They are nostalgic for all of us, each has their own favorite of course, but I always remember snuggling up on the couch or floor with our blankets and watching movies with homemade popcorn and orange julius'.

A must try recipe!

My mom used to make extra good popcorn with lots of salt and butter (not exactly super healthy, but it was so good!) My younger sister, Callie (she's a year and a half younger than I am) and I used to sneak the air popper into the bathroom on the other end of the house and make ourselves popcorn at night. It cracks me up every time I think of us making popcorn in a tiny bathroom in the pedestal sink thinking that our dad couldn't hear us giggling and hearing it pop (it was SO loud!). 

This particular air popper is so nostalgic to me that I stole it from my dad's house when I got married and still make popcorn in it. Not in the bathroom anymore, but it always reminds me of when I was a little girl.You can always find me with a blanket as well, I love snuggling with a soft blanket even when it's summer time. I actually like to keep the house cool enough that you need one so it's perfect.

Callie and I as adults, who knew we were
two crazy kids popping popcorn in a bathroom once

Other things I love from my childhood are the memories from building blanket forts with the cushions from our ugly bright orange couch. We used to bring in all of the kitchen chairs to the front room to help hold up our dozen or so blankets and crawl through the legs. Of course, eventually, one of us kids would get mad at something and jump on the blankets bringing the whole castle down into the molten lava that somehow soft pillowy couch cushions were always safe from.

Not our original, but this color of
orange is close to our old fort cushions

I imagine my dad seeing it like this

One of my other favorite memories was getting to share a room with my sister until we were teenagers. We may have not always gotten along 100% of the time, but we had a lot of fun times. We used to have bunk beds that could separate into opposite ends of our bedroom. Well we decided that it would be fun to play a little game where you hid things under your pillow or on top of your headboard and then when the lights went out you'd throw said things to try and hit the other sister with it. These things usually did not consist of soft things like teddy bears or fluffy pillows....no....they were more like hard plastic dolls, small wooden boxes that once held treasures, hair brushes, and such. You never knew when the other would throw it, if you'd get it, and with what. We used to stay up giggling like well, small little girls to be exact. We once got in so much trouble that we had to go knock down corn stalks in our garden because "we had so much energy to burn off". During this punishment time, where we still continued to giggle in our pajamas under the bright moon in the middle of our garden- Callie cut her finger on a stalk of corn so bad that she should have gotten stitches, she now sports my favorite thing about her....a scar on her pinky from our shenanigans.

The stories could go on and on, but my hope in sharing these stories is that you'll get a better understanding of how important family is and having a childhood that you can look back on with fondness. A childhood that is full of silly stories that can one day bring a smile to their face as they write them down to tell others. As a parent, I want to make sure that my child has these experiences and can remember the fun times that we have together as a family. I know there will be some unfun ones in there along the way, I'm not perfect and nobody is, but a good healthy dose of the good nostalgic memories is what I'm aiming for.

A starter to getting to know each other...

Hello! We don’t know each other yet, but we’re excited for the opportunity to try and change that. So a big thank you for taking the time to learn more about us and see if we’ll be a good fit for you and to be the adoptive parents of your child. We want to get to know you and build a relationship with one another.....so please feel free to ask us anything!

To get us started on the path of getting to know each other, we’re Jeremy and Kara Sabin. We’ve been married for 13 years and live in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah. Our home is nestled near the mountains that is full of lakes, streams, hiking trails, and lots of places to have breakfast (mmmm, we love breakfast!).

We love to spend a lot of time in the outdoors, if we can’t get away from the house, we’re usually snuggled up on our deck. This is one of our favorite spots and where we spend lots of time enjoying some delicious coffee in the morning, reading a book, watching the wild birds from our many feeders, grilling with friends and family, or just hanging out relaxing at the end of the day. We love our home and how close it is to the mountains and local trails. We’ve also love that it’s so close to friends and family so it’s easy to get together and hang out.

Jeremy is usually out running on these mountain trails. He loves being able to run or quickly hike up to the top of local peaks to get the best possible view of the valleys in Utah. Recently he completed his first 50k Ultra Marathon and loved it, he's gearing up for his next one in Monument Valley, Utah in March.

Kara enjoys slowing things down a bit and getting out to hike on the trails, let’s be serious, it’s totally more of a nature walk most times. She finds it relaxing to walk through the wilderness and relish in the smell of fresh mountain air, to hear the flapping of the aspen leaves in the wind, and feel the warm sun seeping through the tall trees around her (mmmmm, so relaxing!). She finds it incredibly rewarding to discover new places and go slow enough to not get side aches every half mile as she works up to her goals.

