We both love spending time outdoors. In our free time you can often find us hiking, camping or skiing.

Due to our shared love of the outdoors, we decided to celebrate our first anniversary by spending the weekend at a small town in the Catskill Mountains in New York. It was our first time there and we fell in love with the region. There is lots of hiking with gorgeous views (our anniversary is in October so it just happens to coincide with the fall foliage), friendly people, apple orchards for picking your own apples, and small restaurants featuring local produce and ingredients. We have made it a tradition of spending time there every fall since our first anniversary as well as a summer or two. This yearly vacation offers us a nice change of pace from city life and we truly cherish our time spent there every year. We can't wait to have children to take on this trip with us!

We both enjoy spending time doing outdoor activities. We spend a lot of time in the spring and fall hiking both locally as well as traveling to explore new trails. Craig developed his love for the outdoors at a young age with his dad and we plan on having our child experience the outdoors early on.

In the winter we enjoy going downhill skiing. Allison began skiing with her brother and father when she was young and would like to continue this with our child, we plan on teaching our child to ski as soon as they are old enough.

In the summer we enjoy spending time at the beach, Allison grew up with yearly beach vacation with extended family and we hope to continue this tradition with our children.

At home we enjoy playing board and card games and trying new recipes out while cooking together.

We also enjoy traveling both nationally and internationally. We like to travel to at least one new place a year, with a goal of visiting all 50 states. Our last summer vacation was to Colorado and Utah. Craig also travels internationally once a year; Allison has the flexibility to travel with him and we can't wait to be able to expose our child to these different places and cultures.

We have some simple traditions in our household which we really value. We sit down together every night for dinner at the kitchen table without any distractions like our cell phones or TV and use that time to catch up and talk about our day. Every Friday night we enjoy making a pizza together and relaxing by watching a movie or a new TV show. We also have traditions with our extended families that we can't wait to include our child in. Craig's grandparents host a Christmas Eve dinner with traditional Polish food and then we attend midnight mass afterwards. Allison has a large extended family with many aunts, uncles, and cousins. Her aunt hosts a yearly family holiday party where everyone gets together. Allison's immediate family also makes a point to celebrate birthdays with her parents, brother, sister-in-law, and niece all get together for dinner and cake.

We live in a suburb of a major city in the state of Pennsylvania. Our neighborhood is quiet and comprised of families with children of all ages and lots of dogs. We live around the corner from a train station and frequently take a quick train ride into the city for sporting events, concerts, museums, and cultural activities. Our town is small but there are several playgrounds, a community pool, an arboretum, and a library which we can walk to from our house. Our town offers holiday activities for children such as an Easter egg hunt and a Christmas parade with Santa. We are also close to many hiking and biking trails that we go to often. Our close friends live nearby and have two children ages 1 and 3. We see them frequently for dinners, cookouts, and campfires in their backyard. We are godparents to their youngest daughter. Both of our families live within an hour drive of our house, which gives us the opportunity to visit often.

Our house is three stories with four bedrooms on the second floor. We have a spacious living room on the first floor with plenty of space for a play area. We have a large front porch that we enjoy sitting on when the weather is nice. Our neighborhood is very friendly, neighbors often stop by or bring dogs to visit for play dates. We have a yard with a garden and space for a swing set.

We both grew up in families that value closeness and time together. Craig's family cherishes large family dinners with traditional Polish food on Christmas Eve and Easter. Craig spent a lot of his childhood in the Boy Scouts with his dad as a troop leader enjoying numerous outdoor activities including hiking, canoeing, and camping. Slowly over time Craig got Allison to enjoy these activities too and now we routinely go hiking and camp several times a year. Allison's dad also enjoyed a renewed interest in hiking and we joined him on a lot of his hikes to help him meet his goal of hiking the length of the Appalachian trail in the state of Pennsylvania. Craig's parents are excited to be first time grandparents!

Allison grew up with a younger brother and also spent a lot of time with numerous cousins who were like additional siblings. Summer tradition included a week at the Jersey Shore with all of the extended family. Another tradition was a yearly weekend ski weekend with Allison, her brother and parents. We still try to keep these traditions going in adulthood. Allison's parents live about a half hour away, her brother and sister in law and their daughter live an hour away, and majority of her extended family is also within a half hour.

We know we are complete strangers to you; we are hoping this will help you get to know us better and give a glimpse into our lives. We met randomly at a weekly trivia night in 2010 when Allison was in graduate school. While we would see other regularly every Wednesday night, we didn't become close friends until almost six months after we first met. Once we began spending more time together it was obvious to both of us that there was more than friendship between us. We married in 2014 and tried to start a family almost immediately afterwards. Through the ups and downs of that process we realized that having biological children was not meant to be for us. We already felt blessed that we found each other but still have love to share and want to raise children.

We are an active couple and enjoy spending time outdoors hiking, skiing, going to the beach. Allison loves to find hikes with great views, even though this means she usually ends up dealing with her fear of heights, it's always worth it. We also love to travel and explore different cities, states and countries. We have a goal of visiting all 50 states. Our favorite country we've visited together is Croatia and hope to go back with our family in the future. We also both appreciate seeing live music and can't wait to share this with a child. Nearby there are plenty of outdoor family friendly concerts that always have children running around and are excited to bring a child to these events. We can't wait to share all of our adventures with a child.

Through all of our traveling and activities, some of our best memories together are doing simple things at home like preparing a meal together, playing a board game, or having friends and family over. We always sit down to dinner together every night and treasure this time to connect at the end of day.

We both enjoy flexible work schedules, so we have the capability to have a parent home with the child every day of the week. Allison works as a physician assistant at a local hospital. She loves being able to provide medical care to members of our community and finds her job very rewarding. Craig works for the government in a public health capacity and can often work from home and make his own schedule. Both of our families are close by and this child will be welcomed with loving arms by grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

We cannot begin to imagine the immense decision that you are facing. We have the utmost respect for you and the process you are going through. We plan to continue communication with you after the adoption if that is something you are comfortable with. We will send letters and pictures of the child as they hit their milestones. We can also communicate via email and are open to a visit when the time is right, if that is what you desire. The child will know from the start that they were adopted and what a special role you played in bringing them into our lives.

By choosing us to parent your child you are entrusting the care of your child to a devoted couple with strong family support. You will be helping us fulfill our lifelong dream of having a child. We will provide endless love, support, and guidance to your child. While we want to share all of our interests with your child we also want to nurture and encourage them to develop their own interests, creativity, and ideas. We are eternally grateful for this brave and selfless decision you are considering.

Craig & Allison