To be parents means to pass along all the joy and experiences we had as kids to our child. We want to teach our kids to climb trees, play in the mud, be kind to others and to live life with a smile as often as possible. Being a parent means loving our child unconditionally and laughing alongside our child, crying alongside our child and helping them to grow into a responsible, kind adult. We want to create structure and fun as well as teach our child to help others. Life does not always go our way and being a parent means being there to help our child through the good and the bad, the wins and the losses, the build- up and the let-down. As people who have been through trials and came out stronger on the other side, we are excited to pass this along to our child.

We are also fortunate to have strong support systems - our parents are strong and supportive people in our lives and are here for us at any time - day or night. We also have a lot of close friends with kids and others who are just starting their families for us to share this journey with. We believe these support systems will help us be great parents.

Maui, Hawaii is our favorite vacation spot. We are so excited to take our child there! We have already talked about all the things we will do with our child on Maui at all different ages.

We have a tradition when it comes to Maui - we car camp for the first half of our trip -hiking through the jungle, swimming at different beaches and eating lots of very fresh, amazing food from local food trucks.

Then we take the last few days to stay at a nice hotel. We enjoy the pool, some nice restaurants and a whale watch or snorkel tour.

The Aloha and Mahalo culture speaks deep into our souls. We love the island way, respecting nature and each other and being thankful for every breath we take. Aloha means Love, Peace, and Compassion and Mahalo means thanks, gratitude, admiration, and respect.

We adopted our dog Eggbert (Bert for short) about two years ago from our local humane society. We got him shortly after we moved into our house and he’s been a member of the family ever since. He loves people and enjoys when our friends are over - more people to pet him and a higher likelihood of someone dropping some food on the ground. He’s had a great understanding of children ever since he was a puppy and is very gentle with them. Some of our earliest memories of him are being led by a small child and him trotting behind - enjoying every minute of it. We look forward to him doing the same with our child.

Our neighborhood is bordered by parks on both ends and it is diverse with lots of kids of all ages. The neighborhood puts on an annual festival that has lots of activities for children. Liz attends the neighborhood meetings that address issues in the neighborhood and plans activities for local kids. We recently organized and ran a summer soccer club in one of the parks where kids ages 5-12 came together for pick-up games.

We live in a densely populated neighborhood - houses are close together and neighbors chat regularly.

Our Wisconsin city is dedicated to helping people and families enjoy all four seasons outside. It has events all year long catered to kids and adults. From family festivals to concerts, each event has child specific areas and amenities. Bike and walking paths are well taken care of and every neighborhood has several parks and outdoor areas with playgrounds and games.

Our home is very special to us as it is our first. Our favorite room in our enclosed three season porch that we sit out on to listen to the rain or enjoy the warmth of the sun on a spring afternoon. This space will be great to share with our child.

Family is very important to us and we are fortunate to have many forms of family in our lives. Cody’s parents live close by and are so excited for their first grandchild. Liz’s family lives a few states over and we see them several times a year. They can’t wait to meet our little one!

We see Cody’s family weekly and split holidays between families. There will surely be sleepovers with grandmas and grandpas and special bonds and relationships built.

We both have core friend groups from high school that we see as family.

Cody’s friends live nearby and are also planning to start families soon, so we are eager for these children to grow up as cousins. We share meals, borrow tools and just stop by for quick check-ins all the time. We ride bikes, take walks and even snow days get to be shared since we are so close!

Liz’s friends live further away but we stay with them while visiting her hometown and meet them places for family vacations throughout the year. Their kids are all under 10, and are looking forward to welcoming another cousin into the family.

We think your choice is brave. We admire your courage and strength. Adoption has always been our first choice to grow our family and we hope after learning more about us, you will consider us the best family for your child.

We want to share a little about ourselves but want to acknowledge that this process is about you and your child and what you believe will be the best fit for their life. We hope that we can all be a part of that story together.

We are so excited to be parents and know that we will provide a safe, loving and fun home to our future child. Adoption is our choice to grow our family and we are so excited to go on this journey to become parents. Our adoption beliefs and preferences were discussed very early in our relationship.

We met playing indoor soccer. The whole team would go out for burgers after games. Every week, we would end up on our own, talking for hours. Finally Cody asked Liz to hang out. We went for a walk and have barely spent a day apart since.

We are fun-loving, sometimes adventurous and always like hanging out at home with our dog Eggbert. We like to laugh a lot which helps set a strong foundation when life doesn't go well. The day we got engaged we moved almost 3,000 miles away to California for new job opportunities. While moving to a new place can be fun, it's also very stressful. Navigating new jobs, a new city, and making new friends together has helped us learn how to rely on and trust each other.

Cody works full-time from home, managing a team of engineers at a tech company and Liz works part-time outside of house planning events for a non-profit that supports children and adults with autism. Liz usually starts her day with a run, while Cody walks our pup Bert and then we have a late breakfast/early lunch before Liz heads out to the office. If we don't have community meetings or an event to go to, in the evenings we love making dinner together or grabbing a bite to eat with friends. When it's warm we sit in our backyard with friends or take a walk to get ice cream!

We want our child to grow up confident and self-assured. We will provide the love and support to help our child navigate all the ups and downs of life. We love the outdoors, socializing with friends and exploring our small city - we can't wait to share that with our child. We want to teach them to climb trees, play in the woods, read books that take them on great adventures and love all people openly and without hesitation.

If you decide to make an adoption plan with us, we want you to know that we believe in open adoption. We look forward to discussing how this will best work out for you and how we can set up our connection time. We want to make you feel comfortable with whatever level of openness and connection is best for you.

We plan to thoughtfully talk about adoption in our house so that it will always have a positive meaning. We will celebrate our child's adoption day and birthday. We have found many books that are appropriate at different ages to tell our child about their adoption and how it makes them loved twice as much. Our child will always know that their birth parents love them and that they are always wanted.

Thank you for considering us as potential parents for your child. We are so excited to expand our family!

Cody & Liz