Juan is a loving soul, funny, clever and always optimistic. He loves to take care of others and to see the brighter side of life. He is calm during stressful situations and has a critical thinking mind to solve problems in a positive and creative manner. At home he is always cracking jokes and making our lives happier. He is fully bilingual and enjoys learning about different cultures, places and the fascinating mysteries of nature.

At a professional level, he is a kindergarten teacher and has a master's degree. He has been trained to meet the needs of young children, emotionally and academically. He is patient and cares profoundly for the wellbeing of his students. He knows how to set children up for success and nurture self-advocacy, curiosity for the world and passion for learning.

Jesús is intelligent, funny and loving. As a scientist he has been trained to see the overall perspective of situations and work in an organized and efficient manner. At home he likes to build and fix anything to make our life more comfortable and the house more beautiful. He loves to plant and harvest fruit, flowers and veggies from our garden.

He received his Ph.D. in marine biology and is a certificated teacher. His love and understanding of nature gifted him to teach children how to respect and protect our planet. He inspires students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers. He is bilingual and celebrates the diversity of culture, language and nature.

When dreaming of growing our family, one of the first thoughts that came to our mind was all the activities and ideas we want to share with a child! We both were very fortunate to grow-up in households that valued education and experiences that helped to form the people we are today.

We absolutely will go camping. Living in Washington state there are so many places we go camping. Almost all three day weekends we go camping near rivers, the beach or the forest. We walk trails and enjoy all the beauty and peace nature provides. The dogs enjoy traveling and explore new sites.

We both love gardening. During the spring and summer we spend a lot of time outside planting and taking care of our backyard. We would show a child how important plants and trees are in our world and how to take care of them. We are fortunate to have a beautiful backyard where a child can run around, play and enjoy the outdoors.

We go daily for walks around the neighborhood. There is a river and many parks nearby. Your child would walk with us and the dogs and learn how important physical activity is.

Reading is another way we spend time relaxing. We would expose your child to a wide variety of books. As teachers we know the importance of being read to and the positive impact it has on a child from a young age. We would have a routine of reading before bedtime.

Education is exceptionally important to us. Education opens the door to opportunities, growth and critical thinking to see the world through many different lenses.

Language would give our child a chance to navigate the various systems in the world. As we are both bilingual (English/Spanish), we know the advantages this carries in the world and how being bilingual strengthens your brain and provides more opportunities. Our child would grow up being fully bilingual.

We want to instill how school is valuable and fun. Visiting theaters, museums, zoos and aquariums were part of our childhood and we want to continue with these important and life-changing experiences with your child.

We live in a small town in the state of Washington. It is an all American town perfect to raise a child: tranquil, surrounded by nature, and safe for children to play outside. Even though our town is small, the community has a progressive mentality. The atmosphere is inclusive and laid back. The community loves nature, respects the environment and embraces diversity.

Our home sits on a big corner lot in a quiet, family oriented neighborhood. The backyard is fenced-in and allows for a lot of room to run, explore and play. There is a huge maple tree that is perfect to build a treehouse. We try to spend most of the time outside relaxing, planting and enjoying nature. Our backyard has lots of flowers, fruit trees and is visited by a variety of animals.

Our house has 3 bedrooms and our favorite room is the kitchen. We absolutely enjoy cooking and baking, trying different foods and flavors. We designed the kitchen to be a place to hang-out.

There are 5 parks less than a half mile away, including a waterpark. There is a beautiful river nearby that has a wooded trail to walk along with views of mountains. Families in our neighborhood jog, walk the dogs and enjoy the river; children ride their bikes, skate and play sports.

The community has many annual events such as the Harvest Festival, Berry Celebration and Celtic celebrations. All these events are family friendly and are within walking distance of our home.

We are fortunate to have loving and supporting parents and siblings on both sides. Our extended families are not near, but it would give us a pretext to travel more and have more adventures with your child. We communicate with them consistently through video and we visit each other every opportunity we have. Your child will grow with cousins and fun memories of travels, exposed to different cultures, languages and experiences.

Although we do not have extended family living nearby, we do have our family-friends that live near us. Our close immediate friends who we have created a lasting relationship and a lifelong connection with we consider family. They have children who are ready to babysit and play with the young one. The adults are anxious to be aunts and uncles and see our family grow and see our dream of being parents come true.

Our families and friends are thrilled with the possibility of growing our family. In their own words: "You are going to be such good dads! Your little one is going to have one of the best lives ever with all the experiences you have had." We all are eager to share the best of us with your child.

Hola,

This letter is intended for you to know, from our hearts, who we are through words. It is difficult to express our feelings as we write this letter. We are sure you have lots of feelings reading this too.

We do not pretend to know what you are going through at this time, but we want you to imagine our home and our lives through this letter and the information you have learned about us. You will be able to feel the love we have in our home, to know that we have been preparing to be parents for years, and to see that we have all that a child needs to be happy, loved and protected.

We know that you have a big heart. Your heart will allow your child to grow in our family who also has a huge heart to share. Our love will provide a home that is caring, safe and allows a child to grow to be strong, independent and kind-hearted.

We would love to have communication with you throughout the years, if this is your wish. We have envisioned being in contact through letters with pictures and/or visits. We can share with you milestones that happen throughout the years, like what their first spoken word was, first steps, first day of school, etc. Please know that we will support your decision regarding contact between us.

We have been in a committed and stable relationship for 20 years. However, we were not able to marry until 2013, when we finally had the same rights as other citizens. As a gay couple we have faced many adversities. We had to postpone our dream of being parents due to the inequities in our society. However, we stayed strong, determined and even more united as a family. We thank you for considering our family to finally grow as we have dreamed of.

We want you to know that we are caseros, which is a word in Spanish that describes people who love to stay at home and enjoy doing simple things like watching movies, walking with our doggies, cooking, baking and spending time in our backyard. Our backyard is large and enclosed, where a child and pets can play safely. There is a large maple tree that a treehouse can easily be built upon. We envision a child creating a place there where they do science experiments, read, relax and hang out with friends.

If we are not at home, we love to travel in our RV trailer to be close to nature and explore new places and cultures. We both grew up exposed to those fascinating experiences in the outdoors and we appreciate all the learning we acquired in nature. If you consider our family to raise your child, he/she will travel and be surrounded by mountains, rivers, oceans and trees. We hope your child will learn how to love and enjoy nature as much as we do.

We want to share with you that we are not alone. We are fortunate to have supportive families and friends around us. We all love, help and look out for each other. We strongly believe that simple things such as respect, inclusion and kindness make a difference in our world. If you choose us, your child will be part of a big-loving-loud family, where laughter, singing and jokes happen daily.

We want you to be certain that we would be able to raise a child with so much love. Your child would be surrounded by devoted and caring extended family who are ready and eager to welcome a new member. We have been preparing to be parents for years. We are ready to share the love, learning and endearing experiences we received in our own families. We also know that your child would make us better persons and will inspire us to continue growing to be the best version of ourselves.

Jesús & Juan