Hi! We’re Yochai and Yotam from Emeryville, California. We are thankful for this opportunity to introduce ourselves. We have been together for twelve years, and we recently started the journey to expand our family. We want to offer your child a loving and peaceful home, where they can flourish and live to their full potential. We have lots of love to give, and can’t wait to find the right match. We can imagine that this is a complicated situation for you, and want to be attentive to your needs at this time. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about us!

We both come from close-knit and happy families that cherish children. Our family connections, between siblings and especially between parent and child, are the most meaningful and important relationships in our lives. We are excited to be parents and can’t think of a better way to share the love we’ve been given than through adoption. We would be overjoyed to raise and nurture a child in a safe, loving home. We believe we have a lot of love, support, and knowledge to give, and that any child will be lucky to join our large family, with grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins to play with.

We both work as engineers for major tech companies in the bay area. They offer generous parental leaves, which will allow us to spend the first several months with a new baby. They also allow flexibility working from home, and flexible work hours. Yochai is a battery scientist at an electric vehicle company - he believes batteries are an important component in our fight to save our planet. Yotam was always a computer wiz, and has worked on several well-known projects, including the Chrome browser.

We met in Israel twelve years ago and have been having adventures together ever since. We started with a simple date — Yochai made Yotam lasagna and we ate it on his porch; but our dates rapidly grew more adventurous. We’ve climbed the Himalayas, danced in Burning Man, and the high point of our relationship was getting married in front of thousands of people during Jerusalem pride - making our love a celebration and a statement. We moved to beautiful California in 2017, where we have built a wonderful life for ourselves, surrounded by nature and our loving community. Now, our relationship is stronger than ever, and we are ready to expand our circle of love by adding a child to our family.

The first thing you notice in my home is that I have a lot of plants. I am fascinated by nature, and I love nurturing a green environment around me. My friends know me as a plant dad. I’m a naturally curious and active person. I like taking on projects and learning new skills. I play the piano, I knit, and as I mentioned, I like gardening. I think humans are curious by nature, and I can’t wait to see my child develop their natural interests. I want to encourage them to pursue whatever excites them. I’m a very social and outgoing person. I like being around people, whether meeting friends or entering a room full of strangers. As much as I love my friends, my closest relationship is with my family. I talk to my family almost every day. My sister recently had two girls and I was overwhelmed by the emotional experience of adding new members to our family. I can’t wait to expand my family with Yochai.

Yotam is incredibly fun. He will always be found in the middle of a group of friends, telling jokes and making people laugh. He values his community, and will go to great lengths to help his friends. Yotam is also especially close to his family; he chats with his family daily, and meets them often. He grew up in a close knit family, with his brother and two sisters always by his side. Yotam is very active and creative, and when he is off the phone with his family, he is probably undertaking some project, like setting up a dance party, knitting a sweater, or taking care of his garden. A nice perk of living with Yotam is his interest in random facts, be it the technological breakthroughs that ushered in the iron age, or the most popular YouTube video of 2022. Living with Yotam is always fun - Yotam is easy going and always shares my excitement for new adventures, and together we make a wonderful team.

The first thing you need to know about me is that I love the outdoors. My happy place is the mountains, my favorite memories are of hikes with friends and family, and one of my favorite dreams is hiking with my own child. Although I’m rather bookish and often serious, I am a fun loving, friendly soul. In my group of friends, I’m known for cooking elaborate meals, for having deep conversations about mysticism or current events, for being a great listener, and for a terrible sense of fashion. I’m really looking forward to being a father. As I’ve neared forty, I’ve learned to appreciate more and more how much love and effort my parents have put into my upbringing, and how much their worldview and ethics have affected my own. I really want to pass on this wonderful gift - of a loving and sheltered childhood - to a child of my own. I feel my unique perspective will make me a caring, supportive, and attentive parent.

Yochai is strong willed, hard working & intelligent. He can achieve anything he sets his mind to. He also has a strong sense of what’s right, and is not bothered by what other people think. He is the best cook I know, and enjoys any opportunity to feed his friends and loved ones. Yochai is already planning recipes to prepare for a child, who hopefully won’t be a picky eater. He loves planning, and planned many great family vacations for us. He is also a life long learner, always expanding his knowledge. He is an amazing listener, and I love knowing that I can always share my ups and downs with him at an end of a long day. We are two very different people. Yochai feels more comfortable with following a plan, while I love the sense of a spontaneous adventure. These differences push us out of our comfort zone, and help us grow as people. And when our traits find the way to match like pieces of a puzzle, we are unstoppable.

