Jared was born and raised in southern Louisiana, with a strong background in Cajun and Creole culture. He was raised spending lots of time in the wetlands and swamps, eating delicious Cajun food, and celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Although raised in a rich culture, Jared has always embraced diversity. Having spent significant time working internationally, he has always loved getting to know new peoples and cultural practices.

Karla was raised in northern Mexico and immigrated to the US in 2006. She grew up in a border town and was always exposed to the blended cultures of Mexico and the US. Raised by a traditional Mexican family, Karla grew up celebrating cultural traditions such as Dia de Los Muertos, Dia de Los Reyes Magos, Mexican Independence Day, etc. Being on the border, she was also exposed to traditional US customs such as Halloween, US Independence Day, Veteran's Day, etc.

As a multicultural family, we have incorporated the best of both worlds into our daily lives and family traditions. We celebrate holidays from both of our cultures and do our best to ensure our children are steeped in the rich traditions we both bring to the table. We strongly believe that all cultures should be celebrated and are fully open to adding any new traditions and practices that honor the background of our new child.

Jared works from home as a cybersecurity specialist. Although, he works significant hours, the lack of a commute and flexible schedule allows him to spend quality time with the family each day. Karla is a middle school teacher. Because the kids' school is her place of work the similar schedules allow for her to care for the children.

A typical day for the family includes Jared helping the kids with morning activities: breakfast, brushing teeth, getting ready for school. Karla will take them to school with her, in the afternoons she will take the kids to their extracurriculars. Once home, the family will engage in homework, swimming (in the summer), and general play. Dinners are a time to reconnect. One of our favorite daily dinner traditions is to ask each other what "our favorite part of the day was." Weekends allow for us to have outings as a family: go to the park, amusement rides, local arcades, etc. We also get together with Karla's family regularly. During long weekends, we will either go to a national park where they enjoy nature and have a picnic. Or we will take a trip to visit Jared's brother. Because our kids are of similar ages, the cousins adore spending time together. Summers are a great time for us to reconnect with Jared's family, we usually take a trip to Louisiana. We also plan a big trip with Karla's family and travel internationally.

Adoption has always been part of our conversations when we discussed growing our family. Jared has friends who were adopted and he saw the positive impact adoption had on his friends' lives. When we had our first biological child, there were some complications with the birth but nothing too serious. However, when our second biological child was born there were more severe complications that resulted in the doctor's advising that additional biological children could come with severe medical risks. Our second was also born during the height of COVID, which was a very tumultuous period for us. Although we took a few years break, we both felt that our family was not yet complete. As time went on, the idea of adoption came to the forefront of our minds. As we have learned more about the process of adoption, we are more excited than ever to add to our family and give our new child all of our love.

In the past three years we purchased our dream home. It has all the space needed for our growing family. The two-story home has four bedrooms, three full bathrooms, and an outside bathroom for our in-ground pool. Our yard has a play area with a swing set and room for outdoor activities. The yard is fenced and separated, with the pool inaccessible unless an adult unlocks it. We also maintain investment properties in the city that we plan to give to our kids when they reach adulthood.

Our home is located in a tight-knit community with a large Hispanic population. Our community regularly holds farmer's markets, fairs, and cultural appreciation events. For example, we recently attended an event with traditional Apache dancing and lucha libre wrestling activities, which our kids thoroughly enjoyed. Annually, parades and activities are held for Dia de Los Muertos, Independence Day, Veteran's Day, etc.

Our neighbors are friendly, and we live close to other couples with young children and growing families. We are in walking distance of several parks and hiking spots on the mountain.

We are actively involved in the community of the private school our kids attend, which holds many field trips and special community events throughout the year. The small but close community is focused not only on education but on building lasting relationships and connections.

Jared is the third born of his 8 siblings. His family has a tight bond, and he remains close to his parents and siblings to this day. Most of his family lives in Louisiana, and we usually don't get to see them altogether except during summer and at Thanksgiving. However, Jared's parents and several of the siblings he's closest with come to visit frequently throughout the year. His closest brother, Joe, lives in Texas only a few hours away, so we visit with his family (wife and two sons) quite often. When Jared's family visits, we usually have a big BBQ and come up with fun activities for the kids. We play board games while catching up and enjoying the time together. Jared's family loves to tease each other and reminiscence about shared memories as kids.

Karla is the oldest, with a younger brother and sister. Her parents have been married for 39 years. Her sister has an 11-year-old son and it has been a joy to watch him grow up. Living in the same city allows us to get together very regularly.

We celebrate every birthday and holiday together, often having her family over for carne asada and tres leches. Karla's mom or sister occasionally volunteer to take the kids so we can go on date nights. The kids love spending that time with the family. Most of Karla's extended (quite large) family also lives nearby. We have birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations on most weekends.

We are very grateful that you've taken the time to read our profile. Thank you for considering us to be the future parents of your child. We understand that this might be a very overwhelming and difficult time for you. We know that the decision you are about to make comes from a place of love and hope. It would bring us the utmost joy to be able to support you through this transition and provide your child the loving and secure environment we know you want for them. With those efforts in mind, we want to start by assuring you that we will share updates with you concerning the baby's development, childhood, and experiences through emails, text messages, or whichever method of contact you prefer.

We both moved to Houston for work after graduating from our respective colleges. Upon meeting each other we were certain that we were meant to be together. Within nine months we were engaged and married the following year. Considering our different lifestyles and backgrounds- before meeting each other- our meeting was serendipitous. In our 10 years together, we have supported and raised each other to be better people. After ups and downs with jobs, our pregnancy and birth journeys, the pandemic and the struggles of everyday marriage we have always used our love to guide us through. Today, we can say that we are more in love than ever. We know that we could provide a new baby with the stability and support that they would need.

In 2018 we were fortunate enough to become parents to our first boy: David, and within 15 months our second son: Robert was born. We are blessed with our boys, however, our pregnancies and births had complications. We were advised not to have any more biological children. Nevertheless, we have always felt that our family was not quite complete. In our journey as parents we strive to raise kind, confident, and happy children above all else. We have a great desire and hope that our family will grow through this adoption process and that we will be able to provide our new baby with the same opportunities, respect, care and love that we have for our current children.

We were both raised under a principle that it is a parent's obligation to ensure their children are given greater opportunities in life than the parents themselves were afforded, and this is a principle that we take very seriously. We believe that a child should be provided: 1) unconditional love and care; 2) encouragement and motivation to succeed in life; and 3) financial freedom to pursue passions.

We strive to achieve this by ensuring our kids always know we love them and giving them grace as they learn through their mistakes. We also push them to try new things, to never give up, and to embrace challenges. Finally, we have been blessed with resources that have allowed us to ensure our children will be able to attend high quality private schools, have pre-funded their college education, and have set aside assets to ensure they start adulthood with financial freedom.

We know that this is a difficult decision for you and this profile is just a snapshot into our lives. We would love the opportunity to talk to you further about any questions you may have or just if you want to get to know us better. We appreciate your consideration and hope to hear from you soon.

With love,

Jared & Karla