We both enjoy the outdoors and look forward to sharing our favorite trails with our child. We can't wait to walk through our garden and share the wonder of nature as sunflowers, strawberries, and tomatoes bloom and grow right outside our back door. While Christa is the better cook and baker, Richard is always willing to lend a hand and can whip up Crock Pot meals when needed. Christa has grown into her baking skills and you can smell everything from banana bread to croissants coming from our kitchen. We also both share a love for reading! Our current nighttime routine involves reading a couple pages before bed, and we can't wait to trade-in our book of choice for children's classics like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

Christa About Richard: Richard is incredibly kind, patient, and level-headed. He is always the first person Christa turns to when she has a problem or needs to talk something through. Richard listens carefully and without judgment and offers sound advice. Richard has a passion for the outdoors–whether that's walking in our neighborhood park, hiking in surrounding state parks, or volunteering for trail restoration projects.

Richard About Christa: Christa truly lights up the room. When we are with family, our nieces and nephews swarm Aunt Christa! She also shares a love for nature and is often found in our backyard garden planting, watering, harvesting, and weeding. She was the driving force behind converting our backyard into a bright and vibrant garden that is full of life in the form of native plants, flowers, and vegetables. Christa is engaging and has a strong work ethic when it comes to her professional life as a school speech-language pathologist. She advocates in the best interest of her students and families that she serves, and truly loves being part of such an incredible profession.

We strive to demonstrate caring for the people and the world around us. We believe in and advocate for the equality and dignity of all people. We share a respect for the natural world, and we try to be as sustainable as possible. We want to leave the world a better place for future generations. We place a big emphasis on spending our free time together and with family and friends. We visit family on a regular basis and we are fortunate to live in a city where we have a strong network of close friends. Not only are we able to call on them when we're grabbing a bite to eat or taking a walk in the park, but we can also rely on these same friends for help and advice.

We love our neighborhood! We rented for a year and then decided to buy a house because we enjoyed the area so much. It's a very friendly, diverse community with lots of young families and two great schools. The neighborhood has lots of summer block parties and there's always a good turnout for trick-or-treating at Halloween. Beyond our neighborhood, our city is a great place to raise a child. There are plenty of parks and museums geared towards kids, and we have the best zoo in the country!

Our 4-bedroom house is 100+ years old and has a lot of charm. The previous owners fully renovated it 10 years ago. We spend a lot of time in our backyard relaxing with family and friends or tending to our garden. Our nieces and nephews love eating berries and cherries that they harvest themselves!

From our house it's a short walk to the best park in the city where we enjoy the Saturday morning farmers market, evening walks after work, food-truck Fridays in the summer, and BBQs with family and friends. The park has multiple playgrounds and a newly installed nature playscape with a water feature. Kids in the neighborhood go to one of two schools or one of multiple early childhood centers nearby. There are small shops and restaurants (including our favorite ice cream place) scattered throughout the neighborhood. We have lots of friends who live nearby and we love relaxing in our backyards, meeting up in the park, or grabbing a bite to eat together.

We are very close with both our families. Christa has two brothers–one older and one younger–and she was born and raised in the Midwest. Her family is incredibly fun-loving as she and her brothers are often found sharing a laugh with one another. We have four nieces and nephews on Christa's side of the family. Christa's mom and her brothers live around Chicago, which means we are fortunate to be only a 4-5 hour drive away from them. We visit them or they visit us just about every other month, including major holidays. Christa grew up with family board game nights, something that she still enjoys to this day! This tradition has now grown to hosting game nights at our home. We love sharing this tradition with our friends!

,p>Richard comes from a big family. He's the youngest of six kids and there are 15 nieces and nephews on his side of the family. Holidays and birthdays are always a lot of fun with so many aunts, uncles, and cousins! Richard's parents live near us and he and his dad enjoy going to baseball games, watching college basketball, and playing golf together. They're both pretty handy (something passed down from Richard's grandpa) and work really well together–they did a kitchen renovation a few years ago and have completed a bunch of projects at Richard's parents' house. We are very close with Richard's brother and his family, who live in New York. We visit them every year, including Thanksgiving every other year.

Thank you for considering adoption, and thank you for allowing us an opportunity to share more about ourselves with you. We can only imagine the challenging decision you have in front of you, so we thank you for your time and consideration. We admire your courage and your selflessness.

We met in college through mutual friends, but we were both so nervous to take the first step that we didn't start dating until Richard was in his senior year. While we may have had a slow start, we have been together ever since--bonding over cooking together, traveling, enjoying the outdoors, exploring and engaging in our community, and sharing laughs with family and friends.

While we still hold these same things dear to our hearts, we have also grown as a couple by encouraging and supporting each other to achieve our goals. A few years after we got married, Christa wanted to go back to school full-time and change her career. It required a lot of hard work from her and teamwork from us both, but it worked out in the end and Christa has truly found her passion in life.

We strive to live our values every day through our personal and professional lives. Those values are anchored in caring for each other, family and friends, our community, and those around us. Every day Christa works to advocate for students with special needs as a speech-language pathologist, and she is privileged to give her students a voice and teach them the power of their words. Richard spent the first part of his career in education focused on helping high school and college students achieve their dreams. He recently started working in financial services, and while it's a different industry, he takes a lot of pride in being part of a company that helps individuals and families achieve their goals in life. We are eager to role model these values and shower love on a child of our own, which is why we are excited to start our family through adoption.

Christa is one of three kids and Richard is the youngest of six, which means our child will join 19 nieces and nephews eager to teach them how to play corn hole (a backyard game, popular in the Midwest), the best hiding places for hide-and-seek, and how to butter up grandma and grandpa for extra treats! Our parents, siblings, and extended family were so excited when we told them we planned to adopt, and we know this is just the beginning of their excitement. We have been looking forward to expanding our family, and it means the world to us to have our family's love and encouragement.

We are eager to not only welcome a child into our world, but to also welcome and honor you in our lives. You are and will always be incredibly important to us and our family. We are happy to send email updates, pictures, stories, and keep you informed of milestone moments. We are also open to visiting in person in the future. Ultimately, we will encourage and honor whatever role you choose to play.

Thank you again for considering adoption. We promise to always make sure your baby is loved, affirmed, and celebrated for the incredible person they are and will be.

Richard & Christa