Choose A Family : Parent Profile
Hannah and Dan
Hello and thank you. This is an amazing time for you and for us. Life happens in some very unexpected and miraculous ways. We are very thankful that our journey has led us to adoption. Ever since we dedicated our lives to each other, we have wanted to share our lives, our love, and our home with children.
We live on a tree-lined street in a small, quaint suburb of Los Angeles. You’d never associate “quaint” with Los Angeles, but here we are. Every 4th of July, there is a parade that marches straight down our street; the neighbors from all around come out for this day. We sit on the lawn, wave and holler at the policemen, firemen, and people on skates, motorcycles, horses, and floats. The neighbors are friendly, caring, and very thoughtful. We have dinner at each others’ houses, and we watch out for one another. Our backyard is full of fruit trees, and the squirrels love them. Each summer, Hannah can’t give away oranges, plums, and peaches fast enough.
We are successful in our careers, and we are grateful for our gifts, but we have also been working hard to develop our skills to excel at what we do. Hannah is an architect, and Dan is a consultant. For Hannah, architecture is a natural outlet for her creativity. After more than 12 years with the same company, she has accomplished far beyond her dreams and now leads the architectural development for her company’s Northeast Region, which includes rebuilding the World Trade Center in New York. Dan also has been in his field as an employee benefits consultant for more than 20 years. After graduating from high school, Dan attended the University of California, Berkeley, and then received a master’s degree from Loyola Marymount University, just seven houses from where we live. After graduate school, he volunteered to be the Head Diving Coach for his old high school, a position he held for 14 years until just recently. We will both continue with our professional careers because we feel it is important that our children learn that work is a part of life and that it can also be a source of fulfillment. Our jobs are flexible so that we are never traveling for long periods of time or at the same time. We also have the ability to telecommute and work flexible hours when the need arises.
We met in Karate class in January 2003. We were friends for a while before we really noticed each other. We would see each other almost every night, and sometimes we’d spar together not realizing we were sparring against our future spouse. At first, we didn’t think we were each others’ type. Dan actually asked Hannah out twice, and she turned him down before she got a clue.
It still amazes us that we are so alike because we grew up in two different worlds, Dan in Los Angeles, and Hannah in Vietnam. Dan has three brothers, and Hannah is an only child. We are very close with our families, and except for Dan’s 9-year-old niece, it has been a long time since we have had young children in the family. Both of our mothers, along with Hannah’s aunts and her 97-year-old grandmother are very excited to be grandmothers, great aunts, and a great grandmother.
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