Adoption has been a part of our lives in many special ways. For starters, both of Jeff's Godparents are adopted and they've been a beautiful example of what a gift adoption can be. And of course, our lives and George's birth parents lives changed forever when he joined our family in the summer of 2022. We're eternally grateful that George's birth parents trusted us to love and support him. We know that it was not an easy decision for them; his birth Mom has shared that with us, and it is a part of his story that we will share with him as he grows. We keep in touch with her via text message and send updates and pictures so she can watch him grow and thrive. We also have enjoyed keeping small items, pictures, and memories in a book for George to cherish as he gets older and will look forward to creating a unique way to honor this child's story too.

Cooking, hosting family and friends at our home, traveling, being active, and getting big time giggles out of our son George are just a few of the things we like doing in our free time. We also have a great group of friends through church that we love spending time with whether it be volunteering, doing small group scripture studies, or just hanging out and chasing little ones around.

We also both enjoy watching and playing sports. Family Whiffle Ball, basketball, or kickball games are frequent weekend activities in the summertime with our siblings and nieces and nephews. Grandparents even get in on the action from time to time too! Sports are actually what brought us together as a couple. Some of our first dates took place after flag football games. We played on a social league with friends from work and instantly connected. Over the years, we've traveled to see our favorite teams play, usually meeting-up with friends and family members in cities as we go.

Our faith and our family take priority in our lives. We strive to live out our faith in real ways each day and are always making efforts to become better people. We know that raising children who also have meaningful faith requires that we lead by example as parents. (Because gosh are they little sponges who learn from our every move!) Our hope is for our children to grow into extraordinarily kind, wildly loving, morally grounded, happy individuals who know they are so, so, valued and loved. We have personally experienced that sense of purpose, happiness, and feeling of being loved and valued through our own upbringing and our Catholic faith. Our most important priority as parents is to create that for our children as well.

Life on the East Coast is wonderful because it has a little bit of everything which makes it great for family day trips and family vacations! All within a short drive from us are several beach towns that we love spending time at in the summer, state parks with trails for hiking, and numerous lakes which we especially like to visit in the fall.

We picked our current neighborhood because it is wonderful for families and has some of the best schools in the state of Maryland. At any given time you can run into neighbors (especially lots of kids!) playing outside, riding bikes, going for walks, or just hanging out. We even have a church, community pool, and several parks/playgrounds that are within walking distance of our home.

Our home has lots of space for a growing family and to host family and friends…which we love to do! Our place has six bedrooms, a big kitchen to cook together, and an awesome backyard. Making memories and building family traditions at home together is something we love doing.

Our extended families, where do we even start?! We are SO fortunate to have wonderful parents, siblings, and lots of cousins for this sweet little one to grow up with. It's really nice to live close to some of our family and see them regularly. Like Becca's brother, sister-in-law, and their four kids who are just a short drive away. We enjoy getting together for weekend fun and especially Saturday morning breakfast which usually consists of donuts from some of our favorite local spots and a playground meet-up. Jeff's parents and siblings are about three hours away and so is Becca's Mom. We often take a "mini road trip" to get together with them at least once a month. The distance is a great excuse for family sleepovers which usually consists of sharing delicious meals around the table, playing board games or doing puzzles, and watching movies while all piled on the couch together.

Our extended family is equally as excited as we are to welcome another family member through adoption. We are both extremely fortunate to have very close, loving, and supporting families and their role in our adoption journey has been no different. It is very meaningful to us to have the support of our families in many different ways. From gathering family photos for our profile, to being on-call to help coordinate potential travel when baby is born, to helping with all the details to come as we all welcome a new family member. We have a great village who are so excited to welcome you and this child or children as part of it!

Even though we've adopted once before, we must admit…this profile part is still hard! Did we do it "right"?! How do we summarize everything about our life into a few pages?! And if WE think it's hard, we can only imagine what it's like for you. How do you know if someone is the "right" fit for you and your child or children? What if you make the "wrong" choice and they're not as great as they seem? Maybe those are some of the things you're wondering and maybe not. But, if nothing else, we hope that our profile gives you a glimpse into the crazy amount of love we have for each other, for our family, and our deep desire to share all that love with more children through adoption.

Our journey to adoption began when we were dating. Very early on we discussed our desires to have a family and to do so through adoption. Adoption has always been our dream for having a family, not a second option. While we can never fully know what the experience of adoption is for you, we recognize that while this may be exciting and happy for us, it could be one of the most difficult times of your life. We hope you know that we will always cherish and honor you and your choice for adoption. Whether your desire is for an open, semi-open, or closed adoption this child or children will know and love you because we'll speak of you often, pray for you, and always talk about what a gift you gave us and what an important part of our extended family you are. We'd love to send pictures and notes about this sweet little one as they grow over the years, but we're open to what you're most comfortable with. We also understand that what you want in terms of contact might change over time and that's understandable too. The key takeaway is that like any relationship, we're here to work with you and figure it all out.

One other thing we think is important to share is our vision for our family, this child or children, and their sibling(s). We both have such fond memories of our own childhoods filled with sports and school activities, family vacations, lots of play dates with cousins, plenty of joy, and laughter…so much laughter actually! That joy and laughter has only multiplied as our family and extended families continues to grow. It has been an awesome blessing to adopt our son George, to watch our siblings welcome kids, and to see our parents become ecstatic, googly-eyed grandparents. We love every second of being parents and being Aunt Becca and Uncle Jeff to ten wonderful nieces and nephews. We share all this so that you know this child or children will grow up surrounded by a big loving family. There will be lots of fun times with grandparents and cousins and yes…lots of laughter! We also think it's so special that this child or children will have a sibling(s) who like them, are adopted. Even though our kids' adoption stories won't be identical, what a gift it will be for them to have each other to relate to, process their thoughts and feelings together as they grow, and to lean on one another for love and support.

We really appreciate you taking the time to read our letter and learn more about us. We're honored that you would consider us and our home that is guided by faith. We are deeply committed to honoring this child or children's adoption story and providing them every opportunity in life with an abundance of encouragement, support, and crazy amounts of love.

These are just some of the things that make us who we are as a family, we hope to share many others with you and learn more about you as well!

Jeff & Becca