One of Amanda's memorable moments in recent past was winning a case in front of the United States Supreme Court! As a lawyer, Amanda represented a female financial advisor who had been unfairly treated in the all-male advisory firm she worked for, and she was ultimately fired after reporting a compliance violation. The case was tossed out of a federal district court for reasons Amanda felt were not legally correct. Not one to be deterred, Amanda appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and, after losing there, she appealed the ruling again, taking it all the way to the United States Supreme Court ... where she and her client ultimately prevailed!

Amanda's decision to practice law came after watching her own mother's impressive career as a lawyer. After working many years at a large law firm, Amanda opened her own firm in 2017. "Being the boss affords me the flexibility I crave in my career - flexibility you just don't have when you work for someone else. I really think it will allow me time to invest in a child in those early years. I want to be there for all those moments and not miss anything. But I also recognize the value in demonstrating to a child how fulfilling a career is as well - I truly enjoy and am passionate about advocating for people. I feel like it's part of my life's purpose," said Amanda.

We love adventures! Although we sold our sailboat (which was the key to our adventures for the first two years of our marriage), this summer we explored three lakes of the south and have plans to hit two more lakes before fall arrives. Being at the lake reminds Amanda of the many summer days she spent as a kid with her father at their lake house, just outside of Dallas. For Rob, the lake reminds him of all the fun times he spent camping with his family. Boating and being outdoors and on the water is definitely a huge part of what brings us joy.

Amanda is an avid slalom skier (one ski), and Rob learned to wakeboard a few years back. Amanda can't wait to share this love of water skiing and wakeboarding with a child and we dream of creating our own family memories of fun-filled days on the lake.

In winter, we take our adventures to the mountains. Rob learned to snowboard the year we first started dating and has been improving his snowboarding skills every year since. He's gotten really good! Amanda has been snow skiing since she was 5 years old and even spent a ski season in Lake Tahoe, California as a ski instructor for young children. Adding a new little snow skier or boarder into the mix is going to be so much fun!

We believe that diversity is a gift and we want our children to experience and learn from it. We are fortunate to live in a city which blends the cultures and traditions of more than a dozen nations. On any given day you can experience elements of French, Spanish, African, Native American, Vietnamese, Irish, Sicilian, Creole, and Latino heritage. This diversity is not just present but actively celebrated for making our city truly unique. This means that anyone can make our home their home.

While living in a diverse city is an advantage, we know it's not enough to prepare us for raising children of any race. We have to do a lot more. So we've been doing research, reading, and talking with our friends about their experiences and how we can be better prepared for the unique challenges of raising children who might be a different race than us. This is going to be a lifelong journey for us and we know we must engage our friends and community to help us along the way.

We live in a beautiful part of New Orleans known as the Garden District. It has charm and character and beauty for days. If you like architecture, oak-lined streets, flower gardens, and history - this neighborhood is a dream. During the spring, you can smell the fragrant gardenias, jasmine and privets in bloom.

It also hosts the family friendly version of Mardi Gras, as all the parades flow down St. Charles Ave., only blocks from our house.

Our street is filled with families who have children. You can hear them playing baseball, soccer and other games after they get home from school and throughout the summer.

Our house was built in the late 1800s in the Italianate architecture style, it has 12-foot ceilings, and plaster moldings, but has been renovated with all the modern conveniences. It sits on what's called a key shaped lot which gives it a large backyard for the area. We love sitting on the back deck and enjoying the lush landscape and flower filled backyard. With two bedrooms and two bathrooms, it has plenty of space for a small family.

We are lucky to have Amanda's mom right around the corner from us here in New Orleans, but the rest of our extended family is scattered throughout the U.S. Rob's parents and Amanda's grandparents live outside of Houston, and Amanda's dad and stepmom live in Dallas (where she grew up).

Since Amanda is an only child, and Rob is the baby of six, Rob has a much larger extended family. His closest two sisters and their families all live in California (where Rob grew up). Last year, we hosted Rob's niece Allison as she attended a university close by. She also completed basic training this summer and is now a member of the Army National Guard!

Having family scattered makes for fun holiday travel plans. If you've ever seen the movie Four Christmases, our holidays look a lot like that. Rob's sister Jeannie and her family live in Pacific Grove, California - near Monterrey - which is a beautiful part of the country. We will be heading there this year to celebrate Christmas Eve with his family. Back to NOLA again for Christmas with Amanda's Mom.

Our family is always excited to welcome new members. Amanda's mother is particularly looking forward to loving on her first grand baby and this will be Rob's parents 31st grandchild! There will be no shortage of family to adore and love this child and lots of opportunity for this child to travel and see all different cities.

We recognize and admire the strength it takes to make a selfless decision like considering adoption. We honor you for your bravery, courage and convictions, qualities which are only forged in times that are the toughest in our lives. For that, we stand in awe of you as a person and fellow human being.

We hope our profile allows you to get a sense of who we are as people and the type of family we would be for your unborn child. Our core family values are honesty, curiosity, perseverance, integrity, courageousness, and individuality. The same types of qualities we believe must be in you as well.

We have chosen adoption after a two-year long IVF journey that led to the unexplainable miscarriage and loss of twins at 19 weeks in utero. We think adoption represents something truly beautiful on both sides of the equation, it's people in two very different types of life crisis that come together to do what is best for another soul. Although we don't have any personal experience with adoption, we are confident that the acts of love that come out of the adoption experience are transformative for all parties. We want to make sure this baby knows how much you love him or her and that your act was the ultimate sacrifice to ensure this baby has all the resources needed to be successful and happy.

We commit, as part of this open adoption, to send you letters and pictures of this child and to allow you to have peace of mind and connection with this child that meets your needs as a birth mom. We know this child will have an intense desire to know and understand you and we want to do everything we can to make sure that he or she has access to that information. We never want this child to remember the day they found out about being adopted. We want it to be part of their story from the beginning - so that they never feel like their story was a surprise or a secret.

We firmly believe that secrets make you sick and family secrets lead to dysfunctional families. Therefore, we want to make adoption the most natural thing to this child and their story. We want to recognize that it might still be hard and will require outside support and therapy. But who doesn't need therapy? We are strong believers in therapy and working through issues with professionals and each other. We are very comforted in knowing that American Adoptions is committed to ensuring you also have access to therapy as needed throughout your journey so that whenever you need to talk to someone you can. Both of our families will be well-served with this philosophy.

Our hope for all of us in this experience is that we each are able to say that we did the best we could to love this new soul. You are giving him or her the gift of life. We will nuture, love and educate them. We will stay open, kind and honest with you through your journey and we want a birth mom that can agree to be open, kind and honest with this child when it comes time for him or her to know about you and your history. We stand ready to support you and this baby. Thank you for considering us.

Rob & Amanda