We also love our home because of what’s inside- our pets. We love our little fur babies and can’t imagine life without their happy faces. Currently, we have 2 dogs and 1 cat.
Our oldest is our Cat, Smeegal, we have had him almost the entire time we have been married. He’s a slightly cross-eyed Red Point Siamese. Jeremy’s parents found him as a very small kitten roaming the streets and Kara begged Jeremy to keep him. He was a tiny flea ridden monster that had to get baths multiple times a week to get rid of them. He was so small that he used to crawl into Jeremy’s shoes after he got home and peek out like a little creeper waiting to attack you. Now, he’s our old man that sleeps in the sun most of the day. If you have a pillow on your lap, he’ll reach up and wave his arm at you so he can jump up and snuggle on it.

Our older dog Bella is a boxer mix and she’s our crazy fast runner. She loves going out with Jeremy on trail runs and only gets upset when he stops or isn’t going fast enough for her. She could spend hours standing in a stream or lake stomping at the water for unknown reasons to us. She has a kiddie pool just for her that sits on the deck and she just digs at the water happy as can be.

The youngest in our furry family is Obie, a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix that has a tail that never stops wagging. He is our big lazy baby boy. He loves people and gets so excited to see anyone, he can’t properly say hi though without going to get a toy in his mouth and a kidney bean dance. He can’t seem to go to sleep at night without snuggling up next to Jeremy in our bed, all while Kara gets kicked when he needs to stretch out more (he’s kind of a bed hog until he gets kicked out so we can get some sleep). He loves his treats and tosses them in the air, before pouncing to gobble them. His favorite treat ever is popcorn! He LOVES popcorn, he gets excited just hearing the popping in the microwave and can be a horrible beggar that you can’t resist because he’s so cute and so happy you have popcorn.

Jeremy talking about Kara
Kara and I met 16 years ago when she worked on the graveyard shift at a gas station across the street from my work. It wasn’t love at first sight for either of us, but there was definite interest in getting to know one another. I would walk across the road almost every night to get a drink and snacks on my break. We spent a lot of hours getting to know each other talking over the hot dog carousel. I may have spent a bit too much time over there, since I ended up getting fired for not being at work. It was worth it. Kara and I were married a few short years later.

Kara is going to be an amazing mother. She is one of the most caring and thoughtful people I know. She loves throwing parties (Halloween being one of her favorites) and making sure everyone is having the best time. Our kiddo is going to be the talk of the town with how amazing of birthday parties they will have. Kara also loves to do crafts with our nephews.  They will often come over and work on different painting projects, carving pumpkins making bath bombs, molding with clay, or teaching them how to make something yummy for dinner.

Kara talking about Jeremy

Well since Jeremy already told you how we met, I’ll fill in a little more detail. He used to come over to the gas station and harass me with his co-workers. Yep, they would pull shenanigans while I wasn’t looking. Some of them included stacking all of the 12-packs of soda to the ceiling where I could barely reach them and then leave. Once they cleared one of the freezer shelves and forced one of them to crawl in it to see how long they could last. Then something changed with a phone call one morning after work to see if I wanted to go to breakfast, our first date at the local Denny’s. Ahhhhh magic in the making!

We started dating and the shenanigans didn’t stop there either. On his 25th birthday, I thought I would do something extra special so I decorated his room and left a note on his bed that said, “dress in your very best dress because I’m taking you out on the town”. Ya...he took that a little too literal and when I showed up in my old prom dress with my hair and nails done, he too was also in a dress. Yep, an old black and white prom dress including clip on earrings, a black bandana, and his white tube socks. What a hottie! It was pretty hilarious and still brings a smile to my face. As you can hopefully tell, Jeremy has a great sense of humor and that’s one of the many qualities I love about him.

Jeremy is also an incredible supporter to dreams and goals. I decided I wanted to hike part of the Pacific Crest Trail in Oregon for a month and he stood by my side through the whole process. He put up with me throwing myself into research on gear and maps, dealt with me making the house smell like jerky for days, and then drove me out to my trailhead, kissed me goodbye, and sent me into the woods all alone. Well, a few days later when I just couldn’t do it all by myself, he drove back to get me when he was just two hours from home. So ya, he is my #1 supporter and amazes me with how he does it.

I know that without a doubt Jeremy will make an incredible daddy one day, not only will he keep pulling pranks and goofing around with a child, but he’ll be incredibly patient with them and try to help them accomplish anything. Jeremy loves reading and finding new science things to teach our nephews (if you don’t know what tardigrades are, look it up...they were a big hit with the kiddos!).

Us being potential parents

We are both very excited to become parents so we can pass along all the fun things that we enjoy in life, as well as help our future kiddo be the best person they can be. We can’t wait to support their hard work as they try to accomplish their goals,help them get the best education possible, and help them grow to be a kind, compassionate, and wonderful person.

Through our home study education, we've learned that an open adoption can be incredibly beneficial for a child, so it's important for us to get to know you as much as your comfortable with. We're open to discussing what this new type of relationship will look like and we look forward to getting to know more about you.