Ryan and Andrew

Hello, we are Ryan and Andrew and we’re grateful that you are taking the time to learn about us. Our hearts are open, hopeful, and fully prepared to welcome a child into our family.

Our journey together began 13 years ago with a simple match on an online dating site. At the core of our relationship is unwavering teamwork and emotional balance. Andrew is often the energized, solution-focused planner, and Ryan pairs with enthusiasm, organization, levelhead and comedic relief. In every uncertain moment, we know how to help each other regulate and refocus, ensuring that a child will always see calm, supportive teamwork modeled at home.

Our shared goal is to provide a loving, stable, and nurturing home. Becoming fathers is the most purposeful and exciting chapter of our lives. Andrew has long known that Ryan would be an extraordinary parent. From teaching swimming lessons to children of all ages to effortlessly connecting through play and imagination, Ryan’s patience and warmth are his superpowers. Children in our lives—especially our niece and our young cousins—naturally gravitate toward him. Ryan, in turn, sees Andrew as a motivator and encourager, someone who creates an environment that fosters growth, confidence, and joy. His energy and drive ensure that any child in our care will be supported in exploring their passions and reaching their full potential.

A few details that reflect our personalities: Andrew once attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the Longest Charcuterie Board and can recite the alphabet backward faster than forward. Ryan can identify local hawks and falcons by wingspan and tail feathers. These quirks, along with a shared sense of humor and curiosity, bring constant laughter and light to our home.

Both of us maintain fulfilling careers with the State of Oregon. Flexible, hybrid work schedules allow us to prioritize family time while maintaining balance and stability. Our home is a cozy, three-bedroom retreat on a quiet, welcoming cul-de-sac. The fenced backyard is a vibrant, secure space where our husky, Kyra, lounges next to our small flock of chickens. Weekends bring music, gardening, baking, movies and the laughter of neighborhood children playing outside. Our home will be filled with meaningful traditions, family recipes, annual camping trips, hikes, and the importance of Saturday morning cartoons.

We are surrounded by a large, loving community—our village. Family members including grandparents, parents, siblings; and so many other family and friends that are all eager to welcome a new addition. Our child will have many playmates and guiding figures surrounding them.

As parents, our hope is to raise a child who is kind, curious, and confident. These values will be taught through encouragement, education, and empathy—helping them develop an appreciation for diverse perspectives and cultures.If we are blessed with a transracial or transcultural placement, that heritage will be embraced and honored with intention. We wholeheartedly believe in the importance of open adoption. Our goal is to support healthy communication and transparency in order to help our child understand their story, their identity, and the profound love behind their adoption.

Thank you for your time and your consideration. With gratitude and hope,

Ryan and Andrew

Michele and Peter

Hiya,

We are Michele and Peter. Our journey together began 16 years ago when we were young kayak guides in Alaska. We bonded over our mutual love for adventure and the wilderness. About six years ago, we moved down to Oregon to be closer to friends and family. We absolutely love exploring the Pacific Northwest and experiencing all it has to offer.

I (Michele) was born in New York City, first generation to immigrant parents from the Philippines. I enjoy sharing my culture through food and traditions. I love spending time in our garden tending to our flowers, shrubs and vegetables. My other great interest is pottery - I love being able to create in clay. Travel has been my lifelong passion and I spent the majority of my 20s experiencing different cultures and learning from diverse perspectives. Traveling to Egypt was especially impactful. Growing up Catholic, I was accustomed to particular way of practicing faith. However, traveling to a Muslim country, opened my eyes to the beauty of religious diversity and the importance of tolerance.  I gained an understanding that while we express our devotion differently, all religions share the same values of compassion and community.

I (Peter) was born and raised in a small town in Vermont. I majored in Environmental Science with a focus on education. After which I moved to Alaska where I discovered my passion for being on the water as a kayak guide, eventually upgrading to larger and larger boats. I’m currently a tugboat captain. I love working with my hands, expressing my creativity with woodworking and lamp making. Having an interest in science, specifically astronomy, I enjoy learning about new discoveries and the wonders of the universe. I also love playing disc golf (when the weather cooperates), traveling, and experiencing different cultures.

We want to create a loving, caring and thoughtful home where our child feels comfortable and confident to express themselves and their creativity. We hope to share our own interests, whether it’s doing arts and crafts after school, or going on hikes and learning about nature on the weekends. More so, we look forward to supporting them as they grow and develop their own interests, whether it’s in sports, performing arts or whatever passion they may find.

Our vision for our family is one of openness. We would love our child to be surrounded by love from us, their birth parents and all extended families. Our hope is that our child knows their roots, heritage and culture, and that this gives them a secure sense of identity.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us.
Michele and Peter

Michelle and Lee

We are excited to introduce ourselves to you, and thank you for taking the time to look at us! We are Michelle and Lee–public servants, music-lovers, and friends to animals.

We connected over music and that has continued through now eleven years of marriage and nearly seventeen years together, so we go to many concerts across the Portland area each year. So far this year, we saw Nine Inch Nails, Wu-Tang Clan, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Pixies, Spoon, the Roots, Oasis, and Mitski. We also have season tickets for the Portland Thorns soccer team and the WNBA’s new Portland Fire.

We currently have two cats and two dogs, who are an important part of our lives. We both love animals, and that has been both a family tradition for both of us and an important part of our life together. Our dogs, Jane and Arnie, are very different from one another, but they love each other so much. Jane is what we call a “people-dog,” who simply wants to be adored by any and all people, while Arnie is very curious and energetic, and loves playing with other dogs. And the sibling cats, Pearl and Wally, have the same differing personalities as the dogs–Pearl is very athletic, but a hider, so many have never seen her, while Wally is very social and will take all available attention, once he is comfortable. It is important to us to have animals who are friendly and loving toward us and all our visitors, including kids.

We recently made it back to Portland, after having moved away to Alaska more than a decade ago, followed by some time in Southern Oregon and then the Willamette Valley. Michelle has followed a decade serving as a prosecutor with a new job serving Oregonians. Lee is in year thirteen of teaching social studies and English language arts—mostly seventh and eighth grade.

We now have a new house that we love, and is going to be great for kids. Lee has worked with at-risk youth since 2002, and loves kids almost as much as Michelle does, Michelle had two young nieces and a toddler nephew when we met, and it has been clear since the first time Lee met them that she has a deep and thoughtful love for children. Lee also has two nephews–two years and almost six–who we both love and with whom we have a lot of fun when we visit them in Colorado or when they come to Oregon.

Adoption has been an increasing part of our family and professional life. One of Lee’s sisters is an adoptee, he has met students who were adopted, and has learned that several of his adult friends have experiences with adoption. Michelle’s time serving children as a child abuse prosecutor put her in contact with adoption situations and she saw the complications that come with any adoption. Our commitment to openness flows from this experience.

Both of our careers have shown us the importance of openness and transparency when it comes to our hope for a relationship with our child’s birth parents. Without openness, honesty can suffer, which is an essential quality in all relationships. We are hoping for a relationship built on honesty, trust, and a commitment to what is best for the child. An ongoing relationship with a birth parent is the core of our partnership, in our eyes.

We have a very loving family in our household, and birth parents can be sure that our child will have all the love and support we have as they navigate childhood and beyond. Thank you again for giving us some of your time.

-Michelle & Lee

Tom and Jacit

Hi! We’re Tom and Jacit. We live in Washington State, surrounded by tall evergreens, close friends, and a supportive and inclusive community. Our home is filled with laughter, nerdy references, and the footfalls of tiny paws racing down the hallway. While we’re proud of the life we’ve built, our dream is to be parents and we’re so fortunate to have found ourselves on an adoption path.

Both of us work in the housing industry, with Jacit on the nonprofit side, helping families experiencing homelessness, and Tom as a manager of apartment communities that participate in an affordable housing program. We love spending weekends exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest with our pup, cooking together, or having cozy movie nights. We’re also lucky to have nieces and nephews who bring so much joy into our lives and remind us how special family time really is.

We actually grew up in the same small town in Alaska, but we didn’t really know each other until college. We both joined the debate team at the University of Alaska, and somewhere between long tournaments and friendly arguments, we realized we made a pretty great team. That shared beginning taught us how to communicate, listen, and support one another—things that still shape our relationship every day.

We believe that open adoption can be a beautiful way to build connection. We’d love for a child to grow up knowing where they come from and to understand the story of their adoption. We’re committed to an open adoption, and recognize that it looks different from family to family.

If we’re fortunate enough to be chosen as adoptive parents, we promise our child will be cherished and supported every single day. We’ll nurture their curiosity, celebrate who they are, and make sure they always know their story.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us a little. No matter where your journey leads, we hope you feel supported and loved along the way.
With all our hearts,
Tom & Jacit

Jeff and Jessica

Hello!

We’re Jeff and Jessica. We are excited to share about ourselves and our hopes for becoming parents through open adoption. Infertility created barriers to us having children earlier in our relationship, and our journey together has strengthened our sense of hope, patience in the waiting, and our love for one another. We feel deeply in our hearts that adoption is the right step to building our family, and we hope to have the opportunity to welcome both a child and their birth family into our lives.

We’ve been together since 2012 and got married in 2020.  We met during graduate school in San Francisco, and both now have careers in healthcare. Jeff grew up in the Bay Area in California. Jessica was born and raised in Oklahoma, and has also lived in Colorado and California. We now live in Portland, Oregon in a house in the hills surrounded by so many trees! Our free time is often spent enjoying being at home with our dog (Finch) and our 2 kitties (Keefe and Arthur). We cherish and appreciate the incredible beauty of the Pacific Northwest and are happy to call this place home. Jessica loves hiking, trail running with Finch, and watching movies. A few times a year, she likes to attend classes for creative things like cooking or flower arranging. Jeff is an avid climber and runner, likes to go to the movies, and appreciates relaxing at home watching basketball or listening to records. We love to cook dinner together most nights per week, take long walks in our neighborhood, and go camping during the summertime. We also love to sit by the fire with hot chocolate during the winter and always have lots and lots of silliness and laughter in our home.

We value what openness brings to adoption, and understand that open adoption relationships can look so many different ways. We want to honor what feels most comfortable and natural for everyone involved, and will keep our door open to support a child’s connections with their birth family. Whether this is through exchanging photos, sharing letters, and/or having visits, we want to create a connection that prioritizes trust, love, and respect. We want the child we raise to understand all parts of their adoption story, and we believe that an open adoption is a bridge that can connect our families and honor this child as the person who brought us all together.

Thank you,
Jeff and Jessica Mosher

Ashley and Dan

Hello!
Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We’re Ashley and Dan, and we’re excited to share a little about our life and our hopes for growing our family through adoption.
We live in Oregon’s Willamette Valley in a cozy house with our sweet border collie, Luna. Our neighborhood is quiet and welcoming, with nearby parks and a farmers market where we enjoy fresh produce and friendly conversations. We love spending time outdoors, whether it’s hiking and camping in the summer or snowshoeing in the winter. At home, we find joy in simple things like cooking together and tending our vegetable garden.

We met in college and have grown into a strong, loving partnership built on trust, laughter, and shared values. We support each other through life’s challenges and celebrate the everyday moments. We’re ready to welcome a child into our family and share with them all the warmth, love, and adventure we have to offer.

Ashley is a special education teacher who works with toddlers and their families. She is curious, optimistic, and deeply patient. She finds meaning in helping children grow and thrive. Outside of work, she enjoys pottery, reading, and creative projects. Dan is a mechanical engineer who designs medical devices that help people live healthier lives. He is logical, empathetic, and confident. He enjoys biking, kayaking, and trying new recipes in the kitchen. Luna adds a playful and gentle energy to our home, especially around children.

Adoption has always been part of our plan. A medical condition prevents us from having biological children, something we’ve known since early in our relationship. It has never changed our commitment to each other or our dream of becoming parents. In the summer of 2024, we provided short-term foster care for several children. We loved being caregivers, and saying goodbye was always hard. That experience confirmed we feel ready to embrace a child of our own.

We hope to raise a child who is emotionally strong, self-aware, and kind to others and to themselves. Our home is a place where all emotions are welcome and where curiosity and independence are encouraged. We plan to share meaningful traditions from our Jewish and Christian backgrounds while also honoring our child’s birth heritage and beliefs.

We are seeking an open adoption because we believe family includes everyone who loves and supports a child. Whether that means sharing holidays, playdates, or occasional letters and photos, we are open to building a relationship that feels right for our child’s birth family. We want our child to know their full story and to understand it with honesty, love, and respect.

Most of all, we want our child to feel deeply loved, celebrated for who they are, and supported every step of the way. We will make sure they always know how cherished they are by us and by their birth family.

Warmly,
Ashley and Dan

Cassie and Matt

Dear Expectant Parent(s),

We are Cassie and Matt, and appreciate the opportunity to share a little about our family. We hope this letter provides a glimpse into our life in Portland, Oregon.

We met in graduate school in 2008. What started as friendship quickly grew into a loving partnership built on loyalty, laughter and shared values rooted in social justice. We married in 2013 in one of our favorite places to explore, the Columbia River Gorge. We knew we wanted to grow our family one day, with hopes it would be through adoption.

Adoption has always been an important part of our family. Matt’s mother was adopted, as was his brother, multiple cousins and close family friends. In 2020, our family grew with the birth, placement and adoption of our daughter Eisley. Open adoption is important to us, and we respect and understand that every situation is unique and evolving. We feel very lucky to have a connection with Eisley’s birth family as she forms her own set of identities. We have open dialogue with Eisley about adoption and what makes a family, making sure she is exposed to examples of the adoptee experience through books, media and community.

We are a family with a sense of humor who enjoys laughing together. Matt could be described as a gentle, compassionate and confident guy with a big heart. He is a very patient and fun father to Eisley. Cassie could be described as a loyal and loving human who lives by her values. She is a supportive, nurturing and fun mother to Eisley. Eisley is an inquisitive and intelligent old soul. She is nurturing to and inclusive of others, and loves playing with friends-especially younger buddies. On weeknights, after work and Eisley’s afterschool activities, you’ll find us eating dinner together, debriefing our days, walking our dogs to the park, creating art, dancing to music, watching Eisley perform, or having a game night. On weekends you’ll find us hosting a party, cheering for our local soccer teams, attending community events, going to an art show, concert or play, camping in our van, or building sandcastles at our beach house in Washington.

Thank you for reading our letter, we hope it gives you an idea of who we are and the life we live. More than anything, we love our community and are excited to continue growing our family.

Sincerely,

Cassie, Matt and Eisley

Bob and Es

Hello!

We are Bob & Es (aka Esther or Essie). We have been married since 2015, and share our lives with two lovely dogs, Ori & Afi.

We met while living in Kenya over a decade ago. Es is a physician, and was working at the time with a local non-profit organization on a school nutrition project. Bob is a security engineer and computer software developer, and he was based in Nairobi at the time for work. We met through an auspicious posting on Reddit by a close friend. A conversation that started in East Africa continued after we both moved back to the US. Eventually Bob moved to Arizona to be with Es as she finished her family medicine residency training. Less than two years after meeting, we were engaged, and then married a little over a year later in a small ceremony at a nature conservatory near our family in Baltimore, Maryland. We lived in Seattle for almost ten years before a job opportunity arose for Es, and we decided to move to the Midwest.

These days we enjoy our life in the Twin Cities. We share many hobbies even as we enjoy those things that make us unique. We train in Jiu Jitsu together at least once a week. We both love music - Bob engages in music production and Es loves playing the piano, mountain dulcimer (made for her by Bob’s dad!), and guitar. We also seek out opportunities to share in exploring live music and theatre in town with our friends and family and enjoy walks with our pups around the beautiful trails, lakes, and parks near our house. We met while living abroad, and travel remains a big part of our lives (both for fun and due to Es’ work in global health).

Es loves to be outside or active as much as possible: she loves hiking and biking and gardening and travel. Bob tends more towards the indoors - his hobbies include sound design, board gaming, and video games.

