Christina – My experience with adoption started with my mom who was adopted as a newborn. She was able to have a relationship with her biological father until he passed away. My grandparents were always open and honest about her adoption with her and us. They truly had unconditional love for her and us as their grandchildren despite not being blood-related. Observing this my whole life has led me to strive for this relationship with my children and their birth families. Our son, Conor, was my second experience with adoption. He is the light of my life, and it brings me great joy to be his Mama. Prior to matching with Conor's birth parents, there were concerns and anxieties around the process. But holding Conor in my arms the first time completely melted all my worries away. He was perfect in every way, and I just wanted to be the best mother I could be for him. It really was love at first sight. I can't imagine our lives without Conor in it.

Ryne – I had no firsthand experience with adoption until we became parents. The process was a little overwhelming and scary to me at first, but turned out to be an incredible and positive experience. I am very excited to start the process again.

We have a lot of fun on our time away from work, often finding new ways to make memories. Our favorite hobby is traveling and experiencing new cultures. We love doing typical tourist things on vacation; like climbing to the top of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, seeing Giant's Causeway in Ireland, or visiting National Parks. But we also love to find local, off-the-beaten-path restaurants for our meals. We've gotten really good at finding local gems! We have enjoyed sharing our love of traveling with Conor. Conor enjoyed exploring the coasts of Ireland, but his favorite travel event has been to "push the button on the elevator" as he would say.

When we aren't traveling, we enjoy being outside: playing sports in the backyard with Conor, trips to the park, or walks in the neighborhood. When the weather is lousy, we are likely cheering on our favorite sports teams-- especially our Purdue Boilermakers. Some of Conor's recent favorite indoor games have been "climbing Mama or Dada Mountain" or hunting for monsters in the basement.

We both also have our individual hobbies. Ryne loves to play golf when he has the time. Christina has developed a strong passion for sewing and really enjoys learning new techniques to create quilts for family and friends. We hope to share our hobbies with our children, while encouraging them to pursue new ones. We have a long bucket list of travel and sporting events we hope to experience in the future with our family.

Christina About Ryne: Ryne and I have grown up together; he is my best friend. What I love most is his fun, caring personality and his strong, selfless work ethic. Ryne has always known how to make me laugh. Even on bad days, I always end up laughing if Ryne is around. As long as I've known Ryne, he's worked hard in school, in sports, and at his job. Now watching him become a parent has been the same. He is a great father who also has a tough job. He's balanced both roles beautifully and is able to find fun, meaningful ways to connect with Conor. Over the last 18 years we've been together, Ryne has made me a better person. I cannot imagine my life without him or a better partner to parent with.

Ryne About Christina: Christina and I have been together since high school, which to this point has been roughly half of each of our lifespans. We have shared so many memories, decisions, and transitions together. We are almost always on the same wavelength, which I attribute mostly to Christina's easy-going personality and our many shared experiences. She has a radiant smile and a witty sense of humor. Without question, Christina is the most selfless person I know. She is always working on something, often to the point where I wish she would take more time to relax. My career and training have been at times unfair to her, yet she takes everything in stride and remains more supportive than I could ever possibly deserve. I cannot imagine someone more ready to be a parent.

We have recently moved back to Kentucky. Ryne got a new job opportunity that we couldn't pass up. While moving can be challenging, we have all transitioned well and love the life we're building here. Our new home is in a big neighborhood with many kids, a community pool, and a playground. We have a big backyard where Conor and the neighbor kids love to run and play. We are looking forward to making more memories in the backyard, having movie nights in the basement, reading stories together in the sunroom, or having bonfires with family and friends.

Louisville is such a fun city with many events for families/kids. We are members at the local zoo and love going to spend summer mornings with the animals. Conor currently loves the snakes and spiders the best. Downtown there is a big park that is so fun to visit. The park also hosts events like the International Food Festival, where we enjoyed good food and listened to live music. We are also so happy to be able to attend our Louisville church again. Conor has enjoyed attending Sunday School, and they just started a children's choir.

