Adoption has been a huge part of our family. Chris' sister was adopted from Ethiopia when she was four, and his cousin was adopted domestically as a baby. We are very close with Chris' sister Sara and his cousin and are thankful every day that his family adopted. Even before meeting Chris, Adriana had wanted to experience adoption as well; we bonded over sharing that desire, even before we got married and realized we were going to struggle with infertility. We know from firsthand experience that the adoption bond is just as strong and immediate as when a family has a child biologically. Chris' family always discussed Sara's birth family openly and positively. We are excited that our adoption could possibly have a more open relationship with the birth family throughout the child's life, even more than we've been able to experience with Sara's international adoption. Chris' family has benefited so much from adoption. We have an awesome sister and cousin, and we've gotten to add tasty Ethiopian food to our regular rotation as well!

In our free time, we enjoy exploring our hobbies both individually and together, as well as spending time with friends. We both have very close groups of friends who have been in our lives from childhood through college and now adulthood. We've been through many milestones together including this new season of starting families. We love that our weekend hangouts with friends now include everyone's children. We also love spending time together outside by hiking or taking long walks with our dogs. Chris recently started training for a triathlon and enjoys biking, swimming, and running. He loves that we live close to a large park with many hiking and mountain biking trails. Adriana enjoys taking pottery classes and gardening. She loves to cook too, especially when incorporating vegetables and herbs that we grow in our garden. We also prioritize spending time with each other after work by eating dinner together then watching TV and reading before bed. We can't wait to introduce our child to the things we love, but are even more excited to find out what they enjoy and support them in their interests as they grow.

We know that it’s possible for adopted children to not feel like they fully belong, especially when the adopted child is a different race than the adoptive parents. We understand that they might feel like they don’t fit perfectly into their adopted culture or their birth parents’ culture. However, we will create an open family dynamic where these feelings can be shared and where our child feels supported. We hope to incorporate our child’s birth family’s culture into our own family culture so that our child feels proud of all aspects of who they are. Our family has experience with navigating this sense of divided belonging in transracial adoption with Chris’ sister Sara. Our goal will be for them to feel like they fully belong in both cultures. We will work with you, the birth parents, to understand as much as you’re willing to share about your culture and family stories. We will also make sure that the child has people in their life that look like them, whether they’re friends or role models like coaches, teachers, doctors, etc. We also will be sharing our family stories with our child because that will be a big part of who they are and how they’ll be raised. We will pay close attention to this sense of belonging and identity throughout our child's entire life.

We both come from very close-knit families with strong marriages to look up to. We're both one of four children and still very close with all of our brothers and sisters. Our siblings and their significant others are looking forward to having a new niece or nephew in the family! We each love our experiences in large families and plan to have multiple children through adoption. We hang out with family most weekends and love vacationing together. Both sides of the family are extremely excited about our plan for adoption too!

Adriana's family all live within 45 minutes of us. Her sister and her husband have a 2 year old, and will be adding another nephew to the family this year! We have been having a blast experiencing all of his "firsts" and are excited to do the same with his new brother. We can't wait to watch our child bond with his/her cousins at family vacations, holidays, play-dates, and sleepovers.

Chris' parents are about an hour away and recently moved to a large plot of land with two family houses where they live next to his Aunt and Uncle. This move made space for all his siblings and cousins (and their pets and spouses!) to get together often throughout the year and for family holidays. We also love spending weekends there enjoying nature and the lake. We can't wait to make many family memories here with our child and his/her grandparents and aunts and uncles.

We live in a single family, 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom home in the suburbs of a large city in Pennsylvania with our two dogs, Auggie and Annie. Our house has a fenced in backyard with a deck and vegetable garden (built by Chris). We love spending time in our yard, especially with family and friends. One of our bedrooms is awaiting a fun nursery makeover to welcome the baby home! Our kitchen is our favorite room, especially after renovating it together to make space for the whole family. We enjoy home projects and can't wait to turn the basement into a playroom!

One of the reasons we moved to this neighborhood five years ago is because of the great school district. We live on a welcoming street with many young families that we've enjoyed getting to know. We have a large park and playground in our neighborhood that we walk to with our dogs and can't wait to bring our child there. Our town has many holiday celebrations that we are excited to enjoy with our child including parades for Halloween, St. Patrick's day, and Fourth of July. Every Wednesday in the summer, the local main street closes for outdoor dining, perfect for bringing young kids along. We also enjoy going to the local farmer's market on the weekends and walking into town for dinner and ice cream.

First of all, we want to thank you for even considering us to raise your child. We know this can't be an easy decision and appreciate the time and thought you are putting in to ensure your child has the best life possible. We want you to know that we have the same goal. We promise to always put our child first and make sure we are giving him/her the best life that we can. We want you to know that the birth parent of our child will always have a special place in our heart and our family. No matter what you decide to do, we know your decision will come from a place of love for your child.

has always been part of how we dreamed of building our family. While we were dating, we bonded over both wanting to adopt children one day. Chris has personal experience with adoption as his sister was adopted from Ethiopia. After getting married, we decided to first try to get pregnant naturally, but we struggled to get and stay pregnant. After multiple years of IVF and miscarriages, we realized that a natural pregnancy was something that wasn't going to happen for us. Closing the door on IVF was weirdly a happy moment for us. We were very excited to end that chapter because it was a sign that our children were meant to be adopted, which is something we had always wanted. When Chris' sister was adopted, he was blown away by how immediately the family bond forms. She came from a different continent, has different skin color, and was a different age, and the bond immediately felt the same as with his brothers. We can't wait to experience this type of connection when we bring our child into our family!

We are eager to bring our baby home one day and provide them with the happiest and most loving childhood. We feel confident that we will be great parents because we both always put a lot of effort into the things we care about, and building a family together is the thing we care about the most. We feel our strong relationship and teamwork is a unique asset to being great parents. Day to day, we enjoy collaborating to solve problems, whether it's planning dinner or planning our future. Everyday disagreements are settled calmly, and we always try to stay kind to each other, which was even one of the vows at our wedding. We promise to do everything in our power to provide our child with a happy life. We want to raise them to be kind, successful, confident, and resilient. We can't wait for the days when we can play outside with our child, bring them to the beach, go on bike rides, and have family movie nights.

If you end up choosing us to adopt your child, we would love to have an open relationship with you, as much as you'd like. We will be open with our child about their birth story and adoption from the beginning, and want them to have a positive connection to their story, family, and identity. We hope to continue to nurture that positive connection throughout their life by being able to share photos, emails, and phone calls with you and even have yearly visits, if these are things you are comfortable with. We want to celebrate our child's adoption and surround them with everyone in their life who loves them, and that includes you. We also know that if you choose us as adoptive parents, we will be forever bonded by our shared love for the child. We want them to always know how special their birth story and birth mom are.

We appreciate the time you are taking to view our profile and read our letter. We don't know how to put into words what it means to us that you would consider us for this role we have always dreamed of.

Thank you,

Chris & Adriana