Childhood is so valuable and such an important time. Being a parent means creating a childhood that not only lays a foundation for a healthy, happy person but also creates memories they will cherish for their entire life.

We are excited about the opportunity to help shape a person with the best parts of ourselves. We look forward to helping a child come to understand the world and decide their place in it. We know this is not easy by any means, but we are always up for a challenge and know it'll be rewarding.

But more than anything we look forward to the opportunity to make magic. Each of us was lucky enough to experience magical moments of our own from Christmas morning treasure hunts to birthday parties themed around our favorite books. The chance to create these experiences for someone else and see the magic come alive is what being a parent means to us.

Stop by and you'll instantly notice what makes our home unique, it's filled with pets! We are huge animal lovers and have four pets—two dogs (Frieda and Fritz) and two cats (Frank and Finn). We both grew up with animals and know they'll always be a big part of our lives. Not only will we always have pets in our home, but we'll go out of our way to help an animal. Rachel has always had an especially soft spot for animals paired with a knack for finding animals in need. She's given a home to pets from friends who can't keep them, pulled kittens off the street, and most recently made a habitat for a frog who'd hitched a ride all the way from Florida on a Home Depot plant.

Not only do our pets share our home with us, but they also share our lives. Our dogs come with us to visit our parents and have presents under the tree on Christmas morning. The cats are sure to insert themselves into everything we do and don't leave a single cardboard box unexplored.

Animals will always play a major role in our lives and any child we raise will grow up with a respect for living things.

Knowing that adoption was always part of our plan meant realizing that having a child of a different race was a possibility we could plan for. Because of that, we prioritized diversity and built our life around where we'd meet all kinds of people.

We chose to live in one of the most diverse neighborhoods in our city. Not only are people of many different ethnicities and backgrounds represented in our community, but many of the families around us are blended. On our block alone, you'll find families of different ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities.

But a child needs more than to simply see others who look like them. That's why we've already put time into identifying resources, like barbershops, community centers, and cultural events for us to share with the child who joins our family—regardless of their cultural background. This is not just important for helping a child feel connected with their heritage, but also for raising any child to empathize and respect different cultures. If chosen to become the parents of a child of a different ethnic group, we would also seek out families with similar makeups, so that our child has peers who can relate to them and so we can learn from other families as well.

We have no doubt that any child will be embraced with open arms by our families. Both of our extended families have been touched by adoption or have family members of different races. We know that any child joining our family, regardless of race, would be instantly accepted, loved, and embraced.

We live in the neighborhood we wish we'd grown up in. A beautiful urban park sits just two blocks from our home. Less than a block away, there's a business district with restaurants, shops, and ice cream parlors. Get on a bike, and you can see a world-class botanical garden and another city park filled with a zoo and museums.

But the best amenity around is the number of kids and families nearby. On any given day, a group of kids is playing on our block. We look forward to providing a childhood full of bike adventures in the park and exploring the neighborhood and park with friends.

Our favorite part of our neighborhood is that no matter where you go, whether it's the farmer's market on a Saturday morning or no further than your own front porch, you're bound to see a familiar face who stops to say hello.

Our house is like another member of our family. We spend a lot of our free time improving and working on it. We've redone the backyard to make it an extension of our living space and added an entirely new room for a future nursery. We also have a small third story that can grow with any children from a fun playroom to a cool teenage hangout.

Family is a huge part of our lives. We're close with both our parents, who each live nearby. We see at least one set of parents each week and all come together as one, big family for holidays, celebrations, or even just Sunday dinner. This would be the first grandchild for both of our parents, and we know they're thrilled at the thought of being grandparents and will be another support system for any child in our family.

We're also close with our siblings and are the babies of our families. Rachel's sister lives in town and we see her often. We enjoy going to events at the museums, botanical garden, and zoo. Dan's siblings live out of town but we see them at least once each year, whether that's making a trip to them, or them coming home.

Rachel is one of 12 grandchildren and grew up with her cousins as bonus siblings. We see them about once a month, but holidays are truly special with Rachel's family. No Christmas would be complete without all 30-plus members of the family crowding into her grandparents' living room to watch the kids sort and open a mountain of gifts.

Dan's family is just as big and tight-knit. They live in a nearby state and we go out to visit for the annual family reunion picnic each summer, where we enjoy catching up with family, seeing the newest additions to Dan's cousins' families, and enjoying tractor rides through the family farm.

Hello there,

You don't know us yet, but you've been on our minds for years. Since Rachel learned she couldn't carry kids at only 12 years old, you've been a part of our lives. We've thought about who you are, the challenges you might face and the incredibly heartbreaking, selfless choice you would come to make. We've wondered if you were safe and happy. We've sent positive energy that we sincerely hope has touched your life.

Even though we haven't met, if you've made it this far in our profile, we believe we might share a few core values.

If you're like us, you value family and the importance of home. To us, these walk hand and hand. Growing up, we each lived in only one house before we left for college and want to give another child that experience. But home means more than just a physical space. Even now, home is the place we feel safest, where we can be our truest selves and where our best memories are made. What makes a home is the people who live there and our family is what makes our home possible. Family means always having a lifeline and that no matter the situation, you have someone ready to help. This stretches far beyond just the two of us. If you choose us, the child you're carrying isn't just getting two parents, but a small army of family ready to step up to champion for and love this child as if it was their own.

You may also be future-focused and not one to settle for where you are. We are always striving to grow and improve ourselves, and suspect you might be too. That same value, paired with opportunity, is what we can pass down to any child that joins our family. Rachel plans to be a stay-at-home parent to focus on the child's development in their first years. Through exploring our neighborhood, educational outings and experiencing the world around us as a family, we want to show the child we're lucky enough to raise how big the world is, to develop their curiosity and the desire to learn. Our hope is this child will grow up confident in their ability to navigate this world.

And finally, if you're like us, you embrace the joy in life. We could talk a lot about the grand adventures we have planned and big moments we hope to share as a family, but our favorite kind of joy is found in our daily lives. Whether it's making up silly songs to serenade our pets with, dancing through the house with the dogs, or lazy weekend mornings making a big breakfast to eat in our pajamas, these small moments of joy are what make our lives whole and what we most look forward to sharing with a child.

But these are all just guesses. The truth is, we don't know you, your story, and can't even begin to imagine what you're feeling and experiencing right now. But we'd like to try. Know that in choosing us, you're choosing to be a part of our family, in whatever way you feel comfortable - whether that's through sharing photos and letters, video calls or in-person visits. You will always be a part of our and this child's life. There's no way you couldn't be, because you're already very much a part of ours.

We look forward to getting to know you and how we can come together to make an amazing life for the child you're carrying.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Dan & Rachel