Chris and Paola

>

<

From Us to You

We are excited to bring your child into our loving home and we hope that you and your child will join us on this life-long journey. Our home is full of joy and excitement. We dance in the kitchen. Sometimes we also cook there. 🙂 We love to garden. We like going out to concerts and movies. We play games with friends. Our home and our life is open to our friends and family, and that would include you. We invite you to be a part of our community and your child’s life, in a way you are comfortable with.

Our experience with nurturing and children started young. When Chris was 14 his little sister was born, and this was his first experience helping raise a baby. He learned a lot, and while he wasn’t perfect at changing diapers, the signs were that he would be a great father. Paola was 12 years old when her first niece was born and fondly remembers babysitting her and rocking her to sleep. Many years have since passed, and now we take care of each other, Paola’s parents, and our tortoise, Perci. We are a happy with our life, and at the same time have more love and nurturance to give.

We both come from humble beginnings and have worked hard to create for ourselves a comfortable life. We are at a point in our lives where we can provide for a child and give them the things we couldn’t have. Your child will see everything from sumo wrestling, ballet, and opera, to heavy metal. As your child gets older they can go to college (if they want), become a doctor, or maybe an artist. Regardless, we’ll encourage their dreams and support them along the way.

We will give your child the opportunity to experience life to the fullest, to take part in the world, and when opportunities arise, to be prepared to meet them. We are driven by our curiosity, a trait we want to cultivate in your child because learning how things work is a gift that keeps on giving. But more important than understanding the world is understanding ourselves – why we feel how we do and what drives us, these things build our inner world and strength. It is vital to be content with ourselves so that we can realize our potential. We want to nurture this confidence in your child, so they feel at peace. We want to instill in them that when they make mistakes, they are still a good person who is worthy of love.

As we write this letter, we wonder what you are going through. We’re wondering if you are in pain or if you’re contemplating whether you are making the right decision. We can’t imagine how hard it must be, and we’re sure you want to make the right decision for your baby. And how do we convey that we are worthy to take care of your baby? Photos and words on a website are a limited, if not odd, way to start a relationship. But, we hope that you keep this letter and look back at it and maybe smile at the oddness of these circumstances.

>

<

Why We're Choosing to Adopt

We have a lot of love and nurturance to share with your child, and adoption gives us the opportunity we cannot otherwise have to become parents. After ten years of infertility treatments, we decided that adoption is the best way for us to grow our family, and we are excited for the future. A silver lining of our infertility journey is that it has given us a lot of time and space to really think about why we want to become parents. We talk often about your child – the type of parents we want to be to them, the things we’ll do as a family, and the values and ethics we want to raise them by. We look forward to nurturing and cultivating your child, getting curious about whatever they are passionate about, providing them with the opportunities we didn’t have growing up as kids, and being present in their childhood. Our goal as parents is to raise your child to be the best version of themselves, secure in who they are, empathetic, successful by their own definition, and a good person and community member.

Adoption can be a gift for everyone – your child will grow up knowing they are loved by so many people. You can keep a connection to your child that works for you, and we will be blessed with the opportunity to become parents to your child. We’re loving, patient, and caring people and ready to become parents. We’re excited to grow our family through the blessing of adoption.

>

<

About Chris, from Paola

Chris is a wonderful husband and will be a great father. Kids love him! He’s fun, silly, and he can get at kids’ level, playing along with whatever game comes up. I think he’s good at this because he’s a big kid at heart himself – sweet, creative, and fun to be around. He’s also a very caring soul, sensitive to how those around him are feeling and does his best to make sure that others feel safe and happy. Chris is very affectionate, always hugging and saying I love you. We have a very affectionate household, and your child will be raised receiving lots of love, hugs, and snuggles. Lastly, Chris is incredibly intelligent, curious, and always learning something new. He’s the most inquisitive person you’ll ever meet, whether he’s learning a new way to draw or paint, a fix or hack for an electronics repair, writing new code, or learning a new way to varnish wood. He has a drive to learn and apply his curiosity. All of these qualities together means Chris will be an awesome dad – he will be a gentle, attentive, silly, and supportive dad.

