We are a very unique couple! We have lots of pets, live in an old, interesting house, maintain diverse hobbies from music and dance to rock climbing and construction projects, and are always finding new interests. Gus grew up reading math and science books and taught himself to program computers in middle school. Lynne owns a set of Indonesian instruments, once taught herself to play the banjo a little (though this skill is now very rusty), and reads a lot of sci-fi novels. We also enjoy working on very large jigsaw puzzles: usually over 2000 pieces, and we try not to look at the picture on the box! We both love classic and modern sci-fi TV; before we started dating, we had some lengthy discussions about the pros and cons of various Star Trek series. We have fun, wide-ranging, and sometimes silly conversations!

We have a lot of hobbies and are an active couple. We exercise together, mostly by rock climbing in the gym and sometimes while traveling. We also both love to dance (in fact, we met at an Argentine tango dance workshop), and we love cooking and make meals together most nights, whether we are making old favorites or trying out a new recipe. Gus enjoys making fancy desserts, and Lynne has learned how to make sourdough bread and usually makes a fresh loaf every Saturday!

Lynne has played the cello since childhood and recently started playing it again, and has also spent time learning to play instrumental music from Indonesia. She also knows how to knit, crochet, and do many other crafts – even a little jewelry-making. Gus is handy, too, and has a wood shop in the garage where he has made everything from shelves and spice racks to our kitchen counters. He has also recently taken up welding, and learned how to make some new shelf brackets for the kitchen. Gus also has a growing interest in photography and film and is using these skills to produce a documentary for his work.

We also love growing things, from houseplants to gardening in our backyard. We established new garden beds in our yard and now grow vegetables and fruit every year. Lynne did a little of her own handiwork and built a small hobby greenhouse, where she grows garden plants year round.

Lynne's brother was adopted internationally when she was a teen. He grew up knowing his birth siblings, and that contact has helped all of them to build and maintain connections to their background and roots. He has been a loved and cherished member of his adoptive family in every way, but staying in contact with his bio family was also important for developing those parts of his identity. We have thus seen firsthand how important it is for a child to develop a healthy and complete sense of identity from a young age, and that includes learning about and embracing all aspects of their roots.

If we adopt a child from an ethnic or racial background other than our own, we want to encourage them to learn about that background. Children benefit from learning about diverse people and cultures. We would want to give them every opportunity for their heritage to become part of their identity. We would learn as much as we could about their background so that we could help them learn, and from the moment they joined us, we would tell them about their birth family with love and respect. We would also develop new family relationships and introduce our child to a network of people who look like them and have personal, firsthand knowledge of their cultural heritage, helping them to find important role models.

We live in a beautiful, friendly, child-filled neighborhood in Nebraska. We moved to our neighborhood because it is so welcoming, with kids playing together and an elementary school just one block away. The neighborhood is full of trees, gardens, and green spaces. There is a library in walking distance, and a quirky neighborhood grocery store (with an ice cream counter!). The city bike paths are accessible just around the block and are popular with families walking or biking to city gardens, parks, and the local children's zoo. Families in our neighborhood come from all generations and have children of all ages, so there are always playmates nearby.

We also both love old houses. Our house is a hundred years old, with beautiful wood details throughout, 4 bedrooms, and a basement playroom and family room. We also added on a new addition with a spacious ceiling and skylights, and we have just renovated our kitchen with a rustic design – including some shelves and counters that Gus made himself. We have a garage with a workshop, a home exercise room with a small climbing wall, a cozy courtyard patio full of plants, and a small greenhouse in the garden. Two reasons we especially chose our house were its large back yard, which we've filled with garden beds and fruit trees, and the cheerful sunroom, which is home to our fish tanks and a big, walk-in bird cage full of parakeets. We think it would be a wonderful place for a child, running through the back yard, doing arts and crafts in the sunroom, and helping out in the garden and the greenhouse!

Lynne comes from a big, boisterous family, with three siblings, lots of aunts and uncles, and annual family gatherings for the holidays. The family loves traveling together and gathering for holiday meals. When apart, they keep in touch with video calls, group texts, and even online word games! The family is full of artists and musicians, and sometimes gatherings feature musical jam sessions or group crafts.

Gus's family is a bunch of nerds. His mother is a librarian, his father is a former telecommunications engineer, and his brother is an aerospace engineer (he designs rockets). Gus has family living all over the country, from California to Virginia, Florida to Michigan, Texas to New Hampshire.

Lynne's youngest brother was adopted. After experiencing how meaningful adoption can be, we are excited to grow our own family through adoption. Our extended families are also delighted and cannot wait to welcome another child. We have also seen firsthand how valuable and important it is for an adopted child to know their birth family.

It's exciting, and scary, to think that you might be about to make a decision that will change our lives forever. We want nothing more than the opportunity to be parents, and are grateful that you may be considering giving us the opportunity to be parents to your child. We know that this is also an exciting, scary, and very difficult decision for you. We hope that this letter will give you some comfort, and a better sense of who we are.

The two of us met in 2013, dancing Argentine Tango. It was supposed to be a "summer fling," since Gus had just gotten a new job and was moving halfway across the country only a few months later. We tried to break up at the end of the summer, but that didn't quite work out! A couple of years later, Lynne got a new job and followed Gus halfway across the country. We got married a few years after that.

We are both professors, and we both love teaching and working with students from all backgrounds. Gus is a law professor, and studies technology law. He has recently begun producing educational podcasts and videos about his work. Lynne is a geoscientist who teaches her students about rocks and minerals, and even takes them out into the field to study geology in nature. One of the great things about being professors is that we have very flexible work schedules, so we can be around for a child's daily life and spend a lot of time with them at home as they grow.

We love our life together, and want to start a family. We tried to have a child after getting married, but after several years learned that we couldn't. Those were hard years, but the decision to adopt wasn't. Lynne has an adopted brother, and Gus always knew that she would want to adopt a child. It was a surprise that we would adopt our first child, but it is a surprise that we are happy about.

We would very much like to grow our family and share our lives with a child. We are also both educators and highly value education and learning. We're always exploring and experimenting and trying out new things. We have built a home full of life, with music, pets, books, dance, the smell of baking bread, the sound of parakeets, projects in the garage, and frequent conversations with our neighbors, friends, and family. It is a wonderful home where we think a child can live and learn and grow!

We also love to travel and spend time outdoors, and can't wait to bring a child with us on our adventures. We don't even need to go far to find nature, with our yard full of garden beds and trees a child would love, including blackberries, raspberries, apple trees, and even watermelons and pumpkins. Our home is also full of pets, making it an active, fun, warm place for a child to grow. And our neighborhood is friendly, safe, and supportive, with neighborhood children making friends and playing together along the street, and parents who chat and watch their kids together.

We are grateful that you have taken this time to get to know a bit about us. We want you to know that we will always honor and respect you and your needs. It is important for adopted children to develop a strong sense of who they are, and knowing about their adopted roots is part of building a healthy identity. Your child will always know about you, and we will make sure that you have the opportunity to know about your child, through photos, letters, and emails. We are also open to the role you may wish to play in your child's life, and to arranging more contact, if you wish it.

Thank you for having taken the time to get to know a bit about us. We hope that this letter is the starting point for the family we are trying to build, and that you might be part of that.

Gus & Lynne