We are Anahita & Daniel from Santa Barbara, California! We are honored that you are taking the time to get to know us, as you take this huge courageous step in your life. The path towards adoption is one that we connect with from the bottom of our hearts, and are hoping to support you through your journey, on our end of it. We are passionate about adoption as creating a wider net of family for a child, making the most supportive life possible for them. We both come from a background of working with a diverse range of children, and see parenthood as a top priority in our lives. Embracing our own cultural backgrounds and those of our child is an important part of this. We have dreamed of how to shape our lives around this special responsibility to create a happy life for our child. We have experienced years of infertility and loss, but also have a natural calling to adopt, especially since Daniel himself and several members of his family are adopted.

We can’t wait to start a family and enjoy our beautiful environment here in Santa Barbara as parents, perfect for exploring beaches, hiking, camping, and child-friendly museums and events to enrich our child’s life.

We were lucky to be one of those couples who actually met online through a dating app! Anahita remembers noticing how Daniel stood out in a sea of dating profiles as she looked at his photos and felt like he had the kindest eyes she had ever seen. Turns out she was right, Daniel’s kindness came through right away on our first date. We met at a coffee shop and ended up talking for hours, connecting over our shared experience working with children with special needs, and our similar tastes in music. Anahita instantly fell for Daniel’s stand-up-esque sense of humor that made her laugh nonstop, and Daniel was attracted to Anahita’s passion for music and psychology. From there, we dated and grew closer over the months, and the real bonding began when we decided to move together to Portland, Oregon for Anahita’s year of doctoral internship in graduate school. This is where Daniel proposed surrounded by a forest of fir trees in Mount Tabor Park, and where we became married six months later in a magical barn house wedding with family and friends. Shortly after, we moved back to Santa Barbara to start the next chapter of our life together.

I was born near London, England and my family moved to Santa Barbara, California when I was seven years old. I went to UC Santa Cruz for college where I majored in Sociology, and then went on to work in Special Education for ten years. I earned my Master’s degree in Education and teaching credential from UC Santa Barbara, and taught a therapeutic learning classroom for children with trauma backgrounds and extensive emotional/behavioral needs.

I recently decided that it was time to make a career change to work in a field where work/life balance was more highly prioritized. I was recently hired by a local tech company, AppFolio, as a Customer Success Manager to assist customers in using this company’s software. Their prioritization of a work/life balance and the low-stress work culture will be very helpful when it comes time to raising our future child.

My hobbies that I want to share with my child are creating music, spinning vinyl in the living room for dance parties with my family, cooking and baking, rock climbing at the local rock gym, and enjoying the beach and hiking trails in Santa Barbara.

Daniel is my all-time best friend and companion. He is the kindest person I know, and always stays calm and patient even in the most trying times. He is an absolute softie when it comes to children and animals, and it’s so sweet to watch him interact with them. Yet his experience working with children in special education has given him a compassionate firmness with children that helps them grow and learn in a healthy way. I can’t wait to see how he shines as a dad! He is an amazing cook and makes our whole home come alive. Not to mention, he has the best sense of humor! To this day he still cracks me up whenever we are hanging out together.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I went to UCLA for undergraduate school and UC Santa Barbara to earn my PhD in Clinical Psychology. I work as a somatic psychotherapist specializing in multicultural trauma treatment with children, adults, families, and couples, and have my own private practice in downtown Santa Barbara. I also teach yoga and meditation in our community and am involved in anti-racist and social justice work in our therapist and yoga communities.

My job is part-time and most of it involves working remotely with teletherapy and paperwork. This lets me work from home more than half of the time, which will help me devote time and energy to our future child. I also have complete control over my work schedule, which gives me flexibility to be able to create the optimal schedule based around your child’s needs.

I am excited to be able to share my hobbies with our future child, including creating music and dancing together, enjoying our child-friendly yoga and meditation communities, and going on outdoor adventures exploring our local hiking trails, beaches and tidepools, and children’s museums in town. It will also be fun to travel with our child!

I feel so lucky to have Anahita in my life as my soulmate and best friend. She is caring and compassionate to those close to her and reaches out to help others she does not know. I was drawn to her warmth from when I first met her and have seen it in action countless times. Anahita is driven and committed to her passions, from her work as a therapist, as a musician, and as a great friend and spouse. I am so excited to watch her become a mother and share all her love and passion with our future child. I have seen her playful style with children and her ability to connect and even become friends with them quickly.

We moved back to Santa Barbara because we knew we needed to be close to our families in order to really be happy. We are very close to both sides of our families, and are lucky that both sides of the family feel close to each other so that we can have joint family gatherings. We see Daniel’s side of the family weekly and Anahita’s family at least monthly. Daniel’s family is Irish-English and Anahita’s family is Iranian. Celebrating all aspects of culture that are present in our family is very important to us, and we plan to keep many cultural traditions alive in our growing family, including those of our adoptive child.

We like to spend time with our brothers and sisters in-law; we frequently hang out with Anahita’s brother and his wife, as well as Daniel’s sister and her husband and their teenage children (our child’s future cousins!) in both Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. We also have extended family that we like to connect with in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and various locations across the globe.

We have good friends in Santa Barbara and throughout the US, ranging from Daniel’s childhood friends to Anahita’s therapist/yoga/meditation friends. Many of these friends are becoming parents themselves, and we are excited to join them in community of parenthood!

Hazelnut is a two-and-a-half-year-old labradoodle, which means that she is the cuddliest and goofiest dog you have ever met. She is enthusiastic to meet every new person she crosses paths with and has a ton of fun energy yet is very gentle and playful with children. She loves to join us on our hiking adventures and trips, daily walks around our neighborhood, and cuddle with us on the couch at night. She will make a great companion to your child!

We love living in Santa Barbara, California, about 1.5 hours away from Los Angeles! It’s an easygoing, family-friendly place to raise a child, and people here are kind and friendly to each other. We enjoy taking part in the yoga and meditation community here in town. Our home is large with multiple rooms and a backyard and is just waiting for a child to join us in it!

Anahita’s parents have a guest suite in the house so that they can frequently visit, and Anahita has a detached home office so she can work part-time from home. We live in a peaceful neighborhood with many young families around us, and our local elementary school is the highly sought-after Peabody Elementary School. There are many parks nearby, but the two within walking distance are Stevens Park which includes hiking trails, and Willowglen Park. We live seven minutes away from downtown, the beach, and the mountains!

Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know us & our little world that we are Hoping to bring a child into, while you are making such an important decision in your life.

We love creating a vision for our family that will be most supportive to our future child and to you! We promise to create an environment of safety, playfulness, and creativity while showering your child with love. We want to thank you for taking the time to learn about us and consider us as future parents for your child!

With respect and gratitude,
Anahita and Daniel