We are college sweethearts who got married in 2011. Our daughter Kate was born in April 2017. She is chock-full of energy and loves to be outside, running in the yard and playing on our swing set. She's a mud puddle jumping, barefoot-loving, water splashing, adventure-seeking little human.

While Jonathan is working as a full-time electrical engineer, Allie is a full-time mom. Allie is a great caretaker. She makes Kate a lunch every morning for school, she makes her homemade costumes every year for Halloween, and she plans a whole month of Christmas activities every December. We work hard to be a parenting team. We are both all in on being the best parents we can be!

We are all so ready for a new baby in our family. When we told Kate of our plans to adopt, she was SO excited! She said that she is an "excellent helper!" and will take care of her new sibling. When adoption is on Kate's mind, she draws pictures of our family (with a small little baby addition, of course!) and makes lists of "all the things we need to get" for the new baby. Needless to say, she is very ready to take on her role as a big sister!

We believe that every person is unique and amazing. We believe diversity makes us stronger.

In 2010, Jonathan lived on his own in Kenya for 6 months and saw firsthand how much someone can learn from immersing yourself into a new culture, as well as how it feels to be the racial minority everywhere you go. For Allie, working with special needs children and adults as a young adult helped her see the importance of accepting someone's inherent value, no matter their circumstances.

These lessons inform our families commitment to understanding people and loving them as uniquely awesome individuals. We believe every person's experience is valid and valuable. Accepting someone for who they are is the first step to understanding and loving them, so our priority is to not only have open arms, but an open mind.

Family is important to us. After school and work, we spend a lot of time together playing in our neighborhood, or backyard. Caring for our daughter Kate is so much fun. We love to join Kate in her imaginary play and help her try new and exciting things every day. We prioritize family dinners where we talk about our days, and hear Kate’s stories and songs from preschool.

Playing board games is a hobby we enjoy together. We love hosting game nights with our friends and our families. Jonathan usually wins when we play 'Settlers of Catan', but Allie is the undefeated 'Small World' champ! Music is also a big part of our lifestyle. We have a baby grand piano in our living room where Jonathan is constantly playing and practicing. Allie and Kate love to join Jonathan in Disney sing-alongs while he plays along on the piano.

We love to keep an “open door policy” in our home. We enjoy hosting and always make sure our friends and family know they are welcome to stay and eat, hang out or play games. We often have friends or family visiting on the weekends.

Allie’s family lives just a couple of hours away and visit often. Her parents love spending time with their first grandchild and are very excited to have another! Allie’s sister and brother-in-law also live nearby and we see them for holidays and family celebrations. Her father’s side of the family has an annual Christmas party and Santa (or is it Grandpa Joe?) ALWAYS makes an appearance. Allie’s family enjoys games, and movie nights when they are all together. They’re wicked awesome.

Jonathan’s parents enjoy spending time with their grandkids (seven grandkids and counting!). They recently moved to live closer to Jonathan’s younger sister; they are building a house together! We are looking forward to a big family get-together once the home is complete. Jonathan’s three siblings live spread out across the country and we don’t get to see one another a lot so those big gatherings are very special. It’s so fun, meeting the new babies who have joined the family and watching all the cousins run around and play. The adults always look forward to staying up way too late playing board games once the kiddos are in bed. Since we can’t be with them as often as we’d like, we video chat with Jon’s family regularly.

Jonathan’s parents recently spent a couple of weeks with us over Christmas. They often travel with their shih-tzu, Jack. Jack is a sweet dog and Kate adores having a puppy around.

We reside in southeastern Connecticut, just a few short miles from the ocean. Our neighborhood consists of a couple quiet dead-end streets, and is the perfect set up for bike rides and family walks. There are lots of families with young children, and our daughter Kate loves to jump off her bike and join her neighbor friends in their backyards for spontaneous play dates.

We own a one-story single-family home and have a fenced-in backyard with a swing set. We love having outdoor space to play and often host our friends and family for barbeques and get togethers. Jonathan loves to lay on a blanket in the yard reading and Allie's favorite place is the walk-in closet she converted into an art studio. Kate loves it in there, and will sit and color or draw while Allie works on her art projects. We love to cook together so we spend a lot of our time in the kitchen, and we have nightly dinner together in our dining room.

Our neighborhood is centrally located, we are a quick drive away from libraries, playgrounds, a children’s museum as well a world class aquarium. Our favorite aquarium activity is petting the stingrays! When its warmer, we enjoy going to the town beach and visiting a local college with a gorgeous arboretum.

Greetings!

It is hard to imagine the journey that led you here where you are reading our profile. Whatever your situation, we are grateful we get a chance to reach out to you. We want to tell you about our strong desire to adopt and to grow our family, not only by welcoming your child, but by welcoming you, as their birth family as well.

Our relationship began in college - we started off as very close friends. After a few years we realized we were a great match, and should totally date. We've been married for 10 years, and to this day our marriage is the central pillar in our lives. We believe that a stable and healthy relationship with one another helps us to be better parents. In 2017 we had our daughter Kathryn (Kate) who is a true delight to be around. Kate is going to be an excellent big sister; she is so excited! She is such an affectionate and funny child we know she will fit into the role of big sister perfectly.

We tried to get pregnant again for two years, and experienced multiple miscarriages. After some testing we learned that Allie has a unicorneate uterus, a birth defect which makes conception much more difficult, and the chance of miscarriage much higher. In the face of these challenges, we are pursuing adoption to try to grow our family.

It is important to us that you know how much we value you. Here are some promises we will make if you give us the honor of becoming your child's adoptive family:

If it is what you desire, we would love to have you be a regular presence in our child's life - we want you to be a part of this family! We are very happy to send pictures, emails and text updates as much as you want and are open to regular visits. That said, if you ever decide you need to step away for a time, we will respect that and honor your decision. The relationship will remain available to pick-up when you feel you are ready.

Our desire to pursue adoption comes from a place of hope and love. We truly believe that the family bonds we form will be the foundation of a wonderful life: for us, for our children, and for you if you choose us as your adoptive family. We are so excited to welcome your baby into our home as a part of our family. Thank you so much for your consideration and we wish you the best as you continue on your adoptive journey.

Sincerely,

Jonathan & Allie