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 space to run wild.
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 (also known as Charlie). 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, as well as his brother and sister in law (who grew up in the same small town Mel did!) all live in the area. Kris’ mom currently lives with us. She is very excited at the prospect of being a grandmother (or “farmor” as you say in Swedish).

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

Alan and Lily

We are Alan, Lily, and Jo. Thank you for the opportunity to introduce ourselves. Becoming parents with the birth and open adoption of our daughter Jo in 2020 was a dream come true. We hope to grow our family again through open adoption.

We first met and started dating in 2011 and have been married since 2016. We are lucky to own our own home in a quiet neighborhood of West Seattle. Our neighbors are super friendly, and everyone knows each other. Jo and our neighborhood kids use the street for playing and the grownups spend lots of time together too. Our neighborhood has beautiful parks and good schools, including a public elementary school just blocks from our house where Jo will attend kindergarten next year. We think our neighborhood is a wonderful place to raise our children: it feels like living in a small town in the middle of the big city and reminds us of the small towns where we both grew up.

Alan is originally from Waterville, Vermont, where his mom Jenny and dad Oliver still live in the wood house they hand-built 40 years ago. The house is surrounded by acres of forest, fields, a vegetable garden and pond. Most of Alan’s extended family lives in coastal Massachusetts; we love visiting them when we can, especially in the Summer.

Lily grew up on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Lily’s mom Kathy and dad Alan moved from the Island to West Seattle in the years before Jo was born. They now live a walk away from us and play an integral part in Jo’s everyday life. We see them throughout the week for everything from grocery runs to Sunday dinner.

Alan is a 7th grade history teacher at a middle school in West Seattle where he also helps coach the track team and a running club. Lily is mostly home full-time with Jo and works per diem as a palliative and hospice care social worker, helping patients and their families cope with critical illness and death/dying. We are both committed to serving the community and helping make a positive difference in the world. Our jobs can be difficult, so we have always valued the time we spend together as a family outside of work.

During the school year, Jo attends a cooperative preschool through our local community college. Lily helps in Jo’s classroom and serves on the preschool board. We feel lucky to be so well-supported by our preschool community and enjoy being with the other kids and families through play dates, birthday celebrations, backyard BBQs, and Lily’s book club.

On workdays, one of us makes dinner for our family and we enjoy the quiet of our home and neighborhood. On weekends, we love to make special breakfasts and play in our backyard or one of the parks just 5-10 minutes from our house. We spend time caring for our home and garden and enjoy seeing our family and friends for home-cooked meals and games. When we can, we enjoy traveling to visit family and friends living out-of-state. We’re proud to be contributing members of a caring community and a big, loving family and hope for that to expand with a second child and their birth family.

Warmly,
Alan, Lily, and Jo

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

Emily and Peter

Hello!

We are Emily, Peter, Svea (3), and Alice (doggo). We live a cozy life in a city south of Seattle, WA. With happy help from Svea, we enjoy doing projects around our 1925 Craftsman home, working in the garden, baking yummy treats together, fixing up a little old pickup truck, and making handy repairs as things break. Whether doing errands in town, or on a beautiful vacation, we LOVE bicycling together as a family! Our home is the hub for our extended family’s holiday celebrations and a venue for many cousin play dates. We value giving and receiving help in our community of friends and family. We often have music playing and laughter is no stranger in our home.

Emily is most at peace on a forested trail with lush undergrowth and bird song around her. She brings that peace to our home with a huge variety of plant life that adds natural beauty to our urban property. Since welcoming Svea into our family, Emily has blossomed into an adoring mother.  She is constantly humbled by the honor it is to witness Svea’s world unfold. Emily is a fierce defender of what she thinks is just and is not afraid to stand up for what she thinks is right. Weightlifting and high intensity interval training keep her challenged and fit. Emily’s dedication to others and love of athleticism makes firefighting a well-suited career that provides her with fulfillment while keeping our family medically insured and financially secure.

