Our favorite vacation spot has to be Walt Disney World. We both grew up traveling to the sunshine state at least once per year and have more than a little nostalgia for the resort. There is something to be said to walk through the gates of Magic Kingdom and see Cinderella's Castle at the end of Main Street. Not only is it a way to feel like a child again, but also gives us the opportunity to relish in the simple things in life. A trip to Disney (ironically enough) forces us to slow down, appreciate a delicious meal, and enjoy the scenery.

Each of us favors a different park for different reasons. Chris prefers EPCOT that focuses on art, food, and the future. It is an ever-changing utopia that always promises "a great, big, beautiful tomorrow." Brittany prefers Animal Kingdom that focuses on wildlife conservation and immersing you in this "big, blue world."

To be able to share the love we feel for Disney with a child and see the magic through their eyes would be the greatest gift.

Brittany's favorite hobby includes getting lost in a book as often as possible. On the deck, relaxing with the dogs after work or just lying in bed are all times that are usually accompanied with a good book. With friends and family members who are also bookworms, it's easy for Brittany to find new ideas on what books to read next and the dangerous part is starting a series with multiple entries because it'll mean multiple trips to our local sprawling library to finish each series.

Chris enjoys the musical aspect of life. He's been self-teaching himself to play guitar since Middle School and has goals of setting up an acoustic guitar for the nursery one day to expand his skills and share his love of music with their child. Sports are also a huge part of his life, especially football and hockey, and being able to attend games and travel to different areas with friends and family to watch their favorite teams.

As a couple, we also love spending time with our group of friends. We've taken vacations together, traveled together, get together for dinners/celebrations and other events like concerts as much as we possibly can together as a group.

Together, we find time to do as much as possible with our dogs, Zero and Kenobi. Traveling to local events and outdoor pop-ups like restaurants and breweries that allow dogs to give them exposure to the sights and sounds of a bustling environment.

When we first bought our house, we knew it would be important for us to host at least one or two holiday events to guarantee we would see extended family members. Both of us have fond memories as we grew up where family would gather to celebrate for many reasons, so it seemed only natural.

One of our favorite traditions is our annual Fourth of July cookout. Since we have so much room to entertain, we invite our friends, immediate and extended families to take advantage of the nice weather. It turns into a pot luck where everyone brings a dish to share over good conversation and an evening fire.

Another family tradition relates to Christmas. The day after Halloween, all our decorations go up except for the centerpiece: the Christmas tree. The weekend after Thanksgiving, we drive to a local tree farm with our dogs and walk up and down the aisles to find the perfect, fresh cut Christmas tree. Once we pick one, we tie it to the roof of the car and walk back toward the gift shop. There is a photo opportunity with a giant, fresh pine wreath you can stand inside. We take a family picture and buy fried Oreos and hot chocolate from a local vendor to share in the car before heading home to decorate. All of this is in preparation to host Christmas dinner, which we do each year.

We currently live in a small village of our state. As a close-knit community, it's easy to bump into familiar faces and become regulars at local coffee shops and small businesses. The community is also always posting events for fairs, food truck events, farmers markets, etc and even more so in other communities nearby that offer a slice of Americana with a Main Street lined with mom and pop shops, antique stores and small restaurants. Living here and seeing familiar faces all the time makes you a part of the community family by association.

Our street is a long, quiet one, but we come across families with kids in their yards quite frequently as we walk our dogs. Everyone always waves when they see you.

Our home is a raised ranch, built in 1996 on five acres of open land. With three bedrooms and two full bathrooms, we envisioned this house as the perfect home to raise a family with plenty of space to expand as needed. With a horse ranch next door, it's as close to living in the "country" as possible for Rhode Island.

Our community has multiple parks across the area. A walking path for bikes and strolls with the dogs along a scenic route is also nearby. We're currently about a 2-5 minute drive from all these locations to spend time with our family, a few turns away from a beautiful, peaceful lake with a boat launch and even a small beach is nearby.

We both have close relationships with our families. We are quite lucky that both live within 30 minutes of us, so it makes staying in touch quite easy. We enjoy hosting an annual Fourth of July cookout to bring our friends and families together to share food, enjoy music, and spend quality time with those we love. We also love to have smaller family gatherings, whether it be going to Brittany's mom's house to make dinner, play board games with Chris's parents and sister, or go to a nice restaurant with Brittany's dad.

What makes our family unique is our shared love of all things Disney both as a couple and on both sides of the family. Both of us spent many vacations in Disney as children, and now that we're adults, we take family vacations with Chris' parents and hope to eventually do the same with Brittany's.

Our families are very supportive of our adoption journey. Both Chris and Brittany's families are eager to watch and be a part of extending our little family. Our parents are especially super excited to enter into the role of grandparents, in general.

As of April of 2022, we have been married for over 10 years, though we have been together for almost 15 years. We met in 2007/2008 while working together at a combination Hollywood Video/Game Crazy store. Once we started dating, it quickly became clear we were "simply meant to be" and that the rest would be history, so we began planning our future. It seemed like the obvious next step, now that we each had found the perfect partner that next we needed the perfect dog. After a little bit of research on PetFinder, we were able to rescue Zero at nine weeks old just a few months after our marriage, and he has been with us through our entire journey.

From there, we knew we were ready to find the perfect home for our growing family and that is how we ended up in a raised ranch house on a five-acre plot on which we currently reside. We purchased this as our first home together as a launching point to growing our family knowing we'd have all the room to grow with the spare bedrooms, second bathroom and massive plot of land to expand should we ever need to. We added our second dog, Kenobi, back in 2020 after years of fertility treatments and trying naturally. Now, we are ready to expand even further and hope to be the perfect family for any child who is given to us to bless our home.

Becoming parents is the last thing we're looking for to fully complete our hearts and our home. We both know we are wonderful partners to one another and are meant to be amazing parents. We want to obtain our dream of raising a child with each other, our pups, and our loving support system consisting of family and friends who have grown into family. Each of us grew up in "Disney" families, so we know the importance of spreading magic to the life of a child and being there for those moments and share with them in their excitement and wonder of the world.

We understand this isn't an easy decision for any birth parent, and we want them to know that we are also here to help support them in their decision to entrust her child's life into ours. Sending letters, pictures, updates and the like are all very important to us in keeping an open relationship with the birth family. We're even open to further communications such as calls, emails, visits, or anything that would help the birth family in this process as again, we cannot begin to imagine how difficult the adoption process is for them. By giving us the greatest gift we can ask for and allowing us to achieve our dream of becoming wonderful, loving parents, we want to reciprocate as much as we can to make sure the birth family is at ease with their decision knowing they made the right choice by selecting us to raise their child.

Sincerely,

Chris & Brittany