Hello from Tacoma, Washington. We are Rubén & Elliot. Thank you so much for considering us! Over many years together, we have worked hard to build a loving home within a loving community of friends and family. We are eager to extend this love even further and grow our family! For us, that’s really only possible with the help of you, and we are so appreciative that you have chosen the route of adoption. We are excited to embark on this journey with you and your child, and looking ahead to bright and happy days with a little one to join us on our adventures. Thanks again for reading our profile, and for taking the time to learn more about us!

We are adopting because we have both dreamed of having a family for years, and adoption feels like the perfect fit for us to make that happen! Seeing the world through the eyes of a child and helping them navigate the joys and challenges of life is a privilege we would feel honored and excited to accept. Being a gay couple, we considered a few options for starting a family, but adoption just feels right. After many years just the two of us, we’re ready for both the new chapter of parenthood and can’t wait to invite a little one into this life we’ve built and cherish. We’re just two regular people with big hearts and lots of love to give.

We met in 2014 at college in Wisconsin, where we were both students working on our degrees. Our first date over live music and beautiful scenery kindled a connection that just felt right - and still does all these years later! We were married in 2022 on a tranquil island near our home. We live in Tacoma, Washington, surrounded by natural beauty and an amazing community of friends and family. We’ve been through a lot together, from moving state-to-state to advance our schooling and careers, to buying and selling homes together, to finally settling down in Washington with our dogs. Here we’ve been able to focus on the three things that are most important to us: our amazing friends, our close-knit families, and our varied hobbies and interests.

Life philosophy: the hardest things in life are the ones most worth doing. At home and hosting barbeques, game nights, coffee dates, cookie decorating, and generally hanging out. When we aren’t home, you can find us either exploring at the nearby beach or in our hometown visiting family and friends.

The #1 with our free time is hanging out with our friends and family. Our relationships with these loved ones is truly the most important thing in our lives! We even take weekend trips across the country just to make sure our friendships feel nurtured.

Hobbies we enjoy together include: picking out a book to read together in the car or on walks to work, or playing video games and watching movies at the theater. Aside from that, Rubén loves to garden and can often be found watering, planting, harvesting, and experimenting in our small but lush yard. He’s also an avid reader, and loves getting lost in books and exploring new stories. Getting involved in the community is also a huge priority for him, and he has been involved in organizations in Tacoma that help plant trees and improve transportation safety around town.

Elliot loves playing music, and can often be found unwinding at the piano. He even gave a recital recently in front of friends! He also loves the science and precision of baking bread and sweet treats to bring into the office. A more recent hobby of Lego building has been an amazing creative outlet!

For work, both of us are lucky to live in a state with 3 months of paid time off for paternity leave. As an educator, Rubén gets summers off and has a flexible work schedule, to spend more time with the little one. Elliot has a flexible work-from-home policy, and takes every other Friday off to maximize weekend fun.

I grew up in Anaheim, California, as the youngest of 5, raised by a resilient single mother. After my father’s passing when I was a baby, two of my siblings and I moved to Mexico before returning to Anaheim when I was five to reunite with my family. I was always a natural student and excelled in reading and writing, interests that continue to shape my life. I was the first in my family to attend college and worked tirelessly from age 15 to support myself and my family, starting at a community college and ultimately earning a PhD! Now, as a professor of writing and rhetoric, I enjoy working with students who want to use their education to help their families and communities. I cherish my enduring friendships, and consider these lasting connections a testament to my character and loyalty.

I am so excited about the rewards of parenthood. Inspired by my mother's sacrifices, I hope to provide my child with stability, opportunities, and meaningful experiences. I dream of reading to them, teaching them Spanish, and walking them to school to witness their growth and learning firsthand.

Rubén has an amazing ability to see possibilities where others see roadblocks. As a first-generation college graduate and son of immigrants, he has already broken boundaries to improve his and his family’s life. Rubén has a huge heart and gives it 100% to the people he loves. Friends have described him as the glue that holds everyone together! His innate thoughtfulness, silly sense of humor, and everyday gestures of love will make him an exceptional parent!

