We adopted our daughter a little over two years ago. We had been in touch with our daughters birth mom and she texted us and told us she was being admitted...we bought tickets and were at the airport within two hours. We were able to be at the hospital and her birth mother handed her to us an hour after she was born. It is a memory that we hold close to our hearts. We were so blessed to have been able to spend time with our daughter and her birth mom in the hospital. The love and selfless decision we were able to witness will forever have us love and respect our daughters birth mom more than she might ever realize. We were able to all come together during the hospitalization and shower our daughter with love from everyone. And that is priceless.

We have an open adoption with her birth mom and send pictures monthly and text updates frequently. We talk openly with our daughter about her birth mom and the fact that she is adopted. We have a memory book that has pictures and text to share with her about her adoption story. She loves to sit and hear about her journey to our family.

Adoption to us means love and had transformed our little family in such a beautifully profound way.

Both of us have a few hobbies we love to do in our leisure time. Hillary loves everything about food--she loves to cook, she loves to garden, and she loves to eat! We built a greenhouse and large garden in our backyard so that Hillary can grow everything she wants: kale, tomatoes, zucchini, and watermelon. We love cooking with fresh food from the garden and making new dishes together. We also both really enjoying trying new foods together.

Levi loves coffee and everything connected to it. We've talked about one day combining our two hobbies and opening a small cafe that focuses on sustainability in food and coffee and works to provide high-quality options to our small, diverse neighborhood.

Our daughter loves to read books and loves to jump off things and is excited by the world. We love to take her to the park or bring her new places, whether in Colorado or around the world, and let her explore the world around her.

Both of us have lived very multicultural lives—Levi lived in two different European countries as an adult and Hillary grew up in Papua New Guinea—a tribal country north of Australia. We both grew up knowing that our life experiences were different than that of others—and we both grew up knowing how big and bold the world actually is. We have lived as minority populations in other countries—Hillary living in the primarily black Papua New Guinea, and Levi living as one of the only brown men in Lithuania.

We recognize that there are challenges with raising children of color in America—but we have, and will continue to, embrace their culture and advocate for them. We think that being black is something to be proud of and we are raising our daughter to be proud of who she is and her heritage and will do the same for this child. We believe that black lives matter and feel passionate about racial reconciliation. Being an interracial couple we felt it was essential to live and raise children in the city among a more diverse environment—in terms of both race and economics. We know that there will be some questions we won't have answers to...but we will find out together. It's important to us that our children learn about the world at large and know that their culture—their identity and story—is worth celebrating.

We love our city and we love our home. We intentionally bought our home so that we could be in the city, but also close to family, friends, and parks.

Our house is 110 years old and we love the character and story that it has. We've spent many hours renovating it and turning it into a home—our home.

We have a large vegetable garden in the back of our home and we love to have friends over and enjoy dinner's together outside under the lights.

Our community is incredibly friendly and a great place to raise a family. Everyone sits on their front porches during the summer and waves at each other.

A lot of our friends live very close to us and are also growing their families. We love to ride our bikes together over to friends' homes for play-dates, meals, and activities together. We love that our neighborhood is so quiet and walkable. The closest park is five-minute walk away and we take our daughter there to play and swing.

We love that our neighborhood is diverse and is full of people that have spent most of their lives in the city. We're really excited to continue to explore our neighborhood as our city grows and changes.

Family is something that is incredibly important to us. Nearly all of Hillary's family lives within an hour of us and we love the time we get to spend together. Levi's family, while more spread out, is incredibly caring and makes efforts to come and visit us. When they do come and visit, we enjoy playing board games together, cooking meals, and going on walks.

Hillary's family often has large gatherings around the holidays. For the fourth of July, we usually head to the Mountains and rent a large cabin. We'll plan a whole lot of activities—barbecuing, riding bikes, hiking, and large family games with everyone together.

Both of us love Christmas and it's an important time for our family. To kick off the Christmas festivities, about a week prior, all the men compete to make the best ribs and BBQ sauce from scratch, with the women judging. Then, on Christmas Eve, we'll all spend the night at Hillary's parent's house and wake up and have a large breakfast together—always including homemade cinnamon rolls. Afterwards we all read the Christmas story, open gifts, and spend the day together playing games, drinking coffee, and sitting by the fireplace.

Our life centers around family—they're our closest friends and our best companions—and as our entire family grows, we look forward to forging deeper bonds and form a new legacy as a family that thrives together.

First off, thank you so much for taking the time to read through our profile and to learn more about our family. We're excited to continue to grow our family and are grateful that you'd consider us to be parents to your child.

For us, family and friends is the most important thing in our lives. We've worked incredibly hard to invest quality time and love into our family- just the three of us. As we think about our family growing, we look back on the life we have together and are so excited to be able to share that with a new little one.

Adoption for us isn't our Plan B. One of the reasons we are adopting is because we never want our children to think that they were "2nd best" or our "backup plan." From the very beginning, they have been first in our heart. We have never tried for biological children, and after our first child was adopted, we decided that adoption is how we choose to grow our family.

We want you to know that we will love your child with everything we have. We will be their biggest fans, their greatest supporters. We are going to cry when they graduate kindergarten and when they have their first heartbreak. We will be the kind of parents that find out what they are passionate about and support them in that. We will never want them to grow-up, but we'll also make a point to teach them important life lessons and skills so they can be successful, independent people. We will stay up late cuddling them when they are sick and talking them into watching one more episode of a show just to spend more time with them. We can't wait to learn what they are passionate about and become passionate about that as a whole family! We will fight for them and for them to be proud of their story and their race. We will teach and inspire them to learn and be proud of their heritage. We won't lie or pretend the world is a different place that it is. We will be honest about the pain and the hurt this world can cause...and how we can change it together.

We recognize that the decision you are facing is a huge one and one that we can never know. We want you to know that you will be so respected and loved in our home. We want to keep you informed on the life of your child, from sending letters and pictures, to chatting on phone and even visiting all together. We feel so thankful that your child will have two families. We want them to know their story and who they are and we know that you're the best person to provide that information and care for them. We will always make sure they know how loved they are from all directions but especially by you. We know that adoption is complex, and not without heartache and loss, but we as parents will honor your love, legacy, and story.

Thank you for even reading this and for even considering us to be parents to your child! We would be so honored if you chose us. We can't wait to begin this new chapter for our family. You are in our thoughts and prayers!

With love,

Levi & Hillary