Peter is the kind of guy who, if you need a lawnmower, knows someone trying to sell one for a reasonable price, and will tune it up and get it to you. Said another way, Peter loves to understand and contribute to the needs of the community around him. He finds joy in doing projects with friends and appreciating simple wooden boats, but his greatest joy is being a dad – something Peter has wanted for as long as he has been able to want anything. The very same day Svea was born, Peter was researching cargo bikes to make sure we could gracefully and safely get around on bicycles with a kid. At work, he operates and maintains a sawmill for a local furniture company.  He usually comes home dusty and satisfied.

Adoption has been a long-time vision of ours and one that dovetails nicely with our open home and open hearts. While Emily feels empowered and forever positively changed by her pregnancy and birth of Svea, she does not feel that another pregnancy would serve her well in her physical ability to be a firefighter. Thankfully, both of us deeply feel that biological origin will not change our ability to love and connect with a child. Our Thanksgiving dinner table is already a wonderful medley of biological family and chosen family and we would joyfully welcome a birth family into this space. In this light, openness in an adoption feels inherently natural. We look forward to being in community with any family we are so lucky to be chosen by.

Warmly,
Emily, Peter, and Svea

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

Kevin and Addie

Hi! We’re Kevin and Addie, and we’re thrilled to introduce ourselves and share our story with you.

Our journey together started when we met on the Hinge app in March 2019 and had our first date playing mini golf in Del Mar, California. Since then, we got married in 2021 and moved to a suburb outside Portland, OR with our four fur-babies in 2022. We instantly fell in love with our home, especially its spacious backyard with a large lawn and garden beds. Living next to a 20-mile trail, we can often be found taking our dog, Palmer, for long walks during the early evenings.

Addie grew up in Long Beach, CA with her parents and two younger siblings. Though our family now spans across California, Hawaii, and Australia, we stay incredibly close through weekly FaceTime calls and annual family vacations. Addie works as a Program Manager at a special education staffing company. In her downtime, she enjoys reading, cooking, baking, gardening, and cozying up for movie nights—especially with Disney classics.

Kevin was raised in Los Angeles, CA with his parents and two older siblings. While most of his family remains in the LA area, his brother now lives in Denver, Colorado. We cherish our time with our nieces, whom we visit frequently during trips to LA. Family is extremely important to Kevin and we try to all get together multiple times a year, including one big family camping trip for our niece’s birthday in San Diego. Kevin is a golf professional at a Country Club and passionate about teaching people the sport. He loves golfing, BBQ-ing, gaming, and staying active. As an avid sports fan (Lions and Dodgers), we are often attending or watching games.

We love traveling, exploring new areas/towns, going to farmers markets, concerts or other shows, or just finding other activities happening in our area. We can be found going out and finding new adventures, but are also perfectly happy staying at home and having movie marathons (especially Marvel and Harry Potter). 

Our deepest hope is to nurture a loving and supportive relationship with our child, fostering an environment where they feel safe and encouraged to share their joys, fears, and dreams. We eagerly anticipate creating lasting memories, providing a nurturing home, and wholeheartedly supporting our child as they navigate life’s journey. Whether it’s dance recitals, baseball games, science camps, or music concerts—whatever brings them joy, we can’t wait to experience it alongside them. Additionally, we aspire to build a respectful and open relationship with our child’s birth parents and family, fostering trust, empathy, and understanding through open communication. Our aim is to create a supportive and inclusive family dynamic where our child feels cherished and loved. 

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We’re excited about the possibility of growing our family and embarking on this journey together. ~ Kevin + Addie

 

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

Cem and Christie

Hi there!

We’re Cem (pronounced like “Gem” or “Jem”) and Christie, and we live with our two black lab rescue pups, Jack and Tux, in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’ve been together 15 years and make a great team!

Cem is often described as a Labrador puppy - silly, playful, curious, generous enthusiastic, full of love and affection, food-motivated, thrives with a lot of physical activity (daily pup walks, soccer, golf, skiing, weightlifting) but also loves a lazy afternoon, and is loving and loyal to his people. He is extremely sweet, kind, and emotionally intelligent. One of his greatest gifts is his ability to build meaningful connections and bridges between people (his name actually means “uniter” in Turkish). He is trilingual (English, Spanish, Turkish) and loves language – especially creating puns (he’s already great at dad jokes).

