I was raised around the Washington, DC area with my parents and older brother. My mom is from Ecuador, so she raised me speaking English and Spanish, and my dad is Jewish. This means my childhood was filled with many different and fun types of traditions like listening to salsa music and eating plantains, while also celebrating Hanukkah and lighting the menorah with my family. I appreciate the rich experiences my parents gave me as a child. I became inspired to become a bilingual teacher to encourage kids to appreciate their cultures and have a chance to learn in two languages. I’ve loved all of my years teaching and working with kids!

Both in and out my career in education, I am a creative, empathetic, adventurous, and fun loving person. I’m in my happy place whenever I am doing something related to the arts. I play the violin, I love to sing, I’m always dancing around the house, and I love to learn new arts and crafts. This year, I learned how to throw pottery! I also love animals—John and I have volunteered to foster many dogs from our local animal shelters.

It’s important to me to have new experiences and to live life to the fullest, which is why I take time to travel to new places. I look forward to continuing my traditions, but also having many new experiences with a child, to provide them the fulfilling childhood that my parents gave to me.

I grew up in the Washington, DC suburbs with my parents and sister. My childhood was filled with family visits and celebrations. Both of my parents have big families, but we managed to visit everybody for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter every year. We’d take road trips east to the Delaware shore, down to beaches in Florida, and even out to central California to visit my aunts and uncles. When we weren’t visiting extended family, the four of us took camping trips to national parks and weekend trips to baseball parks across the country.

Growing up, my parents encouraged me to try new hobbies and meet new friends. I loved playing a variety of team sports, but ice hockey was my favorite. I keep that creativity alive as I’ve grown older by picking up more new hobbies—I’ve built tables for our living room, I’ve cooked countless new recipes in our kitchen, and I took a photography class so that I can capture all of our family trips.

My job as an IT project manager challenges me to work with diverse groups of people and stay organized over a lot of ongoing tasks, but what I love most about my job the most is the work-life balance that it gives me to spend time with my family. My job lets me work from home 100% of the time so I have lots of flexibility for family life. I can’t wait to welcome a child into our family and devote my time and energy to them, fostering that same sense of openness, support, and creativity that my parents gave to me.

Our charming home gives us the best of both worlds. It’s in a great suburb with lots of families, but we get all the rustic charm from being nestled in the Pioneer Valley. We have a big yard where we play fetch with our dog, bask in the shade of our tree-lined yard and tend to our little vegetable garden. We love our spacious kitchen where we cook and bake most nights—we both love food! We even have a projector in our living room in front of our comfy couch for weekend movie nights.

We love to ride our bikes downtown to grab a bagel sandwich for breakfast, check out a local art festival, or try the flavor of the day at our local ice cream shop. Our neighborhood has a small town feel—we’ve met more of our neighbors here than when we lived in the big city! One of our favorite spots is our local co-op grocery store. We get to support local farmers and connect with our community. The co-op runs child-friendly events every week, with outdoor concerts and food festivals for everyone.

We believe western Massachusetts is a great place to raise a family. We can’t wait to take a child to visit the Eric Carle Children’s Museum, take a family hike in the Berkshires, and spend the summer swimming at any of our local lakes. We’d love to take on new adventures as a family, like making a trip out to Cape Cod and spending a weekend on the beach.

We have always been close to our families, seeing our cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents for holidays and celebrations.

John had a loving and supportive childhood with his parents and younger sister. His parents live in Maryland, but they make lots of trips up to Massachusetts to visit. John traveled with his family to Ireland and Croatia to meet extended family and connect to his cultural roots.

Laura grew up with her parents and older brother in a bicultural and bilingual household. She took lots of fun trips across the country to visit family, and even all the way to Ecuador to visit her grandmother and stay connected to her cultural background. Her brother, sister in law, and nephews now live in Pennsylvania, but they have a family home in Vermont. Being an aunt and uncle has been a gift—we truly treasure spending time with our nephews. We have joined them on family trips to Vermont where we get to kayak with our nephews and make s’mores in the backyard!

Our parents were overjoyed to hear that we started the adoption process. They have been supportive of our decision and are excited to welcome a grandchild into their lives. It fills us with confidence to know that we have the support of our parents and that they are ready and excited to help in any way they can.

We love to explore all that New England has to offer, from canoeing and hiking trails in the Berkshires with our dog, to camping at Acadia National Park. We have even had the chance to travel internationally. We are lucky to have been to four different continents together!

John grew up playing team sports all year round: baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and soccer. He loves to stay active, riding his bike on local trails and training for powerlifting. We are looking forward to encouraging a child to be active with us. When he’s not at the gym, John is cooking for us, always exploring new recipes and making lots of things from scratch. He can’t wait to have a little helper in the kitchen!

Laura’s parents always encouraged her to explore arts and music. She has played the violin since she was little and has participated in community orchestras. At the end of each day, Laura relaxes with a good book. She is looking forward to sharing her love of reading and enjoying lots of different stories at bedtime with a child.

In our home, we’ve started traditions like family board games nights and weekly takeout from our favorite restaurants. We connect with our community through our local temple where we come together to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We hope to raise a child in the Jewish traditions to bring strong values of openness, acceptance, and community.

“I really love Aunt Laura and Uncle John because they love me. And I get to play with them, read books and swim. And we have fun with toys.” Our nephew Jonah said that, and we feel like that is a great picture of what we hope for our future family. Full of love, fun, and enriching experiences together.

While we can’t know what you are going through, we imagine this must be a difficult decision for yo​​u. We promise that if chosen, we will offer lifelong love and support to your child.

Please know that we are committed to whatever level of openness makes you the most comfortable. We will always share with the child the loving choice their mother made for them. We believe that adoption is a beautiful way to start a family, and we are extremely grateful you have taken the time to consider us as prospective parents.