Our son Sebastian was adopted through American Adoptions in January of 2019. We met his birth mother, Amanda, in person, for dinner, a few days prior to Sebastian's birth in her hometown. We were able to spend approximately three more weeks getting to know her during our son's NICU hospital stay. This bonus time together was such a memorable experience that we will forever cherish. Now, we maintain an open line of communication through text messages and emails (per her request), sharing photos, stories, and other updates. In addition, every six months, we send her over 100 photos and a letter highlighting milestones. Through Amanda's sacrifice, we were able to begin our family and become parents. Sebastian has been such a blessing, joy, and shining light in our lives. We cannot imagine our lives without being parents and especially without him.

In addition, three members of our extended family are adopted: Amy's father was adopted from Italy as a toddler; Amy's maternal grandfather was adopted as a teenager; and Amy's cousin's daughter was adopted as a newborn. We have great respect and admiration for these birth parents having made such a difficult decision. It was only through adoption that Amy's family was formed as is ours and we gather the strength for our adoption journey from these individuals. Amy's father and grandfather spoke openly about their adoption stories, and we will use their sincerity and honesty as a model to discuss adoption with our son and second child as well.

We are both Optometrists who have specialized training in pediatrics, developmental vision, and vision therapy: the process of retraining the brain to instruct the eyes to perform its task in a more effective and efficient manner. Our clinical interests include examining children with special needs and exploring the relationship between vision and academic performance. Prior to moving to Western North Carolina, we both worked full-time and owned a private practice specializing in vision therapy. Our goal is to continue increasing awareness of vision and academics with the theme that "20/20 vision is not enough." We campaign for early detection of eye disorders through comprehensive eye exams beginning between age 6 and 12 months. Currently, John works full-time in a large group surgical practice and Amy works three weekdays in several private practices. We regularly attend local, state, and national conferences in order to provide the more up-to-date clinical care to our patients and their families.

Outside of work, we are fortunate to live in an area with numerous indoor and outdoor activities. Throughout the four seasons, we enjoy arts and craft fairs, jewelry and stained-glass making classes, driving or taking the train through the outdoor beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a quiet backyard campfire, complete with S'mores, or building a snowman in our backyard. We aim to show our son, Sebastian, at least one activity each weekend. Our goal is to provide a foundation of life-style experiences which will hopefully lead to a lifetime hobby or even career.

Amy's strengths are her realism, commitment, and compassion. She is driven to achieve every goal. Failure is not an option. In her efforts to complete any task, she will analyze and avoid making rash decisions. She is determined to accomplish any goal she sets. In order to accomplish her goal, she is extremely organized and has a list for everything. John's strengths are his optimism, generosity, and ability to play the peacemaker.

John has the patience of a saint. He always gives people the benefit of the doubt, seeking to find the positive motivation in others' words and actions. Together we are a team who complements each other in nearly every situation (though we are still a house divided when it comes to professional football).

As the saying goes, "The whole is greater than the sum or the parts from which it is made." This is entirely true about us, our marriage, and our future plans to welcome another child into our home.

We live on 2.6 acres on a very secluded, wooded mountaintop. Our home is three stories with the main floor containing a master and spare bedroom/nursery, open-concept kitchen and living room, dining room, office, breakfast area, sunroom, and open deck. The back deck is perfect for grilling and enjoying year-round views: spring flowers, summer greens, fall foliage, and snow-capped peaks. In addition, upstairs has two additional bedrooms with a full-bath, which is perfect for future children's rooms when they outgrow the nursery. Finally, the basement (our favorite place) includes every kids and parent's dream: a pool table, game/craft room, floor-to-ceiling theater room, piano/music area, and outdoor hot tub. Our deck and hot tub face West, allowing us to watch those nightly sunsets and recharge in preparation for the next day. With our families living in different states, we have plenty of room for them to visit and enjoy an extended stay.

Our small town has bike trails, recreation center, tennis courts, miniature golf, and playground/jungle gym all within five minutes from our house. In addition to the local restaurants and shops, Fall is peak festival season with weekend arts and craft fairs. We love viewing the local art, sampling the farm to table food, and enjoying the community harvest atmosphere which makes Western North Carolina truly unique.