Christie is kind, empathetic, thoughtful, nurturing, playful, curious, resilient, intelligent, and radiates warmth. She is also a natural with kids, always open-arms to scoop up our nephew, goddaughter, and any of our friends’ kids when they’re around. Christie loves curling up together with our pups and a good book, doing home design projects, watching reality dating shows or cooking competitions, listening to music and podcasts, going for walks and doing Pilates, and making delicious food that she gets to share with friends and family (she’s an expert at crafting the perfect bite, loves tasty snacks, and has a special compartment in her stomach for ice cream).

We love to travel and spend as much time as possible with family and “framily” (friend family) on both the East and West coasts, as well as visiting Cem’s extended family in Turkey. We are always planning our next adventure to new places around the world and revisiting our favorite places (like Maui, Costa Rica, and South Africa). We love staying close to home just as much, exploring the SF Bay Area together, taking walks/hikes/having spontaneous dance parties with our pups, and hosting game nights with friends and neighbors.

We met in Washington, DC back in 2009 through a mutual friend, fell in love, and have wanted to grow our family through adoption for almost as long as we’ve been together. We joyfully married in 2015 at an outdoor wedding surrounded by our family and framily. In 2016, right before our one-year anniversary, Christie was diagnosed with breast cancer. We were shocked, scared, and forced to put our lives on hold as we navigated her care. Christie’s resilience, Cem’s loving caregiving, and support from our wonderful family, friends, and doctors got us through the hardest year of our lives - we’re now thankfully 8 years cancer-free! This experience made our love for each other even stronger, gave us a lifetime of perspective, and solidified our commitment to careers in health advocacy.

In 2020, we moved across the country to our current home in Marin County, CA. We live in an idyllic town nestled in tree-covered rolling hills just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, where we’re blessed to have close friends and wonderful neighbors, a diverse, engaged, and closely-knit community with great public schools, excellent healthcare, and endless opportunities to explore. Our house sits on a small hill at the end of a cul-de-sac that backs to protected open space where we regularly see and hear all kinds of wildlife. At night, you can see all the stars in the sky. The weather, seasons, scenery, and setting are truly perfect for us and sometimes it feels like a dream that we ended up here. We can’t wait to create a lifetime of new memories here as an expanded family.

Family is everything for us and we know the value of both biological and “found” family. Both of us have spent our lives surrounded by loving, supportive families with values and traditions that have helped shape us into who we are today. Our hope is that through open adoption, we’ll be able to realize our dream of growing our family with our child’s best interests at the center. We would love to travel for in-person visits so that our child has quality time with their birth family, as well as foster regular contact virtually. We look forward to cultivating a relationship with our child’s birth family founded on mutual kindness, respect, and appreciation that will provide the safety, love, and wholeness needed for our collective constellation to create new traditions, memories, and thrive together.

With love, Christie and Cem

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

Victor and Anna

Hi! We are Victor and Anna.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our profile. We are both so excited to grow our family through open adoption.

Our home is in El Paso, TX, which is on the border with Juarez, Mexico. We met in 2018 rock climbing in the mountains outside of Juarez where we still climb to this day. Despite being from two different cultures, both learning the other person’s language, we connected profoundly that first day and quickly fell in love. We are best friends and feel so fortunate to have found each other.

Anna grew up in Santa Fe NM, with strong ties to the Netherlands, where her mother is from, and Victor grew up in Juarez. We come from different backgrounds, but we share a deep mutual appreciation and devotion to learning and embracing our differences and celebrating them within our partnership. Our first official date, we talked about how we both wanted children. Victor has a daughter Sue, who was six when we met, who Anna fell in love with just as quickly as she did Victor. As our unit of three happily formed together, we continued to dream about growing our family. Both of our grandparents had informal adoptions, which led both of our parents to talk about and consider adoption when they were younger. Our parents never did end up adopting, but a seed was planted, and we both felt connected to the idea.

