We both enjoy being physically active while also taking time to unwind at home. We love playing pickleball together and taking our dogs on walks in the morning. We also love spending time outside in our garden in the backyard. Arnie has several active hobbies such as golf, bowling, working out and doing projects around the house. He is in a bowling league with his friends and golfs on the weekends with friends as well. Jenna loves taking walks, but also loves more relaxing hobbies such as reading, coloring, listening to music and spending time with friends. We also love cooking together, trying new breakfast places and going to our local farmers market together. Every Friday we have a weekly pizza night where we order from one of the many pizza places around. During the summer, we enjoy planning and taking road trips to some of our favorite destinations. We truly just enjoy spending time together whether it be relaxing on the couch after the work day or running errands in the car together.

There is so much that we both admire about each other that we can't wait to share with our child.

Jenna About Arnie: There are so many things that I love about Arnie. He is incredibly dedicated and hard working. He puts everything into anything he takes on, whether at work or in his golf or bowling leagues. Arnie is also incredibly patient and caring. He is a great listener and incredibly empathetic towards me and I can't wait to see him treat our child the same way. I also love his goofy sense of humor. He is always making me laugh...even when I don't want to! I can't wait for Arnie to pass all of these qualities down to our child.

Arnie About Jenna: Jenna is one of the most loving and caring people that I have met. She goes out of her way all of the time to make sure that everyone around her is taken care of. Another quality that I love about Jenna is that she is an extremely dedicated and hard worker and does everything she can to make sure that her goals are met. Once she has something on her mind, there is no stopping her from getting that goal completed. I know that with all of the qualities that Jenna has, she is going to be the best Mom anyone could ask for.

Jenna is an Elementary School Teacher and this fall will be her tenth year in the classroom. Jenna always knew she wanted to be a teacher. She loves being in a job where she is truly making a difference each day and getting to work with kids. While the academic aspect of school is important, Jenna's favorite part of her job is getting to help each child develop confidence, sense of self, a life long love for learning and helping each child develop as a person and friend. Each day, Jenna feels as though she is able to laugh, learn something new and continue to develop as a person because of the students she works with. She has truly become a better person by being a teacher. Jenna plans to stay in the classroom and continue teaching after we are lucky enough to welcome a child into our family.

Arnie is a Software Engineer for a national supply company. Arnie has been working in the technology industry since he graduated college. He enjoys problem solving and puzzles and his career allows him to do just that. His career requires dedication, perseverance and open mindedness. These traits have helped Arnie grow both professionally and personally. He has continued to grow in his ability to see that there is always more than one way to accomplish a task. Arnie is excited to take all that he has learned in his career and apply those traits to parenting.

We live in a large family friendly suburb of Chicago. In our neighborhood, we have several parks within walking distance of our home. The parks have a lot to do including exploring the nature areas, playing on the playgrounds or using the sports areas. Our park district has many activities to offer as well and our local parks are home to those activities and sports.

Our neighborhood is quiet and diverse, full of young couples building their families. Most of our neighbors have young children, so our child will have plenty of friends in the neighborhood. The elementary, middle and high school are all within walking distance of our home, so the neighborhood friends will also turn into school friends.

We are about ten minutes away from our downtown area. It's very family friendly and has a lot of restaurants, parks, and events that happen quite regularly. We love going downtown each weekend for the local farmer's market or to grab a bite to eat. In the summer, the parks downtown offer free concerts and our library offers a reading scavenger hunt around town.

We love our community and we chose to plant our roots here because we know that this is a great area to raise our family. We can't wait to raise a child with the love and support of our friends and family in our community.

Both of our families are incredibly tight knit, supportive and loving.

Both of our parents live nearby. Jenna's parents live within ten minutes of us and Arnie's parents live just over an hour away. Since Jenna's parents are so close, we see them on a regular basis for dinner, holidays and weekly get togethers. We see Arnie's parents at least once each month as well. Both of our parents love coming to our house to have dinner, play games, celebrate holidays and hang out with our pups!

Jenna has one brother, Marc who lives in Chicago with his partner, Colin. We see both of them and their two cats often. We usually go down to their house for dinner since both of them are great cooks. Arnie has one brother, Luke who lives in Atlanta with his wife, Erin. We are incredibly close with Luke and Erin even though the distance makes getting together a bit tough. We took a roadtrip to go see them for a week earlier this year and it was a blast.

Jenna's extended family also lives within a half hour of us. We are close with her nana, papa and her cousins who have kids. Arnie's extended family is more spread out, but we still get a chance to see and connect with them each year. Our families are extremely excited for us to welcome a child through the adoption process and can't wait to build new family memories for years to come.

We want to start by recognizing you and your courageous choice to consider adoption. We know that it took a lot of bravery, selflessness and careful consideration. We admire and respect your strength as you move forward with this incredibly important decision. So thank you, for taking the time to get to know us.

We want you to know that in our home, our child is going to be so incredibly loved, cared for and supported no matter what. We want to pour everything we have into a child to give them the best life possible. We have always wanted to be parents and we will do everything to provide a child with what they need to become the best possible version of themselves. Our number one priority is and will always be our child and their well being physically, emotionally and spiritually. We are strong supporters of open adoption and we want our child to have a great relationship with you from the beginning. We are so excited to foster a positive relationship between our child, ourselves and you. Passing along photos, giving updates and sharing important milestones are some of the things we are excited to share with you. We realize that over time, our relationship might change, but we always want you to be part of our and our child's lives.

We are looking forward to getting to know you a bit more, but we thought we would share a bit about ourselves. We met in 2015 when Arnie was back visiting his alma mater where Jenna was attending college as a senior. From the moment we met, we had a strong connection. We both loved to laugh, be goofy and not take things too seriously. After Jenna graduated, she got a teaching job near where Arnie was working at the time. After a year of working near each other, we made the decision to move in together back near where we grew up. In 2018, we got engaged at Buckingham Fountain downtown Chicago after Arnie took Jenna to see Hamilton. We both love the theater, so this was the perfect way to start our lives together. We got married and bought a house in 2019 and have been living in the same house ever since. Our wedding was the best day of our lives and we have continually made great memories together. Our house was a bit too quiet, so we adopted our first dog, Albus, in 2020. Our second dog, Ada, came along from the same shelter in 2022. We are so excited to add another member of our family and continue making lifelong memories together.

Our families are so excited for us to be adding a child to our family. Both of our parents are ready to be grandparents and our grandparents can't wait to meet their great grandchild. All of the kids in our extended family are also ready to welcome another playmate to the group!

You might be wondering what led us to choose adoption. Adoption was something that we both talked about from the beginning together. Jenna always felt drawn to adoption and both of us have wanted to be parents since we can remember. We are so excited to work together as a team to raise our child to the best person that they can be.

We vow to you that we will give our child the best life that we can. We will keep them safe, healthy and most importantly we will love them unconditionally. We will have a house full of love, laughter, support and great memories together. Thank you, again, for your selfless decision to pursue adoption and for taking the time to consider us in this process. We look forward to our journey together with you.

Arnie & Jenna