Introduction
Dear Expectant Parent(s),
We are Lianna and Peter. Thank you so much for taking the time to learn about us and our family.
Our Story
We met in the fall of 2015 on a dating app and moved in together a year later. Shortly after, Lianna’s mom was diagnosed with cancer, and she moved in with us for help with treatments. We were suddenly more than just a couple – we were a family. Our lives continued to grow from there.
In 2017, we took a big vacation to Scotland. Peter had planned to propose, but hadn’t had time to go ring shopping. The ring didn’t matter, though, because Peter proposed anyway, in beautiful gardens with beautiful words. It took Lianna a minute to realize what was happening, but she was ecstatic. It is a story she likes to tell to anyone who will listen.
A year later, we were married in Vermont. Since Peter’s father is from India, we had two weddings, a cultural ceremony honoring Peter’s heritage and an American ceremony which was officiated by a close friend the following day. Our goal was to have a giant party that lasted the weekend, and we did.
Our lives since our wedding have been full. In 2020, after the passing of Peter’s mom, we moved into Peter’s childhood home with his father. Although we have this wonderful life together, we would really love to add a child to our world as we have a lot of love and laughter to share.
About Peter
Peter is kind, funny, and smart, and a wonderful partner. He loves to read and is especially good at figuring out how things work and at solving problems. He is the family’s designated vacation planner, scheduling the best trips.
He is well-established in his career as a software engineer, but cares greatly about work-life balance. His family life and personal interests are important to him, and he has taught me a lot about maintaining this balance.
Peter grew up in Boston and has strong groups of friends in the area. He loves to play board games and role-playing games with his friends (and Lianna, too) each week. For certain tabletop games, he’s taken to painting game pieces. The artistry of this appeals to him and he’s taking lessons to improve his craft and expand his skills. Every year, he participates in a gaming convention where he enters his favorite pieces into competitions.
About Lianna
Lianna is introverted. She likes having time at home, and values being kind and empathetic. More than anything, she wants to be a good friend and family member. Friendships and traditions are important to Lianna. Every year she makes gingerbread houses with a close friend for the holidays in different themes, like representing a book they both like.
Lianna is a faculty member at a local university, where she teaches current and future early childhood educators. As a former school psychologist who worked with children who had hearing loss, she is fluent in American Sign Language.
She likes silly jokes and puns, and will dance any chance she gets. She sings badly in the car, enjoys musicals, and loves sending weird pictures of her cat to family members.
Her social life includes spending one-on-one time with friends and creating through knitting and sewing. One of her favorite adventures has been learning to use a spinning wheel to make yarn from wool. She also is an avid reader of fiction and enjoys a good binge watching session of a fun TV show.
Our Home
We live in a 125-year-old house which is our forever home. Peter grew up here with his parents, and made many happy memories here as a child. Peter’s parents bought the house in the 1980s and poured their hearts into its restoration. With the original hardwood floors, doors, and trim, the house has a cozy and historic feel.
Since moving in with Peter’s dad, we have made small updates to the home making it fun and functional for our family dynamic and lifestyle. Some of our favorites include the additional cooking space in the kitchen and the patio in the backyard where we spend time as a family during the warmer months. We have a dedicated space for playing games in the basement where we host game nights for family and friends.
We love where we live and those around us. We hope the future child will too. Our next door neighbors have school-aged children who are adopted. Any child who joins our family will be surrounded by a strong community and role models.
We are lucky to be in a great location that is walking distance to many fun activities like parks, museums, and restaurants. Being five minutes from public transportation means we can also be in the heart of Boston in half an hour. As a professor, Lianna has summers off and enjoys exploring the various activities that the city has to offer, like the “Free Friday” program which is a coordinated, city-wide event allowing families to attend museums, fairs, or children’s activities.
Family & Friends
We live with Peter’s dad and our two cats, Miles and Sterling, who are very mellow. Peter’s dad just turned 90, and is a wonderful man who spends his afternoons at the library reading books and continually learning. He walks an hour a day and runs errands for provisions we need in the house. We often spend time together after dinner as a family.
Lianna’s family lives in Pennsylvania and visits regularly to explore the city, go shopping, or attend one of the many festivals that pop up throughout the year. We also like to travel to Pennsylvania for holidays or just to relax with family.
Lianna’s best friend lives in Georgia, and is a key family member. They visit each other as much as possible, and Lianna loves being an auntie to her daughters. When they come to Boston, the oldest requests that we see the Red Sox, Bruins, and bookstores, while the youngest wants to binge her favorite shows, eat snacks, and cuddle cats.
Peter has known his best friend since kindergarten. We visit them and their family in Western Massachusetts and love that their children all call us Uncle Peter and Auntie Li.
We also have a lot of “found family” in our area, and love hosting dinners, cookouts, and game days. Our friends range in ages, family make-up, and occupations, and a number of them have young children who are important members of our lives. The house is often full with people and laughter.
Our Hobbies, Interests, and Traditions
We have a mix of interests that are shared including cooking, traveling, and taking advantage of activities available in Boston.
We love to cook. We have shelves of cookbooks and experiment with different cuisines on the weekends. Even though Peter makes some of the best fruit pies, he generally leaves baking to Lianna. We have taken cooking classes locally and will attend any food festival that seems interesting. We especially love to attend the hot sauce festival every year!
Another shared love is for traveling. In the summer of 2024, we visited Europe. We’ve also traveled to Hawaii where Peter began teaching Lianna how to snorkel. Our most frequent trips involve spending time in small towns in Vermont. It is easy to spend the weekend enjoying the shops and restaurants that we find. We love Vermont so much that we were even married there.
We spend time gardening together in the summer, and building a rose garden is one of Lianna’s goals. Peter typically has an herb and vegetable garden that has allowed us to make our own pickles and hot sauces.
Each year we host Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve for our local friends and family, where we bring all of our different groups of loved ones together for celebration.
Thank You
Thank you so much for taking the time to learn more about our family. We are really looking forward to extending our family as we have so much love and support to share with a child. Our home is a place of comfort and connection—where even the family cat contributes to the affection that fills everyday life. It is a home where a child will be given the safety to explore, the encouragement to grow, and the freedom to become fully themselves. The hope is to create a space where friends feel welcome, laughter is shared often, and everyone is celebrated for who they are.
When we envision bringing a child into our family, we welcome the birth family as part of our futures. Our child will always be supported in understanding their story—where they come from, the people who love them, and the cultures and values that are part of their identity. We view adoption as something beautiful and meaningful, and their story will be shared with honesty, love and deep respect.
Sincerely,