We married in the mountains where we met, surrounded by our families, and moved from Juarez to El Paso TX, where we have lived for the last four years. We love living in El Paso, TX because we can be in both of our cultures at the same time. El Paso and Juarez truly feel like one large city. We have family and friends on both sides of the border. We spend half of our lives in El Paso and the other half in Juarez, very similar to many people in our community. There are many friends of ours that are in transracial or binational partnerships like us, which allows us to share our experiences with those around us and truly feel at home. We speak English and Spanish equally amongst our friends and family. We also often eat, enjoy events, and celebrate traditions on both sides of the border. We live in an area of town that is close to our university and the mountains where we often run or ride our bikes.

Anna works as a midwife with a small practice close by in Las Cruces. Victor writes for a small, independent newspaper in Colorado focusing on social and biological topics around the US/Mexico border. El Paso is right in between Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Anna grew up and where her parents live currently and Cuauhtémoc, where most of Victor’s extended family live.  This allows us to visit our families easily for Christmas, birthdays, and other special events. Victor has two older sisters that live in Juarez with their children. Anna has three older brothers. Two live with their wives and children in the Netherlands, and one brother who lives in Colorado.

Our favorite memories and moments are being outdoors, visiting museums, cooking, watching movies, listening to music, being creative, laughing, and just being silly together as a family. We feel most complete when Sue is with us, but sadly, we only get to see her on occasion as she lives primarily with her mother in Juarez. Despite our current distance, we have a deep loving connection with her that we trust will only continue to grow and blossom with time. One thing that the world needs to know about Sue, is that she has the most loving open heart of anyone we know. We spoke with her about adoption, she was so overwhelmingly excited about having a sibling, and even more so, through adoption. With Sue, Anna quickly found out that being a stepmother was an amazingly unique privilege. Sue gave both Anna and Victor the further realization that love does not have to be biological. We are a blended family, and despite it not always being easy, we and Sue find that that it is an incredibly beautiful thing as Sue is surrounded by two loving families.

Being that we both wanted a big family, we tried to have biological children right away, but have not been able to. It became obvious to us that two people from such different backgrounds and languages, wanting to adopt, was a special and unique situation and that maybe we were destined for this path to parenthood, over any other. Through our unique community and our experiences as a blended family, we feel like adoption would be the most genuine way for us to grow our family. We were excited to find OA&FS because we wanted an organization that really focused on building healthy open adoptions.  It is important to us that our adopted child can embrace and celebrate who they are, and where they come from. With love and support from the family we will create together, we hope that our adopted child will continually feel affirmed in who they are, as they grow in their most beautiful, unique life.

 

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

Leah and Nathan

Hey there!

We are Leah, Nathan, and Belle (and our sweet dog Henry). We are so pleased that you are taking the time to get a glimpse into who we are. We are committed to this process and building connections with our child’s birth family.

We live in an historic suburb of Portland, Oregon. Our home is a healthy place for our children to learn, grow, and belong. Our neighborhood is filled with kids, parks and good schools, and super kind neighbors. Our family enjoys outdoor activities, making crafts and music together, family couch chills with movies or shows, having company over for celebrations, cooking together, and family dinners.

Leah is an artist and Nathan a software developer. We both do what we love and work hard at what we do. We share chores and parenting responsibilities equally and invest in our connection as a couple while also supporting each other’s personal passions. Leah is sensitive, resilient, and loves creating art and music in addition to foraging, gardening, and nourishing our family with the fruits of her labor. As a neurodivergent parent, she understands how to advocate and find support for herself and is well prepared to do so for our children throughout their lives. Nathan is intelligent, logical, kind, and loves being active both mentally and physically. He is an amazing partner and father and has a strong faith and a big open heart. Belle is a ball of light, energy, and love! She is the most extroverted kid we know, and loves being creative and physically active. She is all about family and connection and is so excited to be a big sister. She picks out gifts for the new baby all the time and asks to hold every baby she meets. Henry is a gentle love sponge of a chocolate lab pit mix. He loves all dogs and all people and is especially good with kids.

