What matters most to us is our time together. We prioritize being a family. We love nothing more than to spend our days together laughing, learning and adventuring. Natalie works two days a week so that she may support our togetherness. Birdie stays with one of the more than willing grandmas! Beau has a flexible work schedule that optimizes his family time. This extends to time spent with our extended families and friends turned family.

We travel as often as we can, with Birdie in tow. She is the most excellent travel companion and completed her first international trip last summer to Ireland. We play an old Irish sport called Hurling and Camogie, and love to travel to tournaments with our friends and their children. We spent our week in Ireland competing in the World Tournament representing the USA! We also sneak down to the Outer Banks for surfing and beach days.

We have a small real estate business where we buy and renovate older homes in our area. We spent the last few months lovingly restoring a home from 1901. We are an active family who loves being together as much as possible. We love to see and experience new things and cannot wait to add another travel companion!

Natalie About Beau: Beau is undoubtedly the most loving person I know. I tell him that when I first met him his energy hummed, that I had never before met someone with that much happiness and love for life. His positive energy was catching. As we've weathered the hard stuff in the past ten years we've been together, I've had the privilege to see what real love looks like. It's not all butterflies but hard work, compromise and yes sometimes cleaning the kitchen sink. He has stood strong when I could not, he is safe and where he is, is my home. Not only is he a dedicated partner but a wonderful, consistent and fun Daddy. Watching him parent Birdie is the best thing ever.

Beau About Natalie: Natalie is the most solid person I know. She loves hard and has big feelings about everything. I was first attracted to her drive and independence. I always told her that she did not need someone to take care of her but I wanted to take care of her. We work hard to co-parent effectively. We probably over communicate since we are partners in every aspect of our lives. We have learned a lot about communication since our daughter was born almost three years ago. Natalie is a gentle, patient and silly Mom. She makes sure our daughter is always our priority. She manages our busy lives, with a big smile.

We have started and stopped this section so many times because it is difficult to express how important we feel about preserving your child's culture and heritage. While our love can serve as a strong foundation, we know that it is not enough. We want to emphasize that we commit to growing and learning how to parent a child whose race is not our own.

We believe that your child's culture and heritage is of upmost importance. We will do everything in our power to make sure they feel celebrated, strong and important. While we cannot predict every obstacle in parenthood, we can prepare and advocate for your child in the best way possible.

The most important thing we've learned as parents, is to ask for help when you need it. Our community, neighborhood and schools offer a wealth of diversity. We are effortful to offer Birdie diversity in our lives, friendships and literature. We are teaching her that love is important but not colorblind.

We love our home and community! We bought and spent lots of time rehabbing our current home in Virginia, to be our own. We live in a spacious, three-bedroom, brick ranch that is full of light.

Our neighborhood is one of the oldest in this area, with large 100-year-old trees. It has winding paths throughout that encircle the lake, perfect for exploring and bike riding. Birdie patrols the neighborhood for the prettiest flowers to smell (and pick!) It is the perfect mixture of established and young families with plenty of children. We live within miles of the beach, playgrounds and excellent school options. There is a community pool and basketball courts within walking distance.

Our community is wonderfully diverse. Not only in terms of race but also in terms of culture. It holds great history and is ever changing. We have had the unique pleasure of being a part of our community since early childhood. We have established a strong network of support. We love raising Birdie here!

We are very fortunate to have our families within miles of our home! They are wonderful. Both sets of grandparents are beyond excited to hold and have another baby join our family. Everyone in our lives is supportive and excited about our adoption plans.

Natalie's parents, Lolly and Pop, (besides being awesome) have a playground and swimming pool. Their home is full of songs and snacks.

Natalie's brother and sister in-law, live around the corner. We followed them to this neighborhood! Their children, Reagan and Tanner, are Birdie's built-in besties.

Beau's mom and dad, Nana and Pa, live on a large piece of land and have an expansive garden. They spend countless hours loving on and chasing Birdie around their backyard to keep her from eating ALL the strawberries. They encourage our daughter to learn through exploration.

Beau's brother Arin, and partner Aunt AJ live in the mountains, only hours away. We see them often, hiking their property and building tree swings.

Hi! We are so thankful you are here reading this open letter. We cry every time we add to it and if you take one thing away from reading this, we hope it's how appreciative we are for considering us to be a part of your child's life.

While we know we cannot fully shine through in this letter or our photos, we want you to know that we are happy. We are fully committed to each other, our lives and our daughter. Our goal is for our family to feel safe and loved. We love adventure and value creativity. Our love story is approaching a decade, and it's founded in honesty, laughter and grit.

We met many years ago in high school, but our love happened years later. Natalie dated Beau's friend growing up but when their paths crossed later in life they both knew it was something special. We said "I love you" after a month together and haven't looked back. Our seventh wedding anniversary is this October.

Becoming parents was a difficult journey for us. While we become quickly and joyfully pregnant, our first daughter, Piper Kai, was stillborn. She was heaven, blond like Natalie and with Beau's lips. Then our daughter, Birdie Kai, had a rough start to life, born prematurely, needing emergency medical care. Both of our girls suffered, separate but similar difficulties with their umbilical cords. Our medical team said we were 1/10,000, like lightning striking the same person twice. When they lifted our Bird above that curtain our whole lives changed. We knew we would do anything and everything to make sure we stood strong as she navigates this life. She is actual magic and our favorite part of every day.

We are able to have more children and are called again and again to add another baby to our home. Beau asked Natalie on their second date, driving home from the beach, if adoption was in their cards. We are leaning in and listening to our hearts. We are ready to expand our little family through adoption. Our entire family is so excited and supportive. Birdie is telling everyone how she will get to be a big sister.

We know what love is and also that it isn't always enough. In order to cultivate a life together and to parent our daughter in a way that's deserving we have had to fight hard. Marriage and parenting isn't all rainbows, it's effort, compromise and asking for help when you need it. We know parenting a child of a race that is not our own will require more than love. It will require careful attention to our world.

Our home extends beyond our walls. It's in our families, friendships and our community. It's diverse and beautiful and we commit ourselves to making sure you become a part of our home. That you and your family are a part of our dialogue. We are committed to staying in touch with letters and pictures and open to creating a plan together. We know we may not look like your child, we won't ignore that. We will go to great lengths to make sure your child knows where their heritage lies. We don't have all the answers, but we will continue to educate ourselves to make the best decisions we can for our children.

We cannot or will not pretend to know the difficult and complex emotions you are holding on this journey, we hope to join you and wrap you up in our hearts. Our respect for you has no bounds. Thank you again and again for reading this, we would love to speak with you.

With love and gratitude,

Beau & Natalie