There are many different activities that we enjoy together. One of the main activities we like to do is to get together with friends and family frequently for game nights with card games or board games. We enjoy taking lots of walks and experiencing our local greenways and beginner hiking trails. We also enjoy watching shows and movies together. We especially enjoy when we can binge watch a show over the course of a few days. Another activity that we enjoy in our free time is seeing plays/musicals. We have seen many wonderful touring Broadway shows at our local theater. We can already imagine sharing the joy of live theater with a child. Sarah enjoys attending concerts of her favorite artists. Jerry enjoys playing airsoft with his friends and gaming. We both enjoy traveling and exploring new places and tend to take one or two trips together outside of work each year. We can't wait to share new places and experiences that traveling brings with a child. We also spend a portion of our leisure time volunteering our time or resources to local organizations (Ronald McDonald House, Angel Tree, food pantry). Serving others is something that we are both passionate about and want to teach our child from a young age. We look forward to sharing our joint and individual hobbies and interests with a child.

We both have an incredible amount of love and respect for each other that only continues to grow with our time together.

Sarah loves Jerry's passion for helping others. He is always doing whatever he can to help someone better themselves or achieve their goals. Sarah admires Jerry's drive and ambition. He has grown so much in his professional life in a relatively short time span. Jerry will accomplish whatever he sets his mind to and sets rigorous goals in order to continue to push himself.

Jerry loves Sarah's kind heart and admires her passion for teaching. He loves hearing her stories of how her students were able to meet a goal or read words they previously weren't able to. Jerry loves how Sarah wants to give what she can to others (whether physical items, time, or resources) and is a passionate advocate for her students and those she cares about.

As parents we plan to incorporate the diversity of our world in as many ways as we can for our children. We live in a diverse community and value being active members of our community. Within our community we have community leaders, professionals, and business owners of many different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. We plan to teach a child about diverse current and historical figures and their important contributions to society as well as provide as many examples as possible of diverse leaders in all kinds of different careers and communities. We also plan to teach a child about how to love and respect others and how we are all unique in our own ways. Within our family we have several family members and friends who are biracial/bicultural who will be able to share their unique experiences with a child and help guide them in their identity development. A child of any race will have excellent role models in our extended family and community.

Our home is the perfect size to grow our family. It has five bedrooms and three bathrooms. Our home also has a formal dining room, large outdoor patio, and open kitchen and living room area. This is perfect for hosting friends and family and is well suited to making and enjoying meals together as a family. Our home is the gathering place at holidays for our friends and family to relax. Our home is located on almost an acre of land which gives us a large, semi-shaded backyard, a large front yard that allows the house to be set far back from the street, and a long driveway perfect for bikes, scooters, and a future basketball goal.

Our favorite room in the house is the kitchen and living room. It is our favorite place to hang out with friends and family, or wrap up in blankets on the couch to watch a show or movie. Sarah also enjoys cooking and baking for friends and family in the kitchen. We also enjoy reading and enjoying our morning coffee on the patio.

Our home is located in the middle of a quiet street in a safe neighborhood. There are wide sidewalks and mature trees throughout the neighborhood.

Our home is close to two large parks with multiple playgrounds, ball fields, lakes, and walking paths.

A child will be in a warm, comforting, and safe environment in our home where they can thrive.

Jerry is the youngest of his family and has two older sisters. Sarah is the oldest of her family with one younger sister.

We both enjoy spending lots of time with our extended family. We have many members of our extended family that live in our area and we see them frequently. We also travel to see family who live a few hours away on a regular basis. When we are together with our families we love to play card games and share family stories.

Jerry's family has a tradition of taking a trip to the lake every Labor Day weekend. We rent a boat one day and spend the next day swimming and having a picnic lunch by the water. Jerry's family always hosts a Christmas Eve white elephant gift exchange while Sarah's family always hosts Christmas Day festivities (both of these events usually involve card games and a large spread of finger foods and desserts).

Our family is unique because we have so many family members with unique experiences to share and because we are very close with our extended family. We both grew up considering our cousins more like siblings. Our family is very supportive of our adoption plan and they are excited to see us become the great parents they know we will be. A child will be welcomed, loved, and supported by all of our family, and they will have lots of cousins to play with.

We know that this is one of, if not the hardest decisions you will make in your life and we are beyond grateful that you believe we may be a suitable family to love and care for your child.

We met nine years ago and almost instantly knew that we were meant to be with each other and wanted to share our lives with each other. While we share many similar interests (TV shows, music, enjoying nature, playing board games, exploring new areas), we love our own friend groups, hobbies, and alone time too. We got engaged almost exactly a year after we met and got married a little less than a year after we got engaged. We have been married for almost seven years now and have gone through some of the best times as well as some of the most difficult times in our lives together while also enjoying and appreciating everything in the middle. From the beginning of our relationship, we knew we wanted to grow our family and become parents. We knew before we focused on growing our family we wanted to spend time together and travel as much as we could. We have gone on several trips together and are thankful we have been able to explore new places while continuing to build our relationship. We are excited to share our love of travel and exploring with a child. In addition to traveling we have always imagined all of the other experiences we would want to share with a child. We look forward to the big experiences (birthday parties, holidays, first day of school), as well as the everyday moments like reading stories before bed, telling jokes and stories while eating dinner, and comforting them when they are sick.

Our faith is an important part of our lives and we lean on it especially during times of stress, anxiety, and loss. We are blessed in our personal and professional lives and know that God is supporting us and guiding us in our lives. In addition to our faith we both have our role models inspire us and who we have taken important lessons from. Jerry is passionate about helping others and bettering society thanks to the inspiring speeches and life of President John F. Kennedy. Sarah's mom was an amazing teacher that helped guide Sarah to find her calling to teach children, and she has pursued this calling with relentless effort. Sarah's mom also helped to instill a passion in Sarah for nurturing, loving, and supporting others.

We have always thought of adoption as our way to grow our family, and we were never scared away by the commitment of adoption. We will raise this child as if they were our own and make them feel special because to us, they will be the most special person in the world. We know that you are scared and anxious about how your child will grow and who they will become as they grow older. We want you to be reassured that we are completely committed to being the most amazing parents we can be and will do everything to make sure a child knows they are loved, supported, and safe. We are also committed to making sure that you are able to know this as well. We will share letters or emails and pictures with you and we are open to the possibility of a visit within their first 5 years.

If you choose us, we will provide the opportunities for your child to grow up well-rounded. Our home is one of peace and stability. The child will travel across the world with us on vacations, have an abundance of family friends to play with, and be raised in a secure and nurturing environment with well-trained parents who are ready to love and support them fully. You are loved. Your baby is loved. You are courageous for beginning this journey. We hope that this vision we have laid out for you is one where you feel that your child will be happy and loved.

Jerry & Sarah