Nicholas and Katie

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No Greater Honor

There is no greater honor that we could receive than your faith in us to love, nurture, and parent your precious baby. We would love to meet you and hear about what future you dream of for your child and begin a lifelong journey with you.

Two of our friends brought us together who, when they first met Nick, immediately declared that they had found “the one” for Katie. We spent that first year getting to know each other and building a friendship while all our friends waited for us to figure out what they already clearly saw; that we were meant to be together.

We found in each other a partner to share in all the outdoor adventures we both love, like biking, camping, and skiing, and we’ve been fortunate to travel the world together and love exploring as many new places and culture as possible. But just as important to us is our life at home and time spent with family and friends and building connections in our community.
We’re still missing that final piece, the joy that comes from being a mom and a dad and raising a family together. We dream of sharing our family traditions and memories with your child and we imagine listening to the patter of little feet running down the hall on Christmas morning, taking summer trips to our family cabin, enjoying lazy Sunday mornings, or driving all over to watch your child’s sports or music events, we can’t wait to experience all the small and significant moments in life. We want to share our love of nature with your child, build their curiosity about the world and the people in it. We promise to teach them about kindness, compassion and help them build the self-confidence that comes from growing up in a home filled with love, joy, and stability.

To us you are brave and selfless and your decision will give a lifetime of joy to the family you choose. It would be our greatest honor to love and raise your child and provide them with a loving home. We would love to have you continue to be a part of your child’s life, though we are open to whatever relationship you choose. We promise that your child will always know the incredibly strong woman you are and how much you love them.

With Love,
Katie & Nick

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Becoming a Family through Adoption

We have a lot of love to give and believe that a family is made, not born. After unsuccessful fertility treatments and lots of conversations about what we truly wanted, we decided to put our focus on adopting instead of spending more effort on a biological child. We want to share our life and love for each other with a child and couldn’t feel more strongly about our decision and our excitement for adoption has remained strong. We have a close family member who made the tough choice to place a child for adoption when she was younger. We’re grateful that she’s shared what it was like for her, and this has given us another perspective, not just our own experience

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About Katie

Katie inspires us all to be a little more kind, more informed and a little more selfless. When we were just friends it was hard to keep up with her, and I can admit now (just a little intimidated by her.) I mean, she rode her bike everywhere, was becoming a Public Health expert and pursuing her doctoral degree, would come up with ideas for amazing trips and adventures and was always there for friends and family in every aspect of their life.

But as our romance grew and on one of those amazing trips, as we kissed at the campfire, I realized that it wasn’t a competition for Katie. She is just generous with her incredible gifts to others. She is absolutely brilliant, and the person that everyone goes to. When her friends have hard problems, they come to her. When anyone is in need, she’s there to help. When there is something to celebrate, she always remembers no matter how small.

The joy we have in our life will grow even more when your child joins our family and the boundless love that Katie has will be even more powerful as a mother to your child. She is absolutely beautiful, inside and out, and I can’t contain my excitement to think that I get to share the experience of leading a little one into the world with her by my side.

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About Nick

I can remember clearly when I fell in love with Nick. He and I were both excited to go mountain biking and took several of our friends who were less experienced. He probably did twice as many miles that day as he constantly kept riding back to make sure that everyone was doing okay, and no one was left behind. That’s when I fell in love with Nick.

He cares first about everyone else’s needs before his own and doesn’t hesitate to offer to help someone. He’s incredibly sweet, patient and kind and I can count on the one hand the number of times I’ve heard him complain. Nick is also one of the smartest and most capable people I know. We jokingly refer to him as “Nickipedia” as he has an incredible amount of knowledge about almost any topic and can figure out how to do anything. Whether it’s fixing the electrical system on our old Westfalia or jumping on a surfboard, he’s just good at everything he does.

He’s more reserved than me but shares a very silly side with those he’s closest to. My favorite moments are seeing what things make him laugh so hard he cries. He is incredibly respectful, and I love that we can communicate completely honestly and calmly with each other about anything, big or small. He has been so supportive of making sure I follow all my dreams and I love that we are constantly scheming and dreaming about the life we want to build together. I know from experience what an incredible partner Nick is to me, and I know in my heart what an amazing dad he’s going to be to your child.

