We enjoy spending our summer vacation at Garden City Beach a very family-friendly beach that is just four hours away from our home. We enjoy spending the week with Crystal’s sister and her husband and their two daughters. We spend the week enjoying many family activities and relaxing from the daily grind of work back home. We spend hours hanging out on the beach building sand castles, catching baby crabs and riding in the waves. The kid's enjoy walking on the pier and watching the fisherman catch different types of fish. Crystal and her sister spend hours walking the beach looking for sea shells, which they have done since they were kids.

Garden City beach is a smaller family-oriented beach full of many fun activities for the family to enjoy together. We spend a week at the beach every summer and make sure we are there for July 4th because the kids love all the firework shows people do up and down the beach. We enjoy going to the aquarium and getting to see all the different sea animals up close and personal. We spend hours at the arcade playing games and trying to win the most tickets. We would love to make new memories with your child. We are looking forward to taking another child to the beach for their first time, to see the pure joy on their face when their feet meet the sand.

We have two boys. Landen is ours together and Hunter is Crystal's son from a previous relationship. Ryan has been in Hunter's life since the age of three and has loved Hunter like his own from day one. Hunter is 15 years old and just started high school this year. Hunter has always been into all sports but really has a passion for basketball. He is very smart and enjoys going to school and making new friends.

Landen is 11 years old and is very smart, somewhat shy, a sweet caring little boy. He is in the fifth grade and would much rather be at home playing. Landen love's to draw and create different things out of the million Legos he owns. Hunter and Landen are both excited to welcome a new sibling to be able to love, protect, and share their interest with. We all are so excited to add a new child into our family. We aren't perfect by any means, every family has some hiccups along the way; however, we promise to always have your child's interest at heart.

We are a very diverse family and community. We have made it a point to raise our children to not see one's skin color but to embrace them as a person. Both of our children attend schools that are very diverse in many races and ethnic backgrounds. Our children have many friends of different races and we have striven to raise them to do so.

Crystal's sister and brother-in-law are an interracial couple, he is African-American and she is Caucasian, they have a biracial daughter as well as a Caucasian daughter they adopted at birth. Both of our extended families are of all races and are a great support system when needed. We will always be open to exploring the child's culture and ethnic background. We will make sure he or she has the confidence and education to be proud of being a part of a diverse family. Our family is full of love and very accepting of any race, we cannot wait to discover what make's he or she unique.

We both come from very tight-knit families. Both of our families play such a big role in our lives and we tend to spend a lot of time with them both. Crystal has a younger sister who has two daughters that call her TT. Our youngest niece was a blessing through private adoption and we are forever grateful to her Birth Mother. Crystal's sister and brother-in-law live around the block, so it's not out of the ordinary for us to spend time together weekly having family dinners or simply hanging out with one another. Being within walking distance, our children get to have tons of cousin time, and are more like brother and sister.

Ryan is the middle child of his two brothers who also live about ten minutes away, as well as their mother. Ryan's father has passed away sadly. We spend the holidays and many weekends with both of our families, having family dinner or simply enjoying each other’s company. Crystal's parents both have passed away, so she cherishes any family time spent together making memories with the family she has left. Both of our families are very supportive of our adoption journey, and cannot wait to give all their love to a new bundle of joy.

We live in a three-bedroom brick home with a big backyard for plenty of play time, it is the same home that Crystal’s dad grew up in. We love the fact that, even though he isn't with us any longer, our kids can make memories within the same walls he once had. Our neighbor's look out for one another and we have watched our children grow up together.

We enjoy spending time in our living room often watching movies, doing arts and crafts and talking about our day. Our neighborhood is extremely diverse, and the kids have many friends of different races and backgrounds to play with. Our community’s schools are also diverse and have many different cultures and backgrounds among the children that attend them. Our Elementary School, Middle school and High school are all within five minutes of our home.

Our community holds annual Thanksgiving and Christmas parades, where the kids get to see Santa, eat cotton candy, and see all the fun floats. We have many family parks within ten minutes of our home that we visit during the summer months. The kids enjoy feeding the ducks, riding the carousel playing in the splash pads, putt put, paddle boating and seeing the small animals there. Our town and nearby towns have plenty of kid-friendly activities to attend throughout every season.

Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know our family. We are so excited for you to get to know us and us to get to know you as well. We want you to know how much we admire you for having the strength and courage it takes to make an adoption plan for your baby.

How do we accurately sum up emotions that surround such a big decision in a short letter? We aren't sure we have the answer to that question, but we are going to try our best. We feel with all of our hearts we were led down this path and brought together for a reason. We cannot begin to imagine how difficult this decision and time in your life are. We have so much love for you and your child already and we want you to know we are praying for you both daily. We would be honored to walk this path alongside you, to be here for you during this time and beyond.

We are Ryan and Crystal. We meet in 2008 through a family friend and have been together since! Crystal’s son, Hunter, connected with Ryan immediately when they met. Being a single mother at the time, that was very important to her, to have a man accept Hunter into his life the way Ryan has is a tremendous blessing. We found out we were expecting not long after we began dating. We were shocked, scared, and very excited but knew no matter what we would always love and provide for him and his brother.

We married in 2013 and are now coming up on twelve years together! We can honestly say we love each other more with each day that passes. We always knew we both wanted to have a large family with at least three children. Soon after we married we decided it would be a good time to begin trying for another child. We never expected to face secondary infertility issues. We now have been through many years of waiting for a miracle and many heartbreaks throughout those. We finally opened our eyes and realized adoption was the path God wanted us to take. We have been through many difficult times throughout our marriage, as most couples have, but have chosen to always have each others' backs and tackle the situations together.

We would love to give our boys another sibling to grow up with and to be able share childhood memories with one another as adults. Our boys bring us lots of joy, laughter, and motivation to be the best version of ourselves we can be and we are beyond excited to share our silly moments with your child. We aren't perfect parents, we will make mistakes along the way, but we can promise you that your child will be loved beyond measure and taught the importance of work ethic, respect, and how to always stay true to themselves.

We want you to have comfort in knowing you will always have a place in your child's life. We will honor the amount of communication you are comfortable with in the future. We would love to be able to communicate with you through email, phone calls, and letters - and tons of pictures! It would be such an enormous blessing to add you and your child into our family. We will continue to pray for you and your baby as you make such a heartfelt decision for both of your lives.

Sincerely,

Ryan & Crystal