Nathan and Leah met on the internet before there were even smart phones! We fell in love over the phone (like phone calls, no texts) and were married about a year after we met. We have always wanted children and thought about adoption even before we met. After years of battling infertility, we got unexpectedly pregnant which ended in miscarriage, but was then immediately followed by getting pregnant again with Belle, making it truly miraculous! Leah says that Belle really wanted to be here, and tenacity is a trait she has had since birth. We wanted to grow our family again, but realized infertility was stronger than ever, so we revisited our dreams of adoption. When we found Open Adoption Family Services, it was the first time that we had heard of this option. Learning how emotionally beneficial being connected to their first family is for adopted children we decided to move forward with OAFS. After learning how OAFS genuinely supports birth mothers and first families, we knew this was the best option for us!

Family and community are very important to us. Leah’s brother and his family live close by so our children will grow up with their uncle, aunt, and cousins. Grandma also visits so she can see all her grandkids at once. We visit Nathan’s family on the East Coast as much as possible and stay connected with facetime. We also have a community of chosen family, church family, and close neighbors who support our family and are filled with joy to meet our child. If there is any part of our community that does not work for our child, we will find a community that will most benefit their growth and development.
We are excited to meet both the child who will grow our family and their family who will be a part of our community. We will do all we can to see our child as the individual they are and give them the love, structure and nurturing they need to find their path and voice in this world. We hope that you will add what only you can to their journey. “We are all in this together” might sound cheesy, but it is very true.

Sincerely,
Leah, Nathan, and Belle

Sarah and Ben

Hi! We are Sarah, Ben and Trix. Thank you for taking the time to read our letter.

We are a loving couple of 15 years (and a 13+ dog) who live in Oregon. We have thoughtfully approached our decision to become parents through adoption, and we are so excited to start a 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 a lazy old lady who has calmed down quite a bit from wilder puppy days but still likes to play.

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 for the Oregon state government where he gets to participate in many aspects of Oregon’s public services.

We welcome the chance for a child to have more family who love them through the open adoption process. Expanding our concept of family is beautiful because all family relationships are complex. Sarah grew up in an Italian American family where many adults with different relationships were all considered family. We grew up in homes where extended family and friends were always part of our celebrations. We are excited to raise a child in an open, supportive family structure as we take on the responsibility of raising a kind, compassionate child. We have a warm, welcoming home with so much love and energy to share with a child, and our extended family and friends are also looking forward to embracing and supporting us.

We both prioritize family and look forward to being devoted parents who will always put our child first. Thank you for considering us.

Allison and Nick

  Hello! We are Allison, Nick, June (and our dog, Matilda). We’re so excited to have the opportunity to share a bit about our family and our life in Oregon. We have been amazed at what a fun, hilarious, busy, and yet fulfilling life it is to be parents, and hope to expand our family through open adoption.

We have been each other’s best friends and biggest cheerleaders since we met at an office party over 10 years ago. Life has thrown us some curveballs in that time, as it does everyone: we’ve both gone back to school for new careers, lost dear loved ones, waded through health scares, and big moves. In all of it, we’ve prioritized kindness towards each other, humor, fun, and flexibility.

Allison is a nurse, and Nick works from home for a philanthropic organization. We live in a quiet neighborhood full of young families we’ve spent the last few years getting to know, and we spend our days balancing the tasks of everyday life with our shared commitment to making every day count. We take our daughter for bike rides to cafes where we can get “a little treat,” we go for spontaneous day trips to the beach, and we hang out a lot with family. We routinely end the night with some conversation along the lines of “whew, that was a big day!” and “aren’t we lucky?” We didn’t know how much bigger our lives would feel after having a child, and we are confident in our ability to continue to grow as people and parents to another child. We have both always been pretty mellow, but our adopted child will have the benefit of more practiced, easy-going parents than we were the first time around—people who are determined to provide a steady foundation for children navigating the ups and downs of life.

