We live and work abroad as diplomats for the United States Government. We move every few years to a new country and both work together at the Embassy. While living in a country, we try to immerse ourselves in the local culture and community, by joining a church, making local friends and volunteering. We love the travel aspect of our jobs, continual learning and experiences that come with living abroad.

We currently live in Italy, where we've focused on building community through our local international church by attending a bible study, studying Italian, cooking new cuisine with local ingredients at home, and traveling regionally and hiking in the mountains and along the coasts. Each time we move, we seek to employ these same strategies to immerse ourselves in the culture of the place we are living. We've lived in three coffee countries, and have spent countless hours learning, speaking, hiking, running, swimming, and walking our way to a new understanding of the world around us.

Modeling God's love, guiding our children to develop a character of faith with integrity, and broadening a child's horizons, are all core to our parenting goals. Our parents laid the foundation for us by modeling an active faith and teaching foundations of scripture - all the while encouraging us to develop our own interests, try new things, create through art, speak new languages, play new instruments and sports, and to continually build skills throughout our lives. We look forward to supporting, and guiding our child in a similar way. We look forward to sharing our passions for travel, and the depth of importance of global community. In the last year, we've imagined sharing numerous experience with a child - learning about animals on a safari in Tanzania, hanging out with church youth group friends, hiking in Rawandan jungles, making a favorite meal at home, visiting a children's museum in Italy, and eating at our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant in Kansas City. We are excited to equip a child with savvy life skills, and encourage them to explore, learn and grow spiritually, educationally, and physically.

We met abroad on a bike tour of Athens, Greece! Alaina was working in Greece alongside a Christian teaching organization supporting refugee education, and Chris was there on vacation. We both independently booked a bike tour of the city, and met serendipitously at the bike shop the morning of the ride. We immediately connected over a shared passion for education and travel, and chatted for 3 hours on the ride! After the ride, we spent the rest of the day seeing sites together, and had dinner and a sunset hike to a high point in the city. That evening, we shared contact info, and connected the following day to again explore Athens together. We continued to stay in touch remotely after we went back home. For nearly two years, we developed a long distance friendship that grew into a relationship. We met up at a central place between our cities, and made the commitment to pursue one another. Now, we are thrilled we get to do what we both set out to do - live, work, and learn abroad - together for a lifetime!

We currently live in Milan, Italy in an apartment in the historic city center. Overlooking a park, our three-bedroom apartment is a light-filled, spacious, and safely accessible place to call home. With a second bedroom dedicated for a child and a large open living room to play in, we look forward to creating a welcoming environment for a child in Milan.

We enjoy taking walks around our local community, historic areas, museums, and regional parks. Alaina enjoys swimming most mornings at the local community pool, and together we enjoy visiting the local market on Saturdays to practice speaking Italian and buy seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables. It's a hobby of ours to cook new dishes with locally available seasonal produce!

Our international church and diplomatic community are broad and diverse in every capacity. Currently, we enjoy learning more about the uniqueness of each region of Italy by munching, and traveling our way by train around the country. In the last couple of years, we have enjoyed having a traditional Burmese dinner cooked by a friend in Milan, hiking in the mountains or rainforests of Italy, Switzerland, Tanzania, and Rwanda with local friends, learning African dance moves from Alaina's math tutoring students, and teaching our Kenyan friends how to make gingerbread houses as a holiday activity. We experience things from all corners of the globe.

Chris has two brothers, and Alaina has one younger brother. We both grew up in the Midwest, attended public schools, and have families who value faith. Both Chris and Alaina's parents are retired and spend their time volunteering, coaching, and otherwise staying busy helping others with all sorts of home, community, and church projects. Alaina has three living grandparents, and we love to video chat with them regularly; Alaina's grandmother is looking forward to reading children's stories to our child online - her library card is ready! Although we live abroad, we use our vacation time to return to the U.S. annually for a few weeks to meet up with our families and do activities together - this year with Alaina's family we attended a college football game, played dominoes, and ate favorite treats together. This fall, with Chris' family, we traveled to a family wedding, and spent a week hiking and hanging out with extended family sharing stories around the table. Our families are spread around the U.S. We keep in touch through messages, video chats, and phone calls throughout the year and seek to maximize our short windows together. Our parents have visited us around the world, and enjoy sharing time with us abroad getting to know our rhythms of life and history of our current city. Our families are looking forward to sharing eclectic family passions with a child. We love - traveling, hiking, camping, fishing, scuba diving, painting and creating!

Grazie mille! Merci! Murakoze! Muchisimas Gracias! Thank you for the opportunity to share our love with you and your child. You are a woman of strength and bravery. We have deeply rooted respect for you and the selfless decision you are making.

We are confident the Lord has walked before us in this path to adoption, and continue to see how He shows up time and time again. Before we were married, independently, we both considered the pathway of adoption for our future lives - fast forward to a year ago, we solidified our decision to pursue adoption. We've been married for 3.5 years, and are looking forward to sharing our lives together as teammates for a lifetime. We faithfully believe Christians are adopted into God's household, and we desire to mirror this love of Christ in our own home. We have a heart for justice, displaced people, and serving those around us.

We met in an unconventional way, on a bike tour in Athens, Greece! We were both in the right place at the right time, and over a few years cultivated a long-distance friendship that eventually turned into love as we changed career paths to merge our lives together.

Currently, we both work for the U.S. Department of State; Chris works as a Technology Officer, and Alaina works as a Consular Officer. We are presently posted in Milan, Italy, and move to a new country every 2-4 years as we are posted for government work abroad. Together, we have lived in or visited more than 30 countries, and speak parts of several languages! Alaina is currently building her Spanish skills toward fluency, and speaks some French and Italian too! Prior to our government work, Chris worked in educational technology for the state of Wisconsin, and Alaina was a high school math teacher in Kansas, and international school principal in Colombia. Although we've traded our Midwest scenery for a historical city center, we still maintain our Midwestern identity abroad.

We value faith, curiosity, passion, gratitude, and tenacity as values instilled in us by our parents and grandparents, and would be honored to pass them onward. As lifelong learners and veterans of educational careers, we know the importance of fueling the love of learning and providing practical, tangible, and unique opportunities to explore careers and the vast cultural interconnectedness of our world. Our child would attend international schools and be immersed in different cultures, languages, and cuisines! We look forward to blending American and international traditions in our family - building with legos, roasting s'mores, riding on safari, singing in many languages, visiting historical sites and ruins, and attending local festivals.

Although we live abroad, technology has allowed us to feel like we still live next door to friends and family in the United States. We regularly text, send emails, and schedule video chats to keep up through photos and stories of both our adventures, and routine days. We delight in the role you will play in your child's life, and welcome your continued investment through communication and time spent together. We are happy to message, email, and schedule video chats to share pictures and stories. We are open to making arrangements for visits when the time is right, and commit to always speak highly of you and honor you through our words and actions.

We are thankful and honored you would consider us to be adoptive parents for your child. We continue to pray over your life, health, and heart as you courageously make adoption decisions.

With gratitude -

Chris & Alaina