In our free time, we love connecting with others and the outdoors. P.J. is the extrovert who often plans dinners, trips, and meet ups with our many close family and friends. We also enjoy frequent weekend trips to the beach or mountains or to visit nearby family and friends.

We love participating in group exercises classes through which we have cultivated a rich and diverse set of friends. On evenings and weekends, you'll often find us taking an exercise class, jogging around our neighborhood, or taking a walk with friends. Will loves to cook and grill and we regularly host friends for dinner.

Connecting with nature is also important to us and we love hiking in nearby Shenandoah National Park, biking along the James River, or enjoying local parks and greenspaces. We look forward to sharing these outdoor adventures with a child.

We are also both active in our communities with P.J. working for an environmental non-profit and volunteering for a local land trust and Will serving on the Board of the YMCA and supporting a regional affordable housing organization.

We are fortunate to have two very special vacation spots we look forward to sharing with a child.

P.J.'s parents retired to a lake and we spend lots of time there every summer making memories with our nephews. It's a perfect place to relax or embark an adventure. We have particularly enjoyed teaching our nephews how to water ski and taking them tubing or fishing. We also enjoy visiting the nearby amusement park or taking a hike in the mountains. We love it when our extended family comes to visit and we know P.J.'s parents can't wait to welcome another grandchild for summers at the lake.

Will's family is fortunate to have a place on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Particularly in the Fall and Winter, we enjoy escaping the cold and spending time with family and friends at the beach. We often plan our trips with Will's siblings and have started creating new traditions there with our young niece. We love shell hunting on the beach, biking across the island, or taking in a Gulf sunset and look forward to sharing those experiences with a child.

If we are fortunate enough to adopt a child with a cultural heritage different than our own, we understand the challenges and importance of continuously acknowledging and celebrating the cultural diversity of our child. Ensuring that our child has ties to their cultural heritage throughout their life is important to us and we will make every effort to make sure that our child knows about and experiences their cultural heritage, spends time with and makes connections with people who look like them, and has role models that share the same cultural heritage. Diversity is important to us and it's one reason we chose to live in our majority-minority city where we regularly interact with people from all different backgrounds. We have taken steps to address any implicit biases we carry from our own upbringing and we know that raising a child with a different cultural heritage than our own is a huge responsibility and challenge and we are willing to put in the work.

We love our home and the life we've created in Virginia. We own a 3 bedroom, 3 bath rowhouse built in 1901 in the middle of a walkable, historic neighborhood. The kitchen is the heart of our home where we host friends and cook together. We have a cozy family room for indoor play and a fenced-in backyard. Upstairs there's a bedroom and playroom room for our future child.

We love our street and couldn't imagine living anywhere else. It's a great mix of young families with children and empty nesters who all look out for each other. We're right across the street from our neighborhood park, and when the weather is nice, our neighbors' children play soccer and tag there. Our neighbors are excited about our desire to adopt and their kids can't wait to have another friend on the block.

We are fortunate to have a great neighborhood elementary school just three blocks away and love walking to nearby restaurants, shops, museums, parks, and playgrounds. We rarely drive on the weekends because our friend-group and grocery store are within walking distance of our house. We love going downtown for concerts and shows or spending time at our city's riverfront park.

We are fortunate to have loving and supportive families and large extended families with whom we enjoy spending time. Will is a triplet and is very close to his siblings and is constantly communicating with them and planning our next get together. P.J.'s siblings also live in Virginia and we're lucky to have four young nephews nearby whom we love taking on adventures or cheering on in their sports games.

We are blessed that all of our parents are healthy and retired and are truly embracing their roles as grandparents. They have supported us in every way through this process so far and we have no doubt that they will enthusiastically welcome another grandchild into the family.

We also love traveling with our families and look forward to spending time together at the lake in the summer, going on camping trips, or getting together for birthdays and holidays. We love spending the Fourth of July with Will's family in the North Carolina mountains where we go hiking, golfing, and fishing. P.J.'s extended family gets together each year for a beach vacation and we love the chaos of having so many family members together.

We are grateful as a couple that our families have been so enthusiastic about our plans to adopt. We love that our young niece and nephews will get to form the kind of close cousin bonds we enjoy with our own cousins.

We are honored that you would consider us for the adoption of your child and that you have taken the time to get to know just a little bit about us. We know this may be a challenging time in your life and we thank you for your bravery and courage in considering adoption. Please know that in considering such a selfless act, you would be fulfilling our dream and providing a nurturing, safe, fun, and adventuresome home for your child. We promise to embrace your child for the person he or she is meant to be and to provide lifelong support and encouragement so your child can thrive!

We are happily married and have been together for eight years and we are proud of the life we have built together. Growing up, neither of us ever envisioned that we would one day be able to get married, much less be able to start a family. We are grateful that adoption could give us that opportunity and we do not take that for granted. We have worked hard to develop our own loving and supportive relationship, to establish stable careers, and to create a warm and welcoming home. We feel more ready than ever for the journey of parenthood, but we acknowledge that no one can ever be fully prepared!

We are fortunate to have supportive families and a great network of friends who share in our excitement about adoption. We know that a child will be warmly welcomed into our families and that they will create important bonds with their grandparents and cousins. We have many friends with young families of their own who are excited for the bonds of friendship their children will make with your child. We both cherish many memories from our own childhoods and we look forward to creating opportunities for a child to create his or her own memories. We can't wait to share our favorite places and things with a child and we are also prepared for the inevitable trials and challenges of parenthood. We promise to provide your child with a strong foundation and support system as well as the flexibility and openness to chart his or her own course in life. We look forward to supporting a child's interests and passions and providing opportunities for their personal growth. Education is very important to us and we promise to provide your child with every educational opportunity.

We consider adoption to be a lifelong journey and we welcome the opportunity to share in that journey with you. Although we will always honor your wishes, please know that you will be a welcome and important part of our life and your child's life. We will happily share letters and pictures with you and we would welcome the opportunity for more contact, including visits. We will always ensure that adoption is a positive part of your child's story.

Thank you for your courage in exploring adoption and we are hopeful that we can be a part of your birth plan. Wishing you peace and love.

Warmly,

Will & P.J.