Allison is very enthusiastic about learning new things, exploring places known and unknown, and generally looking for the magic in everyday life. She reads constantly, sews colorful outfits with thrifted fabric, and putters around the garden with June. Allison has always been a “glass half-full” kind of person, but her years spent working in the hospital have reinforced her belief that day-to-day life is special, and that our time here is not just about milestones and achievements. If June makes an epic toddler mess in the house, Allison is more likely to laugh and make a game of cleaning it up than to get upset. Nick is grounded and practical while also being very outgoing. He is a diehard Padres fan, loves to skateboard, and listens to the jazz records he inherited from his parents—all activities that keep him connected to his roots in suburban San Diego. He is a storyteller at heart, and keeps the memories of family and friends alive through lots of fond reflection. Despite never getting to know her Grandma Terri, June has a great awareness of Nick’s mom and asks about her often. Nick goes to great lengths to stay in touch with friends new and old, and we know he will excel at helping keep our adopted child’s birth family and history front and center in their life because of these skills.

June’s birth coincided with a health scare for Allison, but we still feel a sense of awe and magic when we reflect on those times. Inspired by this and other experiences, we hope to raise children who are resilient, flexible, confident, and open to whatever comes their way. And who see life as the special, unexpected, up and down experience that it is, full of opportunities to grow and change and celebrate their uniqueness. As we expand our family through open adoption, we aspire to build a “more the merrier” family where everyone belongs - our children, extended families, friends, and you and yours as birth parent(s). Thank you for considering us.
Allison, Nick, and June

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!

Chad and Ashlyn

Hello!

We are Chad and Ashlyn. We live in Tigard, Oregon with our daughter Jean. We are delighted to have the opportunity to expand our family and share our home and hearts with you.

We are both from Northern California and met while attending college in Reno, Nevada. We soon came to realize that we grew up about 30 minutes apart from one another, and actually had mutual friends in common. Our hometown connections went even deeper when we learned that Ashlyn’s grandparents were practically neighbors with Chad’s family! Once in college, Chad was living in the dorms with Ashlyn’s brother. They would frequently raid Ashlyn’s refrigerator when they were sick of the cafeteria food. The following year we all became roommates and it didn’t take long for the friendship to expand to attraction. Three years later we started dating and have now been together since 2009.

After college Chad moved to Oregon for a job while Ashlyn stayed behind in Reno to finish up with her Masters in Early Childhood Special Education. She followed him to Oregon a few months later. Feeling like we wanted to put down roots in Oregon, we purchased our first home. Shortly after buying our home we were married in 2016. In 2020 we adopted Jean through an open adoption. She is truly a miracle and we are honored to be her parents. In 2021 we moved to a bigger home in hopes of further expanding our family!

We both are outgoing and athletic people. We like hanging out in the sun, playing coed soccer, camping anywhere near water and trees, going to the zoo, family walks, hiking, all water activities (especially when a boat is involved), and anything we can do as a family. We also really like to cook. Chad is the better cook so he takes the lead smoking all sorts of things on the Traeger Grill. Ashlyn is always close by cleaning everything before he is even done with it. Chad is also a sports fanatic and follows most sports as well as plays them. He spends his lunch breaks in the gym or playing pick up games of rugby or soccer. When he is not playing sports, he is spending time with his close-knit group of friends. Chad is always the last one to leave a party and never goes anywhere without seeing a familiar face. Ashlyn loves Pilates and would go to a class every day if she could! When she’s not at Pilates she is out with friends or on an adventure with Jean. Jean never leaves her side and Ashlyn’s friends and family have learned that they are a package deal.

When Jean came into our lives, Ashlyn decided to stay at home as a full-time parent. She still finds time to teach Pilates on the side! Chad works in global supply chain for a large sports manufacturing company. Jean attends preschool for 12 hours a week as well as fun activities like swimming and the zoo.

We cannot wait to grow our family through another open adoption. Family is very important to us, in fact so important that Chad actually works for the same company as his entire family. We are thrilled to have a relationship with our child and our child’s birth family. We believe that all children deserve to have an entire community of people who love them. Thank you for considering us.

Chad, Ashlyn, Jean

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

Roderick and Bridget

Hello, we are Bridget and Roderick,

We are a fun, affectionate couple who have been together for more than a decade! We have made so many incredible memories together and look forward to growing our family. We live with our feisty cat, Izzy, north of Seattle, Washington.