>

<

About Paola, from Chris

Paola is a kind person with a nurturing soul. She loves taking care of her garden, nesting in our house, and I can see how taking care of your child would bring out these qualities further. Her gardening skills are renowned here in town, with its unique Southwestern plant life and climate. Paola also is great at helping take care of me as well, and we really work together to take care of each other. We are each other’s anchor, ensuring we stay centered on what matters. She is a very optimistic person who channels her energy into positive pursuits. Perhaps this is why she was able to make it all the way through 12 years of college to get a PhD! She is very focused on research and spends a lot of time reading and watching videos on the different approaches to child care. Paola is ‘all in’ and will give your child undivided attention and a beautiful loving home.

>

<

Our Home

We have lived in Arizona for over fifteen years and love it, as we are surrounded by beautiful mountains on pretty much all sides. The area is great for hiking and biking, is sunny, and has a beautifully vibrant and green desert. We recently bought our home with the intention of growing our family through the gift of adoption, as we think it’s the perfect place to raise a child.

We have a spacious, three bedroom house that sits on an acre of mature desert with plenty of space for a child to grow and play. There are several large Saguaro cacti on our property that are well over 100 years old and because of where we live, we see a lot of wildlife such as bunnies, javalinas, quail, and lizards as well as a clear view of the Catalina mountains. We are also avid gardeners and enjoy eating the food we grow, so growing food together as a family is something we look forward to doing. With clear views to the mountains nearby, there are always families walking, running, and riding bicycles in our neighborhood, and we look forward to taking our own family bike rides.

Although we live around a lot of natural beauty, we are also close to great schools, several shopping malls, restaurants, and entertainment options, and the area of town where we live is considered one of the best in town. We are about a mile and a half from our local farmer’s market where we enjoy riding our bicycles to on Sundays for our weekly grocery shop. This too we are excited to do as a family through the blessing of adoption.

>

<

Our Pet Tortoise

We have a Sonoran desert tortoise named Percival Longbottom or Perci for short. He is native to our desert, 10 years old and lives in our garden. We adopted him two years ago and made him a burrow to sleep in, though he likes to nap in various places around the garden and sometimes comes inside. Your child will grow up with him as a pet, as it’s common for Sonoran desert tortoises to live 50 to 80 years. He is an unconventional pet, but we both love him, and he has a lot of personality. He is quite social for a tortoise too, and will come up to say hello and get a head rub. His favorite snack is a type of flower called Tecoma Orange Bells, which we grow, and he also loves dandelion greens. Although he’s an outdoor tortoise, he sometimes likes to cool off in the house and has learned that if he walks up to the back door we will let him inside for a little while. Since he is a reptile and our desert cools down at night, he brumates (or sleeps) for about half the year, and we miss him during this time, as he’s part of the family. Then every spring, he comes out from his deep sleep to enjoy the garden and sunshine.

>

<

Our Families

We have lived in Arizona for fifteen years, where we have made many friends over the years and have a deep sense for community here. Paola’s parents also live here and we are very close with them. We enjoy spending time together on the weekends, and we speak in Spanish together, which is a great way for Chris to improve his Spanish! We will raise your baby speaking English and Spanish, as it’s not only a great way for them to connect with their grandparents but also as the second spoken language in the country, it’s a great skill to have. From our various hobbies and community involvement, we have made many treasured friendships over the years. We also have family and friends who live in other states and abroad who we enjoy keeping in touch with and visiting often. Paola’s siblings visit every Christmas with their families, and it’s such a great time to spend with our nephews and nieces. Taking family vacations together is another source of joy for our family, and we look forward to the time when we can introduce your baby to our family. They will have so much fun playing with their cousins!

>

<

How We Met

We met several years ago through a mutual friend who actually married us on a hiking trail in the beautiful mountains of Arizona four years after we met! We had the opportunity to connect casually over the course of a year before we dated, as we would hang out together with our mutual friend. Then one day we were both single and decided to go hiking as a way to get to know each other. We talked for hours and found we had a love for nature and a lot in common. After the hike, we decided to get a bite to eat, and afterwards Chris very romantically asked, “If I pay for dinner, can this be our first date?” The rest is history as they say, and we’ve been inseparable since.

