While we do not know what you are going through, we respect what a challenging time this must be for you. We admire the strength and courage it takes to decide what is best for your child. Whatever you decide, we hope that you find the support and care that you deserve right now. Adoption was our first choice as a couple to grow our family. We are grateful that you decided to get to know us better and consider our home for this wonderful child. Please read on to see a snapshot of our life, who we are, and how much space we have in our hearts for your child.
Cecilia and Nathan
THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS FOR CONSIDERING US AS A FAMILY FOR YOUR CHILD.
Our Adoption Story
For Cecilia, adoption was always in her heart, but it was not truly realized until she met Nathan. Once we were a couple, our desire to grow our family stopped us in our tracks and we never let go! We chose adoption to have a child because it truly felt right for us, and we want to help your child thrive. Nathan has several extended family members who are adopted or adopted a child and so adoption felt natural from the start. Also, as a multiracial couple we are excited about potentially embracing a different culture into our family.
Over the course of our eight year relationship, we have barely spent more than two weeks apart and we are still not bored of each other! We have found balance and strength in our partnership. Cecilia is more organized and analytical and while Nathan gets the job done, he has a noisier, messier way of doing it. We love each other for who we are and support each other when we are not at our best. We are excited about adding a new member to our team!
Our jobs are family friendly, and we plan on taking several months of parental leave. We have a lot of love to give, and your child will have the support and guidance of our families and friends.
Our Promise to You
We promise to be advocates for your child. Our priority is to provide your child with a safe, nurturing home where he or she can become their own person and define their own happiness. Their adoption story will always start with you. We will tell him or her about the love and courage it took to make an incredibly difficult choice. We promise to give your child all that we can offer. We will celebrate your child's heritage and practice traditions that embrace his or her culture and our own. We promise that fostering his or her education inside and outside of the classroom will be greatly important to us. We will encourage your child to be curious about the world and to find their place in it.
About Us
You can probably tell from our photos that we wear a lot of blue. It’s our favorite color!
We have a typical modern love story: we met through online dating. As Nathan likes to mention, Cecilia messaged him first, and we met up to share a meal shortly after. Cecilia was interested in talking to Nathan because they had shared career interests. We realized that for a time, we had lived blocks apart! However, we felt that even if we had met earlier, the time was right for us now to be together. We took a longer road to marriage, but we enjoyed taking our time learning about each other and our life goals, which included becoming parents through adoption.
Our lives have been filled with exploring our community and meeting new people in our neighborhood. We enjoy meeting new and old friends at our local coffee shop. We also like taking advantage of the many parks, trails, and scenic areas that are close to us. If we are not outside, we are probably at home reading, cooking, or working on a house project.
Meet Cecilia
I would describe myself as a deliberate, thoughtful person. My voice is not the loudest one in the room, but I value meaningful conversations with friends and family. I like to think through decisions, and I care a lot about those around me feeling heard and appreciated. As a Chinese American woman growing up in New York City, it wasn’t always easy, but my experiences have allowed me to identify with different cultures, made me stronger, and challenged me to figure out what I stand for vs. what society thinks. I have always been surrounded by a lot of diversity. It helped me to be open-minded and always ask good questions!
I work for the federal government, and the challenge has been amazing! I get to be really analytical, which may sound boring, but it is what I enjoy most! I love that I get to make a small impact on the world in my own way.
Music and books are my escape. My parents gave me an appreciation for all kinds of music. I am happy listening to Miles Davis, Nina Simone, or Nirvana. Exercise gives me confidence and makes me mentally and physically stronger. My mom and I starting practicing yoga when I was 16. I have since added in strength and flexibility training, which helps me stay happy and healthy.
Although I am not a parent yet (our plants don’t count!), I already feel a lot of gratitude for this opportunity. I know that being a mom will be the most fulfilling and challenging experience in my life and I cannot wait to shower your baby with unconditional love!
Meet Nathan
If my friends and family had to describe me in a single word, they would probably say that I am passionate. I care deeply about my family, the arts, public service, and experiencing all the diversity that our planet has to offer. I hope that