Johanna is a Hispanic-American who was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California. She is of Salvadoran and Mexican descent. During her summer vacations, she would spend time with her grandparents and aunt in El Salvador where she learned Spanish and was immersed in the culture.

George is Asian-American who was born in Baltimore, Maryland and grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He is of Korean descent speaks Korean, and would occasionally visit family in South Korea with his mother.

We have incorporated holidays and traditions from both Korea and El Salvador into our lives. For example, we celebrate the Lunar New Year with George' extended family each year, as well as celebrations for the 100th day (Baek-il), and first birthday (Dol), for children in our extended family, with traditional food, dress, and customs. We love to eat both Korean and Salvadoran food, and Johanna's cuisine often blends the two types of food. Johanna speaks to our son in Spanish, and he takes Spanish courses. He also has a set of basic Korean word cards with English pronunciation cues that his paternal aunt often practices with him.

We are committed to raising children with a strong cultural identity. Not only is it important to us for our son and future child to be proud of their own cultural identity, but we also want them to appreciate differences in others.

We see our marriage as a partnership based on similar values, especially with regards to parenting, education, fiscal responsibility, and prioritizing family. We share household chores, planning events and activities as a family.

We feel that we each bring different strengths to the marriage. Johanna enjoys making sure the household runs efficiently, managing our son's extracurricular activities, and encouraging all members of the family to express and understand each other's feelings.

George enjoys longer-term financial planning efforts, making sure that everyone's material needs are met, and having a work-life balance that allows him to be present and a part of our son's everyday activities.

We know that we are not perfect, and some days are better than others, but at the end we are a support system for one another. We want to ensure that our children have a strong support system at home that is free of judgment and equitable as well. Our marriage is loving, stable, and we are committed to one another.

When we got married, we always envisioned having more than one child. Unfortunately, we suffered from secondary infertility immediately after having our son. Johanna always had a love and commitment for adoption, even when she was single before marrying George. We discussed it together as we do we all decisions we take, and we felt that right avenue was to pursue adoption, which has lead us directly to you. We are very grateful that God has given us the potential opportunity to adopt a child, which we recognize not all families have for various reasons.

We have family members that were adopted transracially and transculturally, and adopted a child themselves. Having this exposure has really helped us better understand perspective of the adoptee and adoptive parents. In some ways, Johanna feels she can relate to the adoptee. She came to meet her biological father for the first time at the age of 10 years old and a few more times later as an adult. She believes it is important for children in such situations to have support from adults who can help them come to terms with their "story," and all of the emotions that it may evoke. As such, we continue to pray as a family about our adoption plan and know that we are being called to be parents again to a miracle and blessing, and provide abundance unconditional love.

We live in a townhouse in Ashburn, Virginia, which is a suburb of Washington, D.C. Our townhouse has four bedrooms with open living space. Our favorite sections are the children's play room that is a library filled with hundreds of books and our deck that we use for grilling. We live ten minutes in walking distance from the local public elementary school. We moved to our neighborhood specifically for the top-rated elementary, middle school, and high school. We have children's playgrounds all around us, community swimming pool, tennis courts, trails and public library in our immediate vicinity. When we feel like going for a drive, we venture out to Washington, D.C. to explore the National Zoo, museums, and monuments. We are also in close proximity to our local church which has helped to create another support system for our family and be able to connect with other parents and children that experienced adoption.

Our neighborhood is diverse in culture, ethnicity, and religions. Our community hosts big events for families, and specifically the children: Easter, Christmas, St. Patty's, Halloween, etc. All of the homes are filled with babies and young children, which is great for kids activities. It's truly the best place for kids to grow up in that is multicultural (like our family), friendly, supportive, and loving. We can't wait to share this amazing world with our future miracle and blessing.

Family is very important to us. We are blessed to have a supportive family that lives nearby as well as across country. George's parents, sister, and extended all live about 45 minutes away from us. This makes it super convenient for George's mom (grandma) to come visit us every other week, spend the night, and cook traditional Korean food for our family. George is very close with his sister and we her, her husband, and son frequently. We like to take adventures together as much as possible, like going camping, exploring children's theme park, going to a pumpkin patch, and celebrating holidays together (i.e. Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Birthdays, etc.).

Johanna's parents live across country in California, but she visits them or them visit us quite often. Johanna's mom is frequently visiting us and ensuring that she joins us for birthdays, graduations, and key milestones. During our visits in California, we take opportunity go to theme parks (i.e. Disneyland, Lego Land, Knott's Berry Farm, Safari, National Zoo). Our families are excited and supportive with the possibility of of having another blessing in our lives through adoption. They were all overjoyed when our son was born and can't wait for another little angel to join our loving family!

Thanks again for taking the time to read this letter as we can imagine you must be going through different emotions and thoughts at this very moment. As you look into different options that work for your family, we would like to share a little bit about ourselves and our family with the hope that you can get to know us better.

We are a happily married couple of eight years, with a six-year-old son. We like to think of our family as close-knit, who enjoys spending a lot of time with each other. and trust us - we do! We can't imagine what our worlds would be if we didn't have the daily love, support, and encouragement we provide for one another. We feel extremely blessed for this, and praise God for his faithfulness. His love and mercy for us.

We are a family that is driven and lives by four core values - family, education, God, and love, and these are promises that we are making to you. We promise to raise your son/daughter based on these four core values.

We believe in the importance of having a family. We promise your child will become part of our immediate family and will have all the support we provide for one another now. Additionally, we have strong support from our extended family. Your child will be filled with love from both sets of grandparents, as well as aunts and uncles, cousins, etc. He will be loved by his/her brother, our son, Luke, who is excited about being an older brother and can not wait until he meets his future brother/sister.

We are strong proponents of education. We believe education is one of those things that enriches a person's life and sets them up for success and become a leader of tomorrow. We promise to provide your son/daughter with the tools to be successful in life, including a college education, if he/she chooses. We believe every child is different with their own set of talents and dreams. We are committed to providing extra-curricular activities such as soccer, karate, piano, swimming, baseball and football. We have provided these opportunities for our son and will do the same for our future child.

We believe in God and try to apply it to home on a daily basis by showing his love, mercy, and patience with us. We promise to raise your son/daughter as a child of God. We believe that God teaches us to love one another and provide us with a strong sense of moral and virtue. Ultimately, your child will have the opportunity and autonomy to pursue God. We will not push our religious beliefs on your son/daughter, as we have our own journey to explore, but we will like to be a channel to connect with him/her with God.

We believe in love. We believe in expressing and communicating our love for one another. We promise that we will spoil your child with so much love which is critical as they grow up. We promise to say "I love you" at least 100 times a day. We promise to cuddle, hug, and kiss your child on a daily basis and remind them how special they are. We promise that grandparents, uncles, and aunts will also say "I love you" to them as much as possible. We promise that we will do everything in our power to ensure your child never feels they are not loved. We promise to tell your child that we love you, because with you...we wouldn't be able to have her/him.

We are open to periodically sharing emails and photos of your son/daughter. We also plan to visit at least once in the first five years of your child's life. We understand the importance of your child to have an open relationship with you.

Thank you for the opportunity to write to you today. We wish you all the best as you travel this journey and praise you for choosing life.

All the best,

George & Johanna