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Our Home

Our home is very special to us. We purchased it in the fall of 2017 and together with our parents, we renovated a house and turned it into our perfect home for the family we’ve been dreaming about. We designed it with our future family in mind, so there are two bedrooms for kids that we can’t wait to fill! It’s bright, airy and we have a big, open kitchen and living room area as we love to cook and have our friends and their kids over. We have a piano that also brings people together to belt out our favorite tunes!

We have a large private backyard area and this year we built a deck, garden and planted a lot of trees to make it a great place to hang out. We love our neighborhood for so many reasons. First, six of our closest friends live within two blocks of us. It makes it so easy to get together and share little moments like quick walks around the block or chats on the porch that remind us of how lucky we are to someday raise our family here.

We also love that our neighborhood is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in our city. There are lots of fun restaurants, parks, and schools within walking or biking distance, which is how we prefer to get around. We appreciate our city because it is rich in both culture and nature, with its access to the beach, mountains, and desert.

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Our Families and Friends

We are both very close to our families and love spending time with our parents and siblings. Nick’s parents and brother live on our street and can’t wait to help care for a child. We built a studio onto our house so Katie’s mom can stay there for part of the year. She’s already busy knitting in anticipation! Katie has two older brothers who have six kids among them and Nick’s two sisters both have a toddler and a baby on the way.

Our entire family, especially our nieces and nephews, are anxiously awaiting the newest family member, are always asking about their future cousin when we gather at Christmas and every summer at Katie’s family cabin in upstate New York. One of our most cherished trips is getting everyone together every summer at the family cabin. Everyone enjoys long days of running through the woods and jumping off rocks into the St. Lawrence River usually end with us all piled in someone’s room retelling our favorite parts of the day.

Having been the aunt and uncle for so many years, we can’t wait to see the special relationships our child will develop with our siblings and parents. Whether its Katie’s brothers teaching them how to fish, or Nick’s sisters training them to be runners, they will be surrounded by a loving and dedicated family.

We also have many close friends that we have known for many years and are like family to us, and the group has now expanded to include lots of new kiddos. We gather regularly for “Sunday dinner” at each other’s homes to share good food and great company. We rotate houses and everyone brings a dish to share. We even chose to get married in a friend’s backyard so we could be closely surrounded by our loved ones. Most weekends there’s an exchange of tools and a helpful hand or vegetables from someone’s garden. We see each other regularly and it’s a great feeling to know we have so many people we share so much of our life with and can rely on. Our friends have been on this journey with us to start our family and are so excited to welcome your child!

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Family Traditions

We have kept alive the traditions we had with our families growing up. They were incredible examples of bringing together family and friends to share and celebrate life. We’re so lucky to live around the corner from Nick’s parents and brother and fortunately, we have maintained yearly trips to with Katie’s family to keep traditions alive.

We make sure we are with family someplace snowy for Christmas so we can really celebrate the season of giving and gratitude, sledding and snowballs and as much elf mischief for the little kids as possible. Katie especially comes alive, even ringing sleigh bells outside our nieces and nephews’ windows as they go to bed to get them excited for Christmas morning.

We also make an annual summer trip to her parents’ cabin on the St. Lawrence River. Her extended family all gather for a week of swimming, boating, jumping off rocks, campfires and long days just being together. Nick’s family all joins for Thanksgiving together in Southern California and soaks up the sun and sand.

We’ve also made a lot of new traditions as a couple. We have regular “Sunday dinners” with our amazing group of friends and their kids, where everyone brings a dish to share. Lazy weekend mornings with donuts, sunsets at the beach during the summer, watching fireworks over the ocean on the 4th of July, and other small things make us so grateful to have found each other and excited to have a family together so we can share these traditions and build more.

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Our Lifestyle

Day to day, life is pretty simple. We make time to be with family and friends. We have a very family-focused group of friends that are ready to support us when we finally have kids of our own. We both like to go running or biking for exercise and take walks in our neighborhood in the evening after work. We both work during the week we and try to maximize our evenings and weekends. Katie has a more flexible work schedule and mainly works from home, whereas Nick works a more typical 9 to 5 schedule. Katie loves to cook and bake and luckily Nick loves to eat!