We are both fans of the natural world. Yotam loves gardening, has an impressive collection of plants, and he enjoys propagating them and gifting the offspring to his friends. Yochai loves the outdoors and has a special talent for planning amazing trips that take us to the most beautiful places in the world. We both play the piano; Yochai loves classical sonatas and Yotam enjoys ragtime pieces. We also dabble in some pieces for four hands together. In addition to the shear beauty of music, learning to play an instrument can be an empowering experience, that teaches patience, discipline and commitment. We make an effort to expand our cultural horizons. We will always look for the guided tour when visiting a museum. We are a part of a book club with our friends. During COVID, we founded a local movie club with our friends, and love exploring all genres of films - both sophisticated and silly. We attended Burning man several times, and festival culture is a big part of our life. A lot like our nature trips, it allows us to take a step away from our busy lives, and gain new perspective. It’s a wonderful way to explore new music, art and form deep connections. We value creating and participating in meaningful experiences, rather than being spectators.

We live on a quiet peninsula in Emeryville, surrounded by walking paths, green lawns, and views of the San Francisco Bay. The heart of our home is our spacious balcony, a peaceful terrace where we drink tea and watch the sunset. It’s our favorite place to unwind, and it feels like a little getaway right at home. Our apartment complex is calm and family-friendly, with car-free areas that make it perfect for small children. There’s also a gated pool that’s a dream come true for kids in summertime. Inside, we’ve created a cozy, welcoming space filled with light and plants—both indoors and out. We share our home with two friendly, playful cats who bring lots of laughter and warmth to our days, and we can’t wait to see our child playing with them. Music fills our home, too. Between the piano, harmonicas, rainsticks, and rattles, there’s always a reason to sing, dance, and make joyful noise together.

We both come from warm, close-knit families where connection and support are at the heart of everything. Both of our mothers are eager to help us raise a new family member, and our child will have plenty of cousins to play with—eight (and counting)! The cousins are all close, and the grandparents are hands-on and deeply involved. Whenever we visit home, we’re surrounded by the joyful chaos of little ones, which we absolutely love. We share a strong bond with our parents, who are always supportive and ready to lend a hand, offer a room, or provide encouragement when needed. As we’ve grown, our appreciation for the love and effort they put into raising us has only deepened.

Beyond our families, we’re lucky to have a vibrant community of friends here in the Bay Area. We’re active in our Burning Man camp, which gives us a creative outlet for artistic projects, and we have a wonderful queer chosen family we gather with weekly for movie nights and connection. Among our friends, we are known as the hosts with the mosts. Whether it’s an intimate dinner or a lavish middle-eastern style party, our guests are always well-fed and well-entertained (and usually leave with a house-plant that Yotam propagated from his collection). We believe welcoming guests into our home is an important practice of finding happiness by caring for others.

We take a lot of inspiration from the attachment theory of parenting. This approach sees the connection between the parents and the child as the most important part of growing up. By providing a kid with a strong foundation of love and support, and giving them the confidence that their connection to us is unconditional, they will have a stable base that they can use to explore and develop. We believe this will give them the confidence and capability to navigate life with all its challenges. We believe that children are curious by nature. We would like to help them explore the full spectrum of things to try and learn and experience. We will expose them to a wide variety of books and music; we will suggest many types of sports and creative activities, and be open to supporting our child’s natural interests and inclinations. We will try to foster perseverance by encouraging them to follow up on hobbies they pick up, as well as supporting their studies.

We understand this is a challenging time for you, and we appreciate you taking the time to read about us. We want to create a space where you feel supported and at peace as you make the best decision for your child. We’re here to answer any questions or give you time and space as you need. We are excited about being at this stage of our adoption journey, and we hope you join us on it. We would love to provide a safe, caring and supportive home for your child, and help them become the amazing human being they can be. We would also love for you to be part of your child’s life, if possible. We wish you all the best, and hope to hear from you soon.