We both work for a local health care system as physicians. Ryan is a general surgeon and Jen is a primary care physician. On weekdays, we go to work during the day, have dinner together in the early evening and then enjoy some relaxation time before bed. We like to cuddle on the couch with our dogs and catch up on some of our favorite shows or reading. We both enjoy cooking and like to prepare dinners together. On Friday nights we often get take out and watch movies. A few times a month we go out to dinner with family or friends.

On the weekends, we enjoy spending time outdoors. In the nicer weather we will go on hikes or hang out on our back deck with our dogs. We try to plan fun activities we can do together or with friends. Since we live in the northeast, we get to enjoy all four seasons. In the fall we love attending football games, carving pumpkins and going to local fairs. In the winter we like to go snow tubing on the hill near our house or at the local ski resort. Each year around the holidays, we meet up with friends in NYC for a Broadway show. We only live a few hours from the Atlantic ocean and love the beach! We try to get to the beach as many times as we can during the summer.

Besides our common interest in medicine, we both love to travel. We've taken many trips together all over the world including Europe, Mexico and several islands in the Caribbean. We hope to visit Ryan's brother and his family in Japan in the next year or two. Though we love to travel together as a couple, we also love to travel with friends and family. So far, our favorite destinations are the coast of Maine and Italy. Jen grew up spending summers in Maine with her family. When we were dating, we went to Maine on our first vacation together. Over the years, Ryan has come to love Maine as much as Jen. After our wedding, we event went to Maine for a mini honeymoon. Another common interest is our love of the New England Patriots and sports in general. We enjoy spending cozy fall and winter days watching football games in our family room. We try to go to one Patriot's game each year. In 2018, we were fortunate to be able to go to the Super Bowl in Atlanta and watch the Patriots play the LA Rams. It was an unforgettable day. We also like to go to college football and basketball games and professional baseball games. Ryan is an avid New York Yankees fan and Jen likes the Boston Red Sox. Though they are rival teams, we support each other and have been to both Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium.

We both grew up with a love for dogs. After years of begging her parents for a dog, Jen can still remember the day her parents came home with a puppy that they named Tyler. Ryan has many happy childhood memories with his dog named Shasta Ann. We now have two dogs of our own and cannot imagine life without them! Honey is a 9 year old Cocker spaniel. We adopted her while we were living in Kansas 6 months after we got married. She is full of attitude yet also very cuddly and loving. She is definitely a mama's girl. She loves to eat and sleep. She does not like to get out of her bed in the morning. Brady is also a Cocker spaniel. We brought Brady home at 11 weeks. He is now 6 years old. He is a very sweet little boy. He loves to take walks and play. Sometimes we even catch him watching TV. When we're not with them we miss them so much and talk about them all the time. We are the first to admit that they are completely spoiled but we wouldn't have it any other way.

We have lived in our current home for the past 7 years when we moved back to Pennsylvania from Kansas. The decision to move back to Pennsylvania was an easy one. We originally met here and missed our family and friends desperately. We like being able to drive to Philadelphia or New York city in about two hours.

Our home is on a quiet street in the suburbs of the small city near which we live. Most of our neighborhood consists of families with children of all ages. Oftentimes, we will find them walking around the neighborhood. Our home has a traditional center colonial layout. We have five bedrooms on the second floor including one that we turned into a home gym. The first floor has a fairly open layout. Since we love to cook and relax, we spend most of our time in the kitchen and family room which are adjoined. When the weather is nice, we love to grill and spend time on our back deck with family and friends.

Not too far from us is a large state park that has a pond for fishing, hiking trails, a large playground and a pool. During the summer, the pool is always full of families looking to cool off.

Our family is very excited to see us become parents and can't wait to welcome a new member to the family. Ryan's parents, Richard and Cathy, live nearby. His brother, Rich, is currently a Marine. He, his wife Kara and their three children have lived all over the world. They recently moved to Japan when Rich was promoted to commander on the base. We hope to visit them eventually! We had the opportunity this past April to visit them in Germany before they moved. As a family, we visited the city of Munich, made chocolate at Ritter Sport factory and explored the Mercedes museum in Sttutgart. As always, it was very hard to say goodbye to our niece and nephews however, we keep in contact with them often over video chat.

Jen's parents, Forrest and Elaine, live about three hours away in Connecticut in the same house she grew up in. They have active social lives since retiring. They love to go to the beach and are actively involved in their church community. Even though they do not live close by, we get to see them often. Traditionally, they spend a week with us at Christmas and another week in June for Jen's birthday. We also like to travel together with both sets of parents. In fact, we have an upcoming trip to Nashville to celebrate their wedding anniversaries as they fall in the same week.

We want to thank you for taking the time to read this letter and hope that by the end of this you feel in your heart that we are meant to parent your child. We have wanted to be parents for as long as we can remember. We naively thought that we would get married, have a few kids and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, we soon learned that life does not always go as planned and we could not get pregnant on our own. We pursued fertility treatments however every attempt failed. We suffered three early miscarriages which lead to even more heartbreak. We struggled for 7 years but with the support of each other and loved ones we were able to get through this dark time. Eventually we realized that we no longer wanted to pursue having a biological child and could build our family in another way. We decided that adoption was the best fit for us.

Once we decided to pursue adoption it felt like everything just fell into place. There were signs everywhere that this was meant to be all along. This has made us hopeful again and excited for our future family. We cannot wait to share our lives with your child. We have a cozy home in a safe neighborhood with good schools. We love to travel and spend time together. We have two adorable puppies that bring us so much joy. We have been together for 14 years and married for nearly 10 years. We have a loving and happy marriage that is full of laughter. We are best friends and truly enjoy spending time together. We also have an abundance of family and friends that have been eagerly waiting for us to have a child. We are so fortunate and blessed to have such a supportive network of loved ones.

We have been very open with our adoption journey with those around us. We plan to be open with your child about where they come from and teach them that they are fortunate to have multiple parents that love them and care for them. We know that the decision to place your child up for adoption has been done out of love. We want them to develop a strong sense of self and be proud of who they are and where they come from. We feel that in order for them to understand this, they should know their birth family. We feel communication will be important and hope that we can stay in touch in whatever way you are comfortable with. We would also be happy to share pictures and updates as often as you would like.

We promise you that we will love your child unconditionally, give them a happy life and help them become a good person. We want them to thrive and will give them every opportunity we can to pursue their dreams. We know that this cannot be an easy decision to make. We hope that you will find comfort in knowing that if you choose us you will make our dreams come true since we have been praying and hoping to be parents for so many years.

Sincerely,

Ryan & Jen