We are each the most important person in each others lives! We feel so lucky to have found each other. We met 10 years ago on a ski trip (Jamison spent the whole trip in the hot tub!!). We started as friends, and spent years of getting to know and care for each other. Eventually Alex asked Jamison on a date...much to the shock of our other friends! We've been laughing, adventuring, and supporting each other ever since!

We got married at a lake house owned by Alex's godparents, a magical place where we had bonded with family, friends, and each other over the years. We spent the day swimming, cooking, and celebrating around the campfire. Every year we return to this same lake with our loved ones and reminisce about the happy memories we made that day. We want our child to experience happy days on this lake too.

Now, our days our filled with road trips, inside jokes, silly songs, and great food. We are proud to have built a marriage that is supportive, collaborative, and so much fun! We are, above all else, best friends.

I am friendly, playful, and outgoing. I love to help my family and friends. I believe in building community, because everyone deserves support.

I love to make things! I enjoy knitting, woodworking, and pottery the most, but I almost never turn down an opportunity to create something. I am never without an art project, even if it's just some drawing pencils I throw in my bag.

Most of all, I love using art to connect with my friends and family. I like to have "art parties" where we can all get together and create. My favorite art parties are with my nieces and nephews, where we get to use our imaginations to make very big messes!

I work as a mental health counselor for families and children. I plan to take a break to raise my child after they arrive, but right now I feel so grateful to have a job that teaches me so much about child development, creating healthy relationships, and having difficult conversations. I know this will help me parent our child through the difficult moments of their life.

Working with children who have been in foster care has also taught me about the important role of biological family in a child's life. It makes me feel grateful for the role that you, as the birth parent, might play in our family. I will always work to help our child feel connected to their roots.

I work as a collections manager, taking care of a big fine art collection. You know how they don't let you touch anything in a museum? I get to touch ALL OF IT!

I feel lucky that I get to take care of such wonderful, historic and valuable objects. I'm in charge of paintings, fun sculptures, and rare books - it's a lot of responsibility but I've been very successful in my 15-year career.

Sometimes I even get to travel overseas to Europe and other places for work (Jamison sometimes comes with me!)

Fortunately I get to spend most of my time at home! I can't wait to teach a child about art and history and the excitement of the world.

My favorite thing to do is go snowboarding. I'm even teaching Jamison! My mom (grandma!) has a house in the mountains and we visit her a lot. I also love going to museums, exploring nature on hikes, and listening to live music! Mostly I love doing these things with Jamison! She's the best person I've ever met...

We live in a vibrant, diverse city, with great schools and tons of culture and entertainment. Our home is located within walking distance of a cute playground and one of the largest parks in America. We have access to museums, concerts, parades, and zoos. Our home has lots of places to play and our backyard includes a pool! We're also a short bike ride away from the beach!

We're very lucky to live within walking distance of many of our family and friends, so our child will be able to spend time with their loved ones whenever they want.

Although we love living in the city, we always make time to be in nature too. When we're not at our main home, we love to spend time at Jamison's family beach house, Alex's family ski home, and his godparent's lake house. Some of our happiest childhood memories take place in these spaces, and we can't wait to share them with our child.

We believe that our job is to help our child learn about the world, build empathy, and embrace themself fully. We hope to give opportunities for self-expression and build their self-worth. We will work hard to give our child the best education we can, both in school and through traveling,

We're proud to have built a home where differences are embraced and disagreements are handled with kindness and empathy. I know that we will work hard to show love and compassion to our child, because we make that a priority in how we treat each other.

Although we don't have children yet, we like to "practice" with our nieces and nephews. We absolutely love getting to play with them. When we get together, Jamison almost always brings a fun craft or project we can do together, and Alex never hesitates to put on a silly outfit and run around with them. We look forward to being active, loving, and hands-on parents!

Jamison was raised in a big family with both adopted and biological siblings. We're so grateful that any child we welcome into our home will have aunts who share the experience of being an adoptee and can be another source of support to them. They will know from the start that they are in a family that embraces adopted family members fully and completely.

Alex is from a tight-knit, loving family that has always been close and we traveled the world together. I am glad that my mom (Grandma!) and brother live close by. Having a warm and happy family was a big part of my childhood and I want to give that experience to my child.

Our family is a loud, playful group with big personalities! We make it a priority to see each other often (many of them live within walking distance of us!). We especially love to take family trips where we can all gather at the beach, in the mountains, or have an adventure in a brand new place!

We are so lucky to have a strong community of support, who are excited to help us welcome a child into our lives. We live in a diverse community, and are lucky to have built meaningful and lasting friendships with people who have different views and life experiences. They have already been incredible resources for helping us prepare for parenting a child who might face experiences or challenges that are different from our own.

Many friends have said, "Let us be your village! We'll always be there for your child!" when we shared that we were adopting. We are grateful to know that our child will be raised in a community that recognizes and celebrates families that look different. We know that they are already excited to embrace the family we build together.

Travel

We love to travel! We both grew up traveling with our families and are grateful for the way that these experiences shaped our view of the world. Alex has been to all 50 states and over 50 countries (and Jamison is working hard to catch up!).

We've been to the countries where our ancestors lived, as well as trips to our childhood homes. Being able to share these experiences with one another has helped us have a deeper understanding of our families and ourselves. We look forward to one day giving our child these experiences by visiting their ancestral countries, the place where they were born, and important places from their adopted and biological family histories.

Art

We love art! All art. Jamison loves to make it, and Alex loves to protect it.

We're making art to hang on a future child's nursery walls and knitting little toys and blankets for them to cuddle. I hope that one day our child can look at these objects and know that I was thinking about them and loving them, long before they were born.

Holidays and Traditions

We love holidays. We go WAY over the top with decorations, costumes, and traditions. We celebrate for months leading up to the actual day! We completely redecorate our home for major holidays, so it feels like you're walking into a spooky cottage or a gingerbread house. We hand-make some new decorations every year to add to our collection. Even our outfits will fit the theme for weeks leading up to the holiday.

We're very big on family traditions, like the giant chocolate turkey Jamison's family smashes on Thanksgiving or the story Alex reads to our nieces and nephews on Christmas Eve. Other traditions we began on our own, like writing silly poems to give with our advent gifts or the "Summerween" picnic we host to kick off the spooky season.

We can't wait to bring a child into the weird, wonderful, over-the-top way that we celebrate holidays. We want to give them a childhood full of holiday magic!

Snacks

We love cooking together for ourselves and our friends. Some of our favorite memories are chaos cooking in the kitchen with a big group of friends, where everyone is pitching in.

Our approaches to cooking are very different. Jamison rarely uses a recipe or makes the same thing twice. She just loves to experiment and use her imagination. Alex, on the other hand, loves cooking recipes from vintage cookbooks and will practice the same one over and over until he's an expert at it. His soup recipe is Jamison's favorite comfort food in the whole world

When we are around our nieces and nephews, we love to bring them into the kitchen and involve them in the process of making their food. We like to pick a theme and find imaginative ways to encourage them to try new foods (because of this, they call broccoli tiny trees and parmesan cheese pasta snowflakes). We can't wait to bring our own child into the kitchen and help them build a love for food too.