We share similar values: we value honesty, integrity, creativity and curiosity. We hope that in parenting a child, above all else, we will raise them to be kind.

We have long been interested in growing our family through adoption, and hope to build a loving, trusting, and open relationship with our child’s birth family. We dream of creating a nurturing and supportive environment where a child can feel safe to explore the world and their own interests, grounded in compassion and care.

Thank you for taking the time to read about us!

-Es & Bob

Kurt and Kohl

Hello, we’re Kurt and Kohl. We’re both from the Pacific Northwest, with Kurt growing up in Beaverton, OR and Kohl growing up in Bellingham, WA. We’ve been together since 2019 and married since 2022, currently living in beautiful Portland, OR.

We met through the dating app Hinge, forming an instant connection. It wasn’t long before we moved in together and started combining our lives. We currently have 2 cats (Tatum and Moo) who are very affectionate, and 2 dogs (Millie and Chief) who enjoy going to the nearby dog park.

Kohl is a reserved, lighthearted, crafty, and caring man. His mother is a baker and passed on her love of baking to him, he enjoys baking breads and sweet treats like cookies and cinnamon rolls. Kohl is also rather tech-savvey, having worked in the IT industry for 10 years at various construction companies. Our home is filled with smart-speakers and automated lights. Kohl’s current home project is renovating our home office.

Kurt is an incredibly loving and goofy guy, with a large extended family across the Portland area and beyond. He enjoys interesting architecture, building Legos, and tasty coffee. Kurt has worked for a local construction company specializing in doors for over 6 years, and has become something of a self-proclaimed door nerd. He enjoys cheering Kohl on during his home projects, and occasionally providing assistance.

We’re excited to grow our family through open adoption and experience the joys of parenthood. To us, an important aspect of parenthood is to highlight and support whoever our children want to become and nurture them as they grow. We hope our open adoption experience will develop an organic relationship to the degree everyone involved wants, with the adoptee at the center.

Together we believe we would make great parents by providing a loving environment, an open and caring place for anyone to grow. We look forward to supporting and nurturing our child’s interests and can’t wait to be their biggest cheerleader in any activities they pursue, whether it’s on the sports field, in a library, or anywhere else.

Thank you,
Kurt and Kohl

Sheldon and Glen

Hello! We’re Sheldon and Glen. We’re best friends and partners in every sense of the word. Our relationship is built on open communication, encouragement, laughter, shared curiosity, and a deep commitment to family, which we are excited to grow through adoption.

We met in the winter of 2019 and our first date felt like a true discovery of soulmates. When the pandemic hit just a few months later, we decided to spend what we thought would be a short lockdown together in Glen’s apartment. We soon realized how natural it felt to share our lives. By summer, Sheldon had sold his own place and we were committed to building a future together.

So, in 2021 we married and settled into our cozy home in Portland, Oregon, by a large public park in a diverse neighborhood. It’s an easy stroll from our front door to schools, the local farmers’ market, the theatre, and community centers. While we both work from home and have our separate private offices in the house, Glen often sets up in the dining room so he’s never too far from Sheldon or our cuddly dog, Jetson.

Sheldon, an attorney, is loving, honest, patient, and observant. Glen, an urban planner, is curious, generous, kind, thoughtful, and romantic. Together, we love exploring new places, whether on trails, car trips, or journeys abroad. At home, Sheldon tends to tomatoes, chilies, and herbs in the backyard, while Glen grows berries and flowers for arranging. Jetson does his part to help keep the yard squirrel-free. Many evenings find us on the back patio, reading, grilling, and enjoying the change of seasons. Family is at the heart of our lives, and our home is often the gathering place for loved ones. With Sheldon’s talent for cooking and baking, we host mid-week family hangouts, big Thanksgiving dinners, and Christmas morning brunches filled with laughter and good food.

We chose to pursue adoption because we want to be parents and feel we have a lot of love and opportunities to share with a child. We’re also fortunate to have the nearby support of a close friends and family, including relatives who have experienced adoption, grown up in foster care or mixed-background households, or otherwise followed unique paths in life. Through them, we’ve seen firsthand how openness in adoption can strengthen family bonds and help a child feel whole by understanding where they come from and knowing they are loved by many. Our hope is to expand this already diverse family and to raise a child in a home where differences are celebrated, everyone feels valued, and love is constant and unconditional.

Gratefully,
Sheldon & Glen

Jordan and Shane

Hi there! We’re Jordan and Shane (& Rumi). We live in Oregon, where we met at a summer camp in 2013, volunteering as counselors. Shane, originally from the Midwest, was only supposed to come for the week, but all of his friends (which quickly grew to include Jordan after they met) convinced him the Pacific Northwest was the place he needed to be. At the end of camp, Jordan flew out to help him take a three-day road trip to move his whole life. After that, we started dating and got married a few months later. We’ve been married since 2014.

Jordan works as a graphic designer, and her creativity shows in everything she does. Shane works as a data analyst, perfect for his logical and justice-focused brain. But before that, we were both Montessori teachers! Friends often describe Shane as supportive, smart, and a clear communicator, while Jordan is known for being resourceful, compassionate, and hardworking. Our relationship is built on laughter, respect, and a shared desire to make our community and world a better place. We strive to find ways to serve our community with our skills and time.
 
At home, you’d probably find Shane noodling on his guitar, playing video games, or cooking, while Jordan would be outside doing yardwork among the alpacas, chickens, and dogs, or tinkering with a project in the woodshop. We love cuddling up to watch anime and piling the whole family onto the paddleboard for a chill day on the river. We are lucky enough to live with Jordan’s parents. Having family close, always surrounded by love and support, is so important to us and how we hope to raise our children. At our house, Friday is movie night, Sundays are game night, and there is never a day without Legos scattered all over the floor.

One of the brightest parts of our lives is our son, Rumi. He is independent and creative, deeply interested in outer space, and always wears his clothes backwards (on purpose). He spends most of his time outside, rain or shine, exploring, and grazing for snacks in the garden like a big bunny. Being his parents is an immense gift. We try to parent with playfulness, curiosity, and respect. We’re eager to see him blossom into the role of big brother. He is just as excited as we are to grow our family and is never hesitant to share what he loves, whether it be a bite of a treat, a toy, or his knowledge.

We’ve always dreamed of becoming parents through both adoption and birth. We spent time as a foster care family, providing a safe home to children whose families were facing difficulties. But, saying goodbye to the kids who came into our lives was heartbreaking. We chose to pursue adoption, while also beginning fertility treatments, which eventually led to Rumi’s arrival. We believe every child’s story is important, and we want them to know where they come from and who they are connected to. We are committed to openness and to building a relationship that feels right for everyone involved. We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know that our home is ready for more love, and we’re looking forward to the journey ahead.

With warmth,
Jordan & Shane

Sean and Kyle

Hello! We’re Sean and Kyle, and we’re grateful for you taking the time to get to know us.

Our story together started at a house party in 2014. Kyle had just moved to Seattle; Sean had lived here for about two years. We were drawn to each other from the start, but it took a couple of months to have our first date: sandwiches and a movie. That date turned out to be the beginning of building a life together grounded in love, curiosity, and shared values.

Sean is a university professor who finds joy in teaching, mentoring, and conducting research that helps people manage their health. He also loves photography, especially capturing the beauty of nature. Kyle is a software engineer who works remotely and enjoys gardening, cooking with homegrown vegetables and herbs, and tinkering with computers. We both share a deep appreciation for nature—whether it’s hiking in the Cascades, tide pooling on the coast, or simply walking through our neighborhood parks.

Our home is filled with warmth, laughter, and a sense of calm. We love to cook together, explore new places, and spend time with friends and family. Our weekend routines include our neighborhood farmer’s market and visits to Seattle’s waterfront and parks. We might play board games or talk late into the night with friends. In addition to everyday joys, we enjoy visits to the San Juans, where we catch and cook a big seafood feast with friends. While the Pacific Northwest is home, we also love to travel to wander a new city or spend time together in mountains, deserts, or wherever the trail leads.

We also value our time with family and chosen family. We love our visits to Sean’s parents, brother, sister-in-law, and nieces in Las Vegas. Our oldest niece recruits us into impromptu dances and plays, and we’ve enjoyed her introducing us to her favorite swingsets, museum exhibits, nature preserve, ice cream shop, and library. Since Sean was in high school, he’s had a tradition of visiting friends for New Years for a few days of good food, board games, and catching up. We’ve maintained this as their families have grown and we’ve each moved around the country. After initial surprise at how intense a game of Catan can get, Kyle quickly took to this tradition too. These days, our visits also include hours of building towers and wooden trains with their young kids.

We’re excited to welcome a child into our lives and community. From when we first considered parenting, adoption seemed right for us, but we had a lot to learn. We were drawn to open adoption and the ways it can support a child’s sense of identity, belonging, and connection. A child should grow up knowing their story, their birth family, and that they are loved by many. We are committed to building a relationship with our child’s birth family that is grounded in honesty, trust, and mutual respect—one that continues to evolve to best support the child’s well-being and celebrate the birth family’s role in their life.

We look forward to providing a child with a nurturing, joyful, and supportive environment where they feel safe to explore who they are. We will encourage their curiosity, celebrate their uniqueness, and surround them with love, laughter, and opportunity. We hope to share with them the wonder of nature, the joy of baking pies, the comfort of bedtime stories, and the strength of a community that embraces them fully.

Thank you again for taking the time to learn about us!
Sean & Kyle

Evan and Paige

Hello! We are Paige and Evan and we are grateful for you taking the time to get to know us. We are two lifelong learners living in the Willamette Valley in Oregon who are excited to add to our family through open adoption. We met the good ol’ fashion way, matching on an internet app. We fell in love watching soccer games and exploring our cities, showing each other our personalities by organizing fun and unique dates along the way (i.e. Top Golf while wearing shark onesies). In the past three years, we married each other, and bought our first home. Our wedding ceremony was intimate, with our parents, followed up with two celebrations for our extended family and friends, one in Oregon, the other in St. Louis, Paige’s hometown.

We both consider ourselves very fortunate to love the work we do. Supporting each other in our personal and professional goals, we are able to learn from each other and those we work with. After having been a K-12 public school educator for the last decade, Paige made the change from teaching to providing mental health counseling for children and families in our community. This change came as a result of following her desire to build relationships with the families and students she taught. She recognized that she wanted to be able to provide the support that she wished her family had when she was a child. Paige is now in a position that challenges, encourages, and teaches her something every day. Evan has also recently transitioned in his career, from an instructor to a professor of teaching position at the local university. Coming from a family of educators, Evan cares deeply about education and how to help students learn more efficiently and effectively. The new position allows him to establish his research program which explores what students know as they begin his course, and how their understanding progresses throughout the year. Evan combines this passion with his love of sport, coaching Ultimate (Frisbee) with two of his good friends for the college women’s team.

Though we share much in common, we also enjoy our differences. Coming from a smaller family, being welcomed into a larger extended family was a fun and new experience for Evan. While running through the countryside, Paige is able to envision raising chickens and a vegetable garden, something she used to only dream of when living in concrete jungles. Inheriting a green thumb from his parents, Evan is helping Paige find her own style of gardening. When the weather doesn’t permit being outside, we can be found painting pottery at a local store, being entertained by our three pets Nessie (dachshund-corgi dog), Aries and Vino (tuxedo cats), or enjoying our favorite show, Taskmaster.

After unsuccessfully attempting to conceive, we arrived at adoption as our way to complete our family, though it had always been something we considered for our family’s future. After researching other avenues, Open Adoption and Family Services spoke to both of us and our family values. We see open adoption as the most supportive way to raise a child while providing the space to create an intentional relationship with a child’s birth family. With our enjoyment of hosting gatherings, we would like to welcome our child’s birth family into our community. We understand that this relationship will be one that is ever-evolving. We want to provide a strong foundation upon which our child will grow and explore this world, filling our child’s days with opportunities to be a fearlessly curious learner. To our child, we hope to model our values of treating others the way you want to be treated, communication, and always looking for the good in people. But above all else, we want our child to feel loved and accepted for exactly who they are and who they want to be.

Sincerely,
Paige and Evan

Natalie and Hexar

Hello! We are Natalie and Hexar - and are joined by our son Griffin. Thank you for taking some time to learn about our family. We are excited to be here!

We live in northeast Seattle along with our dogs Hazel and Ernie. We initially met in Whistler, Canada on a ski trip with mutual friends from a run club. Everyone was supposed to bring animal-themed onesies to wear, but we were the only two on the trip that actually wore them! This initial spark led to us dating a few months later. In the early days of our relationship, we spent our time camping and backpacking, going to concerts, relaxing with our dog Miles, travelling, discovering new restaurants, and more. Hexar proposed to Natalie in Potrero Chico, Mexico, one of Hexar’s favorite places for rock climbing, and we got married in 2017 at the best party we’ll probably throw in our lifetime!

After getting married, we took a couple years to enjoy life with just the two of us before starting a family. In 2020, we were blessed with the birth of our son Griffin. He is an active boy who is full of joy and loves counting, matching pajamas with family, soccer, hot wheels, and weekends with cousins. He often asks us when he gets to be a big brother, and we know he’ll be so thrilled when this time comes. One of our family traditions is to a keep a journal of all the funny things Griffin says, and we plan to continue this tradition with a second child. It’s so fun to look back on the hilarious things kids say!

Natalie is a social worker at a hospital and enjoys being able to support people through some of life’s more difficult moments, and believes strongly in the strength and resilience of people. Natalie is open-minded, tries to enjoy the small things in life, and likes spending time finding new activities for the family. She can often be found cooking at home, meeting up with girlfriends, or taking long solo walks with her earbuds.

Hexar is a software engineer, who has transitioned to managing a team of software developers in the last couple of years. He enjoys gaming, running, skiing, reading, Spikeball, and other physical activities. He is social, cares about his friends, loves dad life, and enjoys learning Spanish in his spare time.

We enjoy spending summer weekends with extended family at our lake cabin, where we often drink coffee while taking in the stillness of the morning water, swim, take nature walks, make s’mores, look at the stars, and relax in the sun. We also enjoy sporting events like Seattle Kraken hockey games, meet-ups with friends, and finding fun new activities for the family.

Hexar and Natalie both grew up with siblings and appreciate the significance of having these lifelong bonds. We hope to continue building our own family and for our children to have lives full of opportunities for adventure, joy, love, and memory making. After experiencing a series of losses, we are choosing adoption as a way for us to expand our family. We look forward to forming a relationship with a birth family that is welcoming, embraces our differences, and supports connection. We want to learn about what is important to a birth family and how we can best support that.

Best wishes - Natalie, Hexar, and Griffin.

Mel and Kris

Hello! We are Mel and Kris. Thank you for taking the time to read more about us and our family in North Carolina!

Kris is originally from Sweden and has spent his whole life with dual citizenship, spending time in both countries. His mother’s side of the family is from Sweden, and he primarily lived there until graduating high school, spending summers in the US with his dad. Mel grew up in central Florida - on farmland with lots of land and animals.

We met in college in June of 2013 and after graduation, North Carolina was our next stop, and is where we continue to live. Kris works as an IT manager, and Mel works as a manager in the mental health / counseling field. We married in 2020, right as Covid started, which unfortunately meant our wedding plans were tossed aside. We ended up getting married at the one place open during Covid that had a magistrate: The County Detention Center, with some of our friends standing in as witnesses. They were convinced we were pranking them when we told them where to go.

Kris describes Mel as sweet, caring and very empathetic – someone who loves going on adventures but also loves having a strong homebase to return to. When she has free time, she will often read, go on a run or plan her next Disney vacation. Kris enjoys being in his garage working on a car when he has some free time, or maybe tinkering on a computer. If you ask Mel, she will tell you that Kris is someone who is always there to offer moral support and encouragement - in the good times and bad. He is also always ready to offer practical support - through his mechanical or IT skills, or just being there so you don’t have to be alone during a tough time. He is the kindest and most genuine person she has ever met.

