Basic Info
Jamal
Age: 45
Ethnicity: Black/African American
Religion: Christian
Denomination: Non-Denominational
Nicole
Age: 46
Ethnicity: Black/African American
Religion: Christian
Denomination: Non-Denominational
Jamal & Nicole
Texas
Intro
About
Work & Education
Jamal
Education: Masters
Profession: Education
Nicole
Education: Master's Degree
Profession: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Post-Adoption Relationship
Open (Open to contact, phone calls, in person visits before adoption. Sharing photos and letters after placement. Visits at neutral location after adoption, etc.). If you want a more closed adoption, we would honor that request as well.
Semi Open (open to an in-person visit before adoption placement, phone, email, sharing pic/letters after placement
Closed (no contact after placement)
Environment
Country: USA
State: Texas
Parent Relationship: Married
Parent Neighborhood: Suburban
Parent Years Together: 20 to 25 years
Parent Residency: House
Parent Pets: 1 dog, 3 guinea pigs, 2 hermit crabs, 2 fish
Children At Home: Biological children
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual parents
Preferences for a child
Age: Newborn to 1 year of age
Gender: Either
Multiple Children: Twins
Race/Ethnicity: African American (Full), African American (Half), Caucasian (Half), Hispanic (Half), Asian (Half), American Indian (Half)
Special Needs: Open to discussion
Certification 
Gladney Center for Adoption verified this family completed an adoption homestudy including: background checks, character references, official interviews, required training, home inspection, financial review, etc. and are approved for adoption.
Our Family
Our Hobbies
Our Travels & Adventures
Animal Lovers
Videos
More Maui Memories
More Maui Memories
Summer Vacation 2022 - Maui
Making memories in Maui
Swamp Tour
When the kiddo convinces you to take a Louisiana Swamp Tour.
Nicole, Jamal, and India
Introduction
"It is our sincere hope that your heart will feel a connection to our family, believing that your child will be loved and nurtured if you allow us the opportunity to raise them."
Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We know you are not making your decision lightly and recognize the level of strength and bravery it takes to go through this process. We pray you are surrounded with love and unconditional support to help guide you through every decision. As you look through our profile, we hope you are able to learn about our interests, our personalities, and can feel the level of love that surrounds our lives.
It is our sincere hope that your heart will feel a connection to our family, believing that your child will be loved and nurtured if you allow us the opportunity to raise them. We are a family that believes in supporting each other and being willing to acknowledge if we’ve made a mistake, even as a parent. We also believe in tackling our fears, life...
Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We know you are not making your decision lightly and recognize the level of strength and bravery it takes to go through this process. We pray you are surrounded with love and unconditional support to help guide you through every decision. As you look through our profile, we hope you are able to learn about our interests, our personalities, and can feel the level of love that surrounds our lives.
It is our sincere hope that your heart will feel a connection to our family, believing that your child will be loved and nurtured if you allow us the opportunity to raise them. We are a family that believes in supporting each other and being willing to acknowledge if we’ve made a mistake, even as a parent. We also believe in tackling our fears, life-long learning, and helping those in need. Thank you, again, for taking the time to read our profile. Know that we pray for you and your family every day.
Why Adoption
"We took time to ensure we were in the best possible position emotionally, spiritually, financially, and support-wise prior to moving forward with our desire to adopt."
Nicole, Jamal, and India on a boat.
Adoption has always been part of our plans. Our early desire was to have 1-2 children of our own and also welcome a child into our family via adoption. We had trouble conceiving and ultimately experienced two miscarriages. Thankfully, we were connected to an amazing high-risk doctor who also worked with a top fertility specialist. With the support of that phenomenal medical partnership and our village of family and friends, we were blessed with the arrival of our rainbow baby, India in 2010. Our family and friends, who we call “Framily”, have rallied around us and her every day since. We took time to ensure we were in the best possible position emotionally, spiritually, financially, and support-wise prior to moving forward with our desire to adopt. The desire never left our hearts and we continued doing research and gathering information from our Framily members who had already taken their journey down the adoption road. Once we were comfortable and involved India in our discussions, we were excited to get a recommendation about Gladney. We were nervous when the pandemic started, but our touch points with Gladney personnel quickly eliminated those fears.
Our Story
"Our relationship is one of mutual respect, love, and daily challenges to be our very best versions of each other."
Nicole and Jamal
Our story began at a small private university in New Orleans, Louisiana. We were both attending undergrad and happened to join the school’s concert choir. We participated in the club for months before we started dating. While we had several common friends, we had never really directly spent anytime together. Just prior to our spring tour, a mutual friend casually introduced us at a party. While on tour in Washington, D.C., tragic news from back home had a major impact on my emotional state and Jamal stepped up to get me through it until my aunt, who lived in the area, was able to comfort me. That was the moment that created a foundation of support that stands strong to this day. We dated for four years, through the end of undergrad and during Jamal’s first year of grad school at SMU. Jamal proposed the year after we graduated undergrad and was married one year later in 2000. We’ve been together for 25yrs, married for 21yrs. Our relationship is one of mutual respect, love, and daily challenges to be our very best versions of each other.
