One of the things that we feel makes us unique is for the last three years we have been hosting junior hockey players in our home. They are young men (between the ages of 16 and 21) who are amateur hockey players looking to develop in their hockey career. They often come from far away and live with us in our home while they are practicing and learning how to become better hockey players.

It all began when one of Matt's friends became a host family. He told us how much they enjoyed being a host family and how rewarding it was. We decided we had the room (and our house was feeling pretty empty) so we applied and welcomed a player into our home that year.

We have had three different players — one was from Germany, another was from Florida, and our last player was from Chicago. We have enjoyed their company and love going to the games, laughing with them, and sitting down to the diner table getting to know them. One of our boys is now pursuing an NHL career and two are off playing collage hockey.

It's been an amazing experience, but we are ready to grow our own family. We hope to focus on growing our family for a while, then get back into hosting again once our child is older. We feel this would also be a wonderful experience for our child, as each of the hockey players have lot to teach a child about teamwork, dedication and being focused.

Tricia likes to travel and can get Matt to indulge her on a few of those adventures. The first trip we took together was to Tricia’s brother's wedding in Florida (but that was not Matt's first time in a plane because Tricia got him to enjoy skydiving with her!) Since then we have gotten married in Mexico and celebrated our anniversary in Jamaica, we drove to Niagara Falls and Tennessee. We have been to Germany and spent last Christmas in New Orleans.

Matt loves to fish and took Tricia ice fishing for her first time. Since then we have tried a few different lakes for fishing. Matt has not convinced Tricia to hunt yet (another hobby he enjoys), but took her blackberry picking and walking in the woods on the trails where he hunts, which we really enjoyed!

We also enjoy kayaking and finding new areas to explore. We have hiked different waterfalls and trails in the area. While we love the outdoors, we can also enjoy the big cities and what they have to offer.

We understand the importance of recognizing and respecting our child's culture. We plan to buy children's books featuring characters of all different backgrounds, and as our child gets older, plan on finding him/her a mentor to help them explore their culture more.

We also plan on incorporating our child's culture into our lives through toys, music and food ­— Matt loves to cook, so he is definitely excited to try his hand at cooking different cultural foods!

When we hosted the junior hockey player from Germany, we also made it a point to learn about and celebrate his culture while he was with us. We celebrated St. Nick with him and asked him what other family traditions/celebrations he had at home in Germany. We watched the Olympics with him and cheered on team Germany and we enjoyed schnitzel and sausage for dinner. We enjoyed learning about the German culture from him and it really made our time with him special!

We live in Wisconsin and love the city we live in. We have a great community with lots of parks, schools, lakes, hiking trails and tons of both outdoor and indoor activities. It's a medium-sized community with just enough that you are not missing any of the things of a big city — including an NFL stadium. concert hall and a theater. We love that you can really explore any interest here from nature to sports to the arts. There is really nothing that cannot be explored.

We have a cape cod style home. We have a great dining room and a huge kitchen table that we enjoy eating at as often as possible and look forward to doing that with our child.

We love the seasons here and find lots to do in each season. In summer there are farmer's markets, festivals, and concerts in the parks. In fall we have football, the changing of the leaves and pumpkin carving and apple picking. In winter we have snowboarding, hockey and ice skating. In spring it is time to plant the garden and watch it grow.

We have a large and loving extended family! Tricia's mom is from a family of 16 kids, so there are tons of aunts, uncles and cousins! We get together as a family on all the holidays — everyone is excited for us to add a child to the family and to share our traditions with them!

Tricia also has one brother and a sister, who has three girls. Her brother lives in Texas and her sister lives in the same town as us. We love watching the girls grow up and enjoy going to their events, like dance meets and soccer games. When her brother comes we all enjoy spending time with him and do several family dinners when he is home.

Tricia's family has a cabin up north and we go there as often as we can. We love it when our nieces can come and we can go swimming and spend time outside exploring with them.

Matt has one brother who lives a little over two hours away from us, in the same town as his dad. We go visit them once a month and enjoying doing projects, playing cards and board games together and having campfires when we are up there.

We know may be a confusing and difficult time for you and you are trying to figure out the best option for you and your precious baby. We hope you feel supported and loved no matter where you are in your journey.

We are Tricia and Matt. We have been married for seven years and together for 11. We are excited to embark on this adoption journey. We have been hosting junior hockey players in our home for the last three years, and have enjoyed having them around so much that it inspired us to make this push to start our own family. We can't wait to have a son our daughter of our own to share our lives with!

We have both different strengths and weaknesses, but we feel we complement each other well. Tricia is organized and loves to read. She is always making sure our home is taken care of and keeps track of our schedules so we can be sure we don't miss any fun family activities or our niece's events.

Matt loves to cook and to hunt or fish for diner. He can also be depended on to help with the household chores, making sure the yard is mowed and the snow and ice get removed.

We both have an appreciation for family and outdoor time. We both work hard and appreciate what we have and the value of money.

We definitely have a groove and consistency to our life, but we are also excited to make new memories and go on new adventures with a child. We each have our own hobbies and interest that we let each other enjoy separately, but sometimes we also enjoy them together and have an appreciation for each other's interests. We hope to share our hobbies with our child and see what interests they have, too.

Our families function very differently, but we understand that both family's dynamics works in their own way and there is love on both sides. Tricia’s extended family is big, and we live close by each other and get together often. When her family gets together it's big and loud with lots of talking and catching up! Matt's extended family is on the smaller side and live more spread out, but they are very close as well and we talk to them all the time. Matt's cousins very much act like bothers and sisters and it’s also loud when we get together. We know this child will be loved by everyone and we hope to give our child an appreciation like we have for how both family's may be different, but we all share a bond of love.

We know this is also your journey, and we will send letters, pictures and e-mails to share what your child is doing and what their interests are. We plan to share our child's adoption story with them and talk to them about their birth family and the brave choice their birth mother made for them.

With love,

Matt & Tricia