Hi there! We are Ellie and Howie from Los Angeles, California. It’s so nice to meet you! We are thrilled that you are reading our profile, and we are looking forward to getting to know you and hearing about your hopes and dreams for your child. We are a couple of fun-loving professionals who enjoy traveling the world, as well as visiting amusement parks, national parks, and museums. Our parents raised us to be loving, supportive, and loyal, and these values have guided us throughout our lives and our marriage. We are very excited to nurture a child’s curiosity in a loving, supportive environment that allows them to grow, explore, and chase their dreams.

Our home is full of love — and a bit of fur — thanks to our adorable apricot poodle, Sunshine, and our Persian cats. We have both looked forward to becoming parents for a long time. We have decided the best path to becoming parents is to open our hearts and home to a child through adoption. Adoption is near and dear to our hearts because we know firsthand how beautiful adoption can be. Ellie’s uncle was adopted as an infant, and both our families have always had warm, loving feelings toward adoption as a beautiful way to build a family. We can’t wait to share our hearts, our adventures, and our laughter with your child!

We met through mutual friends at a social event and started dating a week later. Our early dates were varied and included trips to the beach, an art museum, and arcades. These different experiences led to many fun, sweet memories and helped us get to know each other. After a handful of dates filled with thoughtful conversations and plenty of laughter, we discovered how much we have in common, including a shared love for travel and art. It didn’t take long for us to realize we wanted to spend our lives together. We got engaged in 2016 and were married in January 2017, surrounded by our family and closest friends. After nine years of marriage, we still feel that same excitement about each other and are carrying it with us into this next chapter of our lives.

Living in Southern California means we are never that far from the mountains or the beaches. Having beautiful weather for most of the year means that we get outside and enjoy nature as often as possible. We especially love to visit National Parks on epic family road trips, including Bryce Canyon and Yosemite. Our next major adventure will be visiting Yellowstone.

When we are relaxing at home, we enjoy watching movies and playing board games such as Monopoly Gamer - Super Mario Edition, as well as putting together 2-D and 3-D puzzles. We also collect Squishmallows, and you will find them all over our home.

Our family traditions also bring us a lot of joy. We love throwing themed birthday parties throughout the year for our family, including our pets. Halloween always includes a pumpkin carving contest, and every Christmas we decorate a gingerbread house and two Christmas trees - one for us, and a tiny one for our fur babies. We look forward to sharing these traditions with your child, and creating new traditions too!

We have supported multiple charities and community organizations over the years, including Boys and Girls Club, Goodwill, and Neighborhood Housing Services, where Howie picked up skills painting houses, building picket fences, and doing yard work for families in need.

I am a Los Angeles native and very close with my family, especially my baby sister Stephie, who has been my best friend since she was born. As a child, I enjoyed participating in Girl Scouts, learning martial arts, putting together model kits, doing arts and crafts (I’m especially good at making lanyards and friendship bracelets), and studying science. I studied biology and medical laboratory science in college, and I am now a licensed clinical laboratory scientist at a major local hospital. I work part-time in the main lab and blood bank, and I go to work knowing that I get to help save lives.

When I’m not working, I love shopping, dining, hiking, and spending time with my family. I also enjoy visiting art museums. My favorite painter is Claude Monet, and it was incredibly special to visit his house and gardens with Howie on our honeymoon in France! I’m excited to become a parent because I love children, and I look forward to being a loving, supportive mom.

Ellie is my best friend, and she always makes me feel loved and supported. She gives the best hugs and is an excellent listener. Ellie is goal-oriented and hardworking, and I admire that she chose a challenging career where she gets to help people every day. She is also very practical and thoughtful when it comes to solving complicated problems. Ellie is so much fun to be around. She loves to learn and isn’t afraid to try new things, especially new foods. She enjoys learning how to cook delicious, healthy international dishes at home, especially soups and stews.

I am excited to watch Ellie become a mother for many reasons. I know she will be the kind of mom who is deeply devoted, kind, and patient. She will be someone a child can always turn to for help with homework and science projects, and for comfort when they need it.

