Hello! We are Josh and Eric from San Francisco, California. We are so happy you want to get to know us a little better! We have built our beautiful life around a warm, diverse, and supportive community of family and friends—our chosen family. Our daily life is full of music, people, and working to build a more just and equal world. We also love to have fun! We enjoy traveling the world and exploring the beaches, mountains, and redwood forests of California. We promise we will give your child the gift of community, the beauty of music, dancing, and a healthy and active lifestyle. We walk 5 miles per day and cannot wait to share the joy of walking and hiking with our child. Thank you so much for considering us on your journey.

We cannot wait to be parents to our future child. We have so much love for each other and have even more in our hearts to give to our child. We are beyond excited to watch our kid grow into a curious, happy, and healthy person. The adoption process has been a wonderful learning experience for us and we are even more happy to bring our child into our family and community. We imagine taking our kid to the beach to splash and play in the waves, hike through towering redwood forests, and run around in Golden Gate Park with our friends' kids. We also cannot wait to support our child's interests and hobbies, whatever they are. We are excited to read aloud to our kid every day and sing our child to sleep every night.

We met in 2013 and had our first date over lunch in San Francisco's Little Italy neighborhood. What we thought would be a short lunch date turned into an all-day adventure as we realized how much we had in common and our love began. We discovered a shared commitment to social justice and service, as well as our passion for walking and physical fitness. Six years later, Josh surprised Eric with a public proposal on stage in Oakland with our friends hiding in the audience. One of the things that bonds us most as a married couple is the value we place on our families above all else. We make time to visit Eric's family on the East Coast 2-3 times per year and Josh's large extended family in Southern California and Texas several times a year. We prepare home cooked, healthy meals every night for dinner, workout, and enjoy watching comedies like Abbott Elementary in the evening.

I am an optimistic, musical, outgoing, smart, and compassionate person with a spirituality that sustains and guides my values and sense of purpose. I can also be silly and love to laugh with Eric, friends, and while reading or watching TV. I enjoy my career as an attorney because I have the opportunity to use my intelligence and skills to give helpful advice to my clients and help people in California gain access to high quality health care. I try to meditate every day to bring more peace to my life and to those around me. I also enjoy lifting weights, walking everywhere, spending time in nature, singing in two choirs, and have served on the council of my social justice oriented church in Oakland, California. I am also a science and math nerd. I love learning about how things work, animals, plants, and the latest medical technologies. Most of all, I value my relationship with Eric, my diverse group of friends, and my family. I cannot wait to develop a deep bond with our child and support our kid's education, hobbies, spirituality, and sense of purpose.

Josh is curious, kind, adventurous, open-minded and one of the smartest people I have ever known. They say you can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep - I adore Josh's friends (they clearly adore Josh too!) and feel so lucky that many of them have also become some of my closest friends. In marrying Josh, I also now have the large extended family I always wanted and feel so lucky and grateful that having Josh in my life has introduced me to all of these amazing people who are now part of my community. I have always been inspired by Josh's commitment to social justice and service, from teaching at an under-resourced public school to fighting for tenants to stay in their apartments and helping unhoused clients gain access to public benefits. Josh has a huge heart and he brings compassion, kindness and love to his work and to all of his relationships. He will be excited to help introduce our child to all of the wonders of the world and will bring his playful spirit into each day with our kid.

I am someone who always tries to lean into kindness and build community. I am happiest when I am walking, reading a book, and connecting with Josh, our families and friends. I discovered my passion for service in college and that led to a career in politics, advocacy, and the law. For the last 18 years, I have worked in higher education. My current role as an Assistant Dean at UC Berkeley Law allows me to be a mentor to students - as well as to serve as an adviser to the board of three organizations that aim to create more access and opportunity for students from low-income backgrounds. I play the piano and sing and have performed with a band and as a soloist with two different choirs. Josh and I both come from a musical family and it always brings me joy to play music and sing with Josh and with our families during our annual visits. Playing sports as a young person gave me confidence, self-esteem and a group of friends from all different walks of life. I'm so excited to play sports and be an active and fun parent with our child.

