Although we both continue to have our independent interests, becoming parents has completely changed our lives and most of our activities now revolve around being parents. At times, life can get challenging, but we have loved watching our daughter grow and helping to guide her. We have enjoyed watching her personality unfold and develop into a unique individual. We have loved helping her tackle and overcome obstacles. Through the process, we have learned more about ourselves as individuals and a couple—and our love and respect for each other has only grown. We can't wait to have a chance to get to know a new member of the family and give him or her love and support to grow as an individual. We're very excited at the opportunity to enrich and nurture another young life and to help them become the unique individual that they are meant to become.

We tend to have quite a few hobbies and traditions that change with the season and we especially love sharing in these activities with family and friends. In the spring, we plant a garden and we go to a local farm to buy plants for the garden. We buy lots of tomato, cucumber, and bean plants so we have lots of yummy vegetables through the summer—and potentially extra for canning. Often we eat them while picking the veggies—so we need lots of plants to have enough for a big harvest.

Our summers are mainly spent outside, whether attending different art festivals across the keystone state, taking bike rides on the many beautiful trails in Pennsylvania, tending to our garden, or enjoying cookouts with family. Caroline's mother raises monarch caterpillars and releases them starting in late July and running through early fall. It is a delight to see them grow into chubby caterpillars from eggs the size of a pinpoint. It's even more fun to help release them and watch them fly off to start their migration.

The winter is often filled with family and snow activities. We spend lots of time with our families throughout the year, but the holidays are a special time with gatherings, baking cookies, and sharing lots of treats. We also travel into the great outdoors during the winter for snow hikes, sledding, and cross-country skiing.

We recognize that our experience doesn't reflect that of other cultures across this country and that it is important to make sure that a child with a different cultural background needs to have grounding in that history; this will require intention and some additional help. We recognize that part of adopting a child of another background can be helping them cope with and respond to racism. We understand that we may have to educate ourselves before we can help a child navigate the complicated racial landscape of our country.

We would always try to surround our adopted child with positive images and stories of people from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, including their own. It would also be important to find opportunities to bring up topics of race and culture in everyday life. Encouraging honest conversations will help create an environment where they feels safe to explore their heritage.

We expect an adoptive child will turn to us for guidance in many areas. But there may be questions related to their race and culture that we will not be able to answer and problems we may not be able to fully understand. In order to provide the guidance needed we would look to provide an appropriate mentor who shares their culture and will give them valuable role models and allies. We are always open to learn and will continually try to educate ourselves to help our child better understand his or her history and culture.

We live in a charming Cape Cod house built in 1950. We appreciate older houses with a blend of modern touches and we are often working on a number of small home improvements. We try to make sure things are always cozy in our house; there are plenty of comfortable spots to curl up with a book or just nap. We have loved our fully fenced-in front yard where we can watch the pups and Charlie chase each other around the yard. We're excited to finish creating a picnic area so we could have a cup of coffee in the morning outside or have leisurely weekend dinners outside on a nice evening. We live in a vibrant and very family-friendly Pennsylvania town. Our house is around the corner from a playground. We are also in walking distance from shops, restaurants, the local library, and local parks. We really love walking with our daughter to explore all the things around us.

There are a lot of fun and interesting events held by our community. From New Years' celebrations to festivals in the summer and many others. Most weekends the community is putting on something interesting and educational. We love the opportunities provided for our family and can't wait to share them with another little one.

We are both very close to our families. We chose our current location in order to keep a relatively close proximity to both sets of parents and extended family. We frequently get together for cookouts, golf outings, attending craft fairs, or just to hang out for a low-key visit. In addition to our human family, we have very important dog and cat members of our family. We both grew up with a variety of pets, and the lessons learned from having animals around are important to us. We have two younger pups and one older girl. We tend to take the pups on outings and vacation when we can and when the travel would not be too stressful for them. They—just as much the rest of us—enjoy lounging in the family room and watching a good animated movie together.

We have a six-year-old daughter named Charlie. She's a little dynamo that loves Disney movies, PBS' Wild Kratts, music, books, and constantly playing. For the last year or two, she has asked for a sibling and has said that she wanted to be a big sister one day. She routinely watches and enjoys a particular Daniel Tiger when his younger sister Margaret joins the family. We have no doubt that Charlie would love to have a little sister or brother and would love growing up together and having lots of adventures with another kiddo.

We sincerely thank you for giving us this opportunity to introduce ourselves and tell you about our family. We are grateful that you love your unborn child so much that you are willing to consider an adoption plan for him or her. We are already parents, so we know words cannot express the love between parents and their child.

Like so many couples in this day in age, our story began online. Caroline was working on a detail in a new city after getting out of a long-term relationship and was not sure how to start dating again or meet new people in a new city. We noticed that we both loved dogs, enjoyed cycling, and had a serious appreciation for all things food, so we agreed to meet. We met at a coffee shop and wandered around a local market on our first date. We both knew that we found someone special and focused on trying to get both of our lives in the same city. We continued to date each other long distance, eventually relocated to the same city in 2013, and eloped in January of 2015.

After we said our "I dos" in a town in which we had never been before, we had a blast going bowling even though neither of us are very good. Since that day, we have continued to have silly adventures and enjoy life as it unfolds. In late 2016 we welcomed a daughter into our family and have been trying to grow our family since. On one of our dates in the first few months of knowing each other, we discussed how we both wanted to adopt one day; we are hoping it is time now and would love to add another little adventurer to our home.

At home, we're constantly learning new recipes, skills to do home improvement projects, or ways to attract more pollinators to our garden. We enjoy almost anything active whether hiking, cycling or simply going for a walk with the pups. One of our favorite typical activities is to go with the family for a walk around the neighborhood and see how there's always something new to discover whether its flowers blooming, interesting insects, or something even smaller that requires a closer look.

The last five years have been busy between working and starting a family, but we have enjoyed every minute of it. We've have had the opportunity to do things we've never done before like toddler music classes, baby swim classes, and building so many imaginative things out of a cardboard box. We would love to do all of these activities again with another child and have another opportunity to see the world through their eyes. We can't wait for new experiences as we grow our family.

We are far from perfect, but we try our darndest to do what's right and continually try to be better people. We also try to be active in and supportive of our community. We would do our best to pass on this outlook to the children in our family. We would love to welcome another child into our family. If we are chosen as adoptive parents, we would give everything we have to offer to a child - a loving family, a caring and playful older sibling, unconditional acceptance and support, a healthy lifestyle, a great education, extended family and friends, and more. We are interested in an open adoption including letter, pictures, emails or phone calls, but would respect your preference in level of openness; regardless, we would always remind the child of the selflessness of their mother.

We are incredibly excited to grow our family and have so much room in our hearts to love another child. All children are gifts and you would be giving us the greatest gift imaginable by adding to our family. We wish you all the love and luck as you decide what is right for you and your baby.

With Love,

Chris & Caroline