We are very outdoorsy as a family and love exploring new places - especially National and State parks. We also share a joint interest in off-roading, which has us frequently exploring mountains and dirt trails - trying to find the next fun challenge. We are surrounded by lakes, hiking trails, and some beautiful state parks within a short drive or walk and often spend weekends on the lake boating, kayaking, camping, mountain biking, or walking the trails with our pup, Sir Charles. We have a wonderful backyard with a garden, a firepit for relaxing evenings, and space for a playground. It is our shared favorite spot in our house - from spending time gardening or sitting around the fire when the weather allows, to relaxing on the porch with a book or to watch a TV show - we generally find ourselves outside for most of the evening, when the weather is nice.

We often refer to our friends as our family, and they are a very important part of our support network, and present in our lives. While Mel is the more outgoing of the two (an “extroverted introvert”) and will be quick to initiate the hangout or adventure, Kris is known for cooking and feeding people once they gather. Kris’ mom, Kay (who is excited at the possibility of becoming a grandma, or “farmor” as you say in Swedish), as well as his brother and sister in law all live in the area.

We are both excited to become parents and to create new adventures, hobbies, and traditions as we grow as a family! We want to help our child grow into their full self: While being human is messy and complicated, we can promise we will be there to provide love, support, understanding, and a large, welcoming, community to help back them up. This includes knowing their adoption story and birth family as fully and completely as they can - we want to include our child’s birth family in as many ways as they feel comfortable. To us, a child’s birth family includes not just the birth parents, but also siblings, grandparents, aunts & uncles, to be included in photos, videos, visits, and traditions in whichever manner works best for them.

Thank you for taking the time to read our letter and learn more about us! - Mel & Kris

Jessica and Wayne

Hello! We are Jessica and Wayne.

We hope that you are well and would like to acknowledge that this could be a sensitive process for everyone.  We envision that you will find what is right for you. 

We met in 2007 when Wayne took a rowing class that Jessica was coaching.  Wayne was drawn to Jessica’s bright and wide smile, fire and passion, kind and giving spirit and her amazing blue eyes.  Jessica was drawn to Wayne’s listening ear, kindness, sense of humor, work ethic and his great smile.  We spent the early years of falling in love talking, sailing, traveling, eating great food and getting a puppy!

Jessica is a deep thinking and feeling person with an incredibly silly and imaginative side.  She cares immensely for people and the environment and loves to bring passion both to projects and fun.  She understands loss and anxiety from personal experience and values the connections and growth that can sprout from these challenges.  Jessica is a musician and volunteer, and has been a coach, teacher and interpreter in the past.  She has degrees in Sociology, Spanish and Songwriting and is a lifelong learner.

Wayne is a kindhearted, generous, and gentle person with a great sense of humor and pragmatism.  He brings logic, empathy, love, and great one-liners into tough situations.  He enthusiastically learns new things and humbly works on himself in order to put his best foot forward in relationships.  Wayne works for a non-profit healthcare system using his software engineering skills to help others have better and easier access to healthcare.  He has a degree in Computer Science and loves to always be learning.

As a couple, we have talked, worried, dreamt, argued, and laughed about the thought of having a family. Both of us are very connected to our families, our nieces and nephews and our friends’ families.  We value family and community.  Many stones were turned over to discover that adoption felt right for our journey.  Despite moments of being scared, we value the opportunity to potentially welcome a child and their birth family into our lives.

We were drawn to an open adoption because we feel that it’s in the best interest of a child to have as much of a connection to their birth family, culture and heritage as possible.  We appreciate that the birth family will have its own beliefs and needs around this, and that navigating the connections will be an important learning process for everyone involved.  We value grace and practice.

In our free time, we love hanging with friends and family, being in nature, and enjoying what Seattle and the PNW have to offer.  We love being active outside as well as snuggling on the couch with a good show.  If we are chosen to raise a child, we hope to share our interests with them as well as encourage the exploration of their own passions along the way.

We hope to raise a child with values such as honesty, openness, emotional safety, kindness, clear communication, respect (for self, others, nature), diversity, creativity, hard work, community, self-determination, education and fun!  We value our diverse community and are glad that a child raised by us would be exposed to people diverse in age, race, gender identity and sexual orientation.

Hopefully, this letter has given you a window into us and our lives.  If you are interested, we would be happy and honored to learn about you, share more about ourselves and answer any questions. Regardless, we hope you find your way on this journey with as much ease and support as possible.

Warm regards,
Jessica and Wayne (and Dela, our 15-year-old dog!)

Nick and Amy

Hi! We’re Nick and Amy, and we truly appreciate you taking the time to learn more about us.

We live in Portland, Oregon, and are excited to grow our family through open adoption. The idea of expanding our family in a way that embraces love, connection, and openness is something we both deeply value. We met online in October 2020 and had our first date and got to know each other over Thai fried chicken and roti. Since then, we’ve embarked on many adventures, including spring break road trips along the coast, exploring cities in America, and hiking in the Rockies. In 2023, we bought a home in a beautiful and family
focused neighborhood, and last summer, we got married in Manhattan.

Amy is the principal of an alternative high school, where she is passionate about creating an inclusive, supportive learning environment for students who have struggled in traditional settings. She works every day to ensure that her school is a place where all students—especially those from marginalized backgrounds— feel seen, valued, and empowered. Her work in diversity and equity is at the heart of what she does, advocating for policies and programs that address racial disparities and create real opportunities for her students.

Nick works in the tech industry as a creative problem-solver, building 3D worlds and mentoring his team. His journey has shaped his deep sense of gratitude and empathy—having experienced homelessness as a young adult, he has been sober for the last 26 years. These experiences have given him a strong appreciation for stability, resilience, and the power of love and support in building a meaningful life. He carries those lessons into his relationships, his work, and his approach to parenting.

Amy grew up in a small town in Oregon, surrounded by a large extended family, and has always known she wanted to work in education. She’s thoughtful, strong, and independent, with a deep commitment to helping others. Nick was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in a big, loving Chinese-American family. He’s creative, curious, and loves to cook—something that won Amy over when they were dating.

We are already parents to Amy’s teenage daughter, Darla, and it has been amazing to build a strong, supportive, and loving home together. Our family also includes our dog, Hank, and a lively group of backyard chickens. In our free time, we love cooking together, traveling, listening to music, and watching movies. Amy is an avid reader and enjoys mid-century modern design, while Nick is passionate about photography and music. We enjoy hosting family and friends, whether it’s a book club or a backyard barbecue.

When we talked about what we envisioned for our future, we both felt that adoption was the right path for us. We believe love makes a family, and we are ready to welcome a child into our lives with open hearts. Openness is important to us because we want our child to feel surrounded by love—not just from us, but from their birth family as well. We believe that maintaining a connection with their roots, culture, and identity is incredibly valuable. Every adoption story is unique, and we are open to finding the right balance of communication and connection that works for everyone involved.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We look forward to this journey and the possibility of meeting you.
–Amy & Nick

Jason and Rachael

Hello! We are Jason and Rachael and we are excited to share a glimpse into our life.

We met in 2012 while volunteering at a summer camp in Oregon together and became close friends. Over the years our friendship developed into a fun-filled and loving relationship and marriage. We have been married for seven years and are hoping to expand our family through open adoption.

We hope to create a family that is centered on love, trust, respect, and openness. Open adoption is something that both of us feel drawn to because we see such an importance in the holistic view of a person. We want our child’s birth family to feel welcomed and valued within our family. We want to honor and celebrate all of who our child is, where they come from, and all the people who make them who they are and hope our child can build meaningful connections with all members of their family. Our desire is to raise a child who feels confident, unconditionally loved, safe, empowered, and known.

We have 15 nieces and nephews, 7 of which live in Oregon just a short drive away, who we love investing in and getting to know and watch grow up. One of our favorite annual traditions is having a sleepover with Rachael’s brother’s four daughters and taking them on a day trip with a different adventure each year. Both of us have had a love for spending time and engaging with children for decades and as we’ve watched our older siblings’ kids grow, so has our shared dream of raising a family together.

We live in a mid-sized town in Western Oregon where Jason was born and raised. He is a steadfast and caring guy who gets to express his creativity through his job as an engineer and in his down time through woodworking and 3D printing. He may not be the loudest person in the room but his wit and humor will surprise you…if you’re close enough to hear.  Rachael on the other hand you can’t miss! You can hear her laugh or burst into song from anywhere in the house. She exudes joy and her contagious energy makes her someone people love having around. She’s not only the life of the party but cares deeply for those around her, which is on full display in her job as a nurse where she gets the opportunity to show up for her patients during a stressful time in their lives.

Some of the things we love to do together are play board games (we have 137 and counting) because it allows for spending time together while promoting conversation; we enjoy experiencing nature through kayaking, biking and camping. Traveling is something we love to do together because it creates lasting memories and allows us to experience different cultures. We have a shared love of sports, hockey being our favorite, and we have enjoyed following our team (Go Oilers!) to different arenas across the continent where we get to watch a sport we love and also discover new cities along the way. We value surrounding ourselves with a broad community, from within our church to friends and family. We spend time with both sides of our family on a regular basis and cherish being so close and sharing our lives with one another.

Thanks for taking the time to get to know us!

Laura and Patrick

Hello! We are Laura, Patrick and our 2-year-old son, Wade. Thank you for reading our letter. We live in a sunny beach town in the Los Angeles area and are a laid-back, fun-loving family. Wade joined our family through adoption when he was born. He is the light of our lives—a sweet, goofy and clever little guy. It is an open adoption, and we feel very fortunate to have a great relationship with his birth family. We cherish our roles as parents and are hoping to expand our family through open adoption once more.

We met in 2014 at a 4th of July party in Brooklyn, NY, where we were both living at the time. Laura was drawn to Patrick’s wit, kindness and ability to put others at ease. Patrick was drawn to Laura’s sweetness, poise and sense of humor. After a couple of years of dating, we got engaged in November 2016. We moved from New York City to Laura’s native California in early 2017 and got married in April 2018 at a community arts center surrounded by all our loved ones.

Laura grew up in the LA area, and her immediate family members live nearby. Patrick was raised in a suburb outside of Chicago, where his immediate family still lives. We try to see Patrick’s immediate family regularly, allowing Wade to bond with his cousins, who are close in age. Our families have completely embraced Wade and are thrilled about the idea of welcoming another child into the crew.

We live in a charming neighborhood within a large, vibrant coastal community. On typical weekends, you can find us heading to the beach, visiting a children’s museum or the zoo or hanging out with family and friends. We have two dogs, Percy and Pandy, who keep us all entertained. We both work in financial services, Laura in corporate social responsibility and Patrick in compliance. In her job, Laura enjoys playing a key role in driving her firm’s commitment to creating positive social impact. In his job, Patrick appreciates being in an exciting environment that leverages his training as an attorney and allows him to focus on protecting his firm’s customers.
 
Since early in our relationship, we have been interested in pursuing adoption as the path to expand our family. Patrick has three close family members who are adopted, and we are at a point in our lives where we feel well-equipped to welcome another precious family member. We would be honored to provide a child with the best upbringing we can and share our love with them. We think that Wade will be a fabulous brother who will adore and protect his younger sibling.

Pursuing an open adoption is important to us, as our child will benefit from having a better understanding of their origins. We look forward to building a solid connection with our child’s birth family, including connecting with our child’s birth parents through in-person visits so that our child can spend meaningful face-to-face time with their birth family members. We would also love to connect via video calls and by sharing photos, videos and updates via email or text.

To learn more about us, we invite you to explore our digital photobook. We have obscured our son’s face from the online version for privacy but welcome you to request our unedited photobook by contacting OA&FS.

Warmly,
Laura, Patrick & Wade

Randy and Jenn

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to learn more about us.

We are Randy and Jenn, and we have been together since September of 2009. On our first date, we talked for hours, closing down the restaurant while sharing our lives and our deep appreciation for family. 15 years later our relationship is stronger than ever. Each day, we grow closer and learn new things about each other. We have a shared love for the outdoors, travel, building Legos, and music. Most importantly, we love to make each other laugh. Usually this means Randy is telling a dad joke or Jenn dances goofy while singing off key.

In September of 2018 we finally tied the knot. We spent the next few years fixing up our house to prepare to expand our family. Our home is located in a small suburb of Washington, in a quiet neighborhood with a large backyard for a child to play in. We are so fortunate to live within walking distance of outdoor spaces, including several parks and lakes - perfect for those hot summer days.

We have a Great Pyrenees and Labrador Retriever mix dog named Jason who is an absolute goofball and lovebug. We love taking him on walks and hikes and look forward to adding a child to those types of everyday adventures.

Jenn is a development manager overseeing the development of multifamily affordable housing throughout Washington and California. She has been at her job for 17 years, working her way up from a temporary receptionist. She loves being able to give back to her community through the work she does. Randy is a Technical Operations Manager for a large tech company where he oversees a team of 15 engineers. He’s been with his company for 8 years and enjoys helping build his team and watching their professional careers grow.
 
We both have a passion for learning new things, especially when it comes to history – you can often find us snuggled up on the couch watching history documentaries. We love to read and enjoy playing brain puzzles. Jenn loves to read Harry Potter and Mystery novels; Randy typically reads non-fiction. We hope to instill a love for learning and critical thinking in our child. We both have a deep love of traveling and learning about other cultures. Some of our favorite places include Prague, Budapest, Vienna and Germany.

Jenn worked at a daycare in high school and cared deeply for the kids. At this point she learned she could love any child and adoption started to become a thought. Randy considered adoption after being diagnosed with epilepsy as it can be hereditary. As a couple, we have always planned to adopt through open adoption. We hope to be able to have a strong connection with our child’s birth family that allows our child to flourish. We look forward to building family memories together with their birth family not just on holidays, birthdays, but also the days in between. We cannot wait to share our lives with a child and their birth family. Best wishes, Randy and Jenn

Austin and Jonathan

Welcome!

We are Jonathan and Austin, a woman whose mother named her after a city she loved. We’ve been together for over 21 years, and we love each other more than words could ever say. We’ve had thousands of adventures together, and welcoming a child into our family would be the greatest and most joyful adventure of our lives.

We live in a family-friendly neighborhood near Portland, Oregon, in a house on a ridge - we can see Mount Hood from our window, and when the sun rises it almost feels like our bedroom is falling into the big, bright sky. We have lots of room for guests, a beautiful but cranky garden (something is always blooming, and something is always in trouble), and six busy, noisy finches who scold us whenever we sleep late.

The small families we come from are loving and strong. Our baby would be the first child of their generation on either side of the family, so they would likely get a lot of love and attention from grandparents when they’re young, and probably a lot of love and unsolicited advice from the same grandparents as a teenager.

We’ve been lucky enough to have two successful careers that allow us to work from home full-time and give lots of time to family - Jonathan is a programmer, and Austin works in finance, where she helps pension funds and non-profit institutions make investments so they can do the most good with the resources they have. We hope that our work will leave the world better than we found it. That is the goal that gets us out of bed every day. Both of us are passionate about everything we do, and our child would be the center of our hearts, our souls and our worlds and would always come first.

We live in what we think may be the most beautiful place on earth, so we escape into the woods and the mountains whenever we can. We also passionately love cooking, grilling, baking and anything else that leads to food. If we are lucky enough to have a child, they will probably see a lot of waterfalls and barbecued ribs as they grow up.

We are very sure that open adoption is the right path for us, and we’re grateful to have found the smart, kind and caring people at OAFS. Our wish for our child is that they feel love from everyone in their open adoption. We hope that they will draw an enormous amount of love and strength from a relationship with their birth family and we want to support that however it feels comfortable to them.

We believe that every person is a journey, and that as parents it would be our responsibility to make our child’s journey joyful, safe and full of wonder. We would let our child teach us who they are, and do everything we can to give them the love, care, knowledge and guidance they need to become the unique and incredible person they were meant to be.

