The kitchen is the heart of our home and we spend a lot of time together cooking, baking, and eating. We love trying new foods. Indian, Ethiopian, Korean and Middle Eastern are among our favorites. Kevin is always trying new bread recipes that Amy gets to braid. Amy prefers to bake pastries from new favorites like sprinkle cookies, to family classics like orange nut cake (Kevin is always happy to help with baking and licking the bowl). Our favorite part of cooking is sharing it with our daughter, she is excellent at measuring, pouring, and stirring (always in a fun apron)!

Another of our hobbies is exploring the area we live, taking photos of our adventures to add to the yearly photo album. Most weekends we can be found heading into the heart of the city, meeting up with a family member or friend to check out a museum or festival or hiking in our backyard. Our favorite city events include the National Book Festival, the National Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Asian Festival DC. Our kids will grow sharing these experiences with us, broadening their understanding of the world and their place in it.

Our memories are full of childhood outings to the beach with our families. We wanted to continue this tradition with our children. Kevin spent most summer vacations going to Cape Cod with his parents, brother, and grandparents. They would stay in cabins, walk to the beach, overeat ice cream and cookout most nights. Amy went to her cousin's beach house on the Long Island Sound in CT. She would play on the sandbars and in the tidepools searching for hermit crabs, lobster pot for dinner and biking to ice cream with her cousins.

As adults, we still love the beach, it is our happy place. Every summer we attend a family reunion at that same beach house from Amy's childhood (lobster pots still included). There is a new yearly family tradition where all of the kid cousins on Kevin's side go on a beach trip to Cape Cod with the Aunts. The kids have a blast and grow closer together and the parents get a mini-break at the beach. To us, the beach will always be a place of magic, joy, and important people.

Amy About Kevin: Kevin is a brilliant scientist; therefore, he can build, fix, and explain pretty much anything. He built our back patio, installs household items, and helps Amy explain scientific concepts to her students. He is also hilarious, hardworking, and incredibly generous. If he knows that someone is having a hard time, he is always ready to help or call to check in. Our daughter did not sleep for the first 3 months of her life, so Kevin hilariously declared that "Evie the immortal needs no sleep". His humor always serves to lighten the load and brighten the darkest days. There is no activity beneath him, or not his "job". Laundry, cleaning, cooking, building, playing, diapers, you name it, he will always do it, without anyone needing to ask. He is Amy's favorite person.

Kevin About Amy: Amy is a loving, patient teacher. When she's not teaching our daughter about the world, she's teaching her how to handle her big feelings and play well with others. She is also absolutely brilliant; she always knows what's going to happen next in every book or show (you know because she talks while watching shows and movies, which is way more endearing than it sounds). Best of all, Amy is the first person we all run to when we're upset, because we know that she's always there to hug and comfort us.

We're very lucky to live in a cozy, welcoming and diverse neighborhood on the outskirts of a vibrant city. Behind our house are extensive public trails through the woods with a stream running through. It feels like you are transported to a magical fairy land. Our house is a split level with 4 floors. We spend most of our time on the two main floors either in the kitchen cooking together, or in the family room playing and building forts together. The top floor has 3 bedrooms where we snuggle and read books together. The best part of our home is our yard. The front has a great climbing tree and a vegetable garden, and the back is a large space for BBQs and running around. We love to explore the woods or take walks around the neighborhood.

Our house is a 10 minute walk to the elementary school and with sidewalks and friendly neighbors the whole way. There are many young families as well as older, more established ones. There are always kids riding their bikes, going on walks with their parents or heading to the neighborhood pool located one block from our house. The neighborhood has a yearly block party as well as neighborhood events at the pool all Summer and Autumn.

We spend most weekends either playing at the local playgrounds or exploring all the activities that nearby Washington, DC has to offer. We are only 20 minutes from the Smithsonian museums, monuments, the National Zoo, the White House, kayaking, swimming, and hiking. We attend festivals, concerts, and shows. The city is rich with history and diverse cultural experiences. The easy access to the city as well as the nature at our fingertips makes our location the best of both worlds.

Whether we're dancing, singing, swimming, hiking, exploring, eating, traveling, laughing, playing, or just talking and relaxing, family time is always the best time.

Our family is a big part of our lives. All of Amy's immediate family lives nearby. Amy's mom is retired and obsessed with grandchildren. She is practically jumping out of her skin in excitement for us to bring another grandbaby home. She is the keeper of all nursery rhymes, developmental stages, and children's songs, as well as being the baby whisperer. Amy's sister knows all the cool and interesting things to do in the area. From the Truck Touch to the newest splash park, we are always experiencing the city with her. Amy's brother and his family love to garden, host family holidays and watch our kids become obsessed with each other.

Kevin's family live further away but are always involved. We love swimming in his folk's pool in the summer, cooking a turkey in a can in the fall, ice skating on the field behind their house in winter and gardening in the spring. They are already in love with our future child. In addition to holidays, every summer we meet up with Kevin's twin brother and his family at the beach for fun in the sun. We always have a blast playing board games, watching movies, and hiking with them and our nephew!

Our families are incredibly supportive of our choice to adopt and can't wait to welcome a new baby into the family to love and spoil rotten.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We have tried our best to share who we truly are and how we feel. We hope one day we will be able to get to know you as well. Please understand, we are in awe of you, to even consider making the selfless choice of adoption is humbling. It is important to us that you know we would love your child with every fiber of our beings. Our love and yours would be a staple in their life.

Here is our story: We met, fell in love, and decided we could not stand to ever be apart. After 10 years of marriage, we would still rather be together than anywhere else. We should tell you; we are planners. This means we have talked about our hopes and dreams for the future for a very long time. The very heart of those dreams has always been multiple children. We both have siblings who have fundamentally shaped us. We also love the chaos, joy, and camaraderie that multiple children in a home create.

After an incredibly difficult pregnancy that gave us our daughter, Evie, we suffered a late term miscarriage of our 2nd child at 5 months. This loss nearly broke us. Through counseling, love, and support from each other and our families, we have grieved and come to terms with our loss. We have also closed the door on having more biological children. But what we refuse to give up is the hope of multiple children, that is too much to bear.

Becoming parents is the best thing we have ever done. Our daughter has stolen our hearts, but our family is still incomplete. We know that adoption is our future. To us, family is everything and we know we would give our children the life we all dream for them. We imagine our children running together in the park, having handstand competitions at the beach, whispering secrets to each other in the car, laughing hysterically about absolutely nothing and so much more. We promise to raise your child to be a strong, confident, kind, and curious human.

Know that we are fiercely loyal and protective of our people. Your child will feel the force of that love from the moment they are placed in our arms. The loyalty and protectiveness we feel for our people extends to you as well. We will always know that your unconditional love for your child is what brought our child to us. We want you to succeed and flourish as well as be a part of your child's life forever. We plan on always being honest with our child, sharing their story with them from the beginning. They will know that they have always been loved by their birth family and us. They will be proud of where they came from and confident in who they are.

We hope for an open adoption but we acknowledge and respect the many different emotions a birth parent can feel, especially early on. We envision a gradual development of this relationship and an open door to communication for whenever or if ever you are ready. We want you to be a part of our lives in any way that you can.

Please find comfort in the knowledge that we already love and value you, no matter your decision. You want only what is best for your child, who could ask for anything more.

Love,

Kevin & Amy