We are deeply committed to honoring our child's background. If we adopt a Black or biracial child, our family will no longer be white: it will be mixed race. We look forward to being a family that celebrates ALL of the heritages represented under our roof.

We are artsy people who love books, movies, plays, and music. We don't want our lists of "must reads" and "must sees" to be filled with only white culture. Steve is part of an antiracist arts advocacy group, and he can't wait to share stories from the BIPOC and other communities with a child. He already does this at his college, where he runs a Black Playwrights Reading Group with his students.

Even though we'll keep learning, we know there are some things we can't help this child understand about racial identity. Any child in our home will grow up surrounded by people who can do this: role models like Black teachers, doctors, and friends. We know we will sometimes need help from others to help this child feel proud of their heritage.

Our nearby city is filled with Black art and culture, and we have found several highly rated schools in our area with diverse students and teachers. Our hope is that this child grows up feeling comfortable in both Black and white spaces, and talking with people from all walks of life.

We are both extremely lucky to have jobs that allow us to work less than the typical 40 hours a week, and because we both have flexible schedules, one of us will always be home to care for the baby. Even luckier still, we both love what we do!

Steve is a college theater professor who also directs, writes, and performs in plays. His office is a 5-minute walk from our house, and he does lots of his work from home. Katie is a children's play and drama therapist who helps kids and their families. Right now, all of her work is done online from home. Because she owns her own business, she can set her own hours and choose how much work to take on.

Most of our favorite activities are already kid-friendly, and we think they'd be even more fun with a child in the mix! Within 20 minutes of our house, we often visit a youth science museum, a rescue bird center, a Renaissance Fair, a children's theater, and a cat cafe. We can't wait to pass on our love of games, art, and animals to a child.

We have so much fun together, and we truly enjoy each other's company and the life we have built. We think it would be even more fun if we had someone here to share it all with us!

To us, being a parent means nurturing your child and helping them discover the unique, special, quirky things about themselves. We want to help our child develop their own strengths and encourage them in any way we can.

Katie has babysat, taught, and nannied children for most of her life. She has seen the amazing parts of parenting, like first steps and playdates, along with the harder parts, like potty training and nightmares. Through it all, she is never happier than when she is with children.

Steve loves teaching, and he can't wait to share his knowledge with a child. He is looking forward to introducing art, sports, and cooking to a son or daughter, and finally having someone to play baseball or basketball with him.

Our town is rated as one of the best places to raise a child and one of the safest areas to live in our state. It's the kind of community where everybody knows your name and everybody looks out for each other. When we moved here from New York City, Katie said it reminded her of the town from "Gilmore Girls."

Our house is a big, red brick home with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We have a fenced backyard that would be perfect for a swing set. Our favorite room is our screened-in porch, where we can hear birds and cicadas chirping.

Steve's college is a 5-minute walk from our house. Students come from all over the world to study there, and the school brings in a diverse group of speakers and artists every year to share their talents. We love that our area has a small-town feel but that we still get to meet people from all walks of life.

There is a neighborhood pool right behind our house, and we can hear children laughing and playing from our backyard. We are also surrounded by parks, libraries, and one of the state's largest, most picturesque lakes.

We are just outside of a major Southern city with a thriving Black community. Our city is home to a large center for African American art and culture that has events year-round. We look forward to someday going to the museum and attending plays there with a child.

This baby will be the first grandchild on either side of the family! Our parents and siblings can't wait to be grandparents, aunts, and uncles! Katie's father texts us at least once a week letting us know how he plans to spoil a grandbaby.

Steve's parents live 45 minutes away, and we meet up for dinner every other week. Our work schedules are very flexible, but we know his parents will be eager to babysit should we ever need them.

Katie's sister and brother-in-law are excited to become Aunt Amy and Tio Anthony. They live on a horse farm in Upstate New York, where Amy teaches horseback riding lessons to children. She'll be overjoyed to one day teach this child how to ride a pony!

Many people in our family work with and adore children. Katie's father is the guy who distracts babies at restaurants by smiling at them, and Katie's mom worked with children with disabilities for many years. Katie's brother-in-law is a high school principal. Steve's mother and father are honorary grandparents to the kids in their neighborhood.

We were nervous to announce our adoption plans to our family, but we've been met with nothing but love and excitement. Our families are reading books with us to learn how they can support a child from another race, and they could not be more thrilled to welcome a baby into our family.

It must be such a strange thing to be looking at a stack of profiles, trying to choose based on paper which family is the right match for you and your child. What a huge decision to make! We wish we had a hundred more pages to tell you anything you might be curious about.

We know that adoption is both a beautiful and a complicated thing, and we are committed to being there for you and your baby through the good times as well as the hard times. We will always respect your decisions and honor the important role you have in this child's life.

We thought carefully about the promises we can make to a birth mother, because we never want to make a promise we can't keep. One promise we feel strongly about is open adoption: we want any child we raise to grow up knowing where they came from, and feeling proud about their story. We want this child to know who you are, and your name will be spoken and honored in our home.

Knowing that the baby we adopt is likely to be Black or biracial makes open adoption feel even more important to us. As white parents, there are so many things we can't fully understand about racial identity and racism in this country. We promise to surround this baby with caring adults who know what it is like to be Black in America, and we hope birth family can be part of that support system.

We are excited about creating a lifelong connection with a child's first family through sending letters and photos, phone calls, or in-person visits each year. We will follow your lead on what feels right, knowing that what feels right can change over time.

We have been married for 2 years and together for 8 years. They have been 8 years of telling jokes, creating art, and finding ways to use our careers to help other people and our world. If we are chosen to raise your child, we promise to surround this child with laughter and creativity, and do everything in our power to help them grow up kind, wise, and confident.

Every part of parenthood feels so exciting to us: the first words, the late night feedings, even the angsty teen years...okay, that last part is a little bit scary, but still exciting. It would be the honor of our lives to be parents, and a privilege to get to share the title of "parent" with you.

We know that we can't be perfect parents, and sometimes there will be bumps in the road. We promise to do our best to always make decisions that are in the best interest of this child, even if they're not easy or comfortable decisions for us. We promise to keep growing and learning from our mistakes, and to be the best parents we can be.

We wish we could be there face-to-face to tell you what a gift adoption would be in our lives and the lives of our families. Thank you for considering us and for taking the time to get to know us. We are sending our thoughts your way, and we hope that you are able to find a choice that feels right for you and right for your baby.

Steve & Katie