We both experienced the loss of a child before we met. Once we decided to build a family together, we wanted to have a big family with multiple children. Together we have a daughter named Noel and Steve has a daughter from a previous relationship named Amanda. After our daughter was born, we suffered several miscarriages and failed IVF attempts. As Steve had been adopted at birth, adoption was the natural next option try to grow our family.

Our home will be a loving home to our new child. We will do our best to show all of our children love, kindness, and guidance. We dream that this child knows what's it like to be loved unconditionally, so that this child will love others the same. We dream that this child finds passion in life and follows their dreams when they grow up. We dream that this child enjoys life as we do.

We know how precious having a child is, and we know that having a child takes lots of work and effort that are eager to provide. We are excited to be the parents of another child through adoption.

We love to travel. Every year, we make a big trip to go somewhere different - Europe, Asia, somewhere in North America, although our favorite spot is somewhere with white sand and a clear water beach.

Steve loves to scuba diving, and he already done it around the world. Grace has not started yet, and plans to get the license when our daughter is old enough to be able to scuba diving. So far, she's done snorkeling, enjoying beautiful corals, and been hands on with sea animals. Our daughter is already a great swimmer. Our dream snorkeling and scuba diving spot would be Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

The Caribbean islands are our favorite spots. One year, we swam with dolphins and learned all about marine life, the importance of protecting marine life, and how to protect it. It was fun and educational for everyone. After the trip, we changed our lifestyle to help protecting marine life.

Grace grew up South Korea, who speaks Korean. She teaches the language, and culture to our daughter. On Lunar New Year, we all get dressed with traditional Korean robe, called Hanbok. We visit extended family to give a traditional bow. We cook Korean foods are regularly. We three of us already visited Korea to see where Grace grew up, and met her friends and extended family who were still in Korea. We plan to visit Korea later. Our daughter already knows how to speak Korean and converses with her grandparents in that language. When we go to Korean restaurants, she's very proud that she can order in Korean by herself. Steve grew up in Texas and teaches our daughter about the state's strong culture and unique history. We are very open minded and have traveled all over the world from Iceland to South Africa, from Paris to Tokyo and love to see new ways of experiencing different cultures and ways of life.

We live in Virginia, a family friendly townhouse neighborhood.

Our home has 5 rooms and is a great place to raise a family. We spend lots of time in the kitchen and dining room area, where we do lots of crafting, art, studies, cooking and eating.

There are many elementary-aged kids in our neighborhood. When we first moved here, we were delightfully surprised to see community birthday parties in a parking lot where everyone is invited. Our neighborhood has an online chat where they inform updates/reminders and ask for help. At a school bus stop, we have about 15-20 elementary-aged kids, and kids play outsides after school and on the weekends. A grown up is always guarding, and shouting "Car!" when a car shows up at the cul-de-sac, and all kids move to the sidewalk. This type of "social contract" is well exercised. Our dog even has his favorite doggy friends in our neighborhood, running around in a common park area!

Our neighborhood is very diverse, and everyone feels as if they belong. Our neighborhood has an annual "international potluck" where each family brings their home country's food. We brought "Kimbap"(Korean food, looks like Sushi) last year, which was enjoyed by everyone.

We have a tight knit family, who support each other no matter what.

Grace has a sister and brother-in-law who live in Chicago. They have a daughter who is working as a data scientist in a construction company, preparing for law school, and a son who is senior in high school. Grace's parents are living half of the year in Chicago and half of the time in Virginia. When Grace's family gather together, there is always tons of food cooked - sushi, Korean foods, baked goods, and various types. There is also lots of talking and reminiscing about stories from the past; stories of Grace's grandparents, when Grace and her sister were young, and when all grandkids were babies.

Steve's daughter from a previous marriage, his parents, and his brother and his family all live near one another in Texas. Steve usually travels back to see his daughter, Amanda, every month and they talk on the phone every night. There's always family bonding over the college that Steve, his brother, his sister-in-law, and now his niece all attended. Steve's love of cooking in the kitchen comes from sitting on both grandmothers' counters learning to cook traditional Southern style and cooking outdoors from all of the campouts with his dad.

Both sides of our family are excited for this adoption, and are looking forward to loving this child unconditionally.

While Steve had always considered adoption as a possibility since he was adopted at birth, we had both planned to grow our family the old fashioned way. It wasn't until miscarriage after miscarriage and medical complication after medical complication made that impossible that we actively pursued it.

We have been married for 7 years and have a 6-year-old daughter. We had both been married previously and are mature and honest enough to know why they didn't last. We came from different places and different backgrounds, but finally found one another and are committed to raising any children we are blessed with to the very best of our abilities with all of the love that we can muster. Both of us having lost a child from a previous marriage, we are painfully aware of how so very precious they are and why it's so important to do the very best that you can with the time you've been given. There's just no going back and doing better no matter what. It has also made us appreciate the child we do have all the more and we earnestly hope for more children to share our love with.

With both a pediatrician and professor in the family, health and education are paramount to us and we have the resources to provide the very best of both. We strongly believe in providing the widest possible range of experiences to help our children become well-rounded and be able to really find themselves and what they're passionate about. That's how we hope to help a child become the happiest person possible and at the same time the very best that they can be.

We have both dedicated ourselves to lives of service because we want to give back and make a difference in people's lives. That goes for society as a whole, but it starts with our family. We strive to set a good example for our daughter by volunteering for Cub Scouts and at church, performing medical missions work domestically and overseas, and just helping out when a neighbor needs a hand.

We will of course send you letters and pictures of the child as they grow up and would like to receive them from you as well, if that is something you are open to. Steve's adoption was closed and he grew up not knowing anything about his birth parents, background or adoption story until he was able to unseal his adoption records from the state. Thankfully, the love and support he'd received from his adoptive family enabled him to deal with that uncertainty and ground him in who he was. Knowing how it was done and how to deal with the questions every adopted child has about their background and how to raise someone with the knowledge of their adoption as merely one aspect of who they are (but not nearly the most important) is something that Steve thanks his parents for every day and is something that he can pass on to an adopted child of his own. Adoption is a blessing and one that Steve looks forward to sharing.

Sincerely,

Steve & Grace