Introduction
Dear Expectant Parent(s),
Hello, we are Alicia and David. We want to thank you for reading our profile and offering us the opportunity to show you who we are. We imagine that this must be a difficult decision for you, and we only hope that you choose what is suitable for you and your child.
Our Story
We met at an art gallery in 2007. We were both admiring the same painting and began a conversation about the artist and his work. Later that evening, we went out for dinner together. That was the beginning of us. We were not yet settled in our careers, but we quickly knew that we wanted to spend our lives together.
We both finished our degrees a few years later and moved in together in 2009. While traveling through Europe in January 2013, we decided to get married. It was perhaps one of the happiest moments in our lives when we decided together that it was the right time. We were married in the summer of 2013 in a private ceremony in Chicago and have been together since then. We are devoted to each other’s happiness and well-being. We share our hopes and dreams with each other, have an incredible friendship, and an equally strong marriage.
We have never considered having a biological child, as we have always known that adoption was the way for us. Our dream was to be settled in our careers with stability and a strong partnership and then adopt a child. We are at that place now and are very excited about embracing a new life as parents.
Our Life Together
Alicia is an educator, and David is an artist who works in technology. David works from home full-time and has an art studio, while Alicia has a short commute to work where she teaches. No matter what’s going on in life, we support each other. Even if we cannot solve each other’s problems, they can still be received lovingly and compassionately. If there is a challenge, we meet it together and grow stronger because of it. This comes from the absolute trust we have in each other and the strong bond that we have built over the years.
In his free time, David enjoys painting, photography, and gardening. Alicia loves to read, take long walks, and practice yoga. As our adopted child grows, we’re excited to discover the things that interest them and encourage those activities, whether they be soccer, dance, piano, learning a new language, or anything else that can gather under that umbrella. We are ready for the happy chaos of a child in our lives!
We both have a weakness for adventures where we can travel off the beaten path to explore long-forgotten villages, eat local foods that we’ve never heard of, and visit weird and wonderful museum exhibits and gallery shows. We travel to Europe regularly, and the Caribbean is one of our favorite places to visit. We are looking forward to sharing our love of music, books, the outdoors, art, and travel with a child and creating new adventures together as a family.
About David, by Alicia
David is a gentle, dependable, and creative man. He takes in everything around him and reflects on it before speaking. He is very sensitive to the feelings of others and knows precisely when a hug or a kind word is needed. David’s natural tendency in all situations is for patience and calm. He also has a great sense of humor. His jokes are corny but legendary, and I love how his face turns completely red while he laughs uncontrollably.
David is extremely intelligent, but he is modest about his knowledge. Every day, I learn something new from him – from the mundane to the extraordinary. David is conscientious and works well under pressure. He is proud of a job well done and doesn’t leave anything unfinished. David is multi-talented. He draws, gardens, paints, and photographs. I am always so happy when I look at his art that decorates the walls of our home. I just love the combination of visual artist and technology nerd that exists in him. David is also very handy around the house and can fix most things, whether it is the lawnmower or my computer.
As the family cook, David can make a delicious meal without much thought. He loves to cook foods from different countries, so there is often a delicious surprise for dinner. David is also a wonderful travel partner. His great sense of direction has gotten us out of several tricky but hilarious situations. On the other hand, I can’t reliably make it to the supermarket without the GPS!
About Alicia, by David
The thing about Alicia is that she is very smart. Not just book smart but socially smart. Even though she is an introvert, she has a great group of close friends that she speaks with or sees regularly. She’s known some of these friends since elementary school, while others are newer arrivals in her life. When I see Alicia interact with her friends, I love how she centers their needs when something is troubling them. She listens closely and carefully, and responds with great insight, humor, or grace. Alicia is extremely funny. She always has great one-line responses that crack me up!
Alicia has always been persistent and resilient in the face of what might look like insurmountable challenges. She makes goodness appear with what seems to be very little effort. Alicia is thoughtful in the way that you want your partner to be. Throughout our years together, so much good has happened because of her meditation on a tough decision or a barrier that needed to be overcome. Alicia’s attention to detail is phenomenal, and I don’t know how she does it. She is always deliberate and careful about her words and actions. She plans for everything and is very organized. When we travel, Alicia researches the area and compiles a list of places to explore and those that we want to discover accidentally. She is prepared for everything. She has just the right amount of tenacity and imagination to make all of our adventures turn out successfully.
