We believe that parenting is probably one of the biggest responsibilities a person can have and we don't take the opportunity lightly. While being a parent requires constant growth and adaptation to meet their child's needs, we believe several of the most important aspects to parenting include: ensuring our child knows they are loved by us and God, keeping our child safe and healthy, and allowing our child to grow into the person they were made to be. We are excited to have fun with our child and laugh and play games and find ways to use our imaginations! Playing with our child will be a great way for us to bond and grow closer while using creativity!

We are most excited about the opportunity to love and nurture our child, and while showing them our worldview, fostering an environment which allows them to develop their own. We believe God loves every person and has created every individual uniquely. We hope our child may experience the love, hope, peace, and grace that we have, through Christ. We believe that most growth occurs in community with others, both friends and family, and we plan to maintain an open relationship with our child's first family to help them develop a strong identity in who they are.

The qualities that Aaron most admires about Kelsey are her warmth and kindness. Kelsey has a way of making everyone feel welcomed and loves to meet new people and find commonalities with them. She is very thoughtful and compassionate, which makes her great at her job and also a wonderful friend and family member that people really trust. She shares of herself freely and is vulnerable and open with friends, making for strong and meaningful relationships with those in her circles. She is also highly adaptable and can thrive in any environment, even when things don't go according to plan.

Kelsey feels that Aaron has a special gift of putting others at ease, no matter the situation. Not only is he able to keep calm in a crisis, but he is thoughtful and considerate of others, placing others' needs above his own. He is intuitive and empathetic, which allows him to feel with others. He is also very organized and is able to recall details, including, and especially, people's names after meeting them just once. He is quick to make friends and once a friend of Aaron's, you will always be a friend of Aaron's. It has been a true joy to see him grow over the seven years we have been married, finding his place at work and in our friendship circles. He is extremely goofy too, and is easy to joke around with.

We love living in a very diverse city with individuals and families from all over the world and of many different cultural backgrounds. While simply living in a diverse place is not enough to address cultural learning and appreciation with children, it definitely allows for more opportunities to explore and understand those cultures. To specifically incorporate cultural diversity into our child's life, we will seek to have leaders and people to look up to in their life that share a cultural background such as their pediatrician, preschool teacher, and pastor. Additionally, we will seek wisdom and advice from others who have raised children ahead of us for how to best help our child develop a strong sense of their racial identity. We will seek friendships and invite adults and children into our home for meals and to play games who will serve as role models for our children. As mentioned before, Kelsey and I spend much of our free time with our church friends and work colleagues and we believe there will be many, many folks who are invested in nurturing and caring for our child as they grow in the world and develop their identity.

We live in a family-friendly neighborhood in a big city with close access to parks, trails, and playgrounds. We are grateful to live close to work, so we can get home and spend plenty of time together. One thing we appreciate about our neighborhood is how diverse it is and how kind and welcoming our neighbors are. Additionally, friends from church and work live nearby and we enjoy hosting them in our home for meals and playing games. We also love hosting out of town family and friends for visits. There is a playground down the street and we can't wait to spend time with our child there. We also enjoy our local bayou with beautiful trails, a perfect spot for walking a stroller or learning to ride a bike.

Our city is very diverse and we love having friends and community from all over the country, all over the world, and of many different ethnicities and races. Because our city is so diverse, there are regularly events and festivals taking place to celebrate the many different cultural backgrounds represented here. We love attending these events to learn more about different cultures and meet people from different backgrounds. For example, we recently attended a Jazz in the Park evening and a Korean dance performance with friends. We additionally participated in an arts and crafts afternoon, a monthly occasion that we can't wait to take our child to! ,/p>

Our families are both very important to us and we make it a priority to spend quality time with them. Aaron's parents and younger sister live in California and we enjoy visits with them regularly and chatting on the phone in between. When we're with them, we go for walks, cook together, play card games, and explore new areas. Aaron's family has a deep affection for one another, which makes them easy to be around and fun to host. Aaron's parents cannot wait to meet our child and will support us in any way possible. Aaron's sister will make an incredible auntie and spoil our little one with many handmade gifts.

Kelsey's family lives in Atlanta and we love traveling to see them frequently and hosting them in between visits. Kelsey has two older sisters, with whom we are very close, chatting on the phone almost daily. Kelsey's parents are involved in their communities and spend much of their time volunteering with their church. When we're with Kelsey's family, we hike, bike, and eat dinner on the back porch. One family tradition from Kelsey's family we intend to continue with our family is baking a Danish pastry on Christmas morning from a family recipe. Kelsey's sisters are ecstatic at the thought of having a niece or nephew and will be the most amazing aunties. Kelsey's parents have made it clear that as soon as a grandbaby is in the picture, it will be all hands on deck to help out.

We are so delighted that you have taken the time to consider our family as a place for your child to live! We understand you must be feeling many emotions during this important time in your life and we want you to know that this is not an easy decision. We hope that we are able to convey our lives well in this profile, but we recognize that this is one of the most important decisions you will make.

We met when we were in college and were just friends for a few years. During nursing school together, we fell in love and married shortly after. While we were dating we had many conversations about our dreams for the future, one of which involved growing our family through adoption. At the time we did not know that adoption would be our only option for expanding our family, but we knew that we wanted to adopt. During college Kelsey was diagnosed with a slow-growing brain tumor which is not able to be surgically removed. Though mostly stable, a few years ago her tumor started to grow and she started a medicine that keeps her tumor from growing. There have been many ups and downs throughout the past few years, but we feel that through the grace of God, we have overcome many hurdles. She now feels wonderful after adjusting the medicine and her tumor is stable and not growing. We cannot wait to become parents through adoption, since it is not permitted that she gets pregnant on the medicine.

We have been married for seven years and each year we continue to learn new things about each other and love the transformation that we both have gone through. Over the past seven years, we have felt ready for a child at different times and we are so excited that for the first time, we both feel ready to be parents at the same time. We are eager to raise our child in a home that centers around our faith in Christ and in close community with others. Most nights of the week we spend with friends from church, colleagues from work, and family. We believe we thrive the most when we are living our lives amongst our community. We are excited to introduce our little one to our community and allow them to be welcomed, just as we were.

Our families are probably the second most important thing in our lives to our faith. We are both extremely close with our families and they cannot wait for our family to expand through adoption. We want you to know that we are hoping for an ongoing, open relationship with you, and would like to open our family to involve you as well. At a minimum, we will send letters and pictures to you to share in our child's life, but hope for phone calls, visits, video calls, so that our child will know you and understand where they are from. We plan to make adoption a part of our child's daily life, never hiding them from you or your family. We hope that you desire to be a part of their life as well!

If you have a different cultural or racial background than us, we want you to know that we will do our best to introduce our child to your cultural background and adjust our lifestyles to ensure that our child is connected to their culture. We both are very adaptable and willing to do what is best for our child in order to love and care for them.

We are hopeful that you know us a little better after reading our profile and we are so excited to become parents, but recognize the difficult time this is for you. We are with you in spirit, praying for wisdom and peace and good health for you and your family. You are not alone during this time.

We hope you will consider us to love, nurture, guide, and care for your baby.

With many thoughts and prayers,

Aaron & Kelsey