We both love cooking and take turns making meals, and when we have guests, we'll both spend all day in the kitchen cooking elaborate recipes for friends! We live near the mountains and like to go hiking, especially during the summer when the weather is nice, and in the fall when the leaves turn beautiful colors, and Joseph likes to ski in the winter months. We work in New York City, and lived there for a long time before moving to Connecticut, and enjoy everything NYC has to offer, especially concerts, museums, theater, and new restaurants. We also travel frequently, and enjoy trips nearby, like the seaside town of Mystic, Connecticut, and further away, like Austria, where we have been several times for music festivals.

Around the house, Joseph likes to read, work out in our gym, and run along the forest trails near our home. Justin plays piano, video games, and chess, and probably watches too much reality TV.

We are a mixed-race couple, and we both love each other's heritages. Justin grew up in a horse town in South Carolina. Family always came first, followed closely by lots of southern food. Justin's family spent lots of time at the beach, attending horse races, and passing down recipes through the generations.

Joseph grew up in Los Angeles, the son of two Mexican-Americans, and was raised with his older sister in a large family of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. Growing up, he and his family would come together regularly for large family gatherings, especially around the holidays. It was - and still is - a family tradition to make tamales from scratch right before Christmas. Joseph's mother made sure that both of her kids were well rounded and she took them on trips whenever she could.

Whatever our child's heritage, we will make it a priority to ensure that they know where they came from, know their cultural traditions, and have a connection to their culture.

We will raise this child in a loving and emotionally stable environment, and we will make sure that he or she knows their adoption story from the beginning. We know we will be able to count on the help of our family and friends, especially Joseph's mom, who plans to move to Connecticut from California to help with child care. We will devote ourselves to ensuring that this child has every opportunity in life and will grow up in a home full of love, family, and community.

We are so grateful that you would consider us to raise this child. If you were to choose us, you would bless our lives in a way we have been dreaming of for a very long time. We are ready to raise a child, and we feel blessed that you would consider us as a potential home for this child.

We live in a rural community in a beautiful part of Connecticut at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Our home is off a dirt road, far from busy roads, and is surrounded by six acres of forest, including a beautiful brook, blueberry bushes, fruit trees, and an herb garden. We love to relax at home on our screened porch and patio with our dog Brennan. We have three bedrooms, a loft space for watching TV and playing games, and a barn that we've converted into a gym. We have a large front yard, large back yard, and a huge paddock (the former owner had horses) where we like to have friends over and play lawn games like bocce ball. Our neighbors are all very friendly, and include retirees as well as a family with young children.

We live in a small, tight-knit community that has lots of events throughout the year, especially during the holidays. We are also surrounding by nature--lakes, hiking trails--and take advantage of that when the weather is nice. Our town is also near many farms, including a dairy farm just a quarter mile down the road that makes their own ice cream, and we have farmers markets throughout the summer!

Justin grew up in South Carolina, and most of his family lives there. We visit South Carolina several times a year to see Justin's parents, sister, brother-in-law, nephews, aunts, uncles and grandmothers. Justin's family loves to come see us in Connecticut too! We love visiting for Christmas and eating lots of southern food, and in the summer at Justin's family's beach house. Justin's family is really excited for our adoption journey.

Joseph grew up in Los Angeles, where his mom, sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephews and many aunts, uncles and cousins live. Our favorite time to visit Joseph's house is also at Christmas, when we get to enjoy homemade tamales and other Mexican holiday traditions and treats. We also travel a lot with Joseph's mom, who visits us several time a year and who is excited to come live with us for a while in Connecticut to help us welcome our child into our home.

Justin's family and Joseph's family also travel and visit Connecticut and other places together when everyone can. Both of our families are huge Disney fans, so we look forward to more trips to Disney World with both of our families together with a child.

We have been blessed with each other's love and companionship for over 16 years now, nearly ten of them married. Since the beginning of our relationship, we knew early on that we both very much wanted to adopt and raise a child together. Having a child together has always been a part of our plan and adoption gives us that opportunity. Some of our close friends have adopted a baby girl, and we have seen how happy they are. We are hopeful that one day soon we will also be able to welcome a child into our own home and family. We have believed for a very long time that adoption is the best path for us, and if we are fortunate enough to adopt, we will give everything we have to make sure our child is happy and healthy and secure.

We are both lawyers who live in Connecticut and work in New York City - Joseph has his own law practice and Justin work at a large international law firm. We met through a mutual acquaintance while we were studying law in New York and have never looked back. We knew early on that our shared love of music, travel, food, culture was a good fit for one another. We also understood from the start of our relationship that having a child was very important to the both of us.

We will devote ourselves to ensuring that this child has every opportunity in life. We can't wait to share our traditions with a child, from tamale making with Joseph's family in California at Christmas to relaxing at Justin's family's beach house in North Carolina in the summer, hiking in the Appalachians, and enjoying the beauty of all four seasons at our home in Connecticut. We love music (Justin was a music major in college, and Joseph is an opera buff!) and will raise this child in a house filled with music.

We also believe education is extremely important and will do everything we can to make sure this child has the very best education. But the most important thing is love, and we, our family and our community will unconditionally love this child forever.

We can't imagine the amount of courage it takes to consider an adoption plan for this child or what you must be feeling at this time. We want you to know that, should you want, we are more than happy to remain in contact with you after this child is born either by phone calls, emails, letters or even a visit to our home if you felt comfortable.

Whether you decide to place this child with us, or someone else, or to parent yourself, we are very honored that you would even consider us. Please know that, if you did choose to make us a part of your and this child's family, we will welcome you both into our family with open arms.

Sincerely,

Joseph & Justin