Being a parent means being a safe place to land in a storm. It means biting your lip while watching them get back up and not swooping in to save them every time. It means being there to help them find themselves. It means being there to say I have seen you all along, I know you. Being a parent is the most terrifying and beautiful balancing act of your life. Being a parent is the chance to be there to love unconditionally and get a front row ticket to watch a small human become the missing piece their small section of the world doesn't even know it needs yet.

We cannot wait to be there for all of our child's moments of discovering all of the wonderful and beautiful joys hidden in this world. The first time they dance in the rain. The first time they build a snowman. The first time they make a wish on a dandelion or play in a pile of leaves.

We can't wait to watch their imaginations take flight so that we can have tea parties, and fly on the back of dragons with them. We are so excited for all of the small moments in parenthood. We can't wait to be there for all of the giggles, tears, cuddles, and tantrums that are encased in our future small human.

We are not a culturally diverse couple, but we are a couple who values and prioritizes cultural diversity. We each are working on multiculturalism in our respective careers. Ariel is leading a book study training on Multiculturalism in the classroom and how to ensure that all children are represented in the curriculum. Kyle is on a diversity committee in his job as well. We have helped plan game nights for other religions to help celebrate their culture as well.

We love celebrating other cultures anyway we can. We have read books and had thoughtful conversations with friends of other races and cultures about what it means to raise a child in that culture. We look forward to a lifetime of learning.

Ariel speaks Spanish and loves teaching others about the various cultural differences in Spanish speaking countries and we are looking to learn other languages together. We love exploring other cultures and language and look forward to embracing a child's cultural heritage and making it a part of our family's story.

Our day usually begins very early with some quiet time or exercise. We love to wake up early to each have some time in the morning to get a jumpstart on our days. Then we each travel to our respective jobs. Kyle is a graphic designer and Ariel is a middle school teacher. When we get home there is usually time spent working on our own individual pursuits. Ariel may be painting dinosaurs or working on a short story. Kyle may be listening to an audiobook while going on a walk around the neighborhood.

Then we will often be in the kitchen singing along to a playlist while Ariel cooks dinner. Ariel loves to cook and does most days. Kyle is almost always found in the kitchen with her while she cooks and may be trying to keep up with the amount of dishes she uses while concocting a healthy dinner.

After dinner we often go on walks in the evening or read. We have a standing game night with friends on Tuesday nights and a family movie night every Friday. We go to church every Sunday and have a great time with our church family. We are often hosting a game night or dinner at our home and frequently see family. We love to go on mini-adventures to botanical gardens, aquariums, zoos, and parks around our town. We also enjoy going bowling or to any local festival.

We live in a bustling college community in Tennessee. There are several cultural festivals throughout the year and many museums, zoos, and monuments to visit throughout the year. Our community is filled with fun activities to do with children. We have several parks, local stores, bowling alleys, and roller skating rinks.

We live in a beautiful neighborhood filled with people who support and love one another. We regularly see our neighbors and their kids on walks in the afternoon and attend neighborhood birthday parties. When it snows all of the neighbors will gather together to sled down our hill. We all take care of each other and help whenever anyone needs it.

Our home is a bright place for us to get our wiggles out. It is filled with large windows to bathe the rooms in natural light and has several large rooms that quickly become impromptu dance floors and several snug corners that beg to be reading nooks. We have four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, and office/library space filled with books. We have almost an acre of land filled with trees that are perfect for hammocks and playing in the shade.

Our family is so excited and supportive of this adoption journey. We are both from the same hometown and our parents still live there at the top of Tennessee near Kentucky.

Ariel is a single child and her mother, Tammy, is a high school teacher and her dad, Quinn, is a war veteran who works for the city in the water utility department and is the county representative for veterans. We see them several times a year and love to go visit art museums, see plays, and eat delicious food.

Kyle has a sister and three step-sisters. Two of the stepsisters live in other states and his youngest stepsister is currently finishing her undergraduate degree. His sister and brother-in-law are both nurses and have two boys and a girl that are so very fun to play with. Kyle's mom, Gina, and stepdad, Patrick, love to play with their grandchildren and always get everyone together for holidays. Kyle's father, Charlie, and stepmom, Dana, have a camper and Jeeps and adore taking the grandkids out on outdoor adventures. We love getting together with the whole family so we can go out in the wilderness, and explore all the beauty the world has to offer in arts and nature.

We also are lucky enough to have sweet friends that are just as close as family that we see every week. We look forward to raising our children together in our church and seeing them grow up surrounded by love.

We just want to start this letter by putting our digital hand out to yours and saying you are awesome. We cannot thank you enough for making it to the bottom of our profile and reading our letter and taking the time to see us. We are just in awe of the love you have for your child and we just want you to know that you are in our hearts.

We have been dating since 2008 and separated briefly in 2012 while we attended separate colleges to pursue our future goals. We realized that God had us where he wanted us and that we were with our forever person originally. We reunited in 2013 and Kyle proposed on New Year's Eve 2014. We decided to have a wedding that reflected our personalities. We hosted our 50 closest friends and family members in our home for a backyard picnic and then surprised them with a wedding. One of Kyle's groomsmen married us and in lieu of some other wedding traditions we played backyard games and ate a picnic lunch on blankets on August 1, 2015.

We have always wanted to have children be a part of our family. Ariel has worked with children since she was 15 in one way or another. She loves playing with them, teaching them, and helping them discover the world and their place in it. Kyle has always been a natural playmate for every child he has ever met and cannot wait to have permanent playfellows in the house with him. Ariel originally wanted a basketball team's worth of kids, but she and Kyle have decided that they would love to have three (or more) children giggling in our home someday. Teaching and working with the youth in our church has shown both of us how fulfilling it is to love a child. Ariel loves to take care of all of her middle school and high school babies and adores teaching them. We can't wait to go from those roles to being Mom and Dad one day.

We have often imagined what our lives with a child would look like and are ecstatic at the opportunities before us. Kyle imagines swinging in hammocks, building Lego castles, playing pretend, and teaching his child to live up to their word. He loves the idea of helping our future child see the joy that can be gained from helping others. Ariel envisions teaching our child how to cook, creating artwork together, playing in leaves, and exploring nature. She longs to teach a child about the power of words and how they can build us up and create new worlds. Both Ariel and Kyle look forward to kayaking and reading with their future child.

We are both excited to experience the love this child will receive from us and the birth parents. We hope to build an accepting and loving family unit that is built upon respect and joy. We hope to create an annual scrapbook for the birth parents to have pictures of the child's year. We look forward to defining our relationship with you and navigating the possible forms of communication you are most comfortable with maintaining. We are open to letters, phone calls, emails and potential visits. We want what is best for the child and believe that a connection to his or her birth family may be vital to the child's wellbeing.

Whatever path you choose, know that we appreciate you taking the time to look through our profile. We wish you well and if we do meet one day because we are a match, we know any child added to our immediate and extended family will be loved and supported. We wish you well.

Thank you,

Kyle & Ariel