We always knew we wanted to be parents, and we started discussing adoption soon after we met 6 years ago. Having adopted our son, Gabriel, in July 2022, we can confidently say that being a parent and watching him grow has been the greatest joy and blessing. Gabriel has bonded with us easily, and he is a happy and active boy. We are both hands-on parents and share with each other the joys and responsibilities that come with raising a child. Being a parent means to us experiencing the world together as a family through sharing every day high and lows, creating fun adventuress in our community and through travel, and learning about other cultures. We would like to instill in our children kindness towards others, responsibility, curiosity about the world, and lifelong passion for learning. Being a parent means to us loving our children unconditionally and being their best advocates. As parents, we will do our absolute best to create a loving, nurturing, and inclusive home for both children, so that each of them feels safe and loved in our home. Because building a family through adoption has brought us so much joy and happiness, we are hopeful that we can complete our family by welcoming another child to our family. We are eager and excited to help them bond as siblings, share with them our values and interests, as well as help them develop their own identities.

We are both active individuals and have fun doing things together. When the weather is nice, we grill in the backyard and hang out with Agata's sister and brother and their kids who live in the same neighborhood. We also like to work on our garden and walk in the nearby forest preserve. We have a 4-year old dog, Bolek, and we have enjoyed watching him grow and develop a relationship with our son. We go to the neighborhood park daily so that our son can play with other children, or visit the indoor nature center or the public library. As a family, we also take advantage of the cultural activities that Chicago offers, and we love exploring street festivals and restaurants in different neighborhoods. We enjoy traveling and have a goal of visiting all 50 states in the next 10 years. We also enjoy camping, as this is a great way for us to enjoy nature to recharge. As parents of an active boy, we also appreciate staying at home and relaxing while watching favorite shows on Food Network, Netflix, or HGTV or sitting on the patio in front of the chiminea. In addition, Agata enjoys reading memoirs, while Matt likes to read articles about cars or fishing. We also like planning and executing small home improvement projects and turning our house into our version of a modern farmhouse. We are so excited about sharing our interests with our children, having fun adventures together, and creating many lasting family memories.

Cultural diversity is simply part of who we are as a family. Agata was born and raised in Poland and arrived in Chicago in 1996. Agata is bilingual, and she enjoys sharing her Polish culture with others. Matt has learned some Polish vocabulary, especially, as it relates to food. Since adopting our son who is Filipino, we have made it a priority to learn about his culture, as this is part of our son's identity. We read books to him about Filipino traditions and have bought some traditional toys. We have also started ordering food from a local Filipino restaurant, attend Church with a large Filipino community, and have chosen a Filipino pediatrician. We will do the same for his sibling, and we are truly excited about welcoming to our home a child from any racial and ethnic group. We are excited about helping our next child to learn about his/her cultural and racial heritage and learn along with our children. From early on, we plan to read books to our child and attend cultural events that represent their culture and history. The elementary school that our child will attend is culturally and racially diverse, so it will be easier to feel included among friends. We will also make a conscious effort to find adult role models in our community or go outside of our community if needed. We live in the Chicago area, which is a home to many different cultures including Hispanic, African-American, Asian, and Eastern European.

We live in a suburb of Chicago, IL. Our neighborhood is tucked away and has the feel that you are in a small close-knit community. We love that our neighborhood has many families with small children. Within walking distance from our home, there are neighborhood playgrounds, a waterpark, miniature golf, and forest preserve for biking. When the weather gets cooler, we visit, with our son, an indoor nature center to check out the fish tank, watch snakes and turtles, or head out to the local library for a story time. Additionally, Chicago has amazing museums, zoos, and botanic garden for families to explore. With all that Chicago has to offer, this is the perfect city for our diverse family to appreciate different cultures.

Our house is a two-story with four bedrooms and a large yard to enjoy grilling and family gatherings. In our free time, we enjoy gardening and playing with our son and dog, riding bikes, and catching up with our neighbors. Our favorite room is the family room. It has a large window full of sunshine year round, a few of our favorite house plants, a yellow reading armchair, a comfy sofa usually occupied by our dog, and plenty of space for playing and running around with our son Gabriel. That's where we spend most of the time and hear our son's giggles while he plays hide & seek, runs after our dog, or we sit together to read over and over his favorite books.

