Justin and Elizabethany

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From Us to You

Thank you so much for being here. For considering giving anyone the family they so desperately want. For being selfless. For being curious about us. We can only imagine the cluster of emotions and questions you’re caught up in right now. Hopefully we can help with them.

If we’re lucky enough to take care of your baby, be assured that they will be loved no matter who they want to be throughout their life. We are determined to encourage self expression and individuality, curiosity, love, generosity, and lots of play. We hope to help them become independent but caring, ultra-creative, and confident. If they can be okay with trying new things, and failing sometimes, we’ll feel like we’ve done our job. (Although we know we’ll have some learning to do in terms of the best ways to care for their needs!)

Adoption is not something we’ve fallen into. In fact, EB told JB that she would be adopting kids within a few months of their relationship. We’ve talked about possible scenarios for years, and can’t believe we’re finally this close to it happening!

Another plan of ours is to follow your lead when it comes to your relationship. We take mental health very seriously, and want you to do what is best for your happiness. Maybe we’ll invent a fun nickname for their “bonus mom,” or maybe they’ll know you as our most special gift-giver.

That said, for years, we’ve been writing letters to our future children, and would love to have you do that as well, so they always have something to remind them how wanted and loved they’ve always been, by all of us, in our own ways.

Ultimately, we want you to know—whatever you decide—we see you, we respect you, and we are here to support you however we can… for now or forever!

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Why We Are Choosing to Adopt

The answer seems so simple to EB… “because I’ve always wanted to.” When she was a preteen, her mom had an adopted baby at her home daycare. There was a moment when the baby had become a toddler that she held a blanket to EB’s lips to comfort her when she was crying. We later learned it’s what they had taught her as an infant in China, and she still remembered it, and passed it on to help. It was an instant life decision… “I’m going to adopt when I grow up.” 

With every relationship she had, EB told this plan to them. When marrying JB, she decided to try for a biological baby first. We found a surrogate, but she had a miscarriage, and we were unable to produce any more embryos. It was another moment of proof that adoption always was and will be the plan for us. 

Now we hope to raise an infant or two, then grow our family even further later on by adopting older siblings. Ultimately, we think we have a lot of love to give and our bond is built on wanting to help people.

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Lifestyle

EB is a former gymnast turned radio personality, which means she’s equal parts strong and loud. JB is the easygoing, golf-loving guy who keeps things balanced. Together, we make a solid team—one that’s been through a lot, grown a lot, and is ready for our biggest adventure yet: parenthood.

When we’re not in our favorite place- the outdoors- we’re typically attending or watching our local sports teams, or trying a new hobby! With EB’s job, we also attend a lot of live music and local events! When we’re not selfishly entertaining ourselves, it’s likely that we’re hosting friends and family, doing a DIY crafty project, or finally finding a Sunday evening on the couch.

Some people say we won’t be able to do these things when we have a family, but we disagree; it’ll just look different. We’ll have a car seat on our bikes, hip seats, headphones, festive onesies, and earlier bedtimes. Plus it’ll give us a whole new list of possible hobbies to try and places to visit! We’re giddy about taking a little one on our adventures! We can only imagine what passions they’ll discover!

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About EB from JB

EB is incredibly creative and caring. She’s always keeping note of things someone needs or wants, small or large whether it is physical or some kind of event or dream she can deliver on. She does this all the time with our friends so I have no doubt it will be the same thing when we become parents, except she’ll probably take it up a notch with the kid(s)! EB will no doubt take that same caring and thoughtful approach throughout their lives. I’ve always loved seeing EB with all of our nieces and nephews and hopefully will be able to give her that same joy with a child we can call our own. EB having such a youthful mindset and such high energy, she’s always ready to jump in with the nieces and nephews. She may even feel more comfortable jumping in playing with the kids rather than hanging out with the boring adults!

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About JB from EB

One of the first things I noticed about him was his devotion to his nieces and nephews. He’s always going above and beyond to see them, especially since losing his brother/their dad. As they’ve grown, he’s changed how he connects with them… it’s beautiful! Now he’s just as committed to my family and seeing them regularly. As much as I’ve always wanted a whole brood of kids, he’s more quiet about it, but I love it when he asks strangers if he can hold their baby or makes a comment like, “I wish we had one now” to me. JB is the kind of person to VOLUNTEER to help someone move. All of the time. Then he’ll be the person to make everyone laugh while doing the most stressful task. I can’t wait to see him lighten up tough moments for our kids, and be ready to jump in on things just to help make their lives easier. HIS passion is golf… and I like to daydream about our kids watching him do his thing in awe, until they can join.

