Joel & Amanda

We believe in adoption. It is an integral part of our lives. Ours is a family that includes a father who is adopted, a sibling who is adopted, and an uncle who is adopted. Adoption is the norm rather than the exception for us. If you choose our family for your child, he or she be surrounded by unconditional love and understanding, as well as the comfort of being surrounded by family members that share the unique experience of adoption. Preferred Gender: Either

Joel Amanda Job Description Assistant Professor - Teaches Animation, Video and Film, and New Media Studies Graduate Teaching Assistant; Future Stay-at-Home Mom Education Bachelor of Arts in Experimental Animation, Master of Fine Arts in Painting Bachelor of Arts in English and Drama, Master of Arts Candidate in English Literature Favorites Form of Exercise Golf Form of Exercise Yoga Hero Superman Hero Mary Poppins Holiday Christmas Holiday Easter Memory with a Child On the Day that Oskar was Placed with Us, He Smiled at Me as We Were Leaving the Airport Memory with a Child Every Minute with Our Son is My Favorite Memory Sport to Watch Baseball Sport to Watch Baseball Children Oskar-3 years old

Joel and Oskar Share a Quiet Moment

As a family, we consider adoption to be the greatest blessing of our lives. Joel was adopted as an infant. We are also already adoptive parents of one child. For the past two and a half years, our son has filled our lives with happiness. The only thing that we can imagine that could bring our family more joy is adding to it by adopting a second child.

Joel was adopted at a time when adoption records were closed and open and semi-open adoption were not part of the language. What he does know is that the year that he was born, the orphanages in the area had a large number of babies. A call went out to the area parishes and Joel's parents answered that call. When we adopted our son we felt that Joel's experience as an adopted child would be of benefit to him as he grew and we have already found that to be true. Every year as a family we celebrate not only birthdays, but also homecoming days. We talk about our memories of the day we brought our son home and Joel receives a phone call from his family on his homecoming day.

Joel's experience as an adopted child is an emotional resource for us as parents. Even with a toddler, we have already called upon Joel's memories and opinions to help us provide the most honest information that we can for our son. When the children grow and begin to have questions about their own adoptions, we believe that Joel will be a source of support not only as a father but also as a family member who has the experience of adoption in common with the children. As the children grow, we think that they will find strength in the fact that they are not the adoptive members of a family but that they are members of a family of adoptees - a father, an uncle, a brother and/or sister who are all adopted. In our family, adoption is the norm, no the exception.

Enjoying a New Book on Christmas Morning

We value education highly. We have both pursued advanced degrees with the intention of being college professors. Therefore, we intend to provide children with access to the best education possible in keeping with their personal ambition and interests. Reading, writing, and exposure to the arts are part of our daily activities. For example, we recently brought home a Wurlitzer organ that our son already feels comfortable playing.

Because we currently live in a primarily Caucasian, Midwestern town and are raising an Asian child, one of our criteria in choosing schools is racial diversity. We want our children to have the positive identity reinforcement of seeing their own race represented and valued. Having both grown up in a racially diverse community, we believe that our lives have been enriched by exposure to different cultures. We would like this enrichment for our children as well. We are also financially prepared to provide higher education opportunities.

Traditional Korean Tol Ceremony Held on the Child's First Birthday

We plan to be open and honest with children about their adoptions - the way that Joel's parents were honest and open with him. We have made a life book for our son Oskar that includes photos of his foster family in Korea and photos of our family together for the first time at the airport. We also have these photos in a family album. At age two, Oskar loves to look at these and we tell him a narrative about how he came to us. His adoption is already a familiar part of his life story.

In our social group, we have many racially diverse friends. One of the things that we value in a university environment is its cultural and racial diversity. We chose the child care center run by the university for our son, Oskar, in large part due to its tremendous diversity. One of the reasons that we have chosen to adopt Asian children is that growing up in Seattle, we were both immersed in aspects of many different Asian cultures. We feel that this will help us to raise diverse children. We actively celebrate Korean holidays and make an effort to incorporate culture in our lives. We plan to take family trips to our children's countries of ethnic origin when they each are twelve to further reinforce culture as a part of their identity.