I grew up in the quiet Midwest in Lincoln, Nebraska, in a loving home with my parents Bill and Cindy and my older sister Whitney. I’m still close with my family today, and we all live within 10 minutes of each other here in Washington! I was always a “do-er” growing up and an overachiever in school. I discovered a passion for music, which blossomed when I started piano lessons, and eventually learned every instrument I could get my hands on. I still play our piano almost every day, and cherish filling the house with music whenever I can. I can’t wait to teach a little one their first piano tune! I also grew up visiting Chicago with my family and fell in love with the architecture and skyscrapers. This interest inspired my current career as a structural engineer, where I get to practice keeping buildings and bridges safe.

I am always looking for jokes and reasons to laugh, and I thrive most when spending time with my loved ones. I’ve always wanted to grow a family and to extend my love and care to a child with the help of Rubén.

Elliot is caring, affectionate, funny, and warm, and makes a room light up when he enters. He is smart and hardworking, making it seem like really hard things are a walk in the park. He’s an excellent piano player and has a love for music that fills our home with joy. Equally creative and technically minded, it’s exciting to think about how he will impart these qualities and abilities as a parent.

We are lucky enough to own a 3-bedroom townhouse, with a yard to play in and elementary and middle schools only a few blocks away. We love our huge windows, our garden that gets bigger and more colorful every year, and our open spaces to host friends and family. Our neighborhood is quiet, diverse, colorful, and full of other little ones to make friends with. The people here look out for each other the way neighbors should, and we feel so integrated in the fabric of the community.

Tacoma, Washington, is a beautiful, down-to-earth city near Seattle, in the Pacific Northwest. Amongst gorgeous mountains, beautiful water, great schools, and world-class pizza, Tacoma is a great place to raise a family, offering a slow pace of life, a Children’s Museum, a great zoo, and picturesque beaches and parks.

We love Tacoma because it is so family oriented, and everything we need feels just steps away. We enjoy walking to work and to our friends’ houses.

Our two dogs, Tali (the spirited Jack Russell-Rat Terrier mix), and Tobias (the Corgi mix), are spoiled! Both are rescues, and we love them just the way they are, with all their quirks and wag-itude. The best thing about them is how much they love to cuddle. They love to get under the blanket when we are watching TV or playing video games. They sniff every little thing on walks. Tali loves nothing more than playing catch, and Toby assumes everybody is his best friend from day 1.

Elliot’s parents and his older sister moved to Washington in 2026! In fact, they live only 10 minutes away, and they can’t wait to be grandparents and an aunt. This move across the country was actually motivated by the prospect of our growing family. There’s a lot of excitement for big family holiday gatherings, and even simple things like movie nights and family dinners.

Rubén grew up in a single-parent household with four older siblings - he’s the baby! His hardworking and courageous mother, his two sisters, and a brother all live in Oregon just a few hours away. Another brother lives in Ecuador but visits Oregon regularly for family time.

Our friendships mean the world to us - we call them our “chosen family.” Keeping these relationships thriving is so important. Many of our friends have been with us since elementary school, and we consider them lifelong friends! Together we enjoy cooking, playing board games, traveling, and celebrating birthdays and successes!

As parents, we will provide a loving and nurturing home in which a child can grow and discover who they are. We will guide and support them as they discover the world and their role within it. We are excited to get to know them as they get to know themselves, guiding them to opportunities and paths that will bring them happiness no matter which path they choose. We strive to be the bedrock of their journey to develop their own unique identity and promise to instill a sense of belonging and family from the very beginning.

Hard work and determination got us both where we are today, and we promise to pass on these qualities. We also believe that relationships with loved ones are equally important and promise that this child will be surrounded by some of the most loving grandparents, friends, aunties, and uncles in the world. Most importantly, however, we promise to always love and encourage them.

Thank you so very much for taking the time to learn about us. We promise to love your child with all our hearts. We will devote our lives to ensuring that he or she will grow up in a warm and welcoming home where they have everything they need to thrive. We promise to keep them connected to their culture and heritage. Your child will know who you are, the sacrifices that you made, and the value and trust that you placed in us as parents. We recognize that not every family is the perfect fit for every child, but if you think your child would thrive in our loving, safe, and encouraging home, we would love to meet you! We look forward to going on this journey with you!