Adoption has touched our family in various ways. Paul has an extended family member who was adopted as a baby abroad and we have several close friends who have adopted children who were in the foster care system.

During the pandemic, we served as foster parents and had the privilege of fostering two babies (at separate times!). While we cared for each baby for close to a year each, we were actively involved in reunifying them with their immediate and extended families.

One of our foster placements was adopted by an extended family member and due to the relationship we had developed with their family and the bond we have with them, we were asked to be their godparents! It has been one of our greatest joys to watch the little one we loved and cared for as a baby, develop and bond with their family these past few years. To be able to be a part of their life as they continue to grow will always be an honor and a privilege for us.

In his downtime, Paul enjoys rock climbing, making coffee, photography, and watching TV and movies. In her downtime, Grace enjoys reading, running, and has recently been trying her hand at gardening but with little success (RIP basil plant #3).

We both enjoy spending time outdoors whether it's camping, playing pickleball, or going on hikes. We also like hosting friends for dinner and board games. Grace will slow cook some ribs or make a large batch of Japanese curry and Paul will make coffee for anyone who needs one. Having grown up in different places, we also enjoy traveling to new places together. We recently went to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon and look forward to our next international trip, hopefully to Iceland. On our trips, we like to explore local coffee shops, try new cuisines, check out museums, and walk every aisle of their local grocery store and/or Costco.

Locally, we're both active in our church and enjoy volunteering in our community whether it's serving meals at a food bank or helping with a school clean-up day. Service has been part of our lives even before we were dating and it's something we value. Grace's friends knew that her relationship with Paul was serious when he showed up to deliver meals with them at 7 a.m. on Christmas morning, part of a 15+ year annual tradition that she's kept with the same group of friends. We're looking forward to passing along these traditions and sharing adventures with our children.

We are both culturally Chinese but come from different countries. Paul was born in Taiwan and moved to Texas when he was three. He grew up outside of Dallas and lived in Texas through college. After college, Paul moved to Southern California for work and to be closer to his family as they had relocated.

Grace was born in Hong Kong and moved to Australia when she was three with her family. She spent most of her elementary years in Australia before moving to California and realizing that she had an Aussie accent. Grace went to college in California and moved around in her 20's, working in Chicago and getting her master's degree in Los Angeles before moving back to Northern California to be closer to her family. It was during that move back to Northern California that Grace met Paul who had recently moved there for work.

One thing that bonded us together when we met was that our childhoods were quite similar. Both of us were born abroad and moved with our families to the US when we were about the same age. We both experienced growing up in different countries and that influenced how we see the world. We both speak Chinese but different dialects (Mandarin and Cantonese); this has been helpful for ordering food and travel. Living in California, we appreciate being surrounded by a diversity of languages, food, and thought, and having friends from different places and backgrounds.

We live in a single-story ranch-style house in a suburb in Northern California. We have an open floor plan with our kitchen being the hub of our house. We recently remodeled our backyard and we like to have friends over in the summer to grill and roast marshmallows by our fire pit. Our local elementary school district has both Spanish and Chinese immersion language programs and we are surrounded by good restaurants that reflect our community - everything from tacos to sushi to Thai food and hot chicken.

We've been in our home for close to 10 years and have loved getting to know our multi-generational neighbors who look out for one another. We often take walks around our neighborhood, greeting our resident dog friends, their owners, and families out for a stroll. Down the street from our house is a leafy park with swings, slides, and picnic tables. In the summer, our city puts on movie nights in the park where families gather with their lawn chairs and popcorn. We also live about 45-minutes from San Francisco where we'll go on day dates for coffee or to explore a new restaurant. We feel grateful to live here near our family and friends and think of our home as a gathering place for our community.

We both come from close-knit families who live near us and around the world. Paul's family is mostly based in Southern California and Texas with some extended family in Taiwan. We have an annual post-Christmas/New Year's trip that we take with Paul's extended family including our elementary-aged niece and nephew. We try to do something different every year and so far have been on a cruise to Mexico, gone skiing and snowboarding near Mammoth Lake, and have played many hours of board games and Mario Kart.

Grace's large extended family is also spread out in California and abroad in Australia, Canada, England, and Hong Kong. We are fortunate to live a short drive from many uncles, aunts, and cousins. Grace's parents and brother also live nearby and we gather for a meal every other week. Grace has fond memories of summer road trips spent visiting National Parks with everyone crammed into minivans. We love seeing our family grow with cousins getting married and having kids. Everyone is welcome at our annual Christmas Eve potluck dinners where we'll eat too much, sing Christmas carols, and share stories from the year.

Our families have been supportive of us growing our family through adoption. They loved on the babies we cared for when we were foster parents and are excited to love on our future children like they have loved any new member of our extended family.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for considering us as potential parents. You have a big and brave decision ahead of you and we are honored to share a little of our story so you can get to know us:

We are Paul and Grace and we have been together for close to 11 years and married for 9 years. Paul surprised Grace with a proposal on the California coast and we got married surrounded by family and friends in a beautiful park with an abundance of pie and ice-cream for dessert.

Paul works for a biotech company that makes cancer fighting drugs and Grace works for a large tech company. We both enjoy flexible work schedules and are committed to being a family where we are present with our children. Paul is kind-hearted, reliable, and adventurous. Grace is thoughtful, loyal, and laid back. We both enjoy a good cup of coffee, spending time outdoors whether it's hiking or camping, and we love hosting friends and family in our home.

Our house is often filled with laughter, good food, a random assortment of music (depending on who has the controls or what we're feeling), and friends dropping by. We live in a multi-cultural, multi-generational neighborhood with good schools, a large park down the street, and we have a caring community around us. Because we both grew up in different countries and lived in various States around the US, we celebrate having friends and family from different backgrounds and experiences in our lives. We especially value hospitality and kindness and want to impart these values to our children.

We found out several years ago that we wouldn't be able to have children biologically and while it was difficult news to process, we felt at peace knowing that we still wanted to be parents and were open to exploring different paths. We had some friends in our community who were foster parents and we were inspired to foster ourselves.

We had the privilege and joy of fostering two children at different times during the pandemic and realized that we wanted to parent permanently. We also learned a lot about ourselves as parents, recognizing that our strengths complement each other and that we parent best when we are partners. Whether it's taking turns with the nightly feedings so the other can sleep or tackling different challenges based on our strengths - Grace handling most of the medical and County logistics while Paul planning out the days' adventures and making sure we all were fed. As both of our foster children reunified with their families, we are excited and hopeful about parenting again. We look forward to loving on our future children and being there for them as they grow up.

We promise to love them unconditionally and to care for them wholeheartedly. We'll share our love of traveling and adventures, some grand and some as simple as exploring a local farmers market. We'll also share our values of kindness for our neighbors, curiosity for the world, advocacy for those in need, and empathy for those who with different experiences. Our families and friends are looking forward to meeting them and introducing them to our various traditions including our annual Christmas tree-cutting excursion and Spring Break road trips.

Understanding that this is a difficult decision, we have a flexible adoption plan. We welcome any contact you would like to have with us and would be happy to share letters, photos, texts, updates, etc. We're similarly committed to you as we know you'll always be a part of your child's story. We hope we get a chance to meet you one day and share in our stories together. In the meantime, know that we are here to support you and will honor your decisions in any way we can.

Paul & Grace