We have one other child named Eleanor, age 5. She is thoughtful, kind, and full of life! She began kindergarten in the public school this year. Eleanor has attended our church preschool since she was an infant. She has absolutely blossomed there. She loves music and making art. She and our family dog Scout are best buddies, and Eleanor loves spending time outside in the backyard, riding her bike to the playground two blocks away, and playing with her friends in their neighborhood. She takes dance, is in the church children's choir, and will start piano lessons and Cub Scouts this fall.

We were fortunate that we were able to conceive Eleanor after the help of fertility treatments. After her delivery, an undiagnosed infection left Elizabeth unable to have future successful pregnancies. Adoption is the best option to complete our family, and we are so hopeful to welcome a baby soon!

Eleanor has been longing for a brother or sister for as long as she can remember. She prays for a baby to join the family every night before bed. She will make a great big sister for any child!

Chris is an Eagle Scout, and grew up hiking and camping at least once every month. As an adult he's discovered a love for canoeing and fishing, in addition to hiking and camping, and enjoys sharing these hobbies with Elizabeth and Eleanor. Chris has been involved with our neighborhood association for years, and currently serves as the organization's president. He's committed to working locally to foster a caring, relational community. Chris serves on our church's Property Committee and is heading up a committee to evaluate the accessibility of the large church's facilities, in order to make it more welcoming and accessible to people of all abilities. Chris is also starting a Cub Scout Pack for girls with another dad in our church.

Elizabeth serves a Presbyterian Church (USA), and sits on the board for a national denominational publication. She has served on their daughter's preschool board, and has worked with a number of local ministries, non-profits, and presbytery committees in relation to her role as a pastor.

In addition to our love for the outdoors, we love music. Chris plays the guitar, and Elizabeth loves to sing along. We enjoy going to concerts and festivals, and we're excited to share music (particularly live music!) with our children.

An adoption story is special and unique, just like any other birth story.

Each year on her birthday, Elizabeth's dad calls to wish her a happy birthday and to retell the story of the day she was born. It's a story she knows inside and out, and she can't remember a time when she didn't know it.

So it shall be for this child. The story of his or her adoption will be a story that is special and theirs. It will be a story that will be no mystery, but out in the open. We want this child to know they are beautiful and unique, and their story is, too.

We also plan to include the story of their birth parents, and help them have a sense of who they are and how much it means to us that we were chosen to love, care for, and raise them. We don't want our child's origin story or family to be a mystery. We would love to have a relationship with you, and hope there will be opportunity for our child to not only know your story and your family's story, but to be a part of it, too.

We love our home and our neighborhood! We live in a friendly, diverse, and walkable neighborhood, built in the 1930's and 1940's. We live one block away from a great city park and the local middle school. On our street, everyone knows one another and folks are friendly. There are a number of young children on our street, and we gather regularly for birthday parties, impromptu sprinkler parties, and go trick-or-treating all together. We even host an annual neighborhood Brunswick stew in our front yard! We live just a bike ride away from a local food coop and farmer's market, a movie theater, and several restaurants.

Our house has a lot of character, and is a great place to raise a family. Inside, we love to cook and share meals together. Dinnertime is really special and important to us, so we spent a lot of time around the table. We have four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. Over the years, we have renovated and updated the house to make it a comfortable and welcoming place to be. We love it! We also have a fenced in backyard with a playset (Eleanor can't wait to share it with a baby brother or sister some day!), a small patio, and a vegetable garden. We love to host neighbors and friends for cookouts and porch visits.

We love spending time with our extended families. Both our parents are still married and live in our childhood homes - it's fun to go home again! We both have one sibling (Chris has a younger sister; Elizabeth has a younger brother). We spend vacation time and holidays with our families each year.

Chris' sister Kim and her husband Jon live 5 minutes away from his parents in Virginia. Kim and Jon have 3 sons, close to our daughter Eleanor's age. When we're all together, Chris often makes giant bubbles, plays guitar for the kids (they love to dance!), and we go swimming and play outside together.

Elizabeth's brother Jeff and his wife Laura Ann have one son and are expecting a baby girl soon. They live in TN. We all meet at Elizabeth's parents' lake house in South Carolina several times each year. The kids get along great, and they have fun swimming and tubing on the lake together. We always have low country boil (traditional South Carolina meal with shrimp, corn, potatoes, and sausage), and love watching 4th of July fireworks from the dock each summer.

We both come from healthy, strong, and loving families. They are so very excited about our adoption plans, and can't wait to welcome a new child to the extended family. Our parents are wonderful grandparents, and will welcome and love this child with all their hearts.

We know that it is out of deep love for your child that you consider plans for adoption. This is an incredible gift you are offering. Thank you for considering our family.

We always planned to have children, even long before we met. We met through mutual friends in 2008, began dating in 2009, and were married in 2013. We love spending time together, and home is our favorite place to be. It's been incredible to watch and learn the ways we both enjoy parenting our daughter Eleanor (age 5). We are partners in all things, and in parenting, we work together as a team. We are so grateful that we have made a home full of music, love, laughter, and good food!

After years of infertility and miscarriages, we are thrilled to feel hope again - hope that there is a child that will make our family complete. We cannot wait to share our home and our lives with your precious child, should you choose us. We will ensure a loving, warm, welcoming, and stable home and family life for a long and bright future.

We own our home in a friendly and diverse neighborhood, within walking distance to a cute little village and city park. We gather with neighbors and their children regularly, and enjoy spending our free time outdoors. On any given weekend, you could find us at the pool together, on the river canoeing, or hiking in the mountains nearby. In our family, your child would have a creative, active, and loving older sister - who prays for a sibling almost daily! We have a friendly and gentle dog named Scout, who is often in tow and always up for playtime with children. We are very close to our families, and often schedule vacation time around being with them at the lake or in the mountains. In our family, your child would have loving and involved grandparents and cousins (four boys and one girl on the way!). Your child would have an excellent education and opportunities to explore whomever he or she feels called to be.

We have heard it said that adoption begins in the dark. That it begins with the decision to let go of a small one that you're only beginning to love, but cannot keep. Please know that we don't consider this adoption as the end of your relationship with your child. What you are considering is a brave act of trust and undeniable selflessness. What you are considering is a beautiful and meaningful gift. Please know we will honor your story and generous gift, and share it openly with your child. Should you choose our family, we would like to share letters, stories, and photos with you, and we are open to communication and even visits in the future.

If you are interested in considering our family further, we would be glad to share emails, text messages, or phone/video calls. We wish you all the very best and pray you find peace in whatever your decision may be.

With gratitude and hope,

Chris & Elizabeth