Our absolute favorite activity is traveling and exploring the world. Brent has a motto that he'd like us/our family to visit at least one new place every year for the rest of our lives. Marita loved this goal so much that she had it painted onto a world map that hangs in our home.

Our most recent adventure was our honeymoon which was a safari in South Africa! On the way there, we stopped in Amsterdam and on the way back we stopped in Paris. One of Brent's favorite places he's visited is Reykjavik, Iceland and Marita was thrilled to be able to go inside an Egyptian pyramid in Cairo. Besides welcoming a child into their lives, Marita's other life goal is to visit all 7 continents. So far, she's visited 6 - Antarctica is the last one!

There is so much to be learned by traveling particularly empathy and understanding toward our fellow humans. Together, we can't wait to share these adventures and the wonders of the world with a child someday.

We spend a lot of time walking or running with our dog, Bodhi. Our neighborhood sits directly next to a gorgeous wooded King County park where we can step into nature and enjoy the serenity that it offers. Bodhi also loves a good dog park so we will often take him to those for some fun and exercise.

We also love arts and culture and are members of the Seattle Art Museum. While we really enjoy the members activities we attend now we're really looking forward to bringing a child to enjoy the Family Programs! Marita used to love checking out books and attending reading circles at the public library as a child and intends to keep that tradition alive with this child.

In our individual time, Brent loves to cook and is always trying new recipes - Marita loves to do the taste testing! Marita enjoys volunteering and is currently the Chair of their town's Arts Commission and is also a Wish Granter for Make-a-Wish.

When we're looking for something relaxing to do, we love going to the movies! We both have such great memories of going to the movies with our parents as kids (Disney double features were the best!) and can't wait to continue that tradition with our child.

There are so many things that we enjoy about life and we mostly want to share that with a child. From visits to the museum, picnics at the beach or lake, large family holiday gatherings, visits to the dog park with Bodhi, BBQs at our friends' homes or simply watching movies at home with popcorn, we know it will be more fun to experience all of those things through the eyes of a child. We can't wait to teach a child about the world, not only through a great formal education, but through as many life experiences as we can have.

Beyond that, we are eager for our families to shower this child with love and attention. With Brent being an only child, his parents are extremely excited about the prospect of having a grandchild and will provide so many wonderful memories for them. Marita's family just had a large reunion now that we can gather again and this adoption was announced to such immense excitement and outpouring of love, we can't wait to introduce a child to all of this!

We live in a town southeast of Seattle providing us with a small-town feel at home, but easy access to an amazing city full of Pacific Northwest waterfront beauty, culture, entertainment and plenty of opportunities for learning.

Our home has four bedrooms and a bonus room upstairs which means plenty of room for a child to make a room of their very own plus plenty of space to play and watch movies with friends from school or other neighborhood kiddos. Downstairs, our favorite room is the library that Marita uses to read and Brent uses to work from home. We can't wait to add our own favorite childhood books to our collection.

One of the best things about living here is that since the neighborhood is new, it means that all of us neighbors are new and so we've all made it a point to get to know one another. Walking our dog, Bodhi, through the neighborhood means lots of waves, stops and chats with all of our neighborhood friends. We have several private parks in the neighborhood complete with play equipment in each for all the kids to have fun. The Main Park even has a basketball court and lots of grass for neighbors to gather and enjoy the food trucks that come several times a week. Our amazing neighbors even host an Easter Egg Hunt, 4th of July Potluck, Halloween fun and lots of holiday parties in December.

We are both close with our families. Marita has her parents, two brothers, one sister and a niece and nephew. Brent is an only child, but his parents, aunt and Grandma live nearby and we see them often (along with one of Marita's brothers).

When we get together with either side of the family there is always great food, stories and laughter and, of course, games. One of our favorites is to write and play our own charades, but we'll play any game put in front of us. Brent's parents and Marita's brother James regularly come over for dinner and Brent, who is an excellent chef, will cook up an amazing feast of steak tacos or even crab and scallops on a special occasion.

At Christmas, we typically fly down to Northern California to spend time with Marita's family. On this vacation, we love keeping holiday traditions such as watching classic movies, driving out to the beautiful California coast for lunch at the ocean, making tamales (Mexican tradition on Mom's side of the family) and a large, boisterous and oh-so-fun family gathering on Christmas day (Dad's side and can have 50+ people in attendance).

All of our family members are thrilled that we're looking to expand our family through adoption. They have all expressed their eagerness and excitement to meet their new grandchild, niece or nephew.

We would like to introduce ourselves, our names are Brent and Marita and we're so grateful that you're reading this letter. We know that you're likely making one of the most difficult decisions of your life, and so we want to say "thank you" - even during this trying time, you are considering us to be a part of your baby's life as well as yours.

A little background on us: we have been together for seven years and married for three. Now that we've found each other, it's our hope and dream to expand our family with a child. Pregnancy for us is not happening naturally and we decided together that fertility treatment is not the path we'd like to pursue and that we both have separately had adoption in our hearts from before we even met. We believe that there is a little, sweet soul out there who is waiting to join our family, and that adoption is part of that journey.

We commend the bravery that it's taking you to consider providing a different life path for your child, and our commitment to honoring that choice will be unwavering. Part of the experience will be regular contact with you - we both strongly believe that it will be in the best interest of the child and the adoption if you are known from the beginning.

Our lives are currently filled with great friends and family, hikes with our dog, travel, movies and museums and we'd love nothing more than to share all of this with a child. To teach them about the world and see their wonder and curiosity blossom. Both sides of our families are so excited to meet their future new family member and will shower this child with many cousins and so much love!

It will be the small things like pancakes on a Saturday morning and the big things like travel abroad so that the child can learn in person what the world is like, taste new foods, hear different languages, and meet lovely, new people. Both of us consider ourselves to be curious people who always enjoy learning new things and we hope to instill that same desire to learn and discover as much as possible in the child.

In closing, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your courage and the opportunity to share this world and our hearts with a new soul and complete our family.

Sincerely,

Brent & Marita