The weekends include activities with friends and family and usually some type of project around the house. Our friends all have children that we spend a lot of time with, and we can’t wait to add our growing family to the mix! We’re lucky to live in Southern California near the beach, so we try to get a bike ride together to see the ocean on weekends. Katie found a love for pottery and spends time each weekend learning and creating. If we have an extra day off, then we usually are on some type of adventure in nature. We have a Westfalia camper van that makes getting on the road easy, so we’ll head to the mountains for camping and mountain biking or to the beach. We’re lucky to live somewhere that is so close to both the mountains and the ocean! Katie’s latest “hobby” is roller skating in a beautiful public park in our city where people from all walks of life come together to skate, listen to music, and have a great time!

For vacation, we like to travel and experience new places and cultures. We’ve been to Morocco, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Scotland, New Zealand, Japan, Denmark, and France together. But we equally love exploring the amazing U.S. We love visiting national parks and days spent hiking or biking, followed by jumping in a river or lake and watching the sun set. In the winter, it’s all about snow. We love to ski, snowboard and sled! Katie grew up in the country and loves small towns, but we both also love exploring cities from time to time.

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Our Vacations and Leisure Time

Day to day, life is pretty simple. We make time to be with family and friends. We have a very family-focused group of friends that will be a great support to us when we finally have kids of our own. We both like to go running or biking for exercise and take walks in our neighborhood in the evening after work.

For vacation, we have both done a lot of traveling to experience new places and cultures. Before the pandemic, we’d been to Spain, Scotland, New Zealand, Japan, Denmark and Mexico together. But we equally love exploring the amazing U.S. We love visiting national parks and days spent hiking or biking, followed by jumping in a river or lake and watching the sun set. In the winter, it’s all about snow. We love to ski, snowboard and sled! Katie grew up in the country and loves small towns, but we both also love exploring cities from time to time We have a very similar interest in seeing places as the people who live there do, so we usually do a lot of exploring on our own, versus in big groups or on tours.

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Our Careers

We are passionate about our careers of service. Nick serves our country as a Navy helicopter pilot and Katie public health career focuses on how we can build safer, healthier and more inclusive communities. We want to be the best role models for your child in taking positive actions to create a better world for all those in it.

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Racial and Cultural Diversity

While we know we cannot replicate your child’s culture if it’s different from ours, there are many things we have already done and will continue to do to ensure this child feels embraced and valued by our family and friends and connected to their culture. We have already built a community of close friends from many different racial and ethnic backgrounds, religions, and sexual orientations and really value having many different traditions and influences in our life, from holidays, to food, and music. For example, at our holiday party we have every year, we gather around our piano to sing Christmas songs we grew up with as well as many songs in Spanish from our Mexican and Puerto Rican friends. We have attended multiple Black Lives Matter protests, volunteering to protect other marchers from traffic along the route.

We have shared our adoption journey with our friends and asked several of them to help guide us should we be matched with a child of a different race or ethnicity. Three of our closest friends are biracial and are excited to be “Wisdom Aunts and Uncles” and help us on our journey as a transracial family and our to child develop a positive racial identity.

We will continue to seek out opportunities where our child will be surrounded by people of his or her race and culture. One of the reasons we bought our home where we did is because of the diversity of the neighborhood. Our neighborhood is a true melting pot of cultures and more than 50% of the population are from a non-white racial or ethnic group. Within blocks from us, there are restaurants, markets, community centers and events from Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asian and the Middle East. There are two elementary schools within walking and biking distance from our home. Students from minority racial and ethnic groups make up a majority of students at both so a child will be able to interact daily with kids from their own, and many other cultures. From our friends with kids, we know that that the schools incorporate this diversity into what they teach and celebrate.

We know that we will need to actively help a child of a different race to recognize and cope with the discrimination they will face. We will use whatever resources we can to help us build a bicultural home, including support groups and counseling, books, toys, movies, and caregivers who share their cultural identity. We know this will be a lifelong process, but we promise to learn to embrace and celebrate their culture, to surround them with people with shared backgrounds, engage in events that reflect their heritage, and constantly work to help them develop a sense of pride in their identity, whatever that may be.

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Our Promise to You

We believe in being open and honest with children and we promise that your child will know the story of their adoption and how we celebrate they we became a family from the day they are born.

We have spent more than 8 long years hoping and praying for a child to enter our life, staying open to however and whenever that may happen. While we are grateful for the wonderful things we do have, more than anything, we are waiting for the magical day that we become parents. We can’t wait to share the love we have for each other with your child and to help them reach for their dreams, whatever they may be. You will forever be a part of their life and our family. While the way we stay connected is up to you, your story and love for your child, and our gratitude for you will be something your child knows from the very beginning, we promise.