Family is everything. We both come from close-knit families and always knew we wanted to be parents and share our family traditions with another generation as well as start some of our own. We both have cousins who are adopted so we both knew first-hand how special adoption is. Then we adopted our son and he has changed us exponentially and know without a doubt another child will do the same.

Our son, Leo, is a lively and outgoing four-year-old who was welcomed into our family through adoption. He's happiest when he's outdoors, whether running around in the backyard dressed up as a cowboy or superhero, playing with Luna (our family dog), going on hikes, or riding on the back of our bikes. Leo has a special bond with his many cousins and lights up whenever they're around. He absolutely loves being around other kids and he is dying to be a big brother. We cherish our relationship with our siblings and we can't wait for Leo and this child to each have a sibling to go through life with like we both have been lucky to have ourselves.

We enjoy the outdoors everything from running, biking, hiking, and camping to hanging on our back deck playing cards and grilling. We love traveling, domestic and international, and spending time with our friends and family. It has been truly magical to share our love for these activities with our son as well as explore new things he finds interesting.

At home, you will almost always find us listening to music while we cook dinner — which is always a daily family affair — and there may or may not be impromptu dance offs.

On Fridays, we enjoy pizza night either at our favorite neighborhood pizza joint or by making and grilling pizzas at home followed by a movie night where we make a big pallet in our living room or on our screened in porch. It something we all look forward to every week.

As cliche as it most likely sounds, we truly complement each other. Mary Ann loves that Matt is steady as a rock, athletic, great with numbers, handy, a natural planner, and always down to throw something on the grill, hit the trails, or head to the beach on a last minute whim. Over the past four years it has been truly magical to watch him with our son. He is such a fun, active, and patient dad.

Matt loves that Mary Ann is so creative and generous — always willing to find thoughtful gifts for her family and friends, even "just because." Mary Ann is unbelievably fun and always willing to take on an adventure. She is a pusher for greatness and encourages others around her to always live their best life.

Our neighborhood is close to downtown and within walking distance to kid-friendly museums, parks, restaurants, community swimming pools, tennis courts, and many other entertainment venues.

We live in a four-bedroom, two-story house that has an open floor plan and gets a lot of natural light — but our favorite "room" is our backyard with a porch that has a portion screened-in and a portion that is fully open with a large table. You will frequently find us grilling out, playing soccer or baseball with our son, or enjoying the a-frame fort we built this past winter for our son's birthday.

Our neighborhood is perfect for raising a family and full of young families. In the evening you will see families out walking their dogs or catching up in the neighbor's front yard. We are within walking distance of an award-winning elementary school most of the neighborhood children attend creating a strong sense of community and belonging. Additionally, our neighborhood and city in general has amazing access to impressive parks which we frequent for runs, hikes, and biking.

Mary Ann grew up in a large family on a ranch so being outdoors is built-in to the family's DNA. Now that most of her siblings are married with families of their own it is an extra big group and never dull. When we are all together there is endless activity be it from non-stop cooking to tag football, basketball, foursquare, soccer, horseback riding, group runs — honestly the list is endless. We joke that getting together with Mary Ann's family is like an "instant summer camp" and the family motto is "The More the Merrier" so everyone is really excited to add another itty-bitty to our ever-growing crew.

Matt grew up with one older sister, who is now married with 4 children and living in the Midwest. We really enjoy our time with them around the holidays and in the summer. Matt's parents live about an hour away and we get together with them regularly. We especially love to visit them at their mountain house where we get to hike and kayak.

Our families are over the moon for us to grow our family through adoption again.

Hi there,

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to introduce ourselves! We are Mary Ann and Matt. We have been married for fourteen years and have one son through adoption. There is not one word to describe how excited we are to continue to grow our family through adoption. We all have our journeys - we don't always know where we are going or why things go as they do - until we get there. We know this is where we need to be.

Although we haven't formally met, it is not lost on us the difficulty of the decision you are working through. We want you to know we have tremendous respect - the courage and selflessness you must have is admirable. And it would be an honor to love and raise this child.

We live in a fun and vibrant neighborhood full of families young and old, just a few minutes from a growing downtown. In the mornings you will see neighbors walking their dogs and getting their little ones ready for school. In the evenings you will see kids playing outside or families walking to one of the many nearby parks or restaurants.

Both our front yard and backyard will be great for imaginations. We recently built an A-frame fort and our son is very much looking forward to a playmate to join him on his adventures. We spend the warm months grilling out on our back deck and the colder months around our fire pit making s'mores.

Education is something we take very seriously. Both our parents gave us the gift of a quality education from kindergarten to college and we will, without a doubt, do the same. The schools in our area are great and have a strong community feel with families in the neighborhood walking to and from school. We look forward to a similar routine.

We were both raised in close-knit families. Mary Ann grew up on a ranch in a large family and Matt grew up in a university town near the mountains. We both can't wait to share family traditions with a little one who will have so many aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins to show him/her the ropes from our rendition of Happy Birthday and why we read the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July to where the "Kids Only Hideouts" are and how to ride a horse.

We are an adventurous and curious duo - perhaps a little quirky too. Matt is an engineer who loves to tinker and build things. Mary Ann is both a dreamer and doer with a creative spirit.

In our spare time you will most likely find us outdoors. We are surrounded by so many parks that are literally just minutes from our house to enjoy running, hiking, or biking. Mary Ann and Matt do early morning workouts in our garage 3 time per week and in the evenings we are outside as a family where it's eat dinner on our deck, walking our dog, exploring a nearby creek after rains, or enjoying a family bike ride. We are also lucky to live in a city that is only three hours from the mountains and 2 hours from the beach and we frequent both.

Dinner time is an important time of day for us. We always make dinner together. (We'd be totally embarrassed if there was a camera watching us cook dinner as there is usually impromptu dancing.) Growing up, we both ate dinner every night with our families, as a family unit. This is a tradition we now continue in our home.

We feel blessed and fortunate to be financial sound and promise to give this little one everything they need to thrive. We are happy to share photos and letters of their progress with you too.

Thanks again for reading about us. We would love to hear from you and wish you all the best,

Matt & Mary Ann