We have a laid-back lifestyle. During the week, we keep things simple and prioritize making sure the dogs are taken care of. We have a standard rotation of healthy easy meals and usually catch up on a TV show. We both enjoy working out and with a home gym in the garage and a park/neighborhood to run in it makes it easy to hit our workouts. On Friday's we usually order in from our favorite local restaurants and watch a movie or play board games.

Weekends vary but usually consist of seeing family or friends. We enjoy spending time outside on the porch or doing something active like tennis or hiking. We also enjoy going to sporting events, seeing concerts, and going to plays.

For the most part we have a routine, but we do love to travel. An annual family vacation to the beach is a must and we plan a few trips a year to visit friends. Our last year consisted of trips to Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Ohio.

We love our family traditions! Birthdays are special in our house and we get to break out our birthday plates. We only use these plates for cake and ice cream on someone's birthday. Zoe and her mom started this about 15 years ago and now Colton has his own, too.

Sticking with sweets, Zoe's mom hosts a sugar cookie decorating party every few months (Easter, 4th of July, Halloween, Christmas). It's a fun tradition that we can't wait to share with a child!

Christmas is a big holiday in our family. We love to host over Christmas. Zoe's mom loves Christmas and bakes about 20 different kinds of cookies for the holiday season. Zoe inherited her mom's love of the holidays and puts up about six Christmas trees each year. Christmas with Zoe's mom includes puzzles, Christmas movies, and Chinese food. Colton's family celebrates by opening one present on Christmas Eve and spending the day watching Christmas movies (yes, Die Hard is considered a Christmas movie in our family!)

Colton introduced the annual family vacation to Myrtle Beach to Zoe. We have made it a combined family tradition with Zoe's mom joining as well. Everyone loves spending time together at the beach and our entire family is excited for a new family member to join!

We value cultural diversity and how we will handle this topic was an important conversation for us as we began looking into adoption.

What came up consistently in our conversations was the importance of representation and how will we give your child the chance to see themselves in their daily lives. At home, we will have diverse books and music and talk openly about different cultures. We are both lifelong learners and look forward to learning alongside your child. We live in an area that offers a wide variety of museums, neighborhoods, and cultural arts.

Additionally, we recognize that our interaction with the world may not be the same as your child and we will support your child when they come to us. We can assure you that we will protect, listen to, and advocate for your child.

When we built our townhouse, we chose our neighborhood specifically for growing our family. Our neighborhood has children of all ages. There is rarely a day that we don't see kids playing out on the sidewalks or parents walking with strollers. There's plenty of space to rollerblade, ride a bike, or draw with chalk. Additionally, we have a pool and clubhouse as well as access to tennis courts, basketball courts, and playgrounds. The neighborhood hosts a few events a year. We recently went to the summer block party which had a live band and food trucks. Neighborhood kids set up different booths to sell crafts and pop/snacks. We also are about thirty minutes out from the city and airport. Being close to the city provides lots of opportunities to see games or shows when they come to town.

We live in a townhouse with three stories. Most of our time is spent on the middle floor. This floor has our kitchen, dining area, and living room. Our favorite part of this floor is all the windows and light. Upstairs we have three bedrooms and two full bathrooms. One of these bedrooms will become the nursery. The second extra bedroom is used as Zoe's office. The bottom floor is Colton's bat cave. He uses this space as an office and an area for his guitars. We converted our garage into a home gym. We also like to spend time outside and the deck off our kitchen offers a nice space to relax.

We are very close to our families and see them regularly. Zoe's mom lives in the same neighborhood. We see her often and are lucky enough to get a surprise homemade dinner dropped off. Colton's family is just over an hour away and we enjoy taking the dogs down for some outside time while we catch up. We love playing games or building puzzles when we get together. Colton's family is very competitive when it comes to spoons and uno. We also enjoy going to football and baseball games as well as Broadway plays that come into town. In addition to family, we also have friends nearby that we go to happy hour or out to dinner with.

Something that makes our family unique is the broad spectrum of interests in our family. Zoe's mom took up art classes during COVID and there are several of her drawings in our home. Colton's family is good at a variety of sports and also can quote lines from nearly every comedy in the last two decades. Colton plays guitar by ear and Zoe learned how to read music and plays piano. Whatever you child's interest there will be someone to mentor and support them.

Our families were overjoyed when we told them we were adopting. Colton's family has experience with adoption. Three of his cousins were adopted and they can't wait for us to expand our family through adoption. When we let our families know, they asked us for all the details and wanted to know everything about the process.

We have written and rewritten this first line what feels like one hundred times. It is hard to think of the right words to begin. First, we would like to express our gratitude to you for taking the time to get to know us through our profile. We hope that as you go through this process you feel supported and get the information you need to feel confident in moving forward.

When we think about what adoption looks like, we want your child to know their adoption story from the start. If you choose us and are willing, we would like to get to know you and develop a plan for communication post birth together. We are open to sending pictures and calls/facetime. Annual visits are also something we are open to considering. Additionally, if you have any questions for us, we are more than happy to answer them.

To provide a little more information on who we are, we have been married for two years and together for seven. We met at work and started hanging out after work at team happy hours. It was not long before we both knew that we had found someone special. We are both engineers with logical brains and believe that kindness is deserved not earned. We balance each other out well. Zoe's weaknesses are Colton's strengths and vice versa. Colton has patience and the ability to learn just about anything quickly. Zoe is empathetic and will do anything for those in her inner circle. Early on, we had discussions about family and aligned on how we would raise children. We want to be the parents at all the activities, helping to practice for tryouts, and going on mini adventures. Our goal is to have the most amazing ordinary life treasuring the little moments. Time spent playing board games, having pizza and movie nights on Fridays, jamming in the car to favorite songs, sleepovers with best friends, laughing at movie quotes/jokes, and running in the yard with our dogs.

If you were to choose us, we would do everything to provide a life for your child that is filled with love and opportunity. They will have an army behind them advocating for their needs, hopes, and dreams. We have a village around us between family and friends and your child will have no shortage of cousins to grow up with. Zoe's mom lives in the same neighborhood as us. Recently retired, she is ready for her first grandchild. Colton's family is a little farther away, but weekend trips are frequent. Outside of work we enjoy spending time with our pups, going to brunch and a movie, and going to nearby parks. We try to go to at least one baseball and one football game each year. Colton enjoys pickup games of basketball, playing tennis/golf, and learning guitar. Colton recently had a great time at the US Open with his dad, brother, and cousin. Zoe is an avid runner, and her favorite part of the weekend is her long run. Zoe also plays piano and is obsessed with finding the perfect card for every occasion.

We are unbelievably ready to expand our family of four (including our fur babies) to a family of five. Over the first years of our marriage, we took the time to build a solid foundation and work on becoming the example we would like to be for a child. We take becoming parents very seriously but also want you to know that there is a lot of laughter in our home. We do not know what it is like to be in your shoes and cannot put words on what you are feeling. What we hope is that you find a decision that feels right for you and your child. If that choice happens to be us, we would love to get to know you and partner with you on this journey. If not, thank you for getting to know us and we wish you the best.

Colton & Zoe