Our Travels
"We have individual and collective hobbies in our household."
Nicole, Jamal, and India at Disneyworld.
We have individual and collective hobbies in our household. Mom loves trying new recipes, taking photos, and recently took up gardening during the pandemic. Dad loves working out, playing VR, and listening to podcasts. India enjoys arts/crafts, reading Erin Hunter series books, playing VR and helping in the kitchen. She also LOVES collecting seashells and interesting mineral rocks. It’s also important that we both have our “thing” with the kiddo. Dad and India took up watching Marvel movies and TV shows together. India and Mom can be found cooking family favorite meals and baking delicious cakes in the kitchen…and sometimes watching funny animated cartoon series on Netflix. We also watch age-appropriate comedy standups together on the regular. We love a good laugh. Don’t know if we sincerely “enjoy” it, but we also took up doing puzzles during the pandemic. That activity has become more of a family lesson in patience and compromise on approach. LOL. To their surprise, Mom got the rest of the family involved in gardening this year. We can be found planting various things around the yard. We do flower beds, flowerpots, gardens, plant a lemon tree, an orange tree, and India also created three patio garden pots for her Grandma’s apartment. We also watch movies together, once we spend a ridiculous amount of time debating the ones, we will all be entertained by. LOL We then grab our blankets, drinks, and popcorn and head to the theater when we plan a movie night. Outside the house, we love traveling. We do road trips and also fly to new places, as our schedules allow. You will see from our profile book that we will end up at the beach at least once a year - that’s mandatory. We each get to select one item for the family to do on each trip. This helps to make sure everyone gets to have something that they are especially excited about. India once selected ziplining when we visited the Virgin Islands.That was quite interesting because Jamal is afraid of heights. He sucked it up and we had a blast.
Post-Adoption Relationship
Open (Open to contact, phone calls, in person visits before adoption. Sharing photos and letters after placement. Visits at neutral location after adoption, etc.). If you want a more closed adoption, we would honor that request as well.
Semi Open (open to an in-person visit before adoption placement, phone, email, sharing pic/letters after placement
Closed (no contact after placement)
Certification
Gladney Center for Adoption verified this family completed an adoption home study including: background checks, character references, official interviews, required training, home inspection, financial review, etc. and are approved for adoption.
Favorites
Recommendations
Rachel Harrah (Longtime friend and former colleague)
Talk about a dream family for any kid. They are creative and kind, funny and firm, and overall wonderful humans.
Clarence A. Hollis, Jr.
Older Brother of Jamal
In the 22 years of marriage Jamal and Nicole Sterling have shown over and over again their love and compassion for family and friends by letting them stay and live with them during hard times. They even helped me. As much Love I've seen in their home, if their focus is to bring child into their home and family that would be one very fortunate child. Without any hesitation or doubt, I fully give my recommendation for them to adopt a child.
Clarence A. Hollis, Jr. Endorsed Family-oriented, positive, Sense of Humor, Big hearts, Supportive, Growth Mindset, patient, Nurturing
Nicole Norwood
No
Jamal and Nicole are awesome parents and amazing people. They are great teachers to their daughter India and others. They are nurturing and supportive as well.
Nicole Norwood Endorsed Family-oriented, positive, Sense of Humor, Big hearts, Supportive, Growth Mindset
Rachel Harrah
Longtime friend and former colleague
Talk about a dream family for any kid. They are creative and kind, funny and firm, and overall wonderful humans.
Posts
Black Panther
Black Panther Wakanda Forever #RIP Chadwick
Limestone Caverns
Exploring local underground caverns
Learning to sew with Nana
Measure twice, cut once. Be very careful when pinning the patterns.
Celebrating 22yrs of Marriage in NYC
Taking in a Broadway play.
Celebrating Mom’s 74th Birthday
Celebrating Mom/Grandma’s birthday
Meet Nicole
Fun Facts: Is afraid of spiders, loves cooking and hosting family gatherings, but always gets stressed about them Favorite movie: (old) - The Jerk with Steve Martin, (new) Disney’s Encanto Favorite place to be: On vacation with my family Something silly about me: Only sneezes in groups of three and only does one hiccup Something serious about me: She hates liars.
Meet Jamal
Fun Facts: He’s a professional actor and educator. He LOVES all things Detroit - sports, Faygo, Greek food, Motown, Coney dogs Favorite movie: City of God Favorite place to be: Hawaii Something silly about me: He CANNOT eat cookies without milk or cake without ice cream; and he will participate in a long-term prank Something serious about me: He doesn’t like inconsistency.
Our Travels
Outside the house, we love traveling. We do road trips and also fly to new places, as our schedules allow. You will see from our profile book that we will end up at the beach at least once a year - that’s mandatory. We each get to select one item for the family to do on each trip. This helps to make sure everyone gets to have something that they are especially excited about. India once selected ziplining when we visited the Virgin Islands. That was quite interesting because Jamal is afraid of heights. He sucked it up and we had a blast.