Sammi: I can attest that Andrew is an incredibly special person–there is no one who meets him who is not struck by his gentleness, kindness, intellect, and non-judgmental nature. At his core, Andrew is understanding, patient, and respectful of others. I have never heard Andrew raise his voice. He will be a father who encourages our child to openly communicate their feelings; he will not respond to our child angrily; and he will impart on our child the importance of education. When frustrated as a parent, knowing him, he will breath and ask for help instead of discipline impulsively. Andrew is unassuming and confident in his belief that everyone deserves respect and autonomy. He is an asset to any community he joins.

Andrew: Sammi is a jewel. She makes anyone feel safe to open up to her about their insecurities and she always meets them with genuine empathy. Her superpower is that she can do this without using words but rather through movement and play. She is an educator at heart and is able to tailor anything she teaches to any person regardless of their physical or cognitive ability. I believe that she will be a mother who will be firm and fair in her boundaries with our child without sacrificing any love in the process. Sammi takes care of herself so that she can care for others. There is no one I trust more than her and I am sure many others would say the same.

Sammi grew up in the world of dance; it is core to who she is. She spent many years dancing professionally in modern dance companies, choreographing, and teaching dance. While she currently does not perform professionally, dance remains a central theme in her life and career. She is excited to share with our child the joy of movement, creating, and freedom of expression.

Beyond dance, Sammi grew up in a family where life circled around food. Her father was intrigued by the culinary world from an early age and imparted that same curiosity and excitement to her. When she met Andrew, she brought him too into the creative world of food and the connectedness that it can provide families. Now we love to cook together, cook for our friends, and experiment with new cuisines.

Andrew grew up surrounded by music. He plays multiple instruments and prefers to improvise and jam over playing sheet music. He also loves puzzles in any form, including jig-saws and video games. He is excited to share all of these joys with our child.

We share a love of learning and challenging ourselves physically and mentally. We often spend time reading and going to trainings to elevate our counseling knowledge. Sammi spends time each week thinking of games and art projects to engage her students, many of whom have special needs, such as autism, ADHD, OCD, and learning disabilities. Andrew similarly is often thinking about how he can better help his clients navigate life's challenges.

We want to be active facilitators of our child's racial and ethnic identity formation. We will educate ourselves on and interact with the culture of our child's birth parents. We will develop relationships with role models of color whose continued presence in our child's life will help facilitate our child's racial identity development. We will also seek out safe spaces where our child may practice the culture of their birth parents without feeling pressure to code-switch or mask for others, particularly white people in positions of authority. We will seek out playdates, extracurricular activities and clubs, and parent groups where our child can meet peers who look like them and share the culture of their birth parents. We have dedicated our careers to educating ourselves on issues around diversity, equity, and inclusion, particularly from the perspective of mental health care, and do not plan to stop this education. We have many peers and coworkers who are of different races and ethnicities than us who have become our dear friends. We see it as unethical to assume that we know all that we will ever need to know about others' cultures and experiences navigating prejudice and discrimination. We will never stop searching for opportunities to learn more about others' experiences regardless of the race or ethnicity of our child. Having open, honest, and courageous conversations with each other and the communities with which we interact will be fundamental to how we approach a transracial adoption.

The DC metro area is home to a community of racially and culturally diverse, hardworking, and intellectually curious people living within walking distance to some of the best education, medicine, arts, food, and retail around. After living in DC proper for three years, we moved to Bethesda, MD, a bustling suburb just northwest of DC. You may think of Bethesda as DC's quieter and more manageable sibling, offering much of what DC has without the fuss of tourism and politics. There we own a two bedroom, two bathroom condo about three blocks from the Bethesda subway station that leads into downtown DC. Our building has a concierge, a swimming pool with a lifeguard, a gym, and a parking garage, as well as a pediatric doctor and a dental practice. Within fifteen minutes walking distance from our condo, there are five regional supermarkets and several independent grocers. We also live down the road from two public parks and several well-resourced public and private schools. There is no shortage of entertainment for families in the DC area, notably the National Zoo, the Air and Space and Spy Museums, the Kennedy Center, and the Nationals Stadium. Our pet-friendly building has families with young children, individual adults, young couples, and retired people. We also have multiple friends in the area who are either pregnant or have a child under the age of two who are excited to raise their children with ours.