Thank you so much for reading our letter!

Allison and Seth

Hello! We are Allison and Seth and we live in Seattle. We love having our home full of people, whether it be our family over for a meal or a group of friends to play yard games. We have lived in California, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Montana and Washington, but have decided to make the Seattle area our long-term home. We’re fortunate to have a large family presence in the area, and we’re so grateful for the support and love they provide us with. The outdoor opportunities within a short trip from the city make us feel lucky to live here.

Allison grew up splitting time between her mother’s house in the San Francisco Bay Area and her dad’s house in Tacoma. She moved to Seattle in 2002 to attend the University of Washington for her undergraduate education. She now works in marketing operations. Seth grew up in Montana before moving to Seattle in 2007. After a 13-year career in finance, he now works for a nonprofit foundation focused on protecting our national forests. We are both fortunate to have the opportunity to work from home, while still having offices to visit on occasion.

We met at a cupcake shop in 2010 and started dating shortly after. Fate landed us on a dodgeball team with a group of 10 other 20-somethings, a team that is still playing together all these years later! We married in the summer of 2015 and in 2017 bought our first home, which we have spent the past seven years making our own. We were hoping to start a family after marrying but have struggled with infertility for several years. The struggle to grow our family helped us to grow closer as a couple. It became clear that open adoption was the best way for us to raise a child. The more we learned about open adoption, and the more chances we had to interact with and learn from people living in open adoption, the more certain we became that this was the best way for us to start a family while maintaining connections and relationships that can enrich everyone involved.

While we love spending time together, we also have our own hobbies and interests. Allison enjoys gardening, running, and rom coms while Seth enjoys tennis, yardwork, and scary movies. Allison is playful, kind, and detail-oriented, and Seth is sincere, reliable, and easy-going. We both adore our pets and family and will try just about any new adventure, at least once! We currently have one dog, a happy 5-year-old Norwegian Buhund named June. We have adopted 2 other dogs together over the years, as well as one cat.

We treat each other with respect, trust, and love and hope to share our values and passions with our future child and their birth family. We are excited to embark on the next chapter of our lives and look forward to building new traditions and memories. We hope to show our child and our child’s birth family our favorite parks, take them to our favorite places to eat, and explore life together in the years to come. We can’t wait to learn about our child’s birth family’s history, culture, traditions and experiences. With our help and encouragement, we hope our child understands their roots, feels connected to their heritage, and forms meaningful relationships with extended family members. We will be open and honest with our child, and hope to create a comfortable environment for them to discover who they are in all aspects of life. It is important to us that our future child’s birth family will always feel welcomed and included as part of our home and family.

Thank you for taking the time to read about us! Wishing you all the best.
Allison and Seth

Josh and Emily

Hi! We’re Josh and Emily.

We consider both Oregon and Washington home. After living in the Portland metro area for 10 years, we moved to the area where Emily grew up in Northwest Washington in 2021. One way that we’ve put down roots is by building a new home that we hope to enjoy for many more years. We love living in an area surrounded by water, waves, and shoreline.

We met in college and have been together since 2012. Some of Emily’s favorite things about Josh are his love of adventure, patience, and his dedication to finishing what he starts. Some of Josh’s favorite things about Emily are her love of travel, the way she interacts with kids, and her work ethic. We enjoy adventuring together and like to return to a few favorite places each year while also discovering new places to explore, new food and drinks to enjoy, and new ways of living.

Josh is extroverted and loves to spend time with people. He plays guitar, soccer and Dungeons & Dragons with friends weekly and is often planning an adventure with friends. Emily is part introvert and part extrovert. She likes to spend her down time with close friends or family, reading, cooking, and outside. Together, we like to hike, mountain bike, travel and entertain friends and family. We have two lazy but adoring dogs, Remi and Rayah. We both volunteer at our church and enjoy the many festivals and events that our community puts on annually.

Josh is an engineer by training but now works in sales from his home office. Emily is an educator and has had a variety of roles in public schools. Education (formal and informal!) is something that we value and we hope to model and inspire life-long learning for a future child.

Family is important to us! Adoption has been our first choice for expanding our family since we met and our journey to this point has given us a pretty expansive perspective on what “family” means. We were licensed foster parents and our foster son lived with us for a year. We have worked hard to maintain a relationship with him and his permanent family through FaceTime and regular visits to his new out-of-state home. Our experience loving and parenting our foster son, transitioning him to his permanent home, and now working to stay connected has changed our lives and is one of the reasons we are so deeply invested in an open adoption relationship.

Finally, we spend a lot of time with both sides of our family. We are fortunate to live 5 minutes from Emily’s parents and within 30 minutes from her sisters. The rest of our family, on both sides, is spread out throughout Western Washington and Oregon. We hope our future child grows up connected and loved and with an appreciation for the expansiveness of their family.

Warmly,
Josh & Emily

Travis and Rachael

Hello! We are Travis and Rachael and we both grew up in a tiny town on the Oregon coast, where small-town morals and values shaped our upbringings. Our paths intertwined when we were about 8 years old, as my father and Travis’ stepfather were volunteer firefighters together, and our parents were close friends. We remained close throughout our lives, and what started as a deep childhood friendship blossomed into a beautiful partnership in 2018. We now live together in SW Washington where we get the perfect blend of country and city living.

Early in our relationship, Travis and I decided to have children. We planned to have one biological child and adopt another, but I’ve since learned I have a chromosomal anomaly that prevents me from having biological children. Although this was a challenging time, we’ve redirected our focus to expanding our family through adoption, which has always been part of our plan. We are eager to offer a loving and supportive home where children can thrive. Our hearts are overflowing with love and excitement at the prospect of expanding our family through open adoption.

Our commitment to parenthood is influenced by our service to the community. Travis served as a volunteer firefighter for 20 years, following in his stepfather’s footsteps. His love language is Acts of Service, and he is passionate about helping others. When not working, he enjoys home projects, outdoor adventures, and lending a hand wherever needed. I have a strong connection to my family and a background in academic and personal growth. My most significant accomplishments were acquiring my MBA and becoming a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters, forming a lasting bond with my “Little Sister,” Kassidy over the past 15 years., I have supported her through all of her major life milestones, having come to see her as my daughter. This experience reinforced our desire to adopt and welcome children into our lives.

Our interests are diverse, from quiet evenings with books and art to outdoor adventures. We enjoy family game nights, barbecues, and time with our three-legged Siberian husky, Rogue. We aim to provide a variety of experiences for our child, fostering a well-rounded life with values of kindness and empathy. Family is central to our lives. We are close to our parents, siblings, and extended family, all of whom live nearby. My parents are very active with their granddaughter. My dad, an avid water-skier, spends a lot of time with my niece, Rheya, teaching her to ski and swim in their home pool or when we vacation together at their home in Southern California. Travis’s parents are joyful and family oriented, and a very close-knit family. We cherish the time we spend with our family, and we also have a supportive network of friends, many with children, who are eager to welcome our future child.

As future parents, we are wholeheartedly dedicated to creating a loving and stable home for our child. I’m thrilled about the journey of motherhood and lucky to have the flexibility to work from home, allowing me to be fully present and available for our child, ensuring a deep, nurturing bond from day one. We are brimming with love and anticipation at the thought of growing our family through adoption, which has always been a cherished part of our plans. We are eager to welcome not just our child, but also to build a meaningful connection with the birth family and include them as an integral part of our lives. Our commitment is to offer a supportive, loving environment where our child can truly thrive, and where the birth family will always feel a valued part of our extended family.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us a little bit better.

Travis and Rachael

Will and Michael

Hi, we are Will and Michael. Will is on the left and Michael is on the right. We call the greater Seattle, Washington area home and love living here in the Pacific Northwest!

Will grew up in Washington state on the eastern side, in a tiny town near the Idaho and Canadian border. Whenever he tells stories of riding his bike into the city five miles to “buy penny candy at the hardware store,” Michael often jokes that it sounds like he grew up in the 1950s. He’s a huge fan of comedy movies or shows (anything that will make him laugh) and his favorite movie is The Goonies. Halloween and Christmas are his favorite holidays so once fall hits, the decorations start going up! He loves to write, kayak, hike, and spend as much time outside as possible (whenever it isn’t raining). Oh, and although he hasn’t been able to find penny candy in quite some time, he still has a sweet tooth and loves Sour Patch Kids.

Michael grew up just outside of Atlanta, Georgia and is the youngest of three with an older brother and sister. Although his family still lives in Georgia, he and Will regularly travel to Georgia and the south to see his immediate and extended family members. Michael’s family has always been on the creative side, which he has inherited himself. He loves making pottery, drawing, sewing or doing anything crafty. Michael is also an avid gamer (whether it’s video games, card games or board games). He’ll jump at the chance to play Mario Kart with anyone! Michael loves exploring the Pacific Northwest and everything it has to offer - whether that’s in the mountains, the forests or the water. If he’s not playing games, making something or trying to spend time outside, you’ll probably find Michael reading a science fiction/fantasy book.

We met each other in 2013 and have been married since 2015 Our journey to parenthood has been somewhat unique, as it started with us becoming foster parents in 2018. Along that journey, we have been incredibly fortunate to bring so many incredible people into our lives, whom we love and see regularly. It was this experience that allowed us to see how wonderful an open adoption may be, where a child can stay connected to their birth parents and along with their adoptive parents, create this beautiful family tree! As gay men, we know that family goes beyond biology and our chosen family has become a blend of our birth family and others who we now also call our family.

We were drawn to the idea of open adoption because we have seen firsthand how important it is for a child not just to know where they came from but to stay connected as well. Having an open adoption where they can know their birth parents and have a relationship with them gives both of us confidence that our child will be able to grow up not having to question anything around their own identity and eventually move into adulthood feeling “whole” with no pieces to the puzzle missing. We also have found that there is no limit to the size of our chosen family, and we are excited to bring our child’s birth parents into that group as well! Thank you for taking the time to learn a little more about us, and we wish you the very best as you consider a plan for yourself and your child.

Thank you,

Will and Michael

Shawn and Michelle

Hi! We’re Shawn and Michelle from Seattle.

When deciding how to grow our family, adoption was the first path that we have chosen to pursue. Shawn’s mother, uncle, and cousin were all adopted. Both of our extended families are quite small, and we are excited about the chance to expand our family trees through the open adoption process. We hope for a relationship with our child’s birth family that is open, honest, and mutually respectful, where we grow with one another. We look forward to sharing meals, enjoying the outdoors, and creating family traditions together.

We met through a mutual friend in 2014 and, even though we lived in different states, soon found ourselves talking on the phone each night. It was easy to connect over our love of travel, music, and our all-around quirkiness. We made our first home together in San Francisco, where we adopted our cats Barley (brown) and Mash (grey). We moved to Seattle in 2018 to be closer to Shawn’s family and the Pacific Northwest that we love. We love the region’s climate, along with its proximity to the ocean and mountains. These things enable some of our favorite activities like camping and skiing.

Shawn (as written by Michelle) has an effervescent personality and can find adventure in everyday activities. He loves cooking, watching sports, and biking, which he finds exhilarating in all seasons that Seattle has to offer. While he brings a lot of energy to social gatherings, he is also great at connecting one on one. Shawn will make an amazing father because he is patient and considerate. He is looking forward to reading his favorite books together and introducing our child to the Chicago Cubs.

Michelle (as written by Shawn) is honest, trustworthy, and will stick with her loved ones to the moon and back. She loves crafting, being immersed in a good book, lifting heavy weights, and, most of all, animals! If there is a dog or a cat in the room, you can guarantee that Michelle will be the first one to find them. Michelle has a lot of love to give, and a lot of wisdom to impart. She is a thoughtful and clear communicator, but also knows exactly the right time to let her silly side out.

Together we like to travel and explore new places, in Washington and around the world. In the winter we enjoy getting out in the snow, and in the summer we take our trailer out camping. When we’re not out and about, we enjoy playing board games with friends (like Dutch Blitz or Ticket to Ride), having folks over for a backyard gathering, or snuggling with the cats while watching sci-fi shows on the couch.

Our home is full of art and music. And when we venture out into the world, we do our best to seek out both wherever we are, along with whatever new and exciting thing that place may have to offer (especially foods!). You can often hear Michelle say “I’ll try anything twice!” when visiting a new place, and we try to stay true to that mindset wherever we are.

We are excited to become parents and are looking forward to the journey of open adoption.

We wish you the best in whatever lies ahead,

Shawn and Michelle

Kaitlin and Jonathan

Hello! We are Kaitlin and Jonathan. We met as students at college in upstate New York over 17 years ago. We were friends first and quickly became more than friends.

We now live in the Pacific Northwest near Jonathan’s family in Seattle. We remain each other’s biggest fans and supporters, and consider each other the person we most love to travel, learn, and love with.

Jonathan is a thoughtful, kind, and generous partner. Keeping our family happy and healthy is his biggest motivator and greatest achievement. He grew up doing sports of every kind and loves to cook, complete woodworking and house projects, and meticulously plan vacations (complete with spreadsheets).

Kaitlin is a creative, vibrant spark who brings joy and passion to our family, friends, and everyone who loves her. She is an artist and paints, sews, makes music, writes, and bakes—whatever her latest artistic obsession is. She also enjoys Jonathan’s carefully curated vacations.

We spend a lot of time together working on shared pursuits. We work together on renovating our house, cook elaborate meals while listening to music, play video games, and go to museums and the symphony. We spend many weekends throughout the year at our cabin, where we swim in the lake in the summer and go mushroom hunting in the fall while our dog Dexter (unsuccessfully) chases the local wildlife.

We started dating just as Kaitlin was diagnosed with a genetic heart condition, so we knew from the beginning that we would take a different path toward building our family. Jonathan’s brother and sister-in-law, who also live in Seattle, recently adopted a child through OA&FS. Having him as our godson and nephew has been one of our greatest delights and allowed us to see firsthand the openness, communication, and understanding needed to live in an open adoption.

We are lucky to have families that love us unconditionally and have given us the confidence to chase our passions. It will be a privilege to welcome our child’s birth family into our lives and we will offer the same compassion and love that our own families have given to us. We want to make our child’s birth family feel welcome, safe, and seen, and look forward to sharing the excitement that comes with a new family member. We know that openness will enhance our child’s life and allow them to feel loved and supported from all directions.

As we write this letter, we can only imagine what our future will look like. Every family has a unique story, but we know that we have created a foundation that is full of love, passion, and support, and are ready to expand our family with kindness and understanding.

A small note: we are very private people and want to share our story while protecting the privacy of our friends and family. If you are interested in learning more about us, please contact the folks at OA&FS for a link to our photo book.

Kaitlin and Jonathan

Rebecca and Dom

Hello! We’re Rebecca and Dom, and here’s a letter all about us. We appreciate you taking the time to read it.

We live in Portland (where Rebecca was born and raised), with family and friends rooted all around Oregon and Washington. Dom grew up in Michigan, but, following a few years in Chicago, has been in Portland since 2008. We met in 2014 on a dating app (is “swiping right” still a thing?), although we both realized we’d officially met several years earlier through mutual friends. Once we reconnected online, we went on a date, and then the next day another date, and then the next day another, and then the day after that, and after that… Skip ahead to the summer of 2016, when we got married in an intimate, informal wedding in our backyard. No big frills, just a potluck and lots of love, plus dancing and karaoke (don’t worry, we invited our neighbors). We enjoy low-key weekends at home with family and close friends—we wanted our wedding to feel that way too. The tight-knit community we’ve built together here in the Northwest is everything to us.

Rebecca is a School Counselor at a K-8 public school. It makes her proud to have a job where she can provide all children in a school community, regardless of their life circumstances, with access to counseling services. Dom leads a team of technical writers for an engineering firm, sometimes freelancing as a movie and music critic. Rebecca is silly, spontaneous, passionate, and creative, while Dom is earnest yet playful, loyal, and deeply generous with those he’s closest to. We collect vinyl records; stacks of books can be discovered in most rooms. (We probably need more shelves.) We hope to bring our child into a home filled with laughter and music and imagination.

