Hello! We are Susan, Jordan, & Rowan from Richmond, California! We’re humbled to be here with you. We can only imagine the emotions you're experiencing, and the thoughts going through your head as you read these profiles. If our story resonates with you, we invite you to reach out and connect with us! We believe that strong families are built on the deep life-long relationships we make with one other. We will cherish every minute we spend with you and your child.

Thank you for reading our profile!

We met online playing World of Warcraft. We spent our days miles apart from each other – Jordan in Washington and Susan in Michigan – but we spent our nights together in Azeroth battling zombie dragons and fire demons. One year (and an accidental $2,000 phone bill) later, Jordan moved to Michigan, where we continued to learn about each other while having adventures both online and in person!

Of course, life has been more than just fun and games. We’ve supported each other through international moves, tough career changes, and too many rounds of IVF resulting in a challenging pregnancy that gave us our amazing son Rowan. Every challenge has strengthened our love for each other, and we’re excited to expand our family and share that love!

Gaming will always be an important part of our lives! Our first interactions were in cooperative games, where we learned to think creatively within constraints and to communicate clearly with each other under stress. These are skills we use constantly as co-parents! Playing strategy games against each other taught us many lessons, such as appreciating that there are many paths to success, that we look forward to sharing with your child.

As a family, we also try to live close to the earth. We are fortunate to live in an area with lots of sunshine so we’re able to grow plenty of food for ourselves and neighbors. Jordan spends weekends catching fish for us to eat, and Susan enjoys coming up with fun ways to use and preserve our extra produce!

Susan is incredibly compassionate and empathic. She is generous with her time and is an excellent listener. In her 8 years as a college professor, I have heard of countless examples of students who chose to confide in Susan because she’s the only person they believed would care and take the time to understand them. Even though most of those conversations were challenging, many heartbreaking, she still invites them in with grace and an open mind.

She’s also very curious by nature. Whether we're doing escape rooms or hiking, investigation and discovery is core to how she interacts with the world. And her enthusiasm is infectious; I see her eyes light up and hear her exclaim “that is so cool!” at least once every day when she experiences a new wonder.

All of these same qualities help her be an amazing mom. She shows Rowan incredible patience, whether it's working through a difficult puzzle, weathering his tantrums, or singing "just one more" round of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

Jordan commits like no one else. When he took up gardening, he transformed our backyard into an urban farm. Within two months of learning to fish, he started catching half of the meat we eat. He masters every game we play and makes me work for each win. His meticulousness is a great complement to my whimsy!

He is also supernaturally stoic. My pregnancy with our son Rowan was incredibly difficult. In my second trimester, I had emergency surgery, and was on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy so that we wouldn't lose him. I now know that Jordan was just as terrified as I was, but at the time he was my rock and I held on tight until Rowan was safe and home with us.

Jordan is everything and more than I could ask for in a co-parent. I know he's excited to show Rowan all of our favorite things to do, but he's also sensitive to Rowan's own interests and abilities. Watching the two of them together inspires me to be the best mom I know how to be!

Rowan is a creative and energetic 2-year-old! His favorite activities are riding his scooter, collecting leaves and flowers, and watching the garbage truck drive by. He's fascinated by animals, especially bugs, and helps us garden and cook. Sometimes he'll even help tidy up! He loves making up new songs, which he'll sing for anyone and everyone. He can't wait to share his life with a little brother or sister!

Home sweet home is Richmond, California, across the San Francisco Bay from the Golden Gate Bridge! Our house is bright and cheery, bursting with life! Jordan works hard to keep us fed with homegrown produce from the backyard. What we can't finish, we preserve. Opening a jar of homemade peach jam or tomato sauce in December is utter magic!

We feel lucky to live in a community rich with outdoor activities, full of sunshine, and populated with families with many different cultures, faiths, and life experiences. We also love how easy it is to find what we need within our neighborhood! Our house is a short walk from several playgrounds, as well as Rowan's preschool, grocery stores, and plenty of restaurants. Even our family dentist and the cats' veterinarian are just down the street! At the same time, we can hop in the car and quickly find ourselves at incredible hiking trails, fantastic fishing spots, and some of the best museums and zoos in the world.

Kaylee and Zoe are rescues who became friends in their foster home. Zoe loves Rowan's gentle pets, and Kaylee loves playing with him and will even give him chase! In some ways they're opposites of each other, but it's clear that they trust and love each other very much. Most days, we find them cuddled together on their chair or watching birds from their favorite perch.

Our family all live far from us, but we make sure to see each other consistently. It's important to us that Rowan and our future child have plenty of opportunities to get to know their family! We have weekly video chats with our parents, with longer visits in the summer. Susan's dad brings some exciting new foods from Taiwan, and visiting Susan's mom includes a trip to the San Diego Zoo. We spend every Thanksgiving with Jordan's sister and her family, alternating hosting duties. It's so much fun to see the cousins playing together!

Having small families that live far away hasn't stopped us from filling our lives with love! We have lots of close friends nearby who are like our family. Before the pandemic, we regularly hosted gatherings with them, like board game and scary movie nights. Susan looks forward to planning and cooking holiday themed dinner parties again!

We celebrate a secular Christmas and Thanksgiving every year, and we love to decorate our home for Halloween. Susan makes a special Chinese meal every year to celebrate the New Year, and we prepare red envelopes for Rowan for Lunar New Year (although we fill it with stickers instead of cash)! We also look forward to making new traditions with your child. We'll encourage them to explore their individual personality and cultural heritage as much as they wish.

Our parenting philosophy is the same as our approach to interacting with the world as a whole: We try to be open-minded and curious in everything we do; we value creativity and self-expression over order; and we strive to treat others with dignity, compassion, and above all else, empathy. Approaching children with empathy means doing our best to understand that the world they experience is brand new and full of stimulation, often pleasant but sometimes unpleasant. Approaching family members with empathy means remembering that behind every action or statement that we don't understand or agree with is a human who we love completely, without limit. We'll consider you to be family too, acknowledging that this could mean talking regularly on the phone or simply exchanging an annual newsletter summarizing our adventures and major life updates. We will tell your child their story, and they will learn that what choices you made were formed in love.

Thank you again for being here with us! Your time and attention means the world to us, and we hope you have learned a bit about us in the process. We’ll love your child unconditionally. We’ll give them space to grow up confident, and provide them with language and tools to express themselves. They’ll be our accomplice in all our future adventures. While we think fondly of the days we were just two kids exploring the world, we are completely smitten with parenthood and can't wait to discover more of this incredible world with your child!