Our favorite vacation spot is any place we have never seen before, experiencing new adventures and learning new things.

Our mutual desire is to explore this world with our child and to show them hands-on experiences with different cultures and ways to respect our environment. We try to plan 1-3 trips to various countries each year and plan to continue this tradition with our children.

We love everything from beaches to mountains, cities to countryside; with each place providing a unique opportunity to teach us and to create a relaxing environment for our family. We also love to go camping on the weekends or even just to explore nature and the world around us.

Our lives are comprised of various activities, some of which we love to do together along with some individual activities.

We spend most of our leisure time outdoors, weather permitting. We love to go camping, to the beach, swimming, tennis, or boating. We look forward to teaching our child to appreciate the outdoors as much as we do. This will be done individually too, by Lisa showing them how to wakeboard and ski while John teaches them how to garden and barbecue.

When the weather does not allow us to go outdoors we love to play board games together and plan to have game nights to spread this to our children. John will also take these rainy days to teach our child how to build a computer and to learn the modern coding languages that run our society. Together we will use these interests to be sure to create an environment with lots of laughter and joy.

We have spent most of our lives learning about different cultures and the bigger world around us and this will provide us with a lot of helpful tools to be able to show our child more about his or her cultural heritage. We have lived in diverse areas and plan to continue to do so in order to help unite our child with the larger community. We plan to seek out social clubs, salons, schools, etc. in areas that allow for strong role models of people of different races and backgrounds. In addition, we have strong friendships with people of all different ethnicities that will play large roles in our child's life. It is very important to us that our child knows where he or she came from and the beautiful culture/people that goes along with his or her heritage.

We have a three-bedroom home which allows for our child(ren) to have their own room and room for visitors. We tend to spend most of our time in the house in the living room or cooking up delicious meals in the kitchen. It also has a fenced-in front yard, courtyard and a lot of outdoor space available to them to play in during the day.

We live in a beautiful neighborhood that has a lot of parks, museums, and a zoo all within close distance to our home.

We both love to spend our days outdoors and will definitely take advantage of the beach and hiking trails that are close to our home.

There are a lot of activities available for families, which include but are not limited to sports, reading groups, and various play groups. In addition to these groups, we also have several local friends that have recently started their own families and are looking forward to joining our playgroups with their children.

We both have strong, close-knit families that have learned that love only grows stronger no matter the distance between us or the journeys we take.

Lisa's oldest sister, Marie, and her family live in Upstate New York on a farm. Meanwhile, Lisa's next-oldest sister, Diana, travels and works abroad, with her most recent stop teaching English while living in Vietnam, and Lisa's youngest sister is starting her new family in Philadelphia, PA and balancing her work as a nurse.

John's twin sister and family are embracing her new career in Reconstructive Surgery in Ohio, while both of our parents are retired and still live in Harrisburg, PA, where we both grew up.

Thanksgiving and Christmas have always been important traditions and time for togetherness in both of our families. Lisa's family has combined the two into one "Thanksmas" occasion where family members from around the country, and various parts of the world, can gather around a Christmas Tree, play board games, eat delicious foods, and spend as much time as possible outdoors as a family. John's parents always have a seat at their holiday table for family, friends, and anyone else who needs a warm meal and a loving home, or anyone who just wants some snacks and to help put together a puzzle.

Thank you so much for this opportunity to introduce ourselves to you and for this chance to share our lives and future dreams as well. You are an amazing and inspirational individual to be working so hard to ensure your child is loved and has every advantage in life that you can provide. We can only imagine what you are going through right now and want you to know that we are here to help you and assist you as we work through this adoption plan together. We can never know what the future holds for any of us, but you are not alone and we will be with you as much as possible throughout this process. We are excited to go on this journey with you and to stay in contact through letters, pictures, calls, visits, and whatever other means we agree upon to ensure the best open adoption possible for your child.

We live in California and have a wonderful home and neighborhood to raise a child. Our neighborhood has numerous parks within walking distance and we are blessed to have several close friends nearby with young children of their own. We have been married for 5 years and have known each other a lot longer. We actually grew up on the same street as children, but did not really meet each other until years later. We share a lot of various interests that we are very excited about teaching to our children. We both love to travel within the beautiful United States and around the world. We love to get to know various cultures and to learn new and exciting things from each one. We try to visit at least one new country a year and to travel outside of our town at least once a month, even if it is only a day trip. We love to increase our knowledge in general and will ensure any child we raise has a comprehensive education and the opportunity to pursue any future they desire. We both are college educated, but also realize the importance of skilled trade workers in our society and will work every day to discover and shape the talents and hobbies of our future children to ensure they have the tools to become the best version of themselves possible and to allow them to succeed on their own terms.

Your baby will never be wanting for love or affection. We cannot wait to share our love and our enthusiasm for life with a child, and also our extremely excited friends and family that surround us cannot wait to share their enthusiasm either! We have a very close relationship with our family and an always-growing amazing friendship circle. We both have several friends and family who were adopted, and we have never made any distinction between an adopted family member or one by birth, they are all simply a member of our loving family. Our eldest niece, 7 years old, reads nightly to her brother (in person) and cousin (via video chat) and looks forward to adding to her audience. All of our nieces and nephews are also full of energy and love to play all day long with those around them. We will plan trips with nieces, nephews, and friends' children to go camping, to beaches, hiking, museums, various cities, and many sleepovers.

We look forward to starting this journey with you to create years full of hope, endless love and new explorations.

With much love,

John & Lisa