Our families share so many traditions, and we're excited to introduce our child to these traditions. Growing up, we both had special weekend breakfasts of french toast or waffles with our families, and spent this time enjoying the company of our parents and siblings to start the weekend! This is something we have carried into our home after we married.

Dillon and his brothers would always help his dad set-up Christmas lights and other outdoor decorations for Christmas, something they still do to this day. As we decorate our own home for holidays across the year, we know our child won't lack in holiday cheer!

Zach's family took annual vacations together, and inspired Zach's love of travel. Whether we were visiting national parks on road trips across the US, or spending time on the beach out of the country, we enjoyed learning about new places and cultures, and spending this quality time together. We both love traveling, and frequently travel with Zach's family, Dillon's family, or both families together! We cannot wait to share the world with our child!

During a typical week, we enjoy getting together with friends and family, playing games, reading, watching TV and going on nightly walks or visits to the gym. Most of our friends and family live within 20 minutes of our home, so we commonly meet up for dinner, coffee, games, or just chatting. We also have a standing movie night with Dillon's twin brother and his wife, where every Friday we get together to make dinner, watch a movie, and enjoy each other's company. We are currently rewatching the Harry Potter movies! Some of our favorite games right now include Azul, Splendor, Farkle, Dutch Blitz, and Telestrations. Our nightly walks or gym trips are time that we spend debriefing from the day, connecting before bed, and planning out our next day. We love this time to unplug, connect, while getting some cardio in.

Our outdoor hobbies include tennis, bike rides, hiking, and skiing! One of our first dates was playing single's tennis at Zach's condo complex. Tennis has continued to be one of our favorite past times together, and we love how it brings out our competitive sides. Another outdoor activity that we love is hiking and bike riding. Being so close to the mountains, we have so many bike and hiking trails to choose from with scenic views of the valley. There are many young families in our community, and we enjoy seeing them on the trails along with us. When the weather permits, we also enjoy downhill skiing in the California and Colorado mountains. Our family and friends make it a priority to make several trips to the mountains during the winter months to not only ski, but enjoy the weather, hot cocoa, and books by the fireplace.

Zach's dad was adopted at birth. As with many adoptions from that time, the adoption was a closed adoption, and Zach's family is not familiar with his dad's biological family, though we wish we knew them or about them. Though Zach's adoptive grandfather passed away before Zach was born, Zach was able to see the incredibly loving and natural relationship his father had with his adoptive mother. We've been able to experience first-hand the benefits of adoption through Zach's dad, and know that the bond between our child and our family will be stronger because of this experience.

We also have friends who have been adopted, and have been privileged to hear their stories. One of Dillon's closest friends was adopted at a young age. One piece of her story that we appreciate is how her parents not only spoke openly about her adoption, but celebrated it as a unique and special part of her story. This normalized how their family was created and gave her comfort in knowing that a family is still a family no matter how they all came together.

We're so happy that we have family and friends who have shared their experiences with us, and know that our child will have these special people in their life to connect with!

We live in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California in a newly-built gated community. The community is full of young and diverse families that love to come together around our parks, pools, and barbecues. Around the corner of our community are two large parks where the community has organized sports including soccer, basketball, and football.

Our home is a 1,700 square foot, two-story townhome with three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The downstairs has an open dining and living room located around the kitchen. This space has been great for hosting family and friends for game nights, movie marathons, and niece and nephew playdates. When we are alone, we love to spend our free time in the living room playing games, reading books, or watching TV.

The neighborhood we live in sits just under a mountain range full of hiking trails, ski resorts, and beautiful views of the valley. We are also only 30 to 45 minutes away from beautiful beaches and big city entertainment like Disneyland, theaters, and sports teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Rams, Chargers, and Angels.

We are both close with our extended families, and are excited for our family to expand!

Dillon's twin brother and his wife, Collin and Miranda, who are expecting a baby of their own, live only a 7-minutes' drive from us. Dillon enjoyed having a sibling so close in age to him growing up, and we are excited that our child will have cousins nearby! We enjoy spending time with Collin and Miranda, whether that's by traveling the world together or having a relaxed movie night in. Dillon's older brother is close by as well, as is Zach's older brother, and both can't wait to be uncles to our child. Though Dillon's older sister, her husband, and their two young children live out of state, frequent FaceTime calls and visits throughout the year have allowed us to spend some much-treasured time playing with and loving our niece and nephew. We also have lots of cousins who we see regularly throughout the year for birthdays, holidays, and more!

Our parents live only 30 minutes from us, and are retired or semi-retired. We see our parents several times a month, whether it's for game nights, time by the pool, or having family meals together. Our parents' houses are the "hubs" of our extended families, and we feel so blessed that our families are both close in location and close in our hearts. Our parents are thrilled to be loving and caring grandparents, and Dillon's mom - who has used her time in retirement to start writing books - is excited to write a children's book especially for our child and their adoption story!

We want to thank you for taking the time to review our profile. Though we can't truly understand all of the emotions racing through your heart, and thoughts rushing through your head right now, we know that your interests and our interests align in at least one regard: that we all want this child to be raised in a loving, accepting, and comfortable environment. We truly admire and respect you for exploring the adoption process, and understand if it has not been an easy decision to consider. There is a lot of information on this page about our family, our community, our interests, and more, but we want to take a moment to tell you more about our own adoption journey, and why we hope you might consider us as a good fit, the right fit, for you and your child.

We met and started dating in 2017, got married in 2023, and have experienced a TON in the last eight years. In each step of our journey together, we've talked about, dreamed about, and now wished for a child to join our family. A child we can support, love, and raise. We are at a place in our marriage, in our careers, and, frankly, financially, in which we can welcome a child into our home and into our family. We are blessed beyond measure to be able to write that, and to have such a strong support system of family and friends who are equally as excited to welcome a child into the fold and to love on this child as a part of the family.

We live in Southern California, in an area that is incredibly diverse, and to have so many friends and family with cultural differences to us. We believe this can be the perfect place to raise a child of any cultural or racial background. We also know that, if our child has a cultural background different from our own, it will be important to provide a space for our child to not only learn about their culture, but to live-out that culture. Travel is a big part of our lives, and we plan on ensuring that our child is able to travel to areas of the world that are part of their ethnic background. We also plan to incorporate elements of our child's cultural heritage into our home, whether that's through holiday celebrations, games, dance, or more! We also want to ensure that our close-to-home community is reflective of the diversity of our family, and want to join local community groups to provide additional space for our child to further understand and celebrate how special they are!

We also want you to know that we don't envision that our paths won't cross after the adoption. We want to send letters updating you on our child's life and progress, send pictures of our child, the child you created and brought into this world. We want to listen to your needs as a person, as a birth parent. We're open to developing an understanding of what you want your relationship to look like with us, with our child. As with many adoptive parents, we've never gone through this process before now. Maybe you haven't either. We understand that there may be elements of confusion or uncertainty throughout the process, beyond the adoption itself. We want to navigate this with you, share in those emotions, and, ultimately, circle back to that common interest, that common goal: that our child is raised in a loving, accepting, and comfortable environment.

As you read this letter, just know that, as we wrote this letter, our thoughts, our hearts, and our prayers were with you and this child. They still are. Words really fail to truly express how grateful we are to you, for exploring your options, for your openness to making these challenging decisions for the benefit of this child, and, if you're this far, for reading through our profile. We want you to know that, if any part of our story has spoken to you in any way, we want to hear from you. Any questions you have for us, anything you want to share with us, we are more than happy to speak with you. We are so excited to become parents, and to welcome a child into our home, our family, and our hearts!

Zach & Dillon