>

<

Our Lifestyle

We have a laidback lifestyle, where we enjoy the outdoors, quality time with family and friends, and pursuing our hobbies and interests. Chris enjoys riding his bicycle, tinkering with electronics, woodworking, and drawing. As a video game developer, Chris is also an active member and leader in the local community of video game developers, where he mentors others interested in making a career in the industry. Paola spends most of her free time in the garden, tending to her plants, enjoying nature, and taking pictures of her garden and the visiting wildlife. She is very active in the local gardening community and has made many friendships this way. Spending time in nature is also a favorite of ours, and we make it a priority to go hiking and biking together as a family often. We are lucky to have mountain ranges nearby and sunny weather, so we can easily go on a hike or bike ride nearly year round. We also enjoy our time together at home, making a meal together, playing board games, and snuggling on the couch to a movie or favorite TV show. In addition to enjoying our home life, we also love getting out and having adventures! We have a vacation home that we visit frequently and we enjoy family vacations there. Our lifestyle can easily welcome your child. We will cultivate their hobbies and interests, go on hikes and bike rides together as a family, travel regularly and see the world. More importantly, we will spend quality time together as a family, and they will grow up feeling loved, supported, and safe.

>

<

Family Traditions

Traditions are a big deal in our family. We love celebrating holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas is especially fun to Paola as she has collected Christmas ornaments since she was 18 years old. We look forward to decorating the house every year with Christmas whimsy, making cookies for our neighbors and friends, and watching our favorite holiday movies (our tradition is some combination of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Elf, Love Actually, and Die Hard). During the holidays, we love making and eating Colombian specialties like buñuelos and arepas. This is also when family comes to visit either at our regular home or our vacation home. It’s a very special time of year for us to spend with family.

We also enjoy little informal traditions. For example, an informal tradition we have is to exchange wedding rings when we visit our vacation home. We do our wedding hike and exchange rings at the top of the trail where we had our ceremony. It’s a small way to affirm our love for one another. Another informal tradition we have is riding bicycles to our local farmer’s market on Sunday mornings. Chris has a cargo bike, which lets him carry our weekly groceries. We often talk about how fun it will be to bike to the farmer’s market as a family and the ways we will modify his bicycle to accommodate a baby seat.

>

<

Our Vacations and Leisure Time

We love to travel and see the world. We enjoy experiencing other cultures and have had the opportunity to visit various countries such as Japan, Mexico, England, Italy, Greece and Spain. We once did a bicycle tour of Spain’s northern Basque country. It was challenging but fun and rewarding to experience the beautiful Spanish countryside by bicycle. Several years ago, Chris also bicycled across the United States, a trip that took him three months to complete and had him dip the wheels to his bicycle from Oregon to Virginia. He kept up a blog at the time and chronicled what he learned about all the different communities across the U.S. he passed through and the people he met. Travel is important to us – not only as an opportunity to experience new places and cultures, but also to grow as individuals. We look forward to traveling as a family with your baby, so they can grow up seeing how beautiful and diverse the world is.

>

<

Our Careers and Passions

Chris grew up drawing comic books and playing games. While Chris loves art, his skill as a computer programmer has always eclipsed his ability to draw. Being artistic but also a computer programmer slowly maneuvered and evolved his career into the video games industry. Video games is an exciting intersection of art and code. While this is a great career to be in currently, Chris enjoys a healthy work/life balance. After a work day he is excited to get away from the computer screen to hang out with friends, get some exercise, or draw. Chris’ life passion is not to find fame or fortune, but to express himself through his art and enjoy the journey as he goes.

Paola has a PhD in sociology and has always been curious about social issues. She is a Director at a nonprofit organization that does social science research on a wide range of community issues, and her passion is qualitative research. Paola loves to listen to people share their stories and write about them to help improve community resources. Earning a PhD was a big accomplishment for Paola as a first generation college student and the first person in her family to get a PhD. When Paola isn’t working, she is far, far from her computer and usually in her garden. There is no better place for Paola – as she can tap into her creativity, appreciation for nature, and source for beauty and learning. Paola also grows food year round and keeps lots of flowers in bloom for pollinators. She looks forward to sharing her love of gardening with your child.

>

<

Our Hobbies

Chris may not know how to do everything, but he knows how to youtube it and figure it out! He’s built tables, desks, shelves, and giant planter boxes for the garden. He’s repaired and restored cabinetry and chairs. He finds satisfaction in learning how to fix things and take care of them long term. Chris also enjoys drawing and writing in his sketchbook. He draws comics of fantastic adventures or ideas for video games. Chris also runs a group of people interested in making video games in town. They write, draw, and code video games together, helping foster young and old to learn unique skills.

