Introduction
Dear Expectant Parent(s),
Hi! We’re Sarah and Jessica. Thank you so much for taking some time to get to know us.
We met as friends through an online dating app in Boston in 2014 while Sarah was working and Jessica was in pharmacy school. After spending the summer getting to know one another, we realized we had feelings for each other. We began dating and quickly fell in love. After Jessica finished her pharmacy residency a couple of years later, we got engaged and moved into our first apartment together. In 2019, we got married on top of a mountain in Sarah’s home state of New Hampshire shortly before finding our future family home.
Jessica now works as a clinical pharmacist at a local hospital. Her work schedule is consistent daily, which is beneficial for having no last-minute scheduling surprises. Sarah is on a project team in the customer service department of a toy company. She loves the company she works for, and her employer is very generous with parental leave and any schedule adjustments needed for family life.
We currently live in a small city in western Massachusetts, which we absolutely love. It will be a great place for us as two women to raise an adopted child who may not look like us, as that is fairly commonplace here. Although we do not yet have children, we have always known we wanted to start a family together. We knew that adoption was the right path for us early on, and the child we adopt will be the child we have always wanted.
About Jessica (as told by Sarah)
Jessica is incredibly smart. She will often downplay this or say I’m being dramatic, but I’m not. I love listening to her tell me about new medications on the horizon and how they might help people or their potential side effects. Some of the best conversations to listen to are the ones between her, my dad, and my brother, as they all work in the medical field. I just adore getting a glimpse of the breadth of knowledge she has.
Jessica is warm, kind, and really funny. Often she will say a stupid pun, and I’ll just be shaking my head and smiling about it throughout the day. My friends and family all love spending time with Jess because she is just an easy person to be around. She always puts the needs of her friends and loved ones first and then thinks about her own needs after she knows everyone else is cared for.
Jessica is a fabulous and reliable travel companion. I have a terrible sense of direction, but thankfully Jessica has a good one! We like going on adventures together, whether a day trip to the local fair or a more extended trip out of the country.
We are looking forward to sharing those kinds of experiences, both local and far, with a child. Jessica is excellent at planning ahead to create the perfect outing or trip, making sure that we get to see and do everything we want.
About Sarah (as told by Jessica)
Sarah is a wonderful combination of responsible and fun. She has an incredible drive and work ethic, which has led to her advancing her career with growing responsibilities. She fosters growth by inspiring her team members to actually learn the skills they need to improve rather than giving a quick-fix answer. Sarah has taught me priceless knowledge about being smart with finances and the importance of social justice advocacy. She is also extremely handy with tools and can fix a broken shelf whenever needed!
Beyond that, she is so much fun to be around. She has a witty sense of humor that makes you laugh long after the joke ends. She is down to earth and does not take herself too seriously. Her interests are pretty goofy, and she likes having fun building toy models or creating art pieces to decorate the house.
Watching Sarah play with our young nephew and our friends’ children is a joy. She can surprisingly keep up with them while running on the playground playing “pirates” or “monster-catcher.” One of my favorite things about Sarah is how she encourages the kids in our life to be as true to their quirky selves as possible – whether it be my nephew’s fascination with toy skeletons or our friend’s kid’s obsession with worms.
Sarah always makes me feel cared for and safe. She is a loving wife, daughter, sister, and friend. I know she will be an amazing parent with her natural desire to help teach others to develop real-life skills and her fun-loving playfulness.
Our Home
We bought our house with children in mind. It has three bedrooms and plenty of space for us to grow as a family. The neighborhood has a lot of families, which is great as we love hearing the sounds of children running around and having fun outside. Halloween is a blast because we get to spoil the kids who come by and admire their creative costumes.
Our house resides on about a half-acre of land with a front and back yard. There is a designated space in the back for a playground set, which Sarah’s dad is very antsy to build during his retirement. Our front porch looks out onto the neighborhood, and the back porch looks out onto forested conservation land. We sometimes even have wildlife visitors, like deer, stop by!
With our limited gardening skills, we have successfully planted a peach tree and a hardy-orange tree in our yard. In the winter, forest trails throughout the neighborhood are perfect for walking through just after a fresh snow. We feel very comfortable with our neighbors and have gotten to know all the local dogs during our evening walks through the neighborhood.
One of the best things about our home is how close we are to the city center. Our small city has a fantastic Main Street with tons of restaurants and local art. We feel fortunate to have the best of a family-friendly suburban neighborhood and the diversity (and amazing food) of a nearby city.
Our Family
We were both born and raised in New England with fairly large extended families. We are lucky to have most of our immediate family still living close by, enough to visit and be a regular part of our lives!
Sarah is from southern New Hampshire, where her parents still live. She has a younger brother who cannot wait to be an uncle, and Sarah’s parents often ask where we are in our adoption journey as they are so excited to become grandparents. Sarah’s parents own a small condo on a lake in NH, where Sarah spent many of her childhood summers. We often talk about how great it will be to take a child there to create their own fun summer memories.
Jessica is from Rhode Island, where her parents still live. Jessica is the daughter of two Asian immigrant parents – a Chinese father and a Korean mother. She is the youngest of four siblings, after her sister and two twin brothers.
Our young nephew (Jessica’s sister’s son) is so precious to us. He is an affectionate sweetheart who has autism. Even though he is not a child of many words, he always asks to video chat with his aunties to show us what he has been up to that day. Having both grown up surrounded by siblings and cousins, we are excited to have our nephew and any future nieces/nephews be a part of the life of the child we adopt.
Traditions, Friends, and Hobbies
Traditions:
Sarah was raised in a Jewish family, and we love to spend the important Jewish holidays with Sarah’s family. It is a great time to connect with family, friends, and extended relatives who live farther away. Sarah’s family being Jewish also makes Christmas easy, as we never have to fight over whose family’s home to go to for the holiday! We always celebrate Christmas with Jessica’s large family.
We also always make an effort to see Jessica’s family for the Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year), which consists of having large traditional Chinese feasts. Our different cultural and religious backgrounds make us blessed to have so many holidays to celebrate.
Friends:
We love visiting our friends, both local and far away. Many of our childhood and college friends live in different parts of the country (and a few out of the country), which gives us a great excuse to travel to various places. Some of our favorite activities while traveling are finding the best local eateries and museums.
Hobbies:
On our weekends at home, we like to go hiking at the nearby mountain trails, meet our friends with their kids at the park for picnics, and take walks through town. We both love playing board games with friends, especially games of strategy. We also love building LEGO® sets and look forward to building together with a child. Sarah enjoys painting and sometimes takes part in local art competitions, and Jess enjoys crosswords and other kinds of word puzzles. We both appreciate a good book and have been stocking up on our favorites in our new home.
Thank You
Again, we are so thankful you took the time to read our profile. We know this is not an easy decision, but please know that whatever decision you make is the right one. We admire your courage and resilience in considering this option.
If chosen as adoptive parents, we promise to love your baby with all of our hearts. We promise to care for this child with all our resources, including providing a safe home, a healthy environment, a loving extended family, a strong support system, and the encouragement to pursue their passions.
We are also fortunate to be friends with many adopted people in our lives. Some, like childhood friends, we always knew were adopted, and others, like adult friends, whom we found out were adopted later in our friendships. They have been a great resource of knowledge and wisdom as we go through this process, and we are grateful to have them in our circle for our adoption journey, now and in the future.
While we would be absolutely happy to maintain open communication with you throughout the child’s life, we will also completely respect whatever boundaries you need or desire. We wish you all the love and strength in whatever you choose.
With Love,