Eric is the most loyal, kind, and committed person I have ever known. Eric always stands by his friends and family no matter what. For example, Eric always makes time to attend his friends' martial arts studio's fundraiser in Oakland. The fundraiser raises money for the studio's teenagers to attend college. Eric always attends our friends' concerts, dance recitals, and special events. He shows up when people need help too. After our close friends had a baby during the pandemic, we made and held up a huge sign outside the hospital that welcomed our new niece into the world so they could see. One of my favorite stories about Eric is that when he visits our nephews on the East Coast, he always meets each nephew at their school for lunch during his visit. They are proud and excited to show off their Uncle Eric to their friends and teachers. I also love that Eric is smart and a lifelong learner. Eric reads more than anyone I know and he is so excited to read to our child. I can't wait to parent with him.

Our interests revolve around being active, social, and musical. Eric can't get enough of his HIIT workouts and Josh is constantly working on his weight training gains. On the weekends we walk several miles a day as a couple and with friends to our beautiful parks and at the beach. We are so excited to take our kid on our outdoor excursions and down to the beach to build sand castles, play Frisbee, and dip our toes in the water. We have an annual tradition of going on vacation with our friends from New Jersey and their two kids. On these vacations, we play in the pool with the kids, create new and fun games such as sneak attack and the sun and shadows game. Everyone laughs and has a good time. This vacation is one of the highlights of our year.

We also have a tradition with our friends of celebrating their birthdays in various parks around the Bay Area. All of our friends are so excited to meet our child and include them in all of these birthday celebrations. Just yesterday, our friend Emily told us that she couldn't wait to come trick or treating with the three of us. We feel lucky to live in an area with so many diverse communities and such rich cultural traditions. We look forward to attending a wide variety of these cultural events with our child.

We look forward to joining a church community with women leaders—one where our child will make friends, learn the importance of kindness, social justice, and service. Our faith community will value education, science, and equality.

We are both very fortunate to have family-friendly jobs with a lot of flexibility. Our hours are flexible and we can work from home. We both have generous paid parental leave and can't wait to use that time to bond with our baby. Eric's employer - UC Berkeley - offers outstanding child care and early education centers near Eric's office.

We live in a safe San Francisco neighborhood on a tree lined street. We can walk to everything we need - including parks, grocery stores, a pharmacy, schools and playgrounds. In the morning we love looking out of our living room bay window into the valley below our home full of trees, watching the fog burn off over the homes below. You will often find us in the kitchen making coffee or preparing a delicious meal. We love spending time in the private garden behind our house full of palm trees, succulents, and flowers. Eric is a natural home maker and loves cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry in our garage. We love hosting our friends and their kids around our piano. We love singing songs by artists including The Beatles, The Temptations, The Beach Boys, and TLC. The piano is also the place where we both practice and rehearse for choir and other musical performances. We can't wait to sing to and with our child. We feel fortunate to live in an area with events and resources for gay parents and their adopted kids - both in the community and in schools.

Our family is large and racially diverse. We have a lot of annual traditions with our family that are special to us both. We love traveling down to Southern California to visit our nieces - including one who has a baby - as well as our aunt who lives by the beach. During the summers, we travel to the East Coast to spend a week with Eric's parents and his brother's family - including our two nephews. We rent a house and spend the week playing basketball and volleyball in the pool, soccer in the yard, and ping pong and cards in the house. We cook big delicious meals together and have dessert. Then, we sing and play music together. Then, we all sit together on a giant couch in the living room and watch a movie - sometimes with popcorn.

For Thanksgiving, we gather at the home of Eric's brother on the East Coast and enjoy a huge feast with extended family. The day usually includes watching football, eating three different kinds of pies, and then playing Apples to Apples. For Christmas, we head to Austin, Texas to celebrate with Josh's big extended family. On this trip, we drive around looking at Christmas lights, eat lots of chips and queso, and gingerbread pancakes. On Christmas, the little kids are the center of the day. We gather around the tree, exchange presents, eat warm cinnamon rolls, and sing Christmas Carols with Eric—of course—on piano.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story and getting to know a little bit about us. We can only imagine the strength, love, and courage it takes to make the choices you're facing, and we have such deep respect for you. If our story speaks to you, we would love the opportunity to connect and share more. Whatever you decide, we wish you and your baby peace, love, and support as you continue your journey.