We both have several areas of interest/hobbies and love to try new things together. We especially love spending time outside together, whether we're working in the garden, walking our dog, or camping. We also enjoy trying new locally-owned restaurants and festivals, especially those that support our values of celebrating diversity and loving all people.

This year we have been attending more concerts as a couple. Music is something that we both are very passionate about, and we love live performances. Luckily, Memphis hosts several concerts and local bands throughout the year, but we have also traveled to Nashville and Little Rock to see shows together. Our most recent concert experience was seeing Taylor Swift on her Eras tour, and we had the best time!

Elizabeth likes to spend her downtime reading books and doing things around the house. She finds cleaning and yard work to be very relaxing. When Maggie has free time, she enjoys reading books, working on embroidery projects, or playing video games. We hope to enjoy all of these activities as a family and can't wait to see what interests our child will latch onto as they grow.

We believe that our adoption journey is a crucial part of our child's story. We want them to know that this process was an act of love on our part and on the part of their birth family. We plan to always discuss with our child how much they are loved from all sides of this process, by ourselves and our families as well as by their birth family.

We know that it is important to be open and honest with our child about the fact that they are adopted, especially since there is a chance that our child will be of a different race than we are. We want to always keep the conversation going so that our child has the tools to tell their story and to answer any questions they may encounter from other people.

One of the most important aspects of this dialogue will be that our child's birth mother loves them so much and that she chose adoption to give them more opportunities in life. The child will know that it was a difficult decision but that it was made out of love. We hope that you will be able to engage in these discussions with us and with the child, but no matter what, our child will know about you and your love.

As teachers, education is very important to both of us. We want our child not only to be book smart, but well-rounded as well. Elizabeth played sports and was involved with multiple clubs and extracurriculars in her middle and high school years, and Maggie was a competitive singer and dancer for several years. We plan to encourage a love of learning in our child through reading books together, visiting local museums and exhibits as a family, and traveling to learn about different places. We will encourage our child to grow personally and creatively as much as possible and will encourage them to be lifelong learners.

We want our child to know that they can follow whatever path they choose in life, and we will work to give them the skills they need to do that. We plan to guide our children the best way we know how (with advice and help along the way) so that they will have the confidence to navigate life in their own unique way. We also want to teach them that you can learn a lot from the people around you and their experiences. Learning is one of the greatest things we can do in life, and we want our child to learn as much as possible to be the best version of themselves.

Family is incredibly important to both of us, and we are so excited to welcome a child into our family!

We love spending time with our families, whether we are sharing a meal, attending a recital or game, or just relaxing at home.

Maggie is super close with both her parents, who live less than two miles from our house, and her sister. The whole family shows their love through acts of service and quality time. It's not uncommon for Maggie's dad to stop by after work to help with a project at the house, and her mom loves trying new restaurants with us. Her sister lives farther away but still makes a point to visit with family regularly.

Elizabeth is also extremely close with her family that live about 25 minutes away. Her father passed away a few years ago, so it is just her mother, sister, nephew, and niece. We regularly have lunch with them every weekend and Beth spends most of her spare time with her sister and niblings (niece and nephew, as she calls them). Beth considers her sister her best friend and are constantly in each other's company. She attends every event for her niblings from orchestra recitals, dance recitals, and going to the local high school athletic activities.

We live in a 3-bedroom house in Memphis, Tennessee, that we bought in August of 2017. Since moving in, we've made several updates and continue to work on turning this house into our dream home. We plan to live here for several years to come. Our house has a large front yard and fenced-in backyard with a vegetable/flower garden and plenty of room for a swing set for a child.

Our neighborhood is fantastic. Within walking distance are two excellent schools, a fire station, a park, a community center, and a community pool. Our neighbors are very diverse--we live near several young families, college students, older couples, and people of a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. We are zoned for the local performing arts middle and high schools and would be so excited to support our child in those activities. There are always people walking their dogs, riding bikes, or roller skating in our neighborhood, so our child would always be surrounded by people. There are several families with young children in the area as well, so arranging playdates would be no problem. We would love for them to have friends over to our house or friends they could walk to school or the park with every day.

Thank you so much for taking the time to view our profile. We cannot imagine how you are feeling right now, but we want you to know that we care for you and will do whatever we can to support you through this process.

We met through mutual friends and eventually formed a loving and committed relationship. We have been together for 7 years, married for 4. In that time, we have bought a home together, adopted 3 cats, finished college degrees, started new careers, and have been there for each other through many other highs and lows. We have always had children in our lives and cannot wait to start the adventure of raising our own child!

We have both always been around children and enjoyed teaching them and learning from them. Maggie grew up with a younger sister, frequently babysat as a teenager, and often helped in Mother's Day Out programs. Elizabeth has had the privilege to help her older sister with her two children, who are now 15 and 7 years old. As teachers, we have loved watching our students grow and progress both academically and in their personalities. Maggie currently works with 6th grade ESL students, and Elizabeth teaches 10th grade biology. Once we have a family, we plan to have them spend time with their grandmothers during the week while we are at work. Our parents are all very excited to have a new grandchild.

When we first started seriously discussing starting a family, we knew that adoption was the route we wanted to go. We knew that there were already so many children who needed a supportive and loving home, and we wanted to be able to provide that for them. We did a lot of research to find out the best way to go about this for all of the involved parties and have been working with American Adoptions from the beginning.

We hope that you will feel comfortable being involved in this child's life as much as you want to be. We would love for them to be able to know you as their birth mom and the person who helped us become a family. We will always be open to sending letters, pictures, text messages or phone calls, visits, and whatever else you may prefer to keep in touch with this child. We want you to know that through this process, you are also becoming part of our family. If there is ever a way we can encourage or support you, we want you to be comfortable enough to reach out to us for that. Regardless of what forms of contact you choose; we will always honor your choice. This child will always know how much you love them and will only hear us talk about you in a positive and respectful way.

No matter where you are in your journey, we hope that whatever choice you make brings you peace and allows you to be the best version of yourself.

Thank you for giving us the chance to build our family.

Elizabeth & Maggie