We view parenthood as the most important, rewarding, and humbling experience we will have in our life. When we see our friends with their children we are equally amazed and inspired by their dedication to parenting, and witness first-hand the reward of making happy memories together. We are so excited to start building those happy memories for our own family someday.

Every aspect of parenting will have our full commitment: the good, the bad, and the diaper explosions. We fully understand and expect our lives to be turned upside down once we become parents and we are ready to take on the challenge. To us, building a strong family is about taking on the ups and downs together.

We have spent so long wanting to expand our family. We have so much love to give and becoming parents means we finally get to share that. Some of the things we are looking forward to are: family camping trips (even if it's just the back yard), weekend morning snuggles, family dinners and talking about our day, apple picking and pumpkin carving, working on school projects, beach vacations with friends and family, going to recitals, games and competitions, kissing boo-boos and fixing broken toys, lots of love and laughter.

Life can get busy, so it's important to us to make our relationship a priority by spending time together.

We always look forward to those perfect weather days in fall, picking apples at a local orchard or going for a walk to enjoy the foliage. A favorite tradition of ours is watching football on Sundays while making chili in the crockpot.

To stay active, we like to run road races together. We find the atmosphere at these events fun and uplifting, and look forward to when we can see our child share in that experience with us. We also like to explore local hiking trails and bring a picnic lunch. As we are hiking, we take mental notes of family-friendly trails that we would love to revisit with children someday.

We look forward to getting together with close family and friends. Many of them have children now, and we love keeping them entertained with "free babysitting." It's so much fun playing games with them like Mario Kart and Legos. Each time we visit, we are amazed to see how much they have grown; from little babies to tiny people.

We always knew we wanted to have children and a few years ago we began trying to get pregnant. Unfortunately, things did not go to plan. Initially, we turned to infertility treatments and after two rounds of IVF we decided it was not the right path for us. We found the process to be incredibly isolating and painful.

It took a while to grieve the loss of not being able to have biological children. When we felt ready, we started researching adoption and in doing so discovered a new path to parenthood. We have found the adoption process to be positive and fulfilling. Through our adoption agency we were able to meet a lot of amazing adoptive families. Meeting these families supported our feelings that you do not have to give birth to have a family. We absolutely feel that adoption is the right decision for us and are very excited about the opportunity to grow our family through adoption.

We live in a quintessential New England seaport town with access to plenty of beaches, parks, and museums. Our quaint area of Connecticut is known for having some of the best schools in the state. There is lots of diversity and plenty of activities for kids. We feel lucky to live in the suburbs but easily travel into New York City or Boston.

We recently relocated for Danielle's job and are living in an apartment while we search for a house. Our apartment has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen, living room and dining area. It's a good size for a small family.

At home we enjoy cooking, watching movies and spending time with our two spoiled cats. In the summer we like grilling and sitting around the fire-pit. When the weather is nice you will find us outside running or taking advantage of one of the many hiking trails in the area. When it gets cold out we will spend time in the kitchen experimenting with new recipes and watching football.

Chris's family enjoys spending time together and we often all vacation at his parent's beach house. Chris's mother loves to laugh and is always an excellent source of optimism. Chris and his father share many interests and hobbies. They are both engineers and enjoy building and flying drones together. Chris also has a sister who is one of his closest friends. Growing up Chris's family placed an emphasis on making good family memories together. Part of what makes adoption special to us is that it provides us the opportunity to make good memories for our own family someday.

Danielle's parents divorced when she was young but they were both very involved in her life. Danielle is close with her mother and the two enjoy spending time together going out to lunch and shopping. Through her father, Danielle has a much younger half-sister. Danielle's sister lost her mother to cancer at a young age. Danielle took on a motherly role and has enjoyed celebrating many of life's milestones with her, such as getting ready for prom, and high school graduation. As a couple, we have worked hard to maintain Danielle's sister's memories of her mother.

Beyond our immediate family we are also fortunate to have an extended family filled with wonderful people. We always look forward to getting together for holidays and family celebrations. Our family is very excited about our choice to adopt and our parents cannot wait to be grandparents.

Hi,

We're Chris and Danielle, and we are so happy you are taking the time to read our letter! We hope it helps you to learn more about who we are and why this adoption journey is so important to us.

First, we have great empathy for the difficult decision ahead of you and admire your strength and courage in choosing an adoption plan. We believe your selflessness in putting the baby's needs above your own is the ultimate act of love. Our plan is to bring that unconditional love into our own parenting and continue to honor your sacrifice.

We met in college and have been together for twelve years, married for eight. Our marriage is built on a solid foundation of love and mutual respect. We find that honest communication and listening compassionately to each other's feelings has been what gives our relationship its strength. We feel devoting this time to the well-being of a relationship will be an important lesson we pass down to our future children.

We have invested in our careers through education and hard work because we knew that someday it would help us create opportunities for our future family. Chris is an Engineer and Danielle is a Financial Analyst. We have system of shared career and household responsibilities, so that we can both be involved in our child's life while still providing financial stability. We think it will be positive for our child to see how we view each other as equals and make decisions together as partners.

While we are fully committed to being providers for our child's physical needs, we think emotional support is where parenting is the most critical. Just as we have done with our marriage, we will foster an environment where our future child can feel comfortable coming to us for guidance through stressful situations. As parents we are dedicated to: giving unconditional love and affection, providing a stable and caring home, supporting their needs and interests, and ensuring a great education. Further, we believe it is our job to lead by example by teaching compassion, respect, and tolerance. With these values in place, we see ourselves giving our child a happy, fulfilling life, filled with fond memories of growing up.

Raising children has been our dream for a long time. We have had countless conversations about what it will be like to have kids, looking forward to those priceless moments and discussing how we want to handle the challenges. We've been lucky to have opportunities to act as parental figures through our relationships with siblings and through mentoring programs. We truly treasure these moments as they have reinforced our excitement to raise a family.

We are open to on-going communication with you and building that relationship throughout the child's life, as we feel this is in the best interest of the child. We would love to exchange pictures and letters that our child can cherish. We understand how adoption can feel like you are losing a child, but our hope for you is that you find the opportunity where it feels like you are gaining more family.

And while we hope we are the family for you, we also know there are so many wonderful, loving people out there who are going to make amazing adoptive parents and you will choose who you feel is right in your heart. We wish you the best of luck on this journey and hope to get to know you someday!

Love,

Chris & Danielle