As mentioned, Paola’s biggest hobbies are gardening and photography. Both are outlets for Paola to express her creativity, slow down and appreciate nature, and be present. We both enjoy nature and the outdoors, which the area has in spades. We are hikers and bikers, who savor the beauty of the American Southwest. We both love a spicy Sonoran-style Mexican place. We are always on the lookout for the best spots to eat and drink. We also enjoy relaxing and watching our favorite shows such as Game of Thrones, Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and Star Trek.

>

<

Racial and Cultural Diversity

In our home, we embrace diversity and look forward to raising your child with a positive identity that honors their heritage. We already live in a bicultural household where Spanish and English are spoken, and Salsa and Merengue dancing is a norm. Our Christmas is a mix of Colombian, Mexican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Venezuelan traditions by the nature of our family and friends who celebrate with us. We believe in celebrating each person’s unique background, rather than adopting a “colorblind” mentality. We will love any child, regardless of their racial background. Our primary concern is providing a nurturing environment that respects their distinct journey. While we may not fully grasp their experiences, we’re committed to learning as much as we can. In our family, your child will be raised in a diverse community and village of family and friends that embraces their racial identity and culture, and your child will be able to have meaningful relationships with people of diverse ethnicities and cultures. Although we may have blind spots, we’re dedicated to learning as much as we can and listening to ensure your child feels cherished and secure in their identity.

>

<

The Kind of Parents We will be

We will be loving and affectionate parents, who will value learning together as a family and will provide your child with a stable and supportive home. We will raise your child with positive and gentle parenting techniques, as we want them to feel respected, loved, and understood. When they’re young, validating and reflecting your child’s feelings will be important as they deal with their big emotions, and we will also model for them how to regulate big emotions and treat others humanely and with compassion. Although positive and gentle parenting is important to us, this doesn’t mean that we will have a permissive household with no discipline or respect. Your child will grow up knowing what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior, the value of hard work, and respect for themselves, others, and the environment. We believe in open and honest communication and will include your child in family discussions and goals from an early age as an active member of the family. Our goal as parents as we have shared is to raise your child to be independent, self-confident, empathetic, and oriented to community and taking care of the planet.

>

<

Our Relationship with You

We would like to build a relationship with you that is based on mutual respect, love for your child, and authenticity. We would like to get to know you and work in partnership and friendship to decide what an open adoption means for all of us. We will talk about and normalize adoption early and would like to have a relationship with you (to the extent you are comfortable) so that your child will see that having a birth family and adoptive family just means more love. We fully want your child to understand their history and background as that is so important for a healthy identity. We believe that if we keep your child’s best interests in our hearts and guiding our decisions we can figure out a path forward that is healing and beneficial for everyone.

>

<

What We will Teach your Child

We will teach your child to be empathetic; to value family, friends, and community; to be self-determined; and to be a good steward of the planet. The best way for us to teach your child empathy is for us to model it, showing them what it looks like to care for others. We also value our connections. For us, family doesn’t just mean relatives, but those you’ve chosen who are dearest to you. Your neighbors are family, and your community. It’s important that we equip your child with the tools, resources, and skills they need to grow up into an independent and self-confident adult who is able to take care of themselves and others. We will instill in them the curiosity and purpose that drives our own learning, goal orientation, and growth. Lastly, conservation is an important value of ours, and we will teach your child to take care of their things and the environment. Your child will be part of a one car household, where bicycles are used often, and their house is on solar energy with a rainwater harvesting tank for the garden. It’s important to us to not treat things as disposable items, but instead to take care of things, repair them when they are broken, and to live simply. We strive to live in harmony with nature, reduce waste, and to take care of things so that they may be passed down to future generations.

>

<

Our Promise to You

We promise that we will be the best parents we can be to your child. We will love your child unconditionally, raise them with opportunities, nurture their dreams, and cultivate their interests (whether that’s learning dance, playing sports, or pursuing whatever it is that excites them). We promise that we will cherish the gift of your child and the gift you are giving us to become parents. We are so humbled by your strength and love for your child, and we will raise your child as the blessing that they are to our family. We also promise to speak to your child about you and their adoption early and openly, so that they grow up knowing who they are, where they come from, and that they are loved by many people. Our goal as parents is to raise a compassionate and independent child who cares about others, their community and the planet, works hard towards their goals, and has the tools they need to become a self-actualized adult. We promise you that we will put your child first in everything that we do as parents.