These days, Rebecca spends her free time gardening and working on house projects, while Dom loves watching movies and plugging away on writing goals, even recently reconnecting with a childhood affection for comic books. We’re doing our best to incorporate yoga into our daily routine. When we can get away from the house, we adore spending time together outdoors, camping, basking in the beauty of the coast, hiking, or driving to a nearby river to picnic, swim, read, and float. We always find new places to explore, new foods to try, and new experiences to soak in. Whenever we can, we bring our two pups; this truly wouldn’t be an introduction to our family if we didn’t mention our dogs, Gilbert and Alfredo (Alfie), who we love so dearly. Gilbert is the spunky, playful rascal of our family and Alfie is our sensitive sweetheart.

We live in one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods in Portland, short walks from schools, parks, and churches of various denominations. On summer days you can wander through our neighborhood and hear different languages being spoken, take in cookouts with unique smells from so many different places, and hear music of all kinds. We want our child to live in the knowledge that this world is bigger than just their immediate experience. We want them to be a steward of the earth, mindful of their impact on the people and places they encounter. It is important to us that our child develops a strong sense of identity, found through a deep connection to place: their home, their communities, and their history. This not only means experiencing nature, but it means encouraging adventure and curiosity, exercising patience and facing all the possibilities to come with courage. It means embracing openness and honesty as a parenting philosophy. It’s why we’ve pursued open adoption, and why we are so excited to welcome our child’s birth parents into our family.

With love and gratitude, Rebecca and Dom

Robert and Thomas

Hi there, we are Robert and Thomas!

Thank you for taking the time to review our profile. Since moving to Oregon in 2019 with our dog, Spudnik, and our cat, Nina, we’ve been excited about the opportunity to expand our family.

We met online in the winter of 2016. On our first date, we ate at a local burger joint in Nebraska and chatted until they closed up shop. We are avid gamers and love spending our time delving into board games, video games, and playing Dungeons and Dragons with our friends. Outside of gaming, Thomas pursues many creative hobbies including baking, painting, and photography. Robert is a fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team and writes and publishes his own role-playing games. He enjoys creating worlds for his friends to explore and create epic and fun stories together. We also enjoy hiking local trails in Oregon with Spud and playing frisbee in the yard.

Robert grew up in Virginia and currently works in HR within higher education. He finds a lot of value in serving others and enjoys creating a warm and welcoming environment both at work and at home. Robert was also heavily involved in Boy Scouts of America as a child and has developed a strong commitment to community and a respect for the natural world. Many of his weekends growing up were spent camping in the Appalachian mountains or volunteering in his community.

Thomas grew up in rural Ontario, Canada, and immigrated to Nebraska with his mom and 3 siblings when he was 13. His family means the world to him. One of his proudest moments was becoming a U.S. citizen. Thomas is incredibly empathetic which led him to a successful career first as an English teacher and now as an academic advisor for future educators.

Early on in our relationship, we were certain that we wanted to be dads. We hope to have a strong, supportive community for our child and we quickly recognized open adoption would be the best option to meet that goal. We value open and honest relationships and hope that our child has a community of adults who will work together to navigate all of life’s uncertainties, as well as communicate whatever feelings and emotions they are experiencing. We want as many loving people in our child’s life as we can have. Both of our families are incredibly excited to be a part of this process and help us navigate life as parents. Thomas’ parents, specifically his mother, are thrilled to assist in caring for her first grandchild!

We would ultimately like to provide our child with the opportunity to explore a variety of activities and experiences and look forward to being able to learn alongside them as they grow. We have open arms, hearts, and compassion to bring a child and birth family into our lives and extend our wishes as you consider your choices and come to a decision that best suits you.

Sincerely,

Thomas and Robert

Elena and Zac

Greetings from California!

We are Elena and Zac, and we are excited to expand our family through open adoption!  We live in the San Francisco Bay Area with our child, K, and our dog, Maple, just a few miles from where Zac grew up.  Zac works as a Paramedic/Clinical Educator and Elena works as a Public Health Consultant.  K attends a nearby elementary school and Maple spends her days relaxing contentedly, greeting the postal worker, and catching up with the canine neighbors (what exactly they discuss is still a mystery).

We met in a strength training class at a university gym, and immediately appreciated each other’s wit, sense of humor, and intelligence.  This was in 2004, so we are celebrating our 20th year of knowing one another!  We became friends through the class, and would occasionally get coffee or lunch when we ran into each other on campus.  Our relationship took a turn to the romantic some years later, when due to changes in our schedules, we couldn’t meet for lunch and instead met for dinner.  Not sure if it was the dim light or the yummy Indian food, but we talked for hours and felt the spark of romance!  After many more dinners and adventures, we married in 2010, and K was born a few years later.  Maple joined our family in the Spring of 2021 (yes, she is a pandemic puppy)!

Our life in the SF Bay Area is full of all the area has to offer, from shopping at our local farmer’s market (so lucky to get great produce year round!), to enjoying the outdoors (skiing is a big activity for the boys), to attending local musical theater productions (a new and growing interest for us).  The SF Bay Area is full of natural wonders and cultural enrichment; one of our favorite activities on school holidays is to take the ferry into San Francisco and explore all the city has to offer.

Before we married, we talked about the family we hoped to have together, and that included being open to family formation through both biology and adoption.  We are drawn to open adoption as it resonates with our values.  Our parenting philosophy is to focus on supporting our children to develop into who they are, not to shape them into extensions of ourselves or otherwise markers of our lives.  Parenting, supporting and guiding a child in their growth and development, is an awesome responsibility full of joy, sorrow, and hard work, even in the best of times.  We believe maintaining family privacy online makes space for our child’s growth, so we have obscured our child’s face in photos here and in our online family book.  Versions of our letter and book where you can see the whole family are available by request from OA&SF staff.

While we do not live in the Pacific Northwest (though Elena grew up in Oregon—more about that in our family book!), we wanted to pursue adoption through OA&FS because respecting and supporting individual autonomy and decision-making is something we value.  The child-centered focus of open adoption is key.  We are committed to supporting our child in knowing where they came from, and to building connections so our child will know who they are as they grow into adulthood.  We also appreciate the ongoing support that OA&FS will provide for all of us involved in the adoption relationship, so that we can build our knowledge of and trust for one another in healthy, positive ways.

We are excited to be taking these steps on our journey toward open adoption.  We look forward to getting to know our child’s birth family and making our entire family network stronger and richer!

Andy and Bob

Hello!   We’re Andy & Bob. We live in Portland, Oregon with our tuxedo cat, Lina. We can’t wait to become dads!

We started dating 13 years ago and got married in 2019. We’ve known from the beginning that we want to be parents. Andy has worked as a preschool teacher and piano teacher, so he is always around kids and loves it. Bob also worked with kids for many years, working as a piano teacher and a choir director before becoming a lawyer–he loves kids, too. Most of our close friends have kids, and we recently became uncles!

We met at music school in 2007 and learned early on that we have a lot in common: we both play piano, love the arts, and enjoy reading, eating great food, running, traveling to new places, and playing board games. We also each have our own interests and hobbies. For instance, Andy loves to cook and recently completed his first two triathlons. Bob likes to be involved with our church, where he helps to organize volunteers and sometimes helps with music.

After college, our relationship was long-distance for a couple of years while we completed some more studies–Andy in New York City, and Bob in Victoria, BC. Then, we moved together to Massachusetts, where we both worked as musicians. After a while we missed our families, so in 2019, we moved back to the beautiful Pacific Northwest and decided that Portland was the right spot for us. Bob’s family lives in the Tacoma area, and Andy’s family is in Southern Oregon, so Portland is right in the middle and easy to get to both. We see our family a lot; either they come visit us or we go to see them.

We love where we live. Being in the city, we can go to concerts and museums, but we can also easily jump in the car and be in nature within minutes. Some weekends we like to go hiking, visit the coast, and ride bikes on trails and open roads. Other weekends we enjoy visiting a coffee shop or park in our neighborhood or somewhere else in the city. We are looking forward to when we can take our child along with us on these adventures!

Openness in adoption is important to us because we want our child to grow up knowing just how much they are loved–both by us and by their biological family. We moved to Oregon to be closer to our families, and we want to welcome our child’s biological family as part of our extended family. We stay close to our family by regular visits, phone calls, and texts, and we hope to be able to develop a similar relationship with our child’s biological family.

We wish you all the best,

Andy & Bob

Holly and Brittany

We are a fun-loving and laughter-filled family. We’ve lived in rural, Southern Oregon for the past 13 years and still love it! Our love story began 17 years ago when Brittany called to catch up with a friend and Holly answered the phone. Brittany was living in Ohio for college at the time and Holly was in medical school in North Carolina. After two years of airplanes and phone dates, Brittany moved to North Carolina. Holly was offered a job opportunity in Oregon so we packed up our pets, furniture and Holly’s little brother and drove across the country for our West coast adventure!

We love small town living and the slower pace of life that comes with it. Holly and Brittany spend their days very differently. Holly practices Family Medicine and end-of-life care. When she’s not visiting her patients in their homes, she’s likely singing along to classic country music blasting from her radio. George Strait is her fave! Brittany owns a bookstore and spends her day alphabetizing the fiction section or helping others find their next good book! When we aren’t working, we are typically at home jumping on the trampoline or watching Disney movies with our boys.

We are the proud parents of two boys who joined our family through adoption when they were born. Parker is 6 years old and Brody is 5 years old. When we go on vacation, we love the water! We go to the coast (East and West), water parks and hot tubs. Another love we share is the love of spaghetti. We cook it up it every Sunday for dinner and we make our own spaghetti sauce from scratch! Every summer we fly to the North Carolina beach to spend quality time with our family that lives on the East coast.

We are lucky to have big families but we’ve also experienced loss and it has shaped us. Holly’s dad was killed in a car accident when she was 12 and Britt’s dad died suddenly from a heart attack in 2021. We love harder because we know life is fragile and precious. We love deeper because we know tomorrow isn’t promised. Life can be complicated and messy and wonderful. We know it and we embrace it. We’re on a journey to become parents again because we stinking love it!

Julie and Tyler

Hello!  We are Julie and Tyler.  We are so excited to share about our life and family with you!  We met, and began dating, in our early twenties. Our careers brought us to Southern Oregon in 2012, and we were married in the summer of 2013. Southern Oregon is where we have created a home, and found our community.  We love our neighborhood, town, and the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside.

From the start, we have felt connected over our interests.  We both share a love of traveling, animals (especially dogs), live music, sports, and board games. After we got to know each other, we realized we also both had a passion for working with children. One of our favorite traditions is collecting magnets from places we visit, which are organized in the order of our trips on our refrigerator. Together, we love to go kayaking, build large Lego sets, go on dog walks, and visit new places. We also love having friends over for dinner, board games, and to watch sports. When we are kayaking, we love to keep an eye out for wildlife (turtles and birds are our favorites). We share our home with our dog, Pippin.  He is half beagle, 4 years old, and has a passion for balls, digging, and socks. Our house has a great location near the center of town with a large, fenced front and back yard. Julie enjoys gardening in the yard and Tyler enjoys playing guitar on the back porch.

Tyler is a third grade teacher at an elementary school a few blocks from home where he has worked for 12 years.  He loves his job because he gets to interact with and build relationships with children at a very fun age.  His favorite parts of teaching are helping kids discover that they love reading, and getting kids to realize that they love math.  One of Tyler’s favorite hobbies is playing music with people.  He has been playing guitar and singing with a group of friends for years.  Tyler also follows sports closely, and baseball and basketball are his favorites. When relaxing, he can be found snuggling with Pippin while reading.  His favorite books are fantasy, such as The Lord of the Rings and The Name of the Wind, but he loves books from many genres. Playing card and board games are another hobby of his; he especially enjoys Cribbage, and Settlers of Catan.  Finally, in the summers, he loves going camping with Julie and his family in the mountains, and disc golfing with friends. Julie would describe Tyler as caring, adventurous, and empathetic.

Julie works as a Student Advocate at an elementary school, which is 5 minutes from home. She loves her job and cares deeply for the students that she works with. The parts she loves most about her job are showing kids different tools to help them focus and helping kids build strategies for being mindful with their actions and words.   Julie’s favorite show is The Big Bang Theory because it makes her laugh, though she also enjoys medical dramas like Grey’s Anatomy. She is a great cook, and some of her best recipes are pizza on the grill, homemade mac and cheese (Tyler’s favorite), and enchiladas with tomatillo sauce. Julie’s passion has always been for traveling.  Her favorite trips have been to Ireland, and the islands in Greece. She also loves to travel closer to home, especially to go tide pooling at the Oregon coast.  When she is relaxing, Julie often does puzzles, and loves playing with Pippin. On the weekends, she likes to sip chai with friends at a coffee shop, and loves having friends over for dinner and board games. Tyler would describe Julie as kind, selfless, and patient.

We both feel that family is very important. Our immediate families both live around the same city in Oregon, and have grown close over the years. As a family, we get together for holidays, traditions, and often just for fun. Both of our families are very excited about our decision to extend our family through open adoption, and will be very present and supportive throughout the process. It’s extremely important to us that our child grows up knowing their first family and being connected to their culture. Having that connection through open adoption will help our child understand where they have come from, who they are, and who they will become. Our dream is that our child’s first family becomes a part of our extended family, sharing in their joys, successes, and milestones as they grow up.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know our family!

Julie and Tyler

Devlin and Miles

Hello! We are Devlin (left) and Miles (Right). Thank you for reading about us! We live in our home in Portland, Oregon with our three friendly cats (Shelly, Sonia, and Ruth). We are excited to become parents and to expand our family through open adoption.

Devlin is a Public Health Analyst for the state of Oregon and currently pursuing his PhD. He is passionate about equal health outcomes and longer lives for Black, Indigenous, and Latino children and families. Miles is a National Program Director at a nonprofit. He is focused on providing quality mentoring for youth across the country. We attended different universities and are big fans of our alma mater’s sports teams. We are excited to share our love of college sports with our future children.

For fun, we enjoy hiking around the Pacific Northwest, watching classic 90’s movies, and spending time with our family and friends. We both have siblings with children who are going to make amazing cousins. We also try to go to one new major league baseball stadium every year, until we have seen them all. It gives us a fun excuse to explore different cities and see new places. We can’t wait to bring our child to the ones we have not visited yet!

We have been together for four amazing years and recently got married. We met in the early days of the pandemic in 2020 and knew from the beginning that we would be together forever. On our second date we talked about having children and both expressed wanting to pursue open adoption. Devlin is eager to be a compassionate and loving father, sharing his love for comic books and superheroes. Miles is enthusiastic to be a devoted father and play outside as much as possible. We are excited for large family dinners, building holiday traditions, and going to the beach together. We both look forward to getting to know the unique qualities of our child and exploring the world as a family.

We look forward to building relationships with our child’s biological family and fostering meaningful connections for them to their roots. We want our children to feel confident about their identities and to have multiple adults who love them in their lives.

We wish you the best as you consider your options for you and your child.

Warmly,

Miles and Devlin

Michael and Elizabeth

Hello! We are Elizabeth and Michael! We hope you like what you read!

After some witty banter on an online dating site, we decided to have our first date at a burlesque show at Kelly’s Olympian in downtown Portland on the Sunday before Valentine’s Day 2011. That first date set the tone for our lives together, as we have a lot of fun and spontaneous bursts of song and dance are common in our house.

Elizabeth is the creative brains behind our operations: she looks at life with a creative eye and fresh way of doing things. Whether it is redesigning the garden, creating a piece of art to add to the gallery wall, or installing a new kitchen floor, she has the ability to easily reimagine and improve. Where Elizabeth shines as the dreamer and schemer, Michael is the one to roll up his sleeves and make things happen. He’s all about the nitty-gritty details and wouldn’t hesitate to whip out a spreadsheet to map out his plans. Together, we are a dynamic duo turning ideas into reality and making our home a better place to live!

