Michael About Andrew

Andrew is the most thoughtful and intentional person I know. Whenever I ask him for advice or his opinion, he will pause for a moment before offering the most helpful piece of insight I couldn't have gotten from anybody else. He puts one hundred percent of himself into anything he thinks about or does, and I cannot wait to see him put that level of care and attention into being a father.

Andrew About Michael

Michael can find hope and optimism in any situation. He is quick to smile and has a deep catalog of dad jokes ready at a moment's notice. His goofball persona comes out whenever he meets a kid, effortlessly putting them at ease. My sister is quick to call him whenever her own children get sick, and he's equally good at comforting adults.

We like to enjoy good food and quality time, especially on the weekends. Michael walks CJ while Andrew makes breakfast, and then we eat breakfast while watching cooking competitions from the past week. In the middle of the day we'll do a family walk, where we hike the local nature trails allowing CJ ample opportunity to get her sniffs in. We'll end the day with a sweet treat from a local cake shop next door to Michael's office.

Andrew is a devoted college basketball fan. Though he mostly watches from home while Michael reads on the other end of the couch, we see the occasional game in person and look forward to one day having a family outing for our child's first visit to the arena. Michael has spent the past decade collecting comic books, and he cannot wait to share the stories of super heroes and wonder. One of Michael's favorite places is a local comic shop that offers child-friendly arts and crafts with super hero themed story times.

It was obvious from our first date that we were both passionate about our careers. Michael was finishing his intern year of pediatric residency and loved discussing child health and advocacy. Andrew was studying for exams in his first year of grad school, and his research was bending towards education and public policy. As you can imagine we had a lot to talk about.

Ten years later we have established professional lives that we find meaningful and that support us in taking the next steps of growing our family. Andrew is a college professor on track for tenure, which lets us feel comfortable putting down roots in a city we love. Michael spent a few years caring for newborns and sick children when they came to the hospital, but now he works in an outpatient clinic with steady daytime hours. We both benefit from the support and enthusiasm of colleagues that value parenting, child development, and education.

Michael’s family lives in Alabama, but his parents will use any excuse to visit. Since retiring they spend their free time baby-sitting for neighbors and his cousins’ children, and they are eager to become doting grandparents. Most of our time together is spent either eating or sitting around talking.

While Michael’s family tends towards the casual and low key, Andrew’s family is active and out-going. His parents split their time between New York and Florida. In New York they live about twenty minutes from Andrew’s sister with her husband and two young children, where family outings include soccer games and swimming lessons. At least once during the summer, the entire family will join together in Florida, or some other location that is warm and near a beach.

We have also established a found family in Virginia with friends and neighbors. Michael's work family is extremely child friendly; they even host their annual holiday party in a children's museum. Our friends and colleagues are thrilled about them adopting, and have already started volunteering to baby sit.

We live in a college town in Virginia. It is a welcoming and diverse city, where the University draws people from across the world. It has the ethos of a small town with lots of families active in their yards, while the university provides a ton of artistic, sporting, and cultural activities.

Our home is a three-bedroom house with a front porch overlooking a cul-de-sac where many of the neighborhood children roller blade and ride their bikes. The back yard is fenced in with enough space to toss a ball or practice cartwheels. There is a neighborhood park one street over, complete with an open field for soccer scrimmages and a small hill for sledding when it snows.

We love to take our dog on hikes along a local trail that abuts our neighborhood and encircles the city. The Appalachian Mountains provide a beautiful backdrop, with multiple apple orchards and cider mills.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know a little about us. Although we have not met, we want you to know how much respect we have for you and for the care and thought you are putting into these deeply personal decisions. We can only imagine how much strength this takes, and we hope you feel supported as you consider what is best for you and the child. We hope this letter gives you a sense of who we are, the life we share, and the kind of parents we hope to be.

We have been together for nine years and married for four. We have made our home in Virginia since summer of 2024 and enjoy life in a quaint college town with our dog, a nine-year-old lab-mix named CJ. Between university sporting events, checking out local orchards, and hiking the trails around town, we keep busy but still leave plenty of time to relax at home and try new recipes for dinner. Even in the early stages of our relationship it was obvious we both wanted to be dads and feel that this is a good time and place for us to become parents.

We bought a home in a small subdivision where children ride their bikes in the street and run between yards, and parents help each other. Many of us have moved here from across the country, creating a diverse and welcoming neighborhood within a broader supportive community. Adoption has always felt like the right path for us, and we are thrilled to be in a place in our lives where we can devote ourselves to being parents.

We met while Michael was in residency and Andrew was starting graduate school. Michael is now a pediatrician with enough knock-knock jokes and puns to last a childhood of doctor's visits and is excited to share his comic book collection with someone. Andrew is a college professor who focuses a lot of his work on education policy. He is the more serious of the two, especially when it comes to watching college basketball. We enjoy our work but are more excited to pursue fatherhood. We also appreciate that our jobs give us the flexibility to be present as parents, and our colleagues support us in planning for that.

Though both of our families live out of state, we have their love and support as well as assurances that they will be visiting often and taking their duties as grandparents very seriously. Andrew’s sister also has two young children who would be excited to have cousins. Even our dog CJ has shown that she will be careful and loving with a new child. She gets along great with kids of all sizes, especially if they are willing to share their food or just accidentally drop some on the floor.

We plan to be open and upfront about the child’s adoption from the beginning, and we promise to always discuss it in terms of the love and intention that you have for them as well as our own love and excitement. We want them to have as much understanding of their story as possible, and we hope knowing their history and heritage will help them build their own identity.

We are going to give a child everything we have, and we cannot wait to share the person they become. That could mean sending photos, writing letters, or making phone calls. It could also mean making visits if the time is right.

Thank you,

Michael & Andrew