We love to dance, travel, pursue adventure in the outdoors, paint, read, cook, laugh. Together, with friends and with family, we make the most of each moment. Ruby, is our five year old Cairn Terrier (like Toto from The Wizard of Oz). Ruby is an amazing outdoor companion and was trained with kids as a puppy-- she loves children.

Katrina grew up in France where she learned to love food. She loves visiting farmers' markets to buy fresh food, cooking, picnicking. The farmer's market at home is right across the street-- Katrina is a regular and can't wait to share this joy with a child. Katrina's younger brother still lives in France. We spend a lot of time there and this will be a big part of your child's life.

Chad is a runner who enjoys outdoor adventures with friends, running and skiing through beautiful parts of the country. Chad is passionate about music and enjoys playing the guitar. Our dog Ruby loves to listen, and Katrina likes to sing along (badly).

The thing we love most is to laugh. And as a family that will be our center - finding the joy each day.

We embrace the opportunity to have a child who looks different from us. We have been educating ourselves with family and friends of different races on the challenges that they face as individuals and as parents each day, undertaken multiracial adoption training - and most importantly been observing the world around us more carefully to understand how racism may impact our child in subtle and major ways we have not personally experienced.

We are setting up our larger family to ensure a child of a different race feels they belong. Our plan is to have two sets of godparents for our child--to us, godparents are friends and mentors to our child who commit to retaining a lifelong connection. Katrina's cousin Ellie—who is really a sister to her—is married to a black Englishman named John. They now have three biracial children. Our second set of godparents--Felipe and Camila--are Colombians whom Katrina met during graduate school and have become dear friends of ours. Ellie, John, Camila and Felipe are excited about our adoption and look forward to having a special relationship with our child.

While we have rarely experienced discrimination on the basis of our race, appearance or cultural heritage, we are acutely aware of the challenges that minority populations face in our country and world today. We are humble enough to know we have much to learn. We believe our network of family and friends, and our lived experience working and studying in multicultural environments have us prepared to support your child.

We live in a fast-growing small city surrounded by mountains. We live downtown, and are grateful for a vibrant community with theaters, restaurants, a great library, and excellent public schools. There is a park nearby with a small hill that makes for excellent sledding in the winter! The park has an outdoor pool that is perfect for summer swimming. We also have a small lake in town where we can swim, play on the beach, picnic, and relax.

Our town has an annual Christmas stroll where Santa comes down Main Street and lights up the town. There are a lot of children's activities, music, art, and food as part of this fun family event.

We live in a spacious apartment downtown. We love the views of the mountains from our home, and eat dinner on the balcony all summer long. Our apartment has a big living area and two bedrooms, one of which will be for the child. We have friends in our apartment building who are expecting their first child soon. We are excited for our children to grow up together. We have wonderful neighbors of all ages-- from children to grandparents. Our dearest neighbors are already calling themselves "Aunt and Uncle" in anticipation of our growing family.

Our families are united by a love of travel, adventure, and exploring new places. Time with family includes playing games, cooking together, hiking, wildlife watching, and ice cream outings. Our extended families don't live close by; we gather each summer, for the holidays and have frequent visits from parents, siblings, and cousins.

Katrina and her two brothers (one older, one younger) grew up in France. One brother lives in France today, the other in Massachusetts. Her parents live in Maine and are in Europe a lot. Your child will be the first grandchild in Katrina's immediate family-- there is so much excitement! Katrina's extended family is very close and your child will have many cousins their age to play with of different races and religious traditions. Katrina's 98-year-old grandmother is thrilled to welcome another great grandchild.

Chad grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania where his father worked for the chocolate company and his parents currently live. They are retired and enjoy time with family and friends and their dog, Teddy. Chad has one older sister who lives in Florida with her husband and two children, ages 18 and 20. Living in Florida, they love being on the water -- whether boating, surfing or fishing--and enjoy sharing this with friends and family. They are all excited to welcome a new family member!

We are grateful to you for taking the time to learn about us. We can only imagine that this is an extremely difficult and emotional process. We honor your tremendous love in the path you have chosen.

We want you to know that adoption is our first choice for creating a family. Knowing how many children need homes has motivated us to build our family this way. We hope to share our love, and the opportunities we have been blessed with, with a child.

We met in 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts when we taught together in a negotiation workshop. Our first date was for ice cream cones, which led to many laughs, and many more ice cream cones. We were married in September 2014. Chad is a lawyer and works for a tech consulting firm. Katrina is the Head of the North American division of an Australian Agriculture Technology company. We value our careers and feel fortunate that we both have flexibility in our work to be able to dedicate the time to caring for and raising a child. Living in a small town makes it easy for us to move back and forth from the office and home, and imagine that someday it will make it easy for us to get to a child's activities.

The values that shape our lives are devotion to family, compassion for others, commitment to improving the world and the lives of those living in it, responsibility to protect our natural environment, and gratitude for the gifts we have been given. We are continually striving to improve ourselves as individuals, to learn and to grow in new ways. We want to share that passion for learning and growth with a child.

We hope to raise a self-assured and loving individual by encouraging curiosity, independence and empathy. We believe in laughter, positive reinforcement, healthy boundaries, and the importance of family adventures. Through travel with a child, we hope they will grow up to be a citizen of the world, comfortable in many cultures.

We will welcome a child into a network of friends and family who are deeply supportive of our adoption plans. Our families are joyful, open and multiracial as we grow through the generations. When our larger family gathers, as we do every summer, your child will be surrounded by cousins who are White, Black, Hispanic and Asian American. Our circle of friends is racially and culturally diverse, a beautiful community for a child.

We are honored that you are considering us to raise your child. The connection to birth parents is a special one which we want to honor and celebrate. We commit to sending letters and sharing pictures with you so that you can stay close to your child's journey.

Our intent is to raise a child on a foundation of unconditional love. Should you choose us, we promise to help your child discover and pursue their dreams, and find their place in the world.

With gratitude,

Chad & Katrina