While we believe that work shouldn’t solely define us, we also recognize that finding fulfillment in one’s professional life can be important. Elizabeth leads a team of designers and researchers dedicated to enhancing user experiences for a leading car company. Meanwhile, Michael’s journey to finding his dream job culminated in February 2023. Drawing upon his decade-long experience in the finance industry, he now employs his analytical skills as a data and reporting specialist at a local animal shelter.

Our Oregon home is not only filled with the love we have for each other, but we also share our lives with three amazing animals. Our rescue labradoodle, Traveler, reminds us each day that he is happiest when the whole pack is together. He makes the cutest little sneezy sound when he thinks we are not giving him enough attention! The two cats in our lives are very different. Our 16 year old silver haired cat, Nico Jones, is loud and confident and our 12 year old orange and cream long haired cat, Izzy, is quiet and skittish. The trio make for a very interesting and entertaining group!

In our adoption journey, we’ve wholeheartedly embraced the open adoption process, believing it offers the adopted child the greatest opportunity for love and connection. We want the child’s birth family on this journey with us so that our child can be connected with their birth culture and heritage. Together, we aim to establish new traditions and customs, placing the child at the heart of our growing family. We eagerly anticipate the journey of learning and loving alongside our expanded family!

Mara and Jeremy

Hi, we’re Mara and Jeremy, and Dyna. We live in Portland, Oregon, where Mara is a People Ops Manager for a creative agency, Jeremy is an IT technician for a nonprofit organization, and Dyna is a cat.

We’ve been together for about 17 years, having both moved to Oregon from southern Maine separately, and then reconnected here in Portland.

The idea of becoming parents via open adoption is appealing because to us family and community are inseparable; two facets of the human condition. We love the idea of a large extended family loving and caring for a child, who is supported in exploring their relationship and history with their birth family. We both have strong, positive relationships with our existing family, and also love the idea of sharing that. We both have pretty progressive ideas about parenthood, with no rigid preconceptions about raising a child in a particular religious or political tradition, or assuming that they would follow in our footsteps in terms of career or interests. In that sense, we are just along for the ride. That said, we both highly value empathy and social justice and would always do our best to raise a child in light of these values.

We initially bonded over realizing we shared a similar absurdist sense of humor, and we share a pretty laid-back and positive general affect. We’re both very much on the same page as far as how we treat each other – kindness and the benefit of the doubt are our prime directives, and when we disagree about something it’s important to us to work it out with love and mutual respect.

Jeremy: I work in technology, which I moved into sideways after mostly studying biology and education. Helping people in a nonprofit environment solve their problems gives me a lot of the same job satisfaction that my initial forays into science and education did. Outside of my career, I’m a musician and amateur recording engineer, playing multiple instruments and recording other musicians in my community. I dabble in DIY electronics, drawing, and building props for costumes; I love old video games and riding my bike; I enjoy going to and playing local shows, cooking, and keeping up with science and political news.

Mara: I studied art history and graphic design in college, but eventually ended up in people operations in the PDX creative agency world. I’m a fan/critic of all sorts of pop culture, especially from the 1960s. I love drive-in movies, spending time with friends, and trying new vegan recipes. Each summer I visit my family in Maine, enjoying swimming and kayaking at the lake, and I do a lot of casual hikes in Portland’s many parks and wooded areas. I’m a popcorn connoisseur and am constantly trying out new ways to make it. I also love curating playlists, including a yearly mix of deep-cut and obscure Christmas songs that I post online, for which I enjoy creating original cover art. Not least, I’m a die-hard cat person (at this point, we both are) and have volunteered at the cat shelter that Dyna came from.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Mara and Jeremy

Kara and Elaine

Hi there! We are Kara and Elaine and we live in Portland, Oregon with our 4-yr old son and our dog, Rayleigh. We are so grateful to be part of this process and to share with you a little about our family.

A little bit about us as parents: We strive to provide unconditional love and to help our kids explore and embrace the things that make them uniquely themselves. We’re both lifelong learners and we try to help promote our child’s curiosity and confidence through play, exploration, free expression, and through trying, falling down, dusting yourself off (with snuggles when needed), and trying again. These days our kiddo absolutely loves gardening and baking with Mommy (Kara), fixing things and doing projects with Mama (Elaine), jam sessions and dance parties, hiking in Forest Park, and riding his big kid bike.

We adopted our son after being his foster parents for his first three years. Through that experience, we learned firsthand how important it is for kids to know where they came from and to have the opportunity to accept love, in whatever form that takes, from biological, adoptive, and chosen family. Our parenting experience so far has completely redefined what family means to us – we fully embrace the beauty and messiness of extending love and welcoming new people into our family, however that looks, and we are excited and curious to do it again. The sibling relationship is also really important to us and it’s our biggest motivation for expanding our family. We want our kids to be able to learn from and support each other throughout their childhoods and when they grow into adults.

A little more about us: We met playing ultimate frisbee in grad school back in 2010. We immediately bonded over our shared love of sports, science, and excellent music. In 2011, Elaine adopted our dog, Rayleigh, who convinced Kara it was time to get serious! We spent the next 4 years together in the Bay Area before marrying in 2015 and settling down in Portland. Elaine loved an excuse to get closer to home after many years away for school and Kara quickly fell in love with the trees, the cloudiness, and the whole PNW vibe.

Kara grew up in Upland, CA. Her favorite memories as a kid were eating vegetables out of their garden and going on adventures with her family. She studied engineering and now works as an environmental consultant, helping to clean up polluted waterways. In her free time, Kara can be found gardening, baking, or training for a triathlon. Elaine grew up in Burien, WA. As a kid, she loved math, the Mariners, and classic rock. She studied energy systems engineering and is very lucky these days to have her own consultancy focused on clean energy planning. In her free time, Elaine nourishes her soul through writing, trail running, going to epic concerts, and learning the guitar.

We appreciate you getting to know us a little bit! For more about us, please take a look at our digital photobook. We’ve blurred out our son’s identifying information from the online version, but you can request our unedited digital photobook by emailing OA&FS.

Much love,

Elaine and Kara

Ross and Lacey

Hello! We are Ross and Lacey. We have always wanted to become parents through adoption and are excited to begin this journey.

We met in Zambia in 2012 and married in Seattle in 2019. In 2022, we moved to our current home, a hidden gem in Northwest Washington full of trails, trees, mountains, and water. There are so many things we love to do close by, like hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, running, and kayaking. We enjoy spending time at home too, where we have a big garden and beehives. We have three pets: two cats, Pocket and Olive, who love lounging about and soaking up the sun, and our dog June, who loves hiking, running and being anywhere Lacey is.

We first met while volunteering with the Peace Corps in Zambia. Ross was working to promote more sustainable farming and forestry practices, while Lacey was teaching English in a government school. After returning from the Peace Corps, we moved to Washington State, where Lacey continued teaching in elementary schools and Ross began working for Veteran’s Affairs. Lacey loves working with children, she sees the joy and love of learning. She enjoys helping and watching her students learn and grow. Ross feels very fortunate to be able to help veterans and work from home, which allows more him flexibility and time for hobbies.

We love to be outside. You will often find Lacey in the backyard with June, gardening, reading in the sun, or being crafty. You’ll find Ross biking or taking pictures of nature on our walks. When we are not being active, we like to cuddle on the couch with our pets or bake and cook together. On weekends, we try to see friends, whether it is spending time around a bonfire, biking to a brewery, or hosting game nights. As parents, we want to share our love of the outdoors, friends, and good times with our child, while also nurturing their interests and passions.

We are empathetic, kind, and hardworking people. We want what is best for our friends, family, and each other. We support each other’s dreams and work towards them together. We truly love and enjoy being with each other and we challenge each other to do things that make us grow. We will bring all these traits to parenting and to the open adoption.

We believe in open adoption and want our child’s birth family and culture to be part of our family, and we want our child to know who and where they came from. We will support our child in discovering who they want to be, encouraging them along the way to be kind, confident, curious, inclusive, and standing up for what is right. We know that our child cannot have too many people in their support system, and we want our child’s birth family to feel welcomed, respected, and part of our child’s life. Our hope is to create an atmosphere where adoption is discussed openly, honestly, and naturally. We value long term relationships, and our goal is always to be vulnerable, trustworthy, and honest. Our hope for our child is that they feel unconditionally loved, supported, and proud of who they are and where they came from.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. Best wishes, Lacey and Ross

Jesse and Nadja

Hello and welcome to a glimpse of life with Jesse and Nadja,

It is a rainy afternoon in Portland, OR as we sit down to write this letter to you. Writing letters is a regular activity for Nadja as she loves sending snail mail, hoping to bring a smile to someone’s day. The difference between this letter and others is that instead of writing about the decor of the tea house, or crow couple we’ve been watching the last few weeks, we are composing this together and it is possibly the most important letter of our lives. The idea is to use this opportunity to share a bit about ourselves and give you a picture of who we are as people. So, here we go…

We have known each other since high school and were close friends before we dated so it feels as though we grew up together. In our day to day we enjoy a simple and harmonious lifestyle. We also love travel and everything that has to do with the outdoors. We camp, backpack, hike, swim, rock climb, and explore. We both grew up with the forest in our backyards and even though we now live in a city and have done so for over 15 years, we find it very important to spend time out with nature. We wish to instill this love and excitement for the beauty of the world in our child.

We enjoy social gatherings with good homemade food and friends - playing board and card games or watching movies. On the other hand we also enjoy a quiet night in, with just the two of us doing our own thing, with a record playing in the background, or reading out loud to each other. We are both health conscious and educated about eating organic, pesticide free, whole foods, and cooking most meals from scratch, though we also know how to whip up quick, nutritious snacks.

Nadja has wanted to be a mother from a very young age, and has been essentially molding her life path around this desire for almost as long. She loves children and spent years as a nanny and doing other child-centered work. Her love of arts, crafts, plants, and music keep her from ever being bored or idle. Jesse has a talent with children that is appreciated by many of our friends. It’s his child-like wonder that makes him fun to be around, even for the adults. He has never lost his curiosity, his sense of awe, joy, and discovery. Jesse is one of those remarkable grownups who truly listens to children. He asks them about their world and is really interested in what they have to say. Nadja is quiet, patient, kind, and consistent with children. She sings to them, holds them, plays with them, and follows their lead. Nadja is someone with whom children often feel instantly comfortable. We both know when to set boundaries and when to slow down and pay attention.

Despite the challenges life likes to offer, we have patience, determination and faith - in each other, our partnership, and life’s ability to give us what we need, even when it is not what we wanted. As a couple we are both very excited about starting our own family now. We can’t wait to share and experience this world with a precious little one. A whole community of kind and dedicated individuals are with us waiting to love that baby and support us through it all. For us, we are not simply adopting a child, we are adopting that child’s entire birth family and ethnic heritage. Open adoption is the way we have chosen to grow our family and we are fully prepared for all the challenges and blessings that choice brings with it. We hope this will also be the beginning of a close friendship and the discovery of a kindred soul or two. We appreciate your time and thank you for listening and allowing us to share.

Kathryn and Kate

Hi! We’re Kathryn and Kate. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit about us. We live in the southern Puget Sound region of Washington, in a cozy house we took apart and put back together again. This is the third house we’ve renovated together, which says a lot about our relationship. We enjoy figuring things out together - from simple stuff like how to cook aebleskiver (globe-shaped Norwegian pancakes) to how to frame a window - and both of us feel this has helped us become a stronger team.

Kate hails from the UK, the daughter of a Sri Lankan immigrant and a Welshman. She was very close to her parents growing up, and is endlessly thankful that both of them were supportive when she came out as transgendered. She considers unqualified love and care a huge part of being a family. If folks don’t know her, Kate might seem shy. But once she’s opened up, she’s always cracking jokes, and loves laughing with Kathryn and friends. Kathryn grew up the kid of educators, so digging into the “why” of things comes naturally to her. While she’s fairly quiet with people she doesn’t know, get her started and she really enjoys a complex conversation. Thoughtful and interested in details, Kathryn finds it helpful to get outside and observe the world. If it’s a rainy day, her preferred way to spend time is with a good book or her art, interspersed with tea and cuddling Kate.

Before we moved in together, we discussed our feelings and hopes about parenting. We’ve revisited this conversation many times and agree that we want to share how amazing the world is with a child. We’re excited to support someone as they figure out who they are. We know how strong, loving relationships make each of us a fuller person. The home we’ve created together is our rock and we want the child we parent to have the same sense of belonging that we do with each other. Life isn’t easy for anyone, but it’s made better with care, compassion, curiosity, and plenty of fun. That’s the family we are and the family we want to build as parents.

Neither of us is adopted but, as an interracial, same-sex couple, we make our way through a world that doesn’t always understand us. We’re lucky to have lots of people in our lives who love and support us, celebrating who we are. We want our future child to have those same strong connections with as many family members as possible, both first and adopted. We know that our child will be part of a loving community and we look forward to becoming part of a wider community through adoption. We also understand and respect that those connections may look different depending on what everyone needs at different times. However our lives change and shift, we promise to always keep that connection alive.

Warm wishes,
Kate and Kathryn

Orion and Martha

Hello! We are Orion and Martha.

We hope to give you a sense of who we are and why we are embarking on this journey that is open adoption. We wish you health, happiness, and hope this letter finds you well.

We met our sophomore year of college and have been married for over 12 years. Martha was immediately drawn to Orion for his ability to listen, his positivity, and his warm nature. Orion was attracted to Martha’s kindness, sense of humor, and thoughtfulness. Having kids has always been a part of our plan and when the time came to start our family, we unfortunately found that we weren’t able to have kids on our own.

After learning about open adoption, we knew we wanted to grow our family in this way. Open adoption aligns with our values of helping a child discover who they are through love and a supportive community. We want our child to feel connected to their birth parents and not feel that we are the mediators for their relationship. We anticipate sharing important milestones, as well as daily life experiences through letters, visits, emails, and video chats. We are ready to meet our child’s birth parent however needed to maintain an open relationship. Our biggest wish is to build a family where our child can grow up knowing where they came from in order to nurture who they will become.

We are excited to raise our child in Central Oregon where we are both employed in healthcare. Martha works as a Registered Nurse and Orion as a Physical Therapist. We chose these careers because we both value being of service to others. We also value having a healthy balance between work and spending time doing what we love. We have been fortunate to find jobs that allow us to do this.

When we’re not at work, we love spending time either in the outdoors, or in our cozy home that includes our dog, cat, and a large yard to play in. We cannot wait to take our little one on hikes, bike rides, and to see their reaction to snow in the winter. We look forward to sharing cooking lessons in the kitchen, family snuggles with our pets, and reading books by the fire. We feel lucky to be surrounded by friends and family who support us and create a loving community. We are so excited to begin this new chapter and to become first time parents through open adoption.

Warmly, Martha and Orion

Heather and Mason

Hello, we are Heather and Mason. Thank you for reading our letter!

We met in 2006 when we worked together at Starbucks (and we both still LOVE coffee). We were friends for a while and became a couple in August 2008. We got officially hitched in 2011, but had our wedding in 2012. We are both from California and moved to Oregon in 2019 and feel so fortunate for the life we have been able to establish here.

Being friends before becoming romantically involved became the foundation of our entire relationship because it gave us a chance to establish what is really important to us. At the end of the day, the most vital aspect of who we are as a couple is the fact that we are best friends and will be there for one another no matter what life throws at us. We have learned to navigate life together by being able to communicate, giving one another space to grow and throwing in a playful sense of humor.

Mason has a wide array of interests from motorcycles to movies and can be genuinely intrigued by almost anything. He loves to cook and bake, especially for our loved ones at our social gatherings. Mason has a younger sister who lives in San Diego that he is very close to and we try to see her as much as possible.

