Kirby is a teacher who has a goal one day to be a principal, so naturally education is very important to us. The elementary school environment has always provided a space for Kirby to grow her craft and learn about child development. We hope to not only foster a love for learning in the more traditional sense, but also a love for learning outside of the classroom. As a couple, we love taking community classes together, participating in book clubs, and learning from our friends. We do believe there is power in finding others with similar goals and interests so you can encourage and be encouraged by those around you.

We feel that learning and growing should be inspiring and fun, rather than filled with pressure. We know that because both of our parents encouraged our curiosity, but put more focus on effort rather than performance, we were able to choose and follow our own passions. We definitely made mistakes and didn't always know what direction to go but we could lean on our values and those around us. We want to inspire our kid in a similar way to figure out how they are and how they want to show up in the world.

Kevin About Kirby: When I first met Kirby, I was blown away by her ability to communicate - her ability to articulate her feelings, demonstrate her knowledge on a variety of topics or engage with someone she just met. I also admire her drive to stay active (biking, running, hiking etc.) and her drive to continuously become better individually and as a partner. I continue to be attracted to Kirby's desire to show up for others and using her creatively to do this in unique ways. Whether that be planning arts and crafts days with our nieces/nephews or creating an escape room for a friend's birthday. Kirby has the ability to make others feel so valued and loved. I have no doubts that she will be an amazing mother.

Kirby About Kevin: Kevin is an excellent human being and partner. What drew me to him initially was how he made everyone feel welcomed (and his slight dorkiness). I always felt I could be my authentic self - trying to sing in the car, slightly anxious about airplanes, huge supporter of women's sports. He continues to demonstrate how solid he is - always being flexible if we need to change plans, always willing to try new things (like taking a stained glass art class with me), and constantly showing up to support friends. He is a role model to me and will be a father so willing to support a little one.

What we find most thrilling about being a parent is the opportunity to bring more joy, love, and purpose to our home. We are excited to witness and share in the development of a child - guiding them through milestones, celebrating achievements, and offering comfort during challenges. We have dreamed about the potential to develop family values, nurture a sense of curiosity, and watch them grow. We are truly excited about creating new traditions and engaging in shared experiences as a family. It will be pivotal that we nurture our future child's individual and unique passions and identities and we take this responsibility very seriously.

We feel fortunate that we grew up in families where we were supported to question, make mistakes, and have fun. We also learned how to be creative, hardworking, and compassionate. It excites us to think about how we can learn from our parents, but also build on our strengths.

We both believe that community allows us space to grow individually and make connections with others to expand our thinking. We have been lucky to find that in Colorado.

We both moved from different states (Michigan and Virginia) to Colorado because of our love for the outdoors. We both love the work we do, but do not want to be defined by that. We found a community in Colorado in which we are able to spend time hiking, snowboarding, and running, but also continuously able to learn new sports like skiing, mountain biking and climbing. We can't wait to share our love of the outdoors with a child!

We also found a community that is incredibly supportive of diverse families and people, and has resources and programming to support and learn. Our friends lead book clubs, join community events, and take new classes with us.

We are aware that the city we live in is not the most diverse city in our country, but we are fortunate to have friends that push us to recognize our spot in our society and understand the perspective of others - that way we can be part of conversations and action that dismantle broken systems. Kirby is a teacher in the largest urban school district in the state, and it is important to us that our child will attend a school that supports the whole child and reflects their identity.

While we love relaxing at home, we also envision taking our child to local rec centers and parks we go to swim, play basketball, and soccer.

We have family that is related by blood and others that are not - we believe that family is those that you choose to support, encourage, lean on, and grow with. Welcoming a child into our home will enrich our daily lives and deepen our connection as a family.

Our family is unique because we are very close to our immediate and extended family and continue to find ways to gather together. Our cousins are our friends and confidants. As partners, we are continuously curious about each other and how we can support each other, and we will bring this curiosity to our child - we will strive to learn about their interests, strengths, passions and help them explore the world around them.

We are fortunate that Kirby's sister and brother live nearby. Kirby's sister and her partner have a daughter and are welcoming a second baby in August. We are thrilled our little one will grow up around their cousins.

We love hosting friends and family. We enjoy gathering to watch sports, celebrate birthdays or other milestones. We play many sports with our friends including playing on soccer teams.

We recognize that we both come to adoption from different perspectives. We hold sacred that you come to adoption for personal and private reasons as you think about your child's future. Please know that we come to adoption wanting to create a relationship and parent with as much love, curiosity, and gentleness we can provide. We want to expand our family by welcoming your child, but also you into our lives.

We met at a wedding in 2019. At that time, we had both grown professionally in our careers and personally within our communities and both more solidly knew who we were. At that time we were ready to pursue a committed relationship. From our early dating experiences we saw our individual values - commitment, family, ambition, curiosity - reflected in each other and we knew this relationship was different than either of us had in the past. When talking about starting a family it was always about bringing a child into the community we had and establishing new traditions as we kept ones from our past. We envisioned a family where we showed up to one event to cheer on one kid and quickly drove across town to go support another before ending our night with ice cream. We envisioned being a home open to friends and family to swing by and hang out, and also eager to try out new events in our community and plan camping trips. Together we knew that adoption was a way to grow our family in such a unique way and after we got married in 2022 we began initiating those steps.

Your child will be the oldest in our family, but we both desire having a large family with siblings and cousins being family but also close friends. While we both feel comfortable in the sports setting, we recognize our role in getting to know our child and that their passions and interests may be similar or different than ours - there are times to support, question, inspire, and learn alongside. We want our child to feel confident to be their own person with compassion and empathy. We both come from large and busy families and we can't wait to have slow Saturday mornings followed by fun times outside. We are ready to become parents, but very aware of the responsibility.

Please know that you are an important part of our story and journey. While we may live in a different state, we welcome communication and visits in any way that supports us all being connected. We want you and our kid to lead that journey. We will definitely send letters and pictures with updates frequently. We also welcome learning and knowing as much as you'd like to share about your traditions, goals, and culture so that it can become part of our child's story as well. We will do our very best to honor and participate in our kid's identity and culture.

Please believe that we are fun, thoughtful, weird, silly, driven individuals. We don't always get things right but we are calm, resilient, and eager to grow.

Sincerely,

Kevin & Kirby