We have close-knit families and we see each other regularly or chat via phone or video to check on one another. Matt grew up outside of Memphis where his parents (Pam & Mike) as well as his sister and brother-in-law (Lindsey & David) and their 4-year old daughter (Emma) live. Our yearly tradition is spending Thanksgiving at Matt's uncle's house who lives next door to his parents. Nieces, nephews, grandkids, and great grandkids running around playing and laughing and enjoying homemade Southern food plays a big part of these family gatherings. Agata grew up in Poland and immigrated to the United States when she was 19 and has lived in the Chicago area ever since. Agata's older sister (Agnes) and brother (Jack) live in the same Chicago suburb as us, which has allowed our son Gabriel to build close relationships with his aunts, uncles, and cousins. Agata's oldest nephew and niece (Kamil and Anne) are in their 20's, and they are great role models to Gabriel, while Agata's 6-year-old niece (Emily) is like a big sister to our son. We traveled to Poland with Gabriel after he turned 1 so that Agata's mother (Emilia), youngest sister (Ania), and her children (Julia & Leon) could meet our son and bond with him. Since we welcomed our son Gabriel into our family after our first adoption, our families have showered him with love, and they enjoy seeing him and receiving updates about his daily activities and routines.

Hello, we are Matt and Agata. Thank you so much for taking the time to review our profile to learn more about us. We are very excited about growing our family through adoption, and we look forward to welcoming our child and their birth parents into our family.

We live in the Chicago area where we met six years ago and married five years ago. Matt is originally from the Memphis, TN area, and Agata is originally from Poland. Matt is a healthcare executive over the Department of Orthopaedics of a large health system in the Chicago region. This career path allows Matt to have access to the best healthcare resources for our family if needed. Agata is a school psychologist and works in high school. She has the professional experience that allows her to understand any developmental and educational needs of our child. As a couple, we both enjoy cooking, gardening, hiking, camping, and traveling. We have a goal to travel to all fifty states within the next 10 years.

From the beginning of our relationship, we discussed how important family is for us, and our openness to adoption as a way to build our family. We both dedicated many years to our education and professional goals, and we met later in life, so we knew from the beginning that building our family through traditional methods might not be an option. There are no words to describe how grateful we feel that we were able to adopt our son Gabriel in July 2022, and watching him grow has been the greatest joy and blessing. We are now hopeful to adopt another child as we both have close bonds with our siblings, and we would like to provide the same experience for our children. We would do whatever it takes to help our children bond as siblings and support them in developing their own unique identities.

As adoptive parents, we are both hands-on and share with each other the joys and responsibilities that come with raising a child. We really enjoy making our son laugh, reading books to him, taking him for outings in the community, and snuggling with him while putting him to bed at night. As adoptive parents, we understand the importance of educating each child about their birth parents' cultural heritage, and we want to include these cultural aspects into their upbringing from early on. We would like to understand all aspects of our child's birth family background including educational needs and medical history to help our child grow into a healthy and happy individual. We hope that our child's birth parents will want to share these important pieces of our child's culture and family history, and we hope you will be a part of watching our child grow up to be that person that they desire to be.

Having one adopted son has made us understand first hand what it is like to build family through adoption, and we realize the importance of open adoption. We want birth parents to know that our commitment is to provide pictures and letters to share our child's journey through life. In addition, we want an open relationship with the birth parents and to have regular phone calls and annual visits. As adoptive parents, we understand that keeping the birth parents involved in our child's life will help our child find answers to questions that he or she will have throughout life. We will respect your level of comfort with open adoption; however, we can assure you that we will do everything we can to instill in our child love, respect, and the gratitude towards you that you deserve for carrying our child and giving him or her birth.

We sincerely appreciate you taking the time to view our profile and hope you will take the next step of talking with us so that you can get to know us better. We would be honored to get to know you as well.

Matt & Agata