John and His Family at Christmas, Pictured: Sandy (Sister), Linda (Sister), Mom and John

We both come from large, close-knit families. Many of our fondest memories come from our experiences with our siblings, parents, aunts, uncle and cousins. When our families get together, it is often over a large meal. John is the youngest of three children and the only son. Amy is the eldest of three daughters. Amy's father calls her his "25th birthday present" because Amy was born on his birthday. Amy's fondest memories from childhood involve picnics at her grandparents' house. Amy's grandfather built a picnic table with a roof overhead that would seat 30 people and we often gathered around this picnic table in his yard for large family dinners. John's family gathered at his parents' house for family gatherings. They would also take road trips on Sunday afternoons with his aunt and uncle, and drive around until they found an interesting place to have dinner. It seems that many of our favorite family memories involve food and meals.

Amy and Her Family: Mom, Dad and Karen (Sister)

Now that we are older, we have started to take over hosting some of our family events. Most of our family members live within an hour's drive of our home. This means that we can get together often to celebrate holidays, birthdays or just to share a meal. For the past three years, we have hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our home for both of our families. John's mom commented about this at last year's dinner and my grandfather told her, "That's the way it's supposed to be. It's their turn to take over and keep the family traditions going."

We have talked about adoption with our families and they are very excited about our family taking shape in this way. We both have family members that have been adopted. Amy's mother was adopted as an infant and one of John's grandmothers was adopted. Both of our mothers are very excited and only want one question answered, "When can I start shopping?" We announced to Amy's grandfather that we were planning to adopt a child and he is very happy for us. Even though he has been a grandfather for 46 years, and a great-grandfather for 26 years, he is excited at the prospect of becoming a great-grandfather for the fourteenth time. Our extended families are excited for us also and can't wait to meet the new addition to our families. Amy's sister and brother-in-law are very excited, because we have asked them to serve as godparents for our child.

The Front of Our Home

We live in a neighborhood in Maryland that is very family-oriented and culturally diverse. We chose our neighborhood because it has so many things nearby for children and would provide opportunities for our child to meet people of different racial and cultural heritage. Our neighborhood is near a lake, has playgrounds and ball fields and contains the neighborhood swimming pool. It is nice to have so many things to do within walking distance of our home. Our neighborhood has many families with young children and you can often hear children playing, riding bicycles and doing tricks with their skateboards on our cul-de-sac. Most of the homes in our neighborhood are on cul-de-sacs, so we don't have to worry about cars traveling at high speeds. Our local public schools have an excellent reputation and our neighborhood elementary school has grades kindergarten through eighth. Our community sponsors activities for children year-round, with art classes, sports teams and summer day camps. Our community has two branches of our local public library and they sponsor activities for children of all ages. In addition, our local farmer's market is sponsored by our closest library branch and we enjoy going there once a week during the summer to see our neighbors and buy our food from the farmers in our area.

Our Backyard. We Have Lots of Cookouts on the Deck and Patio!

We have tried to decorate our home so that everyone who visits feels comfortable. Since buying our home seven years ago, we have built a deck and patio in the backyard so that we can spend as much time outdoors as possible. John has built a vegetable garden and enjoys growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce. Amy has designed a flower garden in the backyard with plants that attract birds and butterflies, and have feeders for the birds and squirrels filled all year. We both enjoy watching the birds and wildlife that come to the garden and like to have our meals together on the deck in the evenings when the weather is warm. For the past three years, we have even had three ducks visit our feeders and drink from our birdbaths.