Education is definitely an important factor in a child's life and we are lucky to live in an area that has a really strong school system. Our city is a college town with a well-known university, so there is ample opportunity here for a great education.

In addition to taking advantage of the public education system, as parents we really look forward to helping our child learn on a daily basis. Childhood is such an exciting time to discover what interests you about the world around you, and we really want to nurture all of our child's interests. We both look forward to sharing with them things that we know, and also learning new things with them. We want to instill in our child a real love of learning. We want them to feel the joy of learning new things and to find learning fun. Above all, we want to make sure that they feel empowered to learn anything they want to, and to enjoy learning new things their whole lives, as well as making sure that they have access to any higher education they want to pursue for their careers.

We enjoy both indoor and outdoor activities throughout the year. We usually make sure we spend time outdoors every weekend, whether it's going for a hike with our two dogs, kayaking or bike riding. We are very fortunate to live in an area where there are many parks, hiking areas, and lakes. In fall, we always visit local farms to enjoy the corn mazes, pumpkins, and playing with the baby goats and rabbits. One of the farms we visit has a huge activity area for children and we cannot wait to have a child to take with us.

When Robb has free time, he loves cooking on his grill, and building things, from small furniture, to fish aquariums and water-gardens. He loves spending time relaxing in our yard, playing with the dogs, playing Frisbee, and enjoying downtime in the hammock. He is really looking forward to having a little girl or boy to play ball and yard games with.

Jill enjoys working in the garden in summer, and doing art projects year round. Some of her favorites are drawing, embroidery and photography. She also loves books. She is looking forward to having a child to do art projects with and read books to.

Both of us can't wait to spend time playing with our child and going for walks with them, pulling them in a wagon, or buying them their first tricycle. In general, spending time together as a family, whatever activity we are doing, is very valuable to us.

We are definitely a family that likes being surrounded by living things. We have two dogs, named Ham and Egg, who bring so much joy and laughter to our home life. We count them as part of the family. In addition to them, we also have a cat named Hugo and a bunch of little fish. All of our pets add to our happiness level and we really enjoy taking care of them. One of our favorite things to do first thing in the morning is to go out on the sun porch and feed the fish. They all come swimming up to the surface and are fun to watch. Our two dogs love going for hikes outside, playing in the yard, and they love going for car rides, to the point where if we open the garage door, they get excited. Besides pets, we also like gardening outside and feeding the birds and other critters that visit our yard. There are a few wild rabbits that I think live under our deck most of the year. Spending time outside and enjoying the nature around us has definitely given us a way to slow down and enjoy life more. Similarly, our pets have added a deeper level of happiness to our family life. They really expanded our hearts and capacity to be loving people, I think, corny as that sounds, because we love them so much.

We love our neighborhood for its family friendliness. There are many families on our block with small children. We see couples pushing strollers, and kids playing and riding bikes almost every day. It is very quiet and peaceful, perfect for bike riding and walking. There is a small pond in the middle of the neighborhood, which is very pretty at night, which is a bonus.

Our house backs up to open green space and is close to woods so we see lots of wildlife, including deer, the occasional owl and sometimes a fox. We also have a whole family of hummingbirds living in the trees in our back yard. We live within walking distance to a large park that has playground equipment for kids and a school. And we are a short drive to a really lovely state park and a lake and national wildlife refuge, both of which have many trails to explore.

Jill's favorite room in our house is our living room, which has a large glass door with a view of the trees. Robb's favorite is either the patio where he likes cooking on the grill, or his workbench where he designs and builds aquariums.

Both sides of our extended family are very excited about us adopting a child. On Robb's side of the family we had the addition of baby Zoe, Robb's niece, in late 2019, and Robb's mom is looking forward to adding another grandchild to dote on.

Similarly, on Jill's side of the family, both of her parents would love to have another grandchild to spoil, as they do her nephew Caleb. We get asked about once a week how the adoption is going. There are siblings on both sides excited to be aunts and uncles.

We have quite a bit of family locally, as all of Robb's extended family live near to us, including his mom, sisters, cousins and nieces. We see family often and there is always a lot of good food involved.

We also have extended family in several other states. Jill's family lives in both Illinois and Arkansas, and we see them at either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Being Southern, Jill's mom makes a drool-worthy pecan pie every major holiday, and very good cornbread.

We feel lucky to have all of the family support that we have, and look forward to sharing that with a child.

First of all, a warm hello from both of us. We appreciate you taking the time to learn more about us. We'll try our best to give you a snapshot of who we are, so hopefully by the end of this, you can feel like you know us a little bit better. We are Jill and Robb. We have been married for five years. Jill is really looking forward to being a stay-at-home mom. She has worked mostly in libraries and enjoys doing art. Robb works in fire alarms and security systems, and is good at fixing things. We also have two great dogs, named Ham and Edgar (Egg for short) who we love a lot. In general, we are a pretty down-to-earth family who love humor and jokes. One of the first things that attracted Jill to Robb was his sense of humor and we still enjoy making each other laugh. Since getting married, we have been fortunate enough to get to a place in our lives where we have a comfortable home and life. Now that we are in a great house, and have a loving family, we could not be more excited to become parents to a little boy or girl, and to share our lives and happiness with them. Our dream is to provide a safe and loving home to a child, and to do our best to help them grow into happy, confident adults.

In our free time, we really love simple things, like playing in the yard and watching the rabbits and deer that come around. We like cooking out and going for walks and hikes with our dogs. We are fortunate to live in a city that not only has a great educational system, but is also bordered by two lakes and surrounded by lots of natural beauty. There are many places here to enjoy the outdoors. We also really enjoy travelling and look forward to exploring new places as a family. Plus, we can't wait to get to spend holidays with a child and creating great memories with them, whether it's watching them open their presents at Christmas, or helping them make costumes at Halloween, or hunting for Easter Eggs.

While we are very excited about becoming adoptive parents, we also really want to make sure that the birth parents we work with feel good and confident about their choosing us. We are glad that open adoption exists for this reason. We would be happy to share pictures and letters with you, and to work with you to figure out what type of ongoing relationship we will have together. Whether it is communicating via email, phone or sending photos through photo sharing, we really want you to feel comfortable with how we are doing as parents. We also want you to know that we understand your needs may change over time. Being the birth parents gives you a very special place in our hearts and our child will always know how much they are and were loved by you.

It is really impossible to fully express how excited and hopeful we are to become parents. And we are so grateful to you for considering our profile. We hope this letter helped you know us a little bit better. We look forward to getting to know you and learning more about each other in the future, and providing whatever support we can.

Warmly yours,

Robb & Jill