Heather loves to read, craft and spend time with her friends. Being able to express herself creatively is what makes her heart happy, whether it be through crafting, dancing around the house or repainting furniture. She cares very deeply about the relationships and people around her and prides herself on being someone her loved ones can count on.

Through a series of fortunate events, we found ourselves working for the same biotech company. We both work in patient support services. Heather works within the non-profit sector, and Mason works with a team within a therapeutic area. It is through our company, we were able to move up to Oregon and establish a life here. Over the years, we have developed a growing support and friendship network within our community. During our downtime, we enjoy spending time with our friends, either through hosting events in our home, or going out to try new restaurants we discover in the Portland area.

After a lot of reading and speaking with friends who have adopted, we believe open adoption is the best path for us because we want our child to have the opportunity to connect with their own history. Mason is an adoptee himself and knows the value of a familial connection, as his sister is his only biological relative. Our relationship centers around openness and honesty, and pursuing an open adoption aligns with our values. Many of our friends have children, and we have witnessed firsthand the impact a community of people who love and contribute to a child’s life can have on them. By pursuing an open adoption, we believe it will allow the possibility of having a wider community of support and love for the child that otherwise would not be possible.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know a bit about us.
Warm Regards,
Mason and Heather

Sarah and Ben

Sarah and Ben
Hi! We are Sarah, Ben, and Trix. Thank you for reading our letter.

We are a loving couple of 17 years (and a 15-year-old dog) who live in Portland, Oregon. We are so excited to grow our family through open adoption.

We met in our early 20s when we lived in Washington, DC. A few years later we took a big leap, adopted our beloved dog Trix, and moved across the country. It ended up being one of the best decisions of our lives, as we are now happily settled into our new home in the Pacific Northwest with meaningful careers and a great circle of friends.
Sarah (as written by Ben) is the most energetic, hilarious person. She brings life to every relationship she enters, be it her work with local nonprofits, her friends, or our relationship at home. She will be such a good mom because she cares deeply about the people in her life. She is honest, empathetic, and will drop everything to help the people close to her.

Ben (as written by Sarah) is incredibly thoughtful, kind, and patient. No matter what’s going on, he has a very steady presence that makes people feel reassured that everything will be ok. I love how he is a curious person who always wants to learn new things. Ben already has the dad jokes ready to go, and he will be a patient, caring dad and a wonderful source of support for this child and our family.

Trix is an elderly lady who spends most of her days in her favorite giant dog bed. She still gets excited for cookies, but has slowed down quite a bit from wilder puppy days.

Together, we love to travel, hike in the Pacific Northwest, watch scary movies and comedies, and spend time with our friends and family. We love cooking because we love to bring people together over food. Through our careers, we are active members in the community. Sarah’s work involves helping donors connect with good causes and nonprofits to support, which puts her in touch with many community groups. Ben works in communications for a utility company.

Sarah grew up in an Italian American family where many adults with different relationships were all considered family. We both grew up in homes where extended family and friends were always part of our community and important to our lives. We believe that open adoption means there will be more adults in the child’s life who love them.

We know we will be devoted parents who will always put family first and follow our values of kindness and compassion. We have a warm, welcoming home with so much love and energy to share. Thank you for considering us.

Ashley and Amanda

Hello - We are Ashley (no glasses) and Amanda (glasses). We live just outside of Seattle, Washington with our cocker spaniel, Nellie, and our best cat friend, Roux.

We met in the summer of 2011 and wound up closing down the restaurant on our first date because we talked for so long. We were both at interesting junctures in our lives – Amanda was just getting back into school after heading up several Seattle restaurants as a chef, while Ashley was trying to break into a new industry after college. Neither of us had been in a long-term relationship, and at the time, neither of us were out to any friends and family. Since then, we have both grown a lot and value being in a relationship based on patience, encouragement, and a healthy sense of humor.

Following our marriage in January of 2017, we started focusing more seriously on our future. During our first date, we discussed how both of our dads were adopted and had similar opinions on how closed adoptions can negatively impact families long term. We witnessed the emotions, loss, and questions that our dads, families, and we as individuals experienced and knew it was important to find a different route in our parenting journey. When it came to parenting options for two women, adoption always felt the most consistent with our values. Given our dads’ personal experiences, we understood how important it was for an adoption to be open. We also knew that finding the right agency to work with was essential. In our adoption process, it has always been most important to us that the journey be ethical, supportive, and as transparent as possible for everyone involved.

We believe in a balance between work and play, and part of that balance for us is planning. While adoption has been part of our plan since 2017, we knew we wanted to be at an established place in our careers, have purchased a home, and have planted roots in Washington state prior to starting the process. 5 years later, we couldn’t be more excited to become parents together.

On the fun side of things, we love to be outside, go camping with our dog, hike, watch sports games, and go on road trips. At home, you’ll most often find us reading, catching up on our latest TV show binge, teaching our dog new tricks, or planning our next housing project. Our love of women’s soccer gives us the opportunity to indulge our love of travel, by visiting new cities to watch matches. We also love exploring food and creating new dishes as a family, and we both look forward to introducing our child to the huge world and culture of food.

When we think of ourselves as parents, we feel excited to learn about our child, to discover their dreams and interests, and to allow that to help shape us as parents. We love learning new things and are excited to explore life with our child. For us to be successful, we strongly believe in community to help support this vision, and that this community should include every person in our child’s family constellation. We want our child’s birth parents to be part of this community in whatever way feels most comfortable for them, and we will work to ensure it includes mutual respect, autonomy, and communication.

Thank you for taking the time to learn a little more about us! We hope we get the opportunity to talk with you further and learn more about you.

David and Raphi

Hello! We are David (left) and Raphi (right) and Simon (center). Thanks for taking the time to learn a little more about us.
We met in July 2010 in New York City. Raphi was interning there while in graduate school and we immediately bonded over our mutual love for family, the transformative power of Bravo reality television, the movie “Mean Girls”, and exploring the world. Four weeks after meeting, Raphi returned to Boston to finish school and we began to date long-distance.

David was initially drawn to Raphi’s easy laugh, snazzy style, and knowledge of all things science. Over the years, he has learned to love Raphi’s refusal to change out of dress clothes until bedtime and serving as the “sous chef” for Raphi’s culinary adventures (which mostly involves tasting the sauces and setting the table).

Raphi was initially struck by David’s clever wit, passion for both gossip magazines and Sports Illustrated, and his cadre of close lifelong friends. Over the years, Raphi has learned to love cheering for the Cleveland Cavaliers, David’s insistence that sweat pants can be worn outside of the house, and David’s ever-growing sneaker collection (tolerated only because Raphi shares the same shoe-size).
We left NYC in 2014 for Chicago so that David could attend business school. After a brief two years, we packed our bags and moved to Portland, OR, where we have lived ever since.

We’ve learned to love the Pacific Northwest’s laid-back attitude and late sunny summer nights. We love to see movies at theaters where you can buy seats in advance and take full advantage of the Portland Public Library system. We bought our first house in 2021 and five weeks later we adopted our child Simon!

Building a relationship with Simon’s birth mom has been wonderful. We love having her celebrate at our house for Simon’s birthdays, sharing photos and videos during the year, and meeting in person for playdates at the park. Simon’s relationship with his birth mom has reinforced for us that a welcoming open adoption is the right dynamic for our family.

On weekends, you will find us “urban hiking”, also known as walking to new restaurants and exploring Portland’s many neighborhoods. Friends play an important role in our lives, and we regularly meet up with other adoptive and queer families to build community and enjoy the city together. We finish up many evenings dancing to Beyonce, reading countless storybooks, and eating more blueberries than we ever thought possible.

During Raphi and David’s first date over mozzarella sticks and nachos, we discussed our parenting aspirations. Though David is now allergic to both gluten and dairy, our dreams for our family have not wavered. We know open adoption is right for us because we have seen the value in our child understanding why and how we became a family.

Thank you for reading a bit about us. We look forward to welcoming our child’s birth parents into our family!
David, Raphi, and Simon

Stephanie and Mike

Hail and well met, traveler!

We are Stephanie and Mike, a couple of nerds living in Snohomish County. Thank you for taking the time to read our letter.

We met in 2017 while playing video games online with friends. Despite Mike being in Minnesota and Stephanie in Washington, we decided to take a shot at a relationship. Two years later, Mike moved to Washington, and we moved in together. A year after that, Stephanie proposed at a treehouse resort. We returned to that same treehouse spot in November 2021 to get married, surrounded by a small group of friends, family, and loved ones.

Stephanie was born and raised in Southern California and moved to Washington after college, drawn by the excitement of Seattle and the vibrant forests surrounding it. She went on to get her master’s degree in social work after some independent studying on child development and attachment theory and was able to intern at a local adoption agency to learn the ins and outs of adoption processes. Her fascination with psychology, sociology, and the complexities of human relationships all lead her toward her current job of working with children and families in a therapy setting.

Mike originally hails from the frozen state of Minnesota as the youngest of a family of five. Growing up, Mike’s family didn’t have much money, which created a tight family bond and taught him to get by with what he had. From his parents, Mike gained a love for cooking and an appreciation for outdoorsmanship, both of which continue to be passions of his today. Since retiring from his career in pharmacy, he operates as the resident homemaker and handyman while he pursues his woodworking hobby. As the intended stay-at-home parent, Mike loves the idea of sharing all that he’s learned in his life so far and being present for the day-to-day milestones.

Currently, we are renting a three-bedroom home in a city north of Seattle and enjoy the quiet convenience of our neighborhood. Eventually, we hope to move to Minnesota to reconnect with our friends and family there, but will always have reasons to return to Washington. We get out to a variety of local comic conventions, art shows, and Renaissance festivals each year. When the weather dictates that we stay home, we both enjoy playing video games in our side-by-side gaming setup in our office. Of course, our three cats always make sure to interrupt us as much as possible for snuggles, snacks, and play time.

We both have spent our lifetimes around and caring for children. From assisting in raising his niece and nephew to volunteering with children’s science education programs, Mike enjoys and is excited to encourage in his child(ren) a love of knowledge, nature, and wonder. Through her work and studies, Stephanie is most excited to foster emotional intelligence, safety, and creativity. Due to some potentially inheritable conditions on both sides of our families, we have decided against having biological children. In discussing our plans to adopt, we both agreed that open adoption was the most ethical and mindful choice for our future child and their needs. We hope to foster a relationship with our child’s birth family based on honesty, communication, and empathy. We want our future child’s birth family to become a part of our family, too.

We wish you the best on your journey.

Kindest regards,

Stephanie & Mike

Drew and Tom

Hello and thanks for reading our introduction letter!
We are Drew and Tom and we live outside a larger city in the Pacific Northwest. Drew is a program manager for a nonprofit and works from home, and Tom is an elementary school teacher at a public school in the city.

We both grew up in coastal towns in Massachusetts and went to college in Maine, but we met here in Oregon in 2013. We enjoy time at home: gardening, cooking good meals, listening to records, playing board games and reading by our woodstove. We love hosting friends and family, live music, cool art, and traveling to new places. We got married in 2017 and moved to a house on a wooded acre of land at the end of a quiet road.

Drew is the social glue in several of our friend and family circles, and is always planning the next get together. He loves an afternoon coffee with company, collecting stories from friends and their daily lives. He is skeptical of astrology but is a definite Virgo!  He likes learning how things work, and building things in our woodworking shed. Drew worked in restaurants for many years and loves to cook for others. He will be the kind of dad that gets everyone to rake leaves and then makes a great soup for dinner.

Tom is passionate about his work and hobbies. He’s been an elementary school teacher for over a decade, cares deeply about his students and is always thinking up fun and creative projects for his classroom. His students love being in his class and all our friends wish their kids could have him as a teacher. He’s an avid bird watcher, beekeeper, kayaker and reader. He spends time outside with his binoculars and camera every single day and fills his free time with bird watching and camping trips. 

We’ve always wanted to be parents. We feel strongly that open adoption is what is best for adopted children and look forward to growing our family to include not only a child, but a birth family as well. We want our child to know their full story and feel empowered by having more adults in their life who love and support them. We want our child to know about their birth family’s background, family culture and health history. We will always hold our child’s birth family in the highest place of honor. We look forward to building new relationships and traditions. We are always excited for a road trip and can imagine traveling to make visits happen.

We are both close with our parents and siblings, and even though we live far from many of them, we value and prioritize quality time with family. We have close friends here in the Northwest who have become our family over the years. Everyone is excited for us to become dads and they all want to be part of creating a wonderful life for any child that joins our family.

We wish you the best,
Drew and Tom

Elsa and Linden

Hi! We are Elsa and Linden. We are a fun and adventurous couple looking to start our next adventure of welcoming a child and their birth family into our lives. We first bonded in college over a shared birthday, and later reconnected in our now-home of Seattle on weekend excursions. After 10 years of exploring, and plenty of shared Snickers, we tied the knot on a windswept hillside in 2014. We still love scrambling up remote summits and lounging by alpine lakes, but also have found happiness closer to home tending our garden, baking pies, and paddle boarding from the local beach.

Elsa is strong, charismatic, and empathetic – characteristics that suit her job as an elementary school teacher. She has now taught many of the kids on our block and has fun swapping math problems for candy when the trick-or-treaters come knocking. She most enjoys time spent on local trails. In her down time, she loves scrounging through shelves of the local bookstore for just one more WWII-era historical fiction saga, cooking massive stir fries that explode out of the wok, and experimenting with new pie recipes.

Linden is curious, patient, and persistent. He works as a product design engineer and enjoys using his engineering skills to improve the experience of those around the world and close to home, whether it’s providing access to clean drinking water or fixing a leaky faucet. He recharges with time outdoors, typically skiing and mountain biking, and also relaxes by reading, birding, and playing the banjo.

Our 3-bedroom home is the ideal place to host friends and family, and raise a child. The front porch is perfect for reading books, and the backyard has a productive garden and space to play. We bought our home because of the friendly neighbors and quiet back alley where the kids play. Our house is close to downtown yet within walking distance of the beach and a large public park.

Family is so important to us. We both are strongly connected to our families and make frequent trips to see one another in person. Linden’s brother’s family lives close by and, as ‘Auntie Elsa and Uncle Lindy’, we are always scheming fun trips with our niece and nephew. We also have our ‘West Coast family’ – dear friends we feast with on Thanksgiving and share in life’s experiences throughout the year.

Although we love this life we have created, we have yearned to experience the joy of parenting a little one together. We are excited to share the wonders of the world with our child and enrich our own lives in the process. We look forward to guiding our future child to become a compassionate yet confident contributor to their community.

Open adoption appeals to us because of the value we hold in family. We believe that our child’s life will be enriched by everyone who contributes to their upbringing, and look forward to welcoming not just a child, but their birth parents and extended family. It’s important that our child knows their story and is proud of the many individuals who give them life, love, and happiness.
Thanks for stopping by to learn a bit more about us. We wish you all the best in this journey.

Elsa & Linden

Alyssa

Hi!  My name is Alyssa.  I live an active, fun, responsible lifestyle, and can’t wait to have a child to love, to teach, and to help grow and develop.  I am hard working, dedicated, and loyal.  My most treasured “things” in life are my relationships.  I look forward to having a child join my family and all of the future adventures we will take on, together!

I have been in the field of education since 2003.  My education and professional experience have allowed me to teach high school biology for 13 years before becoming an Assistant Principal for grades 9 and 10 in 2017.  I was also the head coach of the volleyball program here at the high school for 11 years.  I have been an athlete my whole life, and have not only loved being coached, but have loved my role in coaching others.  I still feel a strong connection to being a coach in my current role as assistant principal; instead of coaching athletes on the court, I am often guiding the teachers and students with whom I work at school, and I find it very rewarding.  I live in Northeastern Massachusetts, about 40 minutes north of Boston in a quiet residential neighborhood about three miles from the beach. 

