Hi. We’re Jen and Joel. We understand this is likely a difficult time for you and we appreciate you reading more about us as you make the decision if we might be the right family for you.

We’ve been a couple for 13 years and have been married for 9 years. We have a very loving, strong and open relationship that is based upon friendship and respect. Our family includes our two year old daughter, Nora, who we adopted as an infant through Adoption Options and our seven year old dog, Bentley.

We love to spend time together and value the time we have as a family. We feel blessed to be parents and appreciate the gift of Nora’s birthparents each day and look forward to adding to our family through adoption.

We value education, creativity, humor, diversity and empathy and work to instill those values in our family. Quality time together is very important to us and we love to go on regular outings to the zoo, museums and to explore the outdoors. Our family enjoys traveling and one of our first trips as a family was to Costa Rica. We look forward to quite a bit more travel in our future as we explore the world with our children.

Joel is a very involved and nurturing father. He is very playful, patient and loving. His specialties include building forts, creating tunnels, making trains in the living room out of dining room furniture and giving the best raspberries (which he calls buzzers).

Jennifer loves to do activities including going to the zoo, exploring on nature walks or just hanging out in the backyard and talking about all of the different wildlife that comes to visit. Jennifer’s specialties are making up songs to sing, cooking, picking fresh produce in the garden and spending time rocking and talking about the activities of the day.

Joel works as a computer programmer and Jennifer has worked in nonprofits including with at-risk youth, at a children’s hospital and in an animal shelter. We both have our bachelor’s degrees and Jennifer has a master’s degree in nonprofit management. Education is very important to us and we encourage learning and reading each day.

As adoptive parents, we truly believe that you will know which family is right for your child and if we might be that family, we look forward to having you learn more about us. Thank you for taking the time to make this difficult and selfless decision for yourself and your child.

Please see more about our family on our video!