Hello! We are Jonathan and Emily, and before we share with you more information about ourselves, we first want to thank you for taking the time to learn more about us. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate this opportunity! We hope that as you review our story and others, you feel more prepared and find some relief in finding the right family to raise and love the child. 

We have been hoping and praying for a child to become part of our family and our lives for some time now, and though we are not able to become pregnant at this time, we believe we are ready to love, nurture and raise a child in a warm and happy home. 

We have been married for 10 years and have been hoping to start a family. We are aunt and uncle to 6 wonderful nieces and nephews, 2 of whom are adopted. We love these kids so much and know deep in our hearts that it is time for us to parent a child. We have long hoped for children and cannot wait to provide a beautiful and faith-filled life for a little one. 

As you look through the sections of our book, we invite you to think about how we have the room in our hearts to welcome a child and provide a safe, nurturing, and loving home, filled with life, love and laughter.

We met in 2008 at a Catholic retreat center volunteering for retreat ministry to children, teenagers and families. Both of us had been volunteering there for years, but didn’t meet until we were both in our late 20’s.

Emily decided to throw a superbowl party so she could invite Jonathan over, even though she does not like football! Jonathan accepted the invitation, despite the fact that he doesn’t follow football much either. 

After spending time together, Jonathan built up the courage to ask Emily out on a date for Valentine’s day. Emily accepted. After a nice meal, some live music and a late night movie, Jonathan knew he had to ask Emily out again, but waited until after midnight because he didn’t want to be cheesy. 

We started dating, learning more about each other and our families and friends. In December 2010, Jonathan proposed to Emily at the chapel of the retreat center where we first met. 

Before our wedding, we enjoyed a weekend of preparation for marriage called “pre-cana,” which is a time to talk about important areas of our relationship and plan for what we want from each other in a faith-filled way. This time together, focusing on really important areas, set a great foundation for us and we often reflect back on this time together as we continue to try to figure out life. 

We were married in June 2012. We are amazed at how quickly the last 10 years of marriage have come and passed, and we are excited to continue to grow through life together, as our family grows, too. 

We have actively been trying to grow our family for the last 4 years. Through this process we learned that it is very unlikely that we will be able to have a biological child. We realized that we still have a lot of love to share and want to adopt a child, so we can pass on that love in a caring, nurturing and patient way. 

In addition to our niece and nephew who are adopted, we also grew up with cousins who were adopted (Jonathan’s cousin Douglass was adopted from South Korea and Emily’s cousin Michael was adopted from Ukraine). We realize what a beautiful gift adoption is, and feel ready and committed to welcoming a child into our home through open adoption.

As we said before, I’m not much into football, but I’m always open to watching a game with others. I’m more passionate about music. I love going to concerts and musicals, and I enjoy playing music at the retreat center and at my church, where I lead a small group of singers for services. I play guitar and piano, along with some other cool instruments that I’ve picked up along the way.

After college, I thought about joining the priesthood but realized God was calling me to something else. While trying to figure that out, I started working at a group home for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This became my calling, along with my calling to be husband to Emily. 

While working there, I went to grad school and became a social worker. I’ve supervised multiple group homes and now run a program that helps people in our community grow in independence and increase their quality of life. I also am a psychotherapist, helping children, teens and adults and their families improve their mental health.

In addition to anything musical, I enjoy drinking coffee, camping, sailing, walking our dog and cooking. I also love playing any game, card game or board game, which is a tradition I learned from my parents. Emily asked me to help her start a youth ministry program at our church, and I absolutely love it. We’ve been involved in youth ministry for almost 15 years, and after helping kids find their voice and let them know they matter, I can’t wait to continue to do this as a father. 

My friends and family say that I’m really giving, and I guess that’s true, but I really get joy out of helping people. I’ve always had an urge, from a young age, to make sure friends and family were happy and cared for. I also grew up volunteering at school and church. My mom just retired as a physical therapist, and when I was deciding on a career, I liked how she was able to help others. I knew I wanted to be a therapist as well. I love communicating with others, so I decided to become a speech language pathologist, which has been a wonderful opportunity for me to work with children, parents and older adults, helping them to learn to speak up for themselves. 

For fun, I enjoy listening to music, reading, and at times, engage in some serious retail therapy. I love being organized and have a passion for decorating our home according to the season. I leave most of the cooking to Jonathan, but I love baking, especially for special occasions. 