Our extended family consists of Sammi's parents Rob and Sheri, her younger sister and brother Ella and Grayson, Andrew's parents Don and Susan, and his younger brother Max.

Our cat Schmatta is a central figure in our family as well. At 3.5 ft long and 18 lbs in weight, he is larger than your typical cat, but he is sweet as can be. He just wants cuddles and brushes.

We also have cousins, god-families, aunts and uncles, and grandparents whom we are close to and who are very important to us. Sammi's parents and brother live down the street in Washington, DC; her sister and Andrew's brother live in Los Angeles, CA; and Andrew's parents split their time between Holliston, MA, Wells, ME, and Sarasota, FL. When our families come together, we often laugh to tears, share stories around food, and take walks together. When extended family comes over, there is often a non-serious cooking competition, a hilarious game of charades, and a jigsaw puzzle on the schedule. Sammi and Andrew's families connect over food and shared holiday traditions. There is often a brisket for Hanukkah, latkes for Passover, pancakes for Andrew's birthday, and two types of cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving because there is no consensus if jellied or chunky is best.

Our families are fully supportive of our plan to adopt and are incredibly excited for their first grandchild!

We're so thankful that you're considering entrusting our family with the profound responsibility of adopting and raising your child. Adoption as a means of building a family aligns with our values of nurturing others' growth, participating in and giving back to the communities in which we live, and welcoming people of all backgrounds into the fabric of our lives. We like the idea of being inextricably connected to our child's birth family through the process of adoption, where we not only gain a child but a whole other family. We're married and have been together for more than six years now. We've known from very early on that we'd build a family together and would do so through adoption.

We'll happily commit to sending you letters and pictures about your child's life. We'd also welcome more openness in our relationship in terms of the frequency, directness, and depth of our interactions, if that is of mutual importance to you and your child. We believe that an open adoption in which lifelong communication between you and your child is encouraged and celebrated will contribute to your child developing a strong self-esteem. With that, we'll offer you our contact information and the option for future visits to build trust between you, us, and your child.

As mental health professionals, there is no greater joy we feel than helping others confidently navigate through some of the most challenging moments of their lives. Witnessing others' bravery in the face of adversity reminds us that all people have the ability to grow physically and mentally stronger when they have hope and the unconditional support of others. Something we look forward to is helping our child develop into a compassionate, critical-thinking, and empathetic person who may one day be in a position to help others.

We're fully aware that raising a child, and raising an adopted child in particular, comes with challenges. Through our friendships and professional relationships with adoptive parents, we're privy to others' experiences with adoption and have learned that no adoption story is the same and none are without hardship. Nonetheless, we're not afraid of becoming adoptive parents, as we believe that non-judgmental acceptance of our own, our child's, and others' limitations is perhaps the most powerful tool we have for raising a healthy family. We hope that through self-reflection and dialogue with one another we can grow into the supportive parents we know we can be for our child.

We know from our work that children feel safest when they feel secure in knowing that they are unconditionally loved and believed in by the adults who care for them. To us, this means encouraging our child to take risks - to climb, to dive, to say hello to the new kid, to try out for the team, to learn a new skill. All the while, we will be standing on the sidelines, cheering them on, celebrating their successes, hugging them when they inevitably experience disappointment and loss. These are the experiences that we look forward to as parents. We'd love nothing more than to be given that opportunity.

Given the possibility that you're a person of color whose culture and heritage differs from ours, we want to assure you your child won't grow up isolated from people who look like and share a common heritage with them as long as they're in our care. This means we'll introduce your child to people and places which validate their racial and ethnic identities, from houses of worship and festivals, to hairdressers and restaurants, to after school programs in arts and athletics. Our lifelong commitment to you and your child is to engage with and embrace your heritage and the people, places, and cultures defining it.

All in all, we're incredibly excited to become parents for the first time and grow our family. Our friends, family, and support system are anxiously awaiting to welcome a little one into their arms. They speak to us with confidence and excitement about how they believe we have the knowledge and temperaments to be great parents. We're incredibly honored and inspired that you're considering joining us on our journey.

Andrew & Sammi