One thing that we love and cannot wait to share with a child is adventure. We both love to travel, explore new places, meet new people and experience new things, especially delicious new foods.

Since we have been together we have taken multiple trips to Disney World, road trips to the Colorado mountains, ziplining in Hawaii, snorkeling in Mexico and have attended sporting events and concerts across the Midwest.

We love to get out and explore the world together. Through her job Elena has travelled to many international locations from Italy to Dubai to New Zealand which has given her a greater appreciation of many customs and cultures. Matt has been to almost every state in the US from a previous job, and has the keepsake refrigerator magnets to prove it. Our passion for travel and adventure has brought us closer and we are so excited to explore and have adventures and see the world anew through a child's eyes.

We met as freshman in high school. We shared many classes and activities together and had many mutual friends. One activity we shared and both enjoyed was choir, where we were in a capella and show choir together. When we were Juniors, we were even able to travel to New York together on a choir trip and performed at Carnegie Hall and St. Patrick's Cathedral, visiting the Statue of Liberty and Central Park.

After high school we went off to colleges in different states and drifted apart. About 10 years ago we reconnected and it seemed like no time had passed. Our shared history and friends brought us closer and we discovered we still had so much in common from a shared love of music and going to concerts, to traveling and spending time with family and friends.

Even before we were married, we always shared our hopes and dreams to have a family and be parents. Since our wedding five years ago, we have been trying to get pregnant. After four years of many medical treatments and then the miscarriage we decided that adoption would be the right path for us to add to our family. For us it has always been about the love shared between parents and a child and the strong bonds of a family unit.

Matt's youngest sister was adopted as an infant and one of Elena's nieces was adopted at a young age as well. This has always been a completely normalized option for both of our families. We also both have blended families with step parents and brothers and sisters with different parents and this has never mattered to us. Families come together through all kinds of life circumstances and are brought together through love, shared experiences and shared values. We think adoption is an incredible gift and feel incredibly honored to be able to become parents through adoption.

We both come from large and blended families and are so fortunate to have most of our family close by. Family is so important in our lives and we see them often, family dinners, special occasions, holidays and vacations. Matt is one of eight siblings, one of whom was adopted and Elena is one of five siblings. A child would have many cousins to play with at family functions and would be a part of our special traditions.

We have many holiday traditions like an annual Christmas cookie party at Grandma's where we decorate cookies; singing carols and having a visit from Santa; Piñatas for birthdays; big Easter egg hunts; special meals like tamales at Christmas, "winter enchiladas", and tenderloin and ham at Thanksgiving.

Our home is often a gathering place and we love to host, we have an annual Super Bowl Party for friends and family, making tons of snacks and Matt's famous deer meat cheese dip. We have hosted holidays, baby showers, birthday parties and special dinners, our home is often filled with our extended families. Our families are so excited and supportive of us and our adoption plan. We have adopted family members in both side of our families and they are overjoyed that we will grow our family in this way and we all can't wait to love and cherish a child with us.

We live in a suburban community in central Iowa. Both of us were raised in this community and actually met while attending the same high school.

Our community is an ideal place for families with great schools, parks, bike trails, cultural events and abundance of activities for children and families. From our state fair, art festival, weekly farmers markets, parks and rec activities and sporting events, there is always something to participate in and we love exploring our city and trying new events and places.

Our neighborhood is close to schools, parks, an aquatic center, shopping, dining and movie theatres. We have lived in our home for three years, it is a ranch home, with six bedrooms, two of which function as home offices, and four bathrooms. When we built our home, we were able to design it with our future family in mind and just finished our basement with a family/theater room and kitchenette. Elena's favorite room is her yoga studio/craft room and Matt loves his office/music room, we both spend a lot of time together in our open kitchen cooking meals and in our family/theater room on movie nights.

We feel incredibly honored that you are reading our profile and considering us as potential parents for your child. We know that this is a difficult process for you and we want you to know how much we value the love that you have for your child as you consider an adoption plan. We have nothing but appreciation for your strength in taking this journey, and we hope to be a part of it with you.

Adoption is not a new concept to our family, having both a sister and niece that were brought into our family through adoption. Our entire extended family would embrace your child with loving and open arms just as we would with any new member to the family. We have tried so hard, for the last five years, to expand our family and we cannot wait for the opportunity to finally end our search for a child to call our own. It would be such a wonderful miracle if you were able to allow us to find the final piece to our family's puzzle.

We have been together for 10 years and married for 5, but have known each other for 25 years. Our families know each other very well and we have a wonderful, and enormous, support system of family and friends to share with the child. There are many nieces and nephews and children of friends that we constantly spend time with, and your child will immediately have a wonderful network of not only adults but children to be around.

We have such a loving, complete and stable home to share with a child. He or She will have every opportunity imaginable open to them to learn, grow and explore the world while developing their own interests and passions.

As a couple, we bring an organic balance to each other, Matt is outgoing, passionate, determined, intelligent and adventurous. Elena is caring, warm, loyal, giving and responsible. We each have different perspectives, talents and gifts, but we respect and honor those differences and think that it is what makes each other special and unique. We love and celebrate our unique attributes. As such, your child will be able to discover themselves and find out what it is that they love and what makes their heart happy; and while they will be encouraged to be educated and well balanced, they will also be encouraged to be unique unto themselves, and that there is no limit to what they can become or accomplish.

Our family will provide safety, security, education and opportunities but, most of all, a lot of love, care and FUN. We want to let you know you will be able to share in the child's discoveries, openly, through cards, letters, photos and emails, so you are able to see all of the experiences in your child's life; experience their developing interests and dreams, and see how they grow and develop into mature adults. We love to take photos and video our adventures and will be excited to share those with you. We are committed to a loving and open relationship with you, and we will always have a grateful place in our hearts for you.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for considering us.

With much Love and Respect,

Matt & Elena