As a child, Charles regularly asked his parents for a sibling. One day, he told them that they should adopt a sibling for him. Not long after that, their pastor asked if they knew of anyone desiring to adopt, and they said that they were! So, they adopted Charles’ brother and have also adopted his nephew and nephew’s half-sister in recent years. Sarah has always wondered how adoption would be a part of her story beyond her cousins who were adopted and friends who are adoptees or adoptive parents. Sarah marveled at all the adoption in her life wondered what God might do.

Over the course of a few years, we felt like God was asking us to consider adoption for our family. We began praying and researching, asking friends about their experiences as adoptees and adoptive parents, reading birth mothers’ stories, comparing adoption agencies. Nine months after the initial prodding, we felt certain adoption was our path forward. We know there is so much uncertainty in this process, but we’re excited and hopeful to love and welcome a child into our family.

We’re a relaxed, down-to-earth couple, living in a vibrant, urban neighborhood. We love doing things together, but we each have separate interests and hobbies.

We both work 9-5 jobs, and while our jobs can be demanding, we both have a lot of flexibility and bosses who prioritize family. Charles often works half days on Fridays and Sarah usually can leave early. Work stays at work, so most weeknights we come home and relax by taking a walk, reading or watching tv. We’ll usually cook together and then sit down and have dinner together at the table to talk about our days. Some evenings we’ll walk to a nearby restaurant or order takeout for dinner.

On the weekends, we enjoy going on hikes, watching movies, or using the afternoons to do our own things – Charles likes to brew beer or play games with friends and Sarah likes to garden, cook or visit with friends. Every Sunday we attend church and use the afternoons to plan for the week ahead. We are hopeful to start new rhythms with our children like family dinner, pancake breakfast on Sundays, family bike rides and hikes, or baking together.

Sarah’s relatives live in Mexico and we love to visit their home. It’s set on the cliffs above the ocean in a secluded bay on the Pacific coast. The beach has miles of white sand and beautiful water. We love to wake up and watch the beautiful sunrises. During the days, we sit by the pool and alternate swimming and reading and go play at the beach in the afternoons. After dinner, we usually watch the sun set, take night swims, and watch the stars come out, or if the weather is bad, we watch movies.

The food is amazing there – every meal is delicious, but our favorites are homemade guacamole, chips, and so much fresh fruit. Plus we eat lots of ice cream! As lovely as it is, the best part is how we feel when we are there. You walk in the door and feel completely relaxed, like all the weight is lifted from your shoulders. We cannot wait to take our kids so they can play in the pool and the beach and enjoy it as much as we do.

Sarah's family - parents, sister and brother and their families - lives in her hometown in Texas. We go visit them a few times of year including some holidays, and love escaping the winters in DC. Our favorite thing is to hang out with them and eat delicious food that we cannot get in DC like authentic Tex-Mex, BBQ and Whataburger. They also love to visit us in DC.

Sarah’s sister and brother are both married with a few kids. With five nieces and nephews, something fun is always happening. Sarah's mom has a pool, and the grandkids love to splash everyone, but especially Charles. We also love to go on trips together; Sarah's mom takes everyone to Disney World ever few years, and we cannot wait for a child to join the tradition!

Charles' parents live about an hour away from us; we see them fairly regularly for birthdays, holidays and just for fun. They are adopting Charles' nephew, and his nephew’s half-sister. Charles' brother is also adopted, and currently lives in Florida. His family is pretty close knit, and enjoys getting together. A birthday celebration with Charles’ family isn’t complete without your favorite meal and a big cake! No matter what’s on the agenda, Charles usually ends up wrestling on the floor with the kids.

We live in an awesome neighborhood! Our house is almost 100 years old, but we renovated it a few years ago with a big kitchen and entertaining area because we love to cook and host people. The bedrooms have big windows to let a lot of light in, and the kids' bathroom has bright colors in it! Our front yard has grass and lots of flowers. In the backyard, Sarah grows tomatoes and other vegetables. We also have a firepit that we love to hangout around with friends.

Around the corner, there is an awesome new park, with a great jungle gym and a huge field to run in and where movies will be shown during the summer. There's also a walking trail at the end of our block that we use daily, and a pool a few blocks away for swimming. We have a bunch of restaurants that we love to walk to and almost always run into friends.

We have many friends in our neighborhood, who all have children, including two other families with children through adoption. We are known in our neighborhood for our cooking – Charles smokes meat and Sarah has a secret family recipe for BBQ sauce that our neighbors love. Charles also brews his own beer and often hosts the neighborhood dads and kids to come over and help. We often get together with our neighbors and hang out in our backyards together.

We never thought that we would be writing this letter, and while it’s been a journey, there is no other place we’d rather be. We’re excited and nervous, hopeful and scared all at the same time. Most importantly, we want you to know that we love you. We cannot fathom the weight of the decision you are facing and hope and pray that you have the support and care that you need. We’re rooting for you!

We would love to be chosen by you, but it is more important to us that you make the best decision for you and your child, whether that is choosing to parent, choosing another couple or choosing us. If chosen, we’ll love, cherish, protect and support your child for all their days.

If you chose us, we want you to know that you’ll be a part of our lives forever. We would really like to have regular communication with you, sending you photos and updates about milestones, to have telephone calls and visits, but we’ll follow your lead in what you want this relationship to look like. Regardless, we will celebrate you every year on your child’s birthday, Mother’s Day, and honestly every day, because if chosen, you will have given us the most precious gift of our entire lives.

We’ve always longed to be parents. As parents, we will strive to foster a home that allows a child to flourish and that they will never know a day without us declaring and showing our love to them. And that a child will know that our love is not dependent on how good they are, but that it is there, day in and day out.

We are a part of an incredible community filled with generous, caring, strong people, including many with personal experience with adoption, that will love us and a child. Our families are warm, welcoming and supportive. Both will support us as we learn to be parents, providing meals, a listening ear, a hug and probably unwanted advice! We, along with our communities and families, care and are praying for you today, before we even know your name.

You should know that Sarah thinks that Charles is going to be the most incredible dad. Kids adore him. When he is playing with them, they feel like the most important person in the entire room. Sarah knows that the love and attention Charles showers on these other kids is only a glimmer of the love that he is going to pour out on the child we are fortunate enough to parent.

We won’t be perfect as parents, but we are committed to being there every day, easy or hard, loving your child. We know there will be many challenges as parents and there will be times when we don't have all the answers, but in all our questions, joys and fears, we are confident in this:

• God is good and God is strong.

• We will never quit.

• Our community will be alongside for every step.

Ultimately, we think the best thing about choosing us, is that a child is not getting just Sarah and Charles. They’re getting dozens of people who will celebrate, love and cherish them. People that will care and help them in a moment’s notice.

All our love,

Charles & Sarah