When we're at home, we go on walks in our neighborhood, grab coffee or a bite to eat, and sit on our porch with friends and family. Our neighborhood also has some great hiking trails and we just love being outdoors as much as we can. We're huge sports fans so we have a game on TV a lot (soccer, cycling, football, basketball, baseball). We also love going to college and professional games where we live. We cheer on the teams where Mike went to college and occasionally travel to see Mimi's brother coach college basketball. Mike's family lives nearby so we like to spend time with them at one another's homes having cook-outs, swimming, and playing games. Disney trivia is the favorite at the moment.

We love traveling. We travel to see Mimi's family in Indiana and Georgia each year. We also love to travel to see new places. Sometimes we go on road trips. Other times we fly to other countries. We like to go to National Parks as well as going camping. Wherever we go, Mike checks to see if they have a baseball team and if we can take in a game. We've been to ballparks all across the country, including the Albuquerque Isotopes, Fort Wayne TinCaps, Delmarva Shorebirds, Asheville Tourists, Washington Nationals, and Los Angeles Angels.

Mike's mother is Puerto Rican and his father is African American. Having grown up in a multicultural household, really helped him expand his understanding of what family can look like. Mimi's mother and father are of European heritage (mainly German and English). She grew up in a rural farming community. Mimi always had an interest in other cultures, which was a big reason why, once she became an adult, she lived in other countries and settled down in a large U.S. city. This is where we met.

Our goddaughter is African American. We have nieces and nephews from different backgrounds (African American, Cambodian American, Puerto Rican, European American). When the family comes together we have so much fun! When we eat, we eat foods that are a blend of the cuisines of all of these cultures as well as our celebration of the different cultural traditions.

Mike's father and two sisters were adopted when they were kids. Mike's grandmother was a single mother with 7 children and she simply couldn't provide for all of them. Mike's father always talked fondly about his adoptive father. When Mike was a young boy, his father would take him to visit them. Mike thinks about the challenges that his grandmother had with so many mouths to feed and the difficult decision that she made to have three of them adopted. He thinks about the kindness of his adoptive parents for opening up their hearts and home. It all left a deep impression on Mike that even at an early age he knew that when he started his own family he would do it through adoption.

We live in a two-story row house on a tree-lined block in a large city in Pennsylvania. Mike grew up here and Mimi has lived here for 21 years. We have lived in our house and neighborhood for eight years.

We live on a block where we know our neighbors, socialize together, and can ask them for help at a moment's notice. Our neighbors are families with children, retired couples, single adults, and multigenerational households. Down the street and around the corner is a train station where we can easily get around the city, along with a bus stop at the other end of the block. There are also lots of things within walking distance – playground, school, public swimming pool, library, restaurants, grocery store, pharmacy, hiking trails in the woods and along streams and creeks. We also have a car.

Our house has three bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, dining room, kitchen and a garage. We have a semi-finished basement with a washer and dryer, storage, and exercise equipment. Outside we have a front porch. We spend a lot of time outside. We also have small gardens in the front and back of the house. We love our home from the character of an older home to the comfortable spaces we've set up, especially in our living room and porch, to spend time alone or with friends and family resting and relaxing.

We have a big extended family who live near and far; made up of our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and lots of nieces, nephews, and cousins. Mike's family lives nearby. We spend a lot of time together with family having cook-outs, celebrating birthdays, playing games, going to the movies, and just simply hanging out.

Although Mimi's family is spread out in different states, we are close and visit each other a couple times a year and talk on the phone/FaceTime a lot. One of our nephews gets us all up and moving when we're together by organizing the annual "Family Olympics" that can include everything from volleyball to ping pong.

Many of our closest friends are part of our extended family too and live in our neighborhood. We are fortunate to have many close friends and loving family members who are always there for us when we need them. Everyone has been tremendously supportive of our decision to form our family through adoption.

We are grateful that you're taking the time to get to know us. We are so excited to meet you and we're humbled that you would consider us to adopt your child. We know that you want what is best for your baby and we admire your bravery and courage for considering adoption. We promise you that we'll love your baby with everything we have. We'll show them the world and we'll nurture their interests, raising them up in a loving and happy home full of family and friends who will love on them just as much as we will.

We've been married for 13 years, and we have a strong and committed relationship. We fell in love almost immediately and we got married less than a year after we started dating. Every day since we said, "I do!" Our love for each other has only grown stronger. We've been through plenty of challenges together and getting through them all has only made our bond stronger and more resilient.

We're an active couple and we want to share that with a child. We're always out spending time with friends and family, taking road trips to National Parks, going to watch a basketball or baseball game, biking and hiking the many trails near our home, and we love to travel across the country and abroad. There is just so much to see and do and we have a lot of different interests. We're excited to share our interests with a child. We're also excited to help them explore their own interests as they grow, and we will nurture and support them as they learn about what they're passionate and curious about in life. We feel very fortunate to be able to get out and go see the world and follow our passions.

Our community is the perfect place to raise a family, that's the main reason we moved here almost 8 years ago. We live in a neighborhood that is full of families who all look out for each other. We've got some great schools and parks within walking distance from our doorstep, and we know that a child will just love growing up here.

Our faith is an important part of our lives. We met each other at church and faith is something that's central to who we are and how we see the world. We're excited to share faith with a child and support and guide them on their own faith journey.

We want to respect your process, so we'll take your lead when it comes to connecting. We'd like to keep in touch with you throughout the child's life. We'll send letters and pictures so that you can see how they're growing, developing, and thriving. We are also open to other ways of connecting: visits, phone calls, emails. We will talk to the child about you to the extent that you would like.

We have so much love in our hearts. So far, we've shared that love with our family, our goddaughter, close friends, and our community. Now, we're ready to share that love with a child. Starting a family through adoption is something that's always been on our hearts.

In gratitude and humility,

Mike & Mimi