Our Home
Although we have lived in several different states, we decided to settle down in Maine and genuinely appreciate the kind of life that it offers us. We own a house on some land in a charming town, and we are happy to have found a home in which to grow our family. It was built in 1895 and is large and rambling. We have a few room painting projects that we want to finish, but it is our dream home.
Our home is perfect for outdoor play. We imagine games such as hide and seek, playing on a swing set, camping out with a tent in the backyard, and just the simple fun of running around barefoot in the grass. We love nature and enjoy drinking our morning coffee while wild turkeys prance just outside our kitchen windows and the deer spring across our backyard in the evening. We are eager to bring a child into this home so that they can also form their own memories and traditions.
Summers in Maine are beautiful, and we love to discover all that the state offers – from the coastal regions to the mountains. We both enjoy the sea and take every opportunity possible to be near the water. We tend to have lots of family members and long-time friends as guests in the summer months. Visitors mean that we travel throughout the state to hike, take boat rides to the many islands off the coast, and, of course, eat lobster. In the winter, we like to take long snowy walks and snow-shoe. We are so excited to share these experiences and the joy of the outdoors with a child!
Family & Friends
We are both from the suburbs of Connecticut and have been New Englanders for much of our lives. We grew up with our parents, and each of us has two siblings to whom we are very close. Alicia is the youngest in her family; David is the middle child. We have a lot of close family members who are excited to share this new phase with us.
Alicia is a doting aunt to a nephew and a niece that she helped raise. She is proud of their kind spirits, personal and professional achievements, and ethical grounding. While David has no nieces or nephews, he has spent many hours babysitting his friends’ children over the last twenty years. Sometimes he has inhabited the role of playmate to a series of stuffed animals, a helicopter in flight mode, a human monkey bar, a storyteller of fantasy worlds, or a pretend chef of fine plastic food meals.
Our friends are a diverse group of people who have shared their lives with us. We have known many of them for decades, and we count them as part of our extended family. To the children of several of our friends, we are “auntie” and “uncle.” We enjoy celebrating their birthdays with them, using FaceTime to see and speak with them, and giving gifts to these wonderful children.
We each know several adopted adults who have shared their stories with us over the years. They are proud of their biological parents and proud of their adoptive parents. Their insight has been invaluable, and we are thankful that they have been so open with us about their adoption experience.
Our Traditions
We are absolutely goofy. We have a lot of fun together and make each other laugh. We get a kick out of taking silly pictures of each other, and we love telling jokes. There is always laughter in our home, especially around the kitchen table where no topic of conversation is off-limits– from the serious to the ridiculous. We make it a point to always talk about our daily schedules while eating breakfast. It helps us to connect and become more aware of each other’s day. It may be a small thing, but it is one that we do every day.
We really enjoy the holidays. We want to host our own large family Thanksgiving gathering as a newly formed family, and can’t wait to celebrate Halloween and create unique costumes each year with a child. We also wish to build family traditions around Easter by painting our own eggs, hiding them in the garden, and then searching for the prizes.
Christmas is deeply important to us. We want to make that holiday special for a child. Cutting down our own tree, decorating it with homemade ornaments, stringing lights around the house, and then waiting for Santa Claus is all so exciting for us.
In Conclusion
We want to thank you again for the energy and love that you are dedicating to this choice and how carefully you are thinking about what you wish to do by considering adoption. It takes a lot of bravery and emotional strength, and we imagine that it cannot be simple or easy. We admire your strength and courage and want you to know that we can’t comprehend how trying this is for you. We would be so honored if you decided to allow us to parent your child. We see adoption as a way to create a loving and stable family. We are so eager to welcome a child into our hearts and give all of our attention, guidance, and support.
If chosen as the adoptive family, we will give your child unconditional love. As adoptive parents, our goal is to cultivate a healthy self-esteem, kindness, care for others, and a great sense of fun in a child. We value learning and knowledge and will provide an exceptional education and numerous opportunities for a child. Most importantly, we want the child that we adopt to know who their birth parents are, their birth story, and how they came into our life. We will always honor you, your child, and their lived experience.
Sincerely,