I am on the “sunshine committee” at work to brighten up the nursing home that I work in and am on a welcoming committee at our townhouse complex. I also love helping out at our church as a youth minister and educator for adults who want to join the faith. I try to be the best aunt I can, reaching out to my nieces and nephews and spoiling them with great finds while shopping. I love these kids so much and am eager and excited to one day be called “Mom.”

We live in a townhome community in a small city in New York. Our neighborhood is a friendly, welcoming place, and we have a great community. Our townhome is a two-bedroom and has plenty of space, and we really love the community pool! 

Our small city is very diverse and likes to celebrate multiple cultural festivals, including Italian fest, Irish fest, July 4th, New Years’ Eve, African-Caribbean day and a hispanic heritage festival. And, there are even more events within the county we live in, which is very diverse and full of wonderful families. 

Our church community is also a wonderful place for families, with activities for children, teens and families. Since we live near a major river, we get to enjoy each change of season and there are plenty of parks and trails to enjoy nature. We also have some great friends nearby who we enjoy spending our time with, most of whom are parents themselves and are super excited to give us plenty of “free” advice!

We each have one sibling—they are both married with children! We love our two nieces and four nephews, and we are excited to one day welcome another little one into the bunch. One of our nieces and one of our nephews joined our family through adoption, so our family is very familiar with the process. Everyone is so excited to meet a new family member!

Emily’s parents are both retired and live a short distance away. Jonathan’s parents have both passed away, but we have lots of memories to share. 

Emily’s brother Peter and his wife are high school sweethearts and have been together for 20 years, and they have 4 children. They live on a riverfront and we enjoy spending time on their land and exploring the river on their small boat that we can go on and go fishing. 

Jonathan’s sister Missy and her husband are a little further away (like, plane ride away) but we enjoy visiting and doing local fun activities near where they live whenever we have a chance to visit them and our nephew and niece. 

We stay connected with everyone through facetime calls, but we LOVE when we get to see them in person. 

We also both have several aunts and uncles and lots of cousins and enjoy seeing them at holidays and special family events. Holidays are important to both sides of our family, and we look forward to sharing these traditions.

We both love helping others, which we do in a variety of ways. We help people every day in our careers, and we enjoy volunteering in our church, doing music and youth ministry. 

We love food, and are great partners as Jonathan has a knack for cooking while Emily is a bit of a clean freak! 

We also love spending time with friends and family, either hosting at our home or visiting others. We enjoy walking by the river, walking our dog along trails and taking our nieces and nephews apple picking (but mostly for the cider donuts) and we are always down to check out music and vendors (Jonathan loves the food, Emily loves the shopping) at many of the community celebrations held year round in our community and extended area. 

Jonathan enjoys music and sailing. Emily enjoys music, reading and taking walks outside.

Perhaps Jonathan’s guiltiest pleasure is his love of any type of game, and Emily has graciously engaged in playing with him. Card games, board games, collaborative or competitive, Jonathan is down to play. Jonathan will also play music on his guitar or piano and sometimes Emily will sing along, but is often content reading while Jonathan stretches his artistic muscles (which can be a little flabby at times).  

We enjoy traveling with friends and family, we look forward to taking a child on trips and showing them different parts of the world. 

We hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about us and our commitment to each other, and can see how a child would be welcomed, loved and supported by us and our extended family and community. We know that you will be looking at several options, and trust that you will find the right one for you and your child. 

Thank you so much for being open to this process—we can’t thank you enough. We believe you are so brave and courageous for simply considering an adoption plan.

When Jonathan was a child, his parents would tuck him in at night, read a book, and say some prayers. Each night, the last prayer went “God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, God bless all the people that Missy and Jonathan love, God Bless Missy and God bless Jonathan.”  When Jonathan’s sister Missy adopted her child, she added a line: “God bless mommy, God bless Daddy, God bless Thyra” (who is Missy’s daughter’s birth mom). If we are the right fit for you, we will continue to say this prayer with the child, as we will continue to give thanks for you. 

If you are interested, we hope to have an open or semi-open adoption, based on your preference. No matter what, the discussions with the child about how they joined our family will be open, honest, and full of love, sharing how grateful we are for this gift and opportunity.

With Love,

Jonathan and Emily