Like Ellie, I grew up in Los Angeles and went to school locally all the way through law school. I am currently a judge and feel very fortunate to work from home full time. I have always been creative and enjoy drawing and writing, especially making unique birthday cards for family and friends. I speak and understand several foreign languages, including Spanish and French, and enjoy using them whenever I can. I love going to the movies and attending live sporting events with my family, especially baseball and hockey (Go Kings!). I am also excited that the Olympics are coming to Los Angeles in 2028. For exercise, I enjoy swimming. I used to be a competitive swimmer and still love doing laps in our pool at home, as well as swimming in Lake Washington when visiting my favorite aunt in Seattle. I look forward to being a fun, supportive dad who will always be there no matter what.

Howie is a loving and caring person who is always there for me. He is very fun to be around and is my number one travel buddy. Howie is a cute, romantic guy. He likes to surprise me randomly with things like flowers or chocolate. He once showed up to my lab with donuts and coffee for me and all of my coworkers just because he wanted to show how much he appreciated all of us. Howie is very sentimental and loves to take photographs of important events and everyday moments in our lives.

He makes me laugh every single day, and he is so funny that he should really be a stand-up comedian! Howie is very creative, and I am amazed with how easily he comes up with cute, heartfelt stories and poems. He is currently working on a children’s book about one of our cats, and I cannot wait to read it when he is finished. I love how Howie makes me feel when we’re together. He is like a big teddy bear, and that’s why I call him my Howie Bear. He’s going to be the sweetest, most wonderful father.

We live in a cozy two-bedroom home in a lovely community in Los Angeles, surrounded by beautiful parks with walking and biking paths, as well as basketball courts, tennis courts, and baseball fields. We are within walking distance of a lake where you can fish for bass, throw a frisbee, or simply relax while watching the ducks, geese, and pelicans that visit regularly. Hiking trails and beaches are also just a short drive away. Our neighborhood is very convenient for everyday life, with award-winning schools, world-class shopping malls, and restaurants with every type of food imaginable nearby. Basically anything you could ask for is at most a short drive away from home! We love having so many opportunities for fun close by. Amusement parks, museums, and zoos are all within easy reach and are some of our favorite places to be.

Sunshine is our apricot poodle. We adopted her as a puppy, and she is now a funny, energetic three year old. Sunshine loves going on road trips. We have taken her to several National Parks and she took the oath to become a “Bark Ranger” at Zion National Park in Utah! Sunshine also volunteers as a therapy dog for first responders. Sunshine is very excited that we are going to expand our family and cannot wait to be a big sister. Along with Sunshine, our cats Sugar Bear, Suga Plum and Peaches are also important members of our family!

We are very lucky to come from tight-knit, supportive families. Our parents are retired and live very close to us, and we enjoy spending time with them throughout the year. Our extended family includes lawyers, teachers, scientists, contractors and even an anthropologist, so there is never a dull moment. While a lot of our family lives in Los Angeles, we also have family that live in the Pacific Northwest, including Howie’s aunt in Seattle who we enjoy visiting every year.

Ellie’s uncle was adopted as a baby, and all of our family is very excited that we are planning to adopt. Our parents are already dreaming up baby names! We are also fortunate to have a tight-knit group of friends, some of whom are recent parents, and some of whom are in the process of starting a family. We are looking forward to experiencing parenthood with the support and encouragement of our friends and family.

We look forward to the opportunity to raise a child in a nurturing and encouraging home environment. We were fortunate to enjoy many wonderful experiences as children, from attending good schools to going on fun vacations and participating in activities like Girl Scouts and swim teams. We will always encourage our child to develop and learn at their own pace in a supportive, fun environment. As parents, we will provide your child with as many opportunities for personal growth and enjoyment as possible.

We look forward to fully supporting their curiosity through enriching activities. Whether they want to experience camping, take art classes, cooking classes, practice martial arts, learn to swim, play tennis or volleyball, or volunteer with animal shelters and food banks, we will make sure they get to have an enriching childhood full of lasting memories. We look forward to giving your child experiences that will allow them to develop into the best version of themselves.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to introduce ourselves and for taking the time to read our story. We believe that people are brought together for a reason, and we are grateful to get to be a part of your story just as much as you get to be a part of ours. Please know that you will always be a part of our family, because adoption brings families together.

We hope that you have found comfort in what we have shared with you about us, and we appreciate you placing your trust in us to raise your child in a positive and supportive environment. We want to assure you that your child will grow up knowing their story and being proud of who they are, and they will enjoy a wonderful life full of love and opportunities for personal development and growth.