I have the most incredible network of family and friends.  My parents and my sister are a huge part of my life.  Additionally, I have a group of friends who are more like family to me.  We met at work in 2007 as colleagues, and since then have become family.  I’m sure its common to read that folks who are pursuing adoption have a great network behind them, but mine is truly top-notch! Your child will be welcomed into this loving, supportive, compassionate group of people, and they can’t wait for me to become a mom!  I am so fortunate to be loved by all of them.  We are together often, and I love my time with all of the kids. In fact, I find that I am happiest when I am with them. As you’ll see in my book, we have some special seasonal traditions.  I have dated a few guys, but I never met my soulmate, and I’m not someone who just ‘settles’.  I am still hopeful that I will meet the right person, someday soon.

While I am so thankful to be a part of such a supportive network of family and friends, I am also fiercely independent and self-motivated.  I am proud to have purchased my own home in 2022, and enjoy working around the house.  I have painted almost all of the inside walls, trim and ceilings and have done what seems like a million other projects to make it my own, as well as making it feel cozier and more welcoming.  It was a lot of work but I have found it to be very fulfilling! I love to entertain, and enjoy having friends and family over often.  I have had several themed parties at my house and really enjoy having some surprise events for the adults and kids alike.  I love any outdoor activity – kayaking, sitting by the campfire, grilling good food, and taking care of my yard. I have added some new garden beds, and I don’t even mind weeding.  I love to be outside in all weather!  And so does my pup, Ryman, who I got in 2019 and is a dream that came true for me!  I have always wanted to have, love and train a yellow lab, after my experience with our childhood yellow lab, Honey.  And, she LOVES kids! 

When I turned 40, after considering all of my options, I decided to pursue adoption. OA&FS’ emphasis on the connection between the birth family and adoptive family in an open adoption was paramount to how I view this relationship to be.  For me, family is who you choose to spend your life with; who you support, and feel supported by, who you connect with, who you stand by and who stands by you in the worst of times and in the best of times.  Because I define family this way, my child’s birth family would become an extension of my current family. 

This quote really resonates with me as I feel that it illustrates this point;
“I believe that love isn’t divisible, it’s exponential.” 

Warmly from the East coast! 
Alyssa

Maureen and Adam

Hi! We’re Maureen and Adam. Thank you for taking the time to learn about us.

Our relationship started when after we first met in Southern California while in high school. We became best friends and began dating a couple years later. We then went to college in the Bay Area, moved to the East Coast for work Philadelphia) and grad school (DC), and lived abroad for three years in Colombia and Costa Rica. In 2016, we decided to put down roots in the Pacific Northwest to be closer to our families.

So, what are we like? Maureen is someone who finds happiness in the small, silly, whimsical things in life, and sees almost any time as an opportunity for celebration. Her absolute favorite activity is swimming in the ocean, but she also gets excited about things like Ferris wheels, roller coasters, and fireworks. Adam values being a good listener and someone people can confide in and trust, but he’s never above cracking a cringey joke. Some of our favorite activities include music (live and recorded), hiking and camping, playing cards and board games, cooking, reading, watching movies and sports, gardening, and spending time with loved ones.

In our work, we share a commitment of service to others. Maureen is an immigration attorney who spent years in refugee and asylum law and now also works with accomplished clients in the arts and entertainment industry. Adam is a 5th grade teacher in a dual language immersion program where he teaches students in both Spanish and English. He has also taught middle and high school.

We love our home and community. We live within blocks of several parks, restaurants, a library, an elementary school, a farmer’s market, and community event spaces. Our ranch-style house has a big backyard with lots of trees, garden boxes, grassy space to run around, and a large deck for barbecues and get-togethers (which is great since we love to have people over). Some of our closest friends, as well as Adam’s mom, brother, and brother-in-law live within a short drive, and they all will be very active in our child’s life.

We are beyond excited to be parents and are looking forward to all of the joys and challenges of parenthood. We have always wanted to have a family through adoption, and appreciate how open adoption allows for so many people to play unique and important roles in our child’s life. With that in mind, we hope for a relationship with our child’s birth family that is rooted in mutual trust, respect, honesty, and placing our child’s well-being above all else. As parents, we will love our child unconditionally and strive every day to nurture their curiosity, sense of self, appreciation of diversity, and desire to leave the world a better place than they found it.

Thank you again.

Maureen + Adam

Michael and Stephanie

Hi! We are Michael and Stephanie. We live in a quiet Seattle neighborhood with our labradoodle, Phoebe. Any given day, you’re likely to find us on a walk visiting neighborhood friends, listening to music in the backyard, huddled around our firepit, watching one of our favorite streaming shows, or planning our next vacation.

We were both born and raised in the Seattle area, and despite our itch to visit the rest of the world, neither of us would want to live anywhere else. We’re fortunate to have a large family presence in the area, and we’re ever so grateful for the support structure they provide us.

We were introduced because of our mutual love of travel, and we spent most of our 20s doing just that together. Our shared sense of adventure reinforces other shared values: experiencing norms outside those we were born into, appreciating what we have, finding peace and belonging in any circumstances, and building empathy through taking in other people’s perspectives.

Michael (as written by Stephanie) carries himself with a quiet, humble confidence and calm demeanor that instantly drew me to him as the perfect complement to my impassioned, occasionally indecisive self. He is whip-smart, hard-working, thoughtful, kind, and unfailingly generous to all those he loves.

He is a dual citizen of the United States and Poland and dedicates some of his free time toward sharing his culture in the Seattle area. Mike is becoming quite the handyman and has taught himself to fix most things around the house. He also loves sports, specifically soccer and football. You’ll likely hear him quietly commentating to himself when watching games, as his memory for sports trivia is incredible!

Stephanie (as written by Michael) is the most kind, personable, empathetic, compassionate, and low-key funny person you’ll ever meet. She also brings these traits out in everyone around her, despite her sometimes inability to recognize these strengths in herself.

She is getting a master’s degree in mental health counseling while working part time. This keeps her busy, but she finds time for daily walks with Phoebe and getting together with family and friends. She also loves baking, reading, working on house projects, and spending as much time as possible outside.

We value the role that our future child’s birth parents will have in their child’s life. We seek to approach our relationship with them with the utmost authenticity, respect, sincerity, and adaptability.

Warmest regards,
Michael and Stephanie

Melissa

Hi! My name is Melissa.

I like reading, hiking, travel, art, and cooking. I value imagination and curiosity. I’m an introvert, but I enjoy meeting new people because there’s always something interesting about them. I’m nonbinary and use they/them pronouns; gender doesn’t make much sense to me, and I don’t feel strongly male or female. I’ve always wanted to be a parent, and now that I have a career, a home, and a good sense of who I am and how I fit into the world, I feel ready to raise a child.

I want to be a parent because I want to help a child figure out who they are and how to live the life they want. I was raised by a single parent, my dad, after my parents divorced when I was a toddler. He raised me to be curious, independent, open-minded, and empathetic, and I want the same things for my child. I want to share things that I love about the world, and I also look forward to learning new things from my child and encouraging them in whatever they want to do. I don’t expect a child to fit a certain mold, and I’m excited to find out who my child is. I will love and support them no matter who they are.

My dad is retired, and we bought a house together a year ago. My dad has taught me a lot about parenting, and he says the most important thing is to know your child, which means spending a lot of time with them. He’s looking forward to being a grandparent because raising a kid was one of the most fun times in his life. Since he was also a single parent, he knows how important it is to have supportive adults who can help with caretaking.

I’m from Florida originally, and I spent a lot of time on rollercoasters at Disney World as a kid. I studied abroad for a year in Ireland, and part of why I feel so at home in the Pacific Northwest is that the climate reminds me of Ireland.

I read a lot! I like science fiction, fantasy, comic books, and fact books about things like math, science, history, language, and nature. I also crochet, draw, write, cook, and build things by hand. A recent project was building a fence to keep rabbits away from the tomatoes I’m growing in the backyard.

I work from home as an editor for academic researchers who don’t have English as a first language and want to publish in English-language journals. I like my job because I feel like my work is helpful, and it gives me some flexibility in how I spend my day, which will help me be a present and involved parent.

I’m invested in having an open adoption because I want my child to be able to explore all facets of themselves. The more people who love and support a child, the better. I want to build and maintain connections to my child’s birth family, and support the child in forming independent relationships as they grow. I envision a healthy open adoption as one with clear, honest communication, where the child is the focus.

Thank you for learning about me!

Ben and Robin

Hello! We’re Robin and Ben,

We grew up in the same small town in Washington, but it wasn’t until 2017 that we went on our first date. Not long after that we began making plans together. We bought a house, navigated a wedding during the 2020 pandemic and now we hope to grow our family through open adoption.

Our hopes for the relationship with our child’s birth family include honest, easy communication between everyone and an understanding that questions are encouraged and that we will support our child’s curiosity. We want to raise a child secure in the feelings of love and support from all family.

Our home is in a tree filled rural suburb of Seattle, where neighbors are often out walking dogs and enjoying their garden. Our dogs, Cooper and Lucy, enjoy napping on the sunny back deck and exploring the large, fenced yard. There are plenty of parks and bike trails, family friendly coffee shops, a great bookstore and well-regarded public schools a short drive away. Together we enjoy working on house projects, hiking, biking, puzzles, photography, movies and audiobooks. We spend much of our free time with family at our cabin on the Long Beach Peninsula. Both of us have family nearby who are excited to be involved with our child and build a relationship with our child’s birth family.

Ben grew up the oldest of five (three through adoption) on a small island near Seattle. Shortly after high school he completed a two-year culinary program and while he loves to cook, it wasn’t the career he wanted and went back to college. When Ben learned a degree in psychology would allow him to make things that interested him better (video games, gadgets, etc.), he was hooked and has been doing that ever since. Ben raised a daughter (now adult) so he’s aware of the many challenges that come with parenting and that along with those challenges come many more celebrations. He is proud to witness his daughter building a life she wants every day.

Robin grew up building forts, riding bikes and going to the movies with her three sisters. A long career in photojournalism continues to be a great fit for her love of learning, asking questions, meeting people and creativity. Robin looks for opportunities to explore the Pacific Northwest as well as international travel. She feels recharged after hiking in the mountains, working in the garden and spending time with the dogs.

We are excited to support our child in pursuit of their goals and dreams. We hope to build a strong and lasting relationship with our child’s birth family and look forward to sharing all the joys that come with being family.

Robin and Ben

David and Jesse

Hello!

We’re David and Jesse – a pair of sweet, would-be dads living in Seattle, with a rascally dog named Alvin along for the adventure. Thanks for reading a little about us.

We like to say we’re a Match.com success story! We met online in 2010, and hit it off in person on a dark and stormy night in a mostly-empty dive bar. We immediately clicked talking with each other and knew we shared the same core values about family, life, work, and joy. David adored how Jesse lit up at stupid jokes, but was so committed to hard work and giving back to the community. Jesse adored how David has an incredibly sharp wit, with an undercurrent of profound sweetness. Today, we share many hobbies, but our favorite by far is still going out to dinner and talking the night away.

Jesse is a doctor who grew up in Minnesota, with his parents, older brother, and a gaggle of boisterous uncles, aunts, and cousins. He attended medical school and became a psychiatrist because he enjoys helping people facing medical challenges get back on their feet. His move to Seattle in 2009 for residency was his “Grey’s Anatomy” moment after being a fan of the show, and he’s never left. Jesse enjoys tackling home-improvement projects on our craftsman house in a family-friendly Seattle neighborhood, planning travel adventures, and taking runs in new parks around the city.

David is an attorney and a Seattle native. His parents, sisters, and extended family are scattered throughout the area. He works at a tech company for dog and cat lovers, with a mission of helping everyone be able to experience the love of a pet. When he’s not being a “dog lawyer,” David enjoys gardening with a coffee in hand, reading books, and trying out new recipes.

Family has always been a wonderful part of our lives. We were both lucky to grow up with loving parents who valued education and hard work, fostered our curiosity about the world around us, and encouraged us in our dreams and exploring new hobbies, sports, culture, and art. We have so many fond memories of holiday traditions, birthdays, family vacations, and everyday life around the dinner table. It’s been a joy to be uncles to our nieces and nephews and to imagine how our own family might grow.

We’re excited and humbled by the opportunity to become parents. We’re committed to raising a happy and healthy child who knows they have a family that loves and supports them. Open adoption is important to us because it builds a foundation of trust and welcomes more people into a child’s life to provide more love and support. We want to honor our child’s bond with their birth family, and for all of us to build lifelong relationships. We hope to create a welcoming family community for our child, with members of their birth family and adoptive family, and a life of possibilities.

Thank you for reading our materials and considering us.

Chris and Kelly

Hi,
We are Chris and Kelly. We live in Washington State in a beautiful city north of Seattle. Chris grew up in Shoreline and Kelly grew up in Seattle. We went to school together from preschool through our senior year of high school. Kelly’s parents’ both taught at that school. We dated in high school and went to Junior/Senior Banquet (prom) together but lost touch after high school. We reconnected years later when Kelly’s brother wandered into a store where Chris worked. We were so excited to start dating again. We got together for coffee at Starbucks, Barnes and Noble bookstore and a Mariner’s game. We dated for a year and a half and then we got engaged and almost a year later, we were married. We have a solid foundation of knowledge regarding how to nurture, love and care for a child. We have gained valuable experience by spending time with our nieces and nephews, with our godsons, and (for Kelly) with the preschool children she teaches on a daily basis.

We are so great together. We complement each other so well and we are each other’s soul mates and best friends. Kelly appreciates Chris’s sense of humor, his love for his family and animals, and his patience working in IT support. Chris appreciates Kelly’s love for children and her patience working as a teacher and her willingness to try new things and play video games with him.

Chris works in IT Support and he loves to help people with their computer issues and to teach people how to make better use of their technology. He volunteers to film and edit our local chamber of commerce monthly video. He enjoys hiking and camping along with playing games.

Kelly works in the field of Early Childhood Education and she has been a teacher for seventeen years. Kelly is a music lover and took piano lessons for many years and she loves to sing. Kelly shares Chris’ love for the outdoors and enjoys camping and hiking. Kelly also enjoys reading, watching TV and movies and playing board games/card games.

We live in a great community with lots of parks, a library, schools and stores. We often take our dog for a walk to the park or around the library. Our dog Hannah and our cat Mochi are gentle and great with kids. Hannah gets to spend time with our nieces and nephews on the 4th of July and everyone enjoys having her there! Mochi likes to relax in his basket. They both love to curl up and snooze. They are such a great addition to our family and we are blessed. There are a lot of different activities going on in our community that we enjoy going to. In the summer there is live outdoor music and movies that we attend with our family and friends. Our close friends have two boys, who are our godsons, and we enjoy taking them to the outdoor community events and spending time together.

We are close with our family and friends and they are important to us. We regularly attend church in the greater Seattle area and our faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is especially important to us. It is a central part of who we are. We have two godsons and seven nieces and nephews, and we enjoy spending time with them whenever possible. We already enjoy family friendly activities-such as board games, card games, going to the movies, perusing the local library, and spending time at the local parks-and we cannot wait to invite our child into these pastimes.

We live in a safe, loving and nurturing environment and we have a ton of love to give. We also look forward to the possibility of having an open, sincere and honest relationship with our child’s birth parents. The frequent and honest communication aspect of open adoption really appeals to us. Communication with our child’s birth parents could take place in a variety of manners including the exchange of pictures and letters, phone calls, or face-to-face contact. Zoom is also great! Building an organic relationship where everyone feels respected, included and welcomed is important to us. We look forward to welcoming our child’s birth family to events at their school. We envision attending local events together, such as the holiday lighting festivities, parades and outdoor movies in the park in the summer.

We have a deep and united love for each other, for our family and friends, and for our community at large. We are excited to provide a safe and stable home environment and to become a consistent voice of love and encouragement to a child.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us better,
Sincerely,
Chris & Kelly