Bridget grew up singing along to musicals (mostly Disney) when not reading a book. Roderick grew up working with his hands: farming, drawing, and revving engines. We were both raised on the same values of honesty, respect, and the importance of education.

We met in college and our first date was at a Greek restaurant, which led to us watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This was the start of us watching and critiquing movies together. Our favorite date night still involves dinner and a movie. Bridget is known to cry during emotional parts and Roderick will look over to see if the waterworks are starting, which causes both of us to laugh.

We love hard— we prioritize family time together and enjoy backyard BBQs with friends. We are supportive— going through life’s ups and downs such as a medical scare and losing relatives has brought us closer together. We are active— we enjoy taking bike rides and exploring new trails. We are goofy— there is plenty of laughter and we love to make each other smile.

On a typical weeknight, we make dinner, play with Izzy, and snuggle in front of a show (Severance is our current favorite). Bridget reads to relax, while Roderick plays video games and table-top RPG’s to unwind. We also enjoy board-gaming together and with friends. We cannot wait to be first-time parents and read a goodnight story before bed or play a quick family game.

Early on in our relationship, we knew adoption would be the way we would grow our family. Unfortunately, miscarriages and difficult pregnancies run in Bridget’s family. Conceiving would be unsafe for us so, without hesitation, we quickly turned to adoption.

Open adoption appeals to us because knowing our personal story is vital to forming our identity as we grow up. A relationship with our child’s birth family will enable our child, and us, to know their history firsthand. We recognize that the open adoption relationship is ever-changing and look forward to connecting at whatever level our child’s birth family is comfortable. We will always do what is best for our child as their needs will always come before our own. 

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us!
Warmly,
Bridget and Roderick

Kelly and Selena

Hello! We are Kelly and Selena.

We met in 2011 at the zoo, where Kelly worked and Selena had just started a job. Our shared love of animals, being in nature, and working with kids was the foundation for our love story. We’ve both since moved on from the zoo, but now we have a small zoo at home made up of two super smart cats, Sahale and Posey, and one incredibly loving and silly dog, Kona. We knew from the beginning of our relationship that if we were lucky enough to end up together, that we wanted to have children.

In 2013, Selena started working as a teacher at an arts-infused elementary school. She’s taught every grade from 2nd to 5th and absolutely loves her job. Kelly left the zoo in 2016 to work for a non-profit that is more focused on locally based environmental education. She feels really lucky to be able to spend a lot of time outside for work, doing things like teaching kids how to observe nature and plant trees. We found the right house for us in 2015, just outside Seattle and surrounded by trees.

Selena is an extreme people person who loves to make up songs and be loud and silly (which our dog loves and our cats are not so sure about). Kelly admires the way Selena connects with others, naturally lifting them up and making them glow by making sure that they feel heard, cared for, and appreciated. Kelly loves to learn about everything she can, and enjoys answering questions about and identifying unusual birds people see, or the animal tracks found while hiking. If she’s not exploring outside, Kelly loves to create in the kitchen by trying out recipes from all around the world. Selena loves that Kelly is always an optimist, finding the best in people and situations. Together, we bring out the best in each other, and have a joyful, easy, down-to-earth relationship.

We married twice in 2017 (we’d love to tell you the story), and have been taking steps to start our family since then. While we tried through a fertility clinic at the beginning, it didn’t feel right and we agreed that growing our family through open adoption strongly felt like the right path for us. Kelly’s father and maternal grandmother were both adopted as infants through closed adoptions. We strongly see the value in open adoption so our child can know their origin story, and stay connected to their birth family, both through a relationship and maintaining culture and traditions. We hope to have a strong relationship with our child’s birth family, celebrating milestones and old and new traditions together.

As parents, we are excited to share the magic of reading, creating, exploring, learning about the nature around us, playing games, and cooking and enjoying family dinners. We will seek out experiences to build empathy for and connections to the natural world and to the amazing cultures around us. To be honest, there may also be some Seahawks football in our lives as well! We’re grateful to you for taking this time to learn more about us.

With warm regards,
Kelly and Selena