We look forward to many backyard BBQ's, games, outdoor movie nights, bonfires, and of course, s'mores, with our growing family, friends, and cats.

Our family could not be more excited to welcome a sibling for our son, Sebastian.

Amy's parents live in Elmira, New York (upstate) and have a second home in Franklin, North Carolina (only 45 minutes from our home), and regularly visit 4-5 months per year. They are both former math teachers. Now in their retirement, they teach chain-mail jewelry making at a Lapidary Arts School an hour from our home. We are excited of their proximity and regularly babysit Sebastian.

John's parents live southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and travel to visit with us 3-4 times per year. His father is a retired school guidance counselor and with his free time his is an avid LEGO builder and collector. John's mother is a retired medical technologist from the local hospital. She enjoys traveling, creating scrapbooks and knitting. Two blocks away from his parents live his younger sister with her husband and their 4-year old daughter and 1-year-old son. We value our time with both of our families and especially love playing and laughing with our niece and nephew.

Our three cats, Jeffrey, Wesley, and Noel, have been a part of our family for almost 13 years.

Both of us have grown up with unconditional love and support ensuring that our current and future children will have the benefit of our "village" to raise him/her.

Just a sneak peek ...

We thank you for spending time getting to know us and hope that we will learn more about you in the near future. What a strong person you are to consider the needs of your child and seek the path of adoption. We cannot image how you are feeling but please know that we are ready to provide a nurturing and compassionate life for your child.

The running joke between us is "Who asked who on a date." Each of us will say the other made the first move (the jury is still out). We met over a decade ago and have been married for almost 10 years. Since that time, we have grown closer each day. We cherish every moment we have together and have long-desired to expand our family. It was difficult for us to accept that we would not be able to conceive biological children. Only through support from our family and faith in God did we accept that there was an alternative plan to become parents.

We are both pediatric eye doctors and spend our days working with children. Our specialty is the relationship between vision and academic performance. The most rewarding part of our day is helping a child to achieve their potential through identifying vision problems that will interfere with their future success. We enjoy our jobs; however, we are looking forward to beginning the next chapter in our lives, expanding our family. Our parents and extended family play an active role in our son's growth and development. We are very close to them and welcome all of their contributions to a future child.

Our parents provided us amazing childhoods and we plan to bestow similar opportunities such as vacations, sports, and Scouting. We believe in education and will support and assist our future child's goals and dreams in every possible manner. Everything is not learned in the classroom and we will supplement their learning with educational trips and family outings. Our family heritage is important, and we plan to travel to our parents' and extended family's homes to provide insight into our childhood. We have a common Christian faith and we will raise our future child in a loving and Christian faith according to God's word.

One of our strongest attributes as a couple is our dedication and determination to accomplish any goal we set. We have devoted years to our medical training. Now accomplished, we want nothing more than to expand our family. This dedication will be very important in our adoption process and will transfer to the needs of our future second child. We will be dedicated and determined to provide the best life possible with a stable, loving, and caring environment.

We believe that one will not be able to know where they are going until they understand where they came from. We truly embrace the open adoption concept and we will be your champion in telling your child his/her adoption story. We will send you pictures, letters, and updates to ensure that you know that they are safe and healthy and to know how much you love them. We will discuss adoption with openness and honesty. You will always be represented as a positive person who was faced with a difficult decision. We have the aforementioned relationship with our son's birthmother by sending her bi-weekly updates through texts and pictures. We will always respect your wishes and continue to keep in contact, as you will become family to us.

We sincerely hope that learning about us has provided you peace of mind. You face a difficult decision and we admire your strength and selflessness. If you wish, we are open to sharing anything about ourselves and look forward to meeting you in the future. We will continue to pray for you and your child as you continue on your journey. We are sincerely grateful for you to consider adoption. We cannot wait to expand our family and it is only with your help that we may achieve our hearts desire.

With hope,

John & Amy