Hi! We are Rachel and Kevin in Northern California. Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know us and considering us as adoptive parents for your child. We haven’t met you yet, but we already know that you are unbelievably strong - we admire and respect you so much! We love children and can’t wait to be parents. We tried unsuccessfully for several years to have biological children - we chose adoption because we can’t wait to shower our future child with mountains of love. To us, being parents means providing the love, support and encouragement to help our child become the person they want to be.

We live in the Bay Area in Northern California but are both from the Midwest / East Coast originally. We met in the orchestra at a liberal arts college in Michigan and started dating while on a semester abroad in Vienna, Austria. We became best friends on our study abroad because we loved doing the same things - traveling around Europe, going to symphony concerts, the opera, and the theater, and learning a new language and culture. Our close friendship quickly turned into something more, and we’ve been together ever since (13 years)!

We share many different interests, and love pursuing our hobbies together. We both play a musical instrument (Rachel plays the viola, and Kevin plays the clarinet and piano) and have played together for friends’ and family weddings. We also love listening to music together: while making pizza on Friday night, at the symphony, or at a rock concert! We are also both very active and enjoy running, hiking/backpacking, biking, and working out together. Playing board games is another of our favorite pastimes (Pictionary, trivia, and strategy games are our favorites), whether it’s just the two of us, with friends around our dining room table, or with our extended family across the country over a video call.

We are both very close to our families - we each have one older brother, and they are each married with young kids / babies. We love to spend time with our niece and nephews and can’t wait for our child to play with their cousins! We were each raised by wonderful parents who are now also devoted grandparents to our brothers’ kids, and they can’t wait to have more grandchildren to dote on.

I grew up in Western Michigan in the house my parents still live in. The house is less than an hour from Lake Michigan, and I have great memories of going to the beach, camping, and hiking with family and friends there.

I work in international finance for a tech company, where I have a flexible schedule and am able to work from home. I can’t wait to find out what our future child’s interests and talents are and provide all the support and encouragement I can. I promise that I will help your child reach their full potential in whatever activities they pursue.

Kevin is the kindest, most patient, open-minded person I know. He also has an incredibly quirky sense of humor that constantly has me laughing. He takes his commitments very seriously - he’s a loving and devoted husband, a loyal friend, and a hard worker. His niece and nephews adore their “Uncle Kev” (he instigates impromptu dance parties, plays LEGOs, and reads books in silly voices), and he is going to make an amazing father. He will do all of these fun things with your child and will also be their rock that they can count on for anything.

I grew up in a University town in Pennsylvania. My parents still live there and it’s a great place to visit with lots of activities, hiking, family, and friends. Growing up, my family had all sorts of traditions from Sunday night popcorn and family game night, to Christmas morning post-stocking wrapping paper fights. I can’t wait to share these traditions and make new ones with our child!

After graduating from Calvin College (where I met Kevin), I earned two Master’s degrees from the University of Michigan graduate school. Now I’m a landscape architect / project manager at an ecological consulting firm where I design large-scale native landscapes, parks, and open spaces. It’s an incredibly rewarding job because I care a lot about the natural environment. I have a flexible schedule and the ability to work from home.

I’m looking forward to all aspects of being a parent - from cuddling up and reading books at bedtime, to helping with homework and packing lunches, to being there for bruised knees and hurt feelings. I am excited to explore your child’s passions and interests with them, whether that is sports, music, the arts, or something else.

Rachel is my best friend. She is warm, energetic, hilarious, and the most genuine, caring person I know. She can turn simple things into something special and fun, often involving food (she’s an incredible cook and baker). Kids seem to universally adore her (which I totally understand…I feel the same way!) - probably in part because she so clearly loves them. She jumps at every opportunity to spend time with our nephews and niece. Any time I video call our nephews/niece without her, I’m lucky if I can get a word in before they ask where Aunt Rae is! When we visit, they want her to do everything with them.

We each have one older brother, and each of them is married with kids. We adore our niece and nephews! They all live in the Midwest / East Coast, but we all usually still get to see each other several times a year, especially over the holidays and during the summer. We love to celebrate our Christmas traditions with Rachel’s family, like eating junk food for dinner on Christmas Eve and having wrapping paper fights after opening stockings on Christmas morning. With Kevin’s family, our tradition is to get together over New Year’s, and we have a big silly dance party to welcome in the New Year.

We regularly talk to and keep in touch with all of our family - we regularly read the little ones bedtime stories over video calls! Both of our sets of parents usually visit California about once a year, and we’re certain once there is a grandchild here, we will see them even more! We have wonderful friends, both in California and in other places we’ve lived. We love to hike, camp, go out to eat, and play games together. Many of them are also just starting families and we are excited for our children to play together.

We live in a quiet, residential neighborhood in San Jose. We are very close to several schools, a shopping center, and a beautiful open space preserve where we love to walk and run in the evenings and on weekends. We live in a spacious condo with friendly neighbors (many of whom have young children). The condo has a beautiful landscape with a fountain, hot tub, and pool.

We promise that your child will know what an incredibly courageous person you are, and that they will always know how much they are loved. They will have loving and supportive parents, and incredible aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents who will shower them with even more love. We will make sure that they have all the support they need to become the person they are meant to be.