We are also closer to a lot of family and friends. We are within 4 hours of our hometown and 2-3 hours from many friends outside of Louisville. It's been so fun to take day trips to Indy to have play dates with old college roommates.

We are very close with each of our extended families, despite the miles between many of us. Currently we have immediate family members in Indiana, Colorado, Virginia, and New York. Both sets of our parents, as well as, most members of our extended families still reside in our hometown in northern Indiana. All four of our parents are very loving, caring, and supportive. Our parents were so excited during our first adoption, and they have become the best grandparents. It's amazing watching them each interact with our son.

We have a lot of siblings (three on Ryne's side, one on Christina's) and even more cousins. Both of us really enjoy visiting with them as much as possible. Despite the geographical distance between us and our siblings, we see them multiple times a year. We all enjoy traveling so it's not uncommon for us to have a full house of visitors or to travel to any of their homes. We have 1 niece and 2 nephews and love seeing them and watching Conor play with his cousins. We've also utilized Facetime and we try to read stories each week with Conor and his cousins.

We are Ryne, Christina and Conor and we appreciate you reviewing our profile. In this letter, we can tell you more about ourselves, and provide some information regarding our motivations and plans for adoption.

We have been together for 18 years, and married for eleven. While we officially started dating in high school, we had known each other for years prior having grown up in the same small town. We've grown up together, attended the same college, and moved across the country and back, twice. We've had a lot of fun making great memories over that time.

Our son's name is Conor. He was adopted 3 years ago as a newborn. He is a fun, loving, and outgoing little boy. He keeps us busy. Some of his current favorite things include all sports, Mickey Mouse, or "playing" music. Like many toddlers, he eats his weight in macaroni and cheese or crackers with cheese or peanut butter. It's so fun watching him grow and learn. Our typical routine includes outings to the park, the zoo, or a baby gym called My Gym, but he also attends "school" a couple times a week at a daycare downtown when Christina has to work. He loves his teacher and friends, and we've seen him grow and learn essential life skills since starting school.

We chose adoption for multiple reasons. Prior to getting married, we had always talked about having kids, both biologic and adoptive. Christina's mother was adopted, and seeing the relationship between her and her adoptive parents motivated us to want to pursue adoption. We wanted to be parents long before starting the adoption process the last time, but we struggled with infertility for a few years. Honestly, it was very tough for both of us, but there have been positives as well. It's brought us closer together as a couple and reinforced our faith. Rather than pursue more advanced treatments for infertility, we decided to start a family through adoption 3 years ago. Now we're ready to expand our family, and for the same reason as last time, we've chosen to pursue adoption again. We are beyond excited to move forward with this process again, and Conor is ready to be a big brother. When we ask him if he wants a baby brother or sister he says, "all dem."

We have recently moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Here we can easily visualize sharing our lives with Conor and our future children doing some of our favorite activities: attending local events, reading, golfing, family movie nights, etc. Our absolute favorite hobby is traveling. There are many vacations on our bucket list that we hope to share with our children; for example, road trips to different American national parks, animal safari in Africa, and trying new foods throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. We also love to learn about the local culture and past civilizations, hoping to provide our kids with different perspectives. Ryne's grandparents immigrated to the United States from Ireland, and visiting there was Conor's first international trip.

As adoptive parents, we are looking forward to maintaining a relationship with you, the birth parent. Our hope is that our child will be able to know and have a relationship with you, so he or she can know who you are and the sacrifice you chose to make. We plan to share photos, letters, etc. in any form with you. We would love to meet you regularly at intervals that work best for all involved. From a very young age, we want to be open and honest with our child, and we want you to be part of his or her life. We have enjoyed getting to know Conor's birth mother, as well as extended family members who also share photos of Conor's biological family. These emails and photos are something we show/read to him and cherish.

Again, thank you for taking the time to read and consider our profile. This must be a difficult decision for you. Please know that we would be eager to not only love your child as our own, but also to include you in an open and transparent adoption setting.

Sincerely,

Ryne & Christina