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