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Our Home

We live in Washington, DC, so that we’re walkable to all of the activities we love to do! We bought our house a little over two years ago, and EB has been on a “no white walls” mission. Friday nights are for games, which is where our huge game closet comes in handy! Have you ever played putt-putt throughout your home? It’s one of our favorites. Set up some obstacles, grab any long object as a putter, and compete.

The best parts about being in the city? Having unlimited grassy parks, splash pads, and free rec centers! We can easily walk or bike to anything we need or want to do. There are lots of family friendly community and cultural events throughout the year, too!

We’re also within an hour’s drive to all of our family, which has been important. JB’s family is in MD/WV, while EB’s is in VA. We’re in the middle of them all!

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Our Family

Our FRAMILY is truly a village that is waiting to help! We each have brothers- who are all very handy and creative! They’ve given us mostly nephews (8!), but there are three nieces! EB loves doing gymnastics with the girls. 

EB’s parents throw a big music festival party each year and invite everyone they know- which tells you a lot! They’re fun and love to host, entertain, and meet new people!

JB has had the same group of friends since middle school! They’re all raising kids under 5. 

EB’s friends are our vacation buddies! There are babies up to 12 years old among them. The group is good about being open to disciplining, babysitting or entertaining each other’s kids when necessary. 

We’re also lucky to have three of EB’s grandparents within an hour of us, who can’t wait to have more great-grandkids! They’re in pretty good health, and all love to tease us about keeping them waiting.

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Racial and Cultural Diversity

While we’ll never pretend to understand exactly how it feels to be of another race, we can promise that we’ve always surrounded ourselves with a variety of people, in personality and culture. We are incessantly asking questions to make sure we can recognize what makes people different, how they feel, and how we can be better friends, allies, humans to them.

JB has a close relationship to the Filipino culture, specifically, practically being raised by his best friend’s family. 

Some of EB’s closest friends are Cambodian, Eritrean, Korean, Mexican, Italian and Puerto Rican, so we know we could easily help connect kids to any of these worlds. If we don’t know someone from our child’s background, we will immerse ourselves into the local community!

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Our Pets

Our cats, Vinny and Billie, were added to our family after we fostered 19 other cats and kittens throughout one year! It became a passion project of EB’s, and these two, plus their three other siblings, had to be bottle fed every couple of hours! She was bringing all five 3-week-old kittens to work and events and eventually we decided these were our two. They are SO friendly, and we plan on making them “brewery cats.” They love to be on the leash, so we’ll take them out with us this summer!

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Traditions

• EB’s family throws a HUGE party every summer, with her dad, grandpa, and other local bands performing in the driveway all day long. People of all ages dance, play yard games, and hang out all day! 
• JB’s extended family gets together every December… about 50 of them!
• Being in the DC pride parade and attending the festival
• We’ve had a really great tailgate family for Commanders games for about 10 years. 
• Fall camping trips with all of our friends’ kids
• RV trips to National Parks. We’ve been saving some until we have a little one to bring!
• We’re excited to learn more about our future child’s culture, and incorporate those traditions- through food, events, social groups… anything we can find! We like the idea of introducing them to multiple religions/beliefs, and letting them decide what they are as they grow up. We also hope to do annual beach trips with our siblings/their kids.

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Our Promise to You

We vow to: 

• support them no matter who they become or decide to love
• SHOW them how wanted they have always been.
• encourage them to try new things and find independence throughout all stages
• learn the best ways to discipline/teach/love based on their individual needs
• find ways to at least TRY to make their wildest ideas come to light
• teach and/or learn your/their culture together
• have a strong framily village to help us
• laugh at the littlest things
• show affection to each other so they have a good example of love and conflict resolution

Thank you x infinity for giving this route and our home any consideration. We hope it leads to a perfect match, but we want you to feel just as at peace with this decision as we are! 

As the internet says… TLDR: If you want your baby to have a relaxed, quiet, private life… this won’t be the right match! If you envision them exploring the outdoors, being obnoxiously loud at sporting events, dancing to all kinds of music, and having infinite important adults to guide them [including you!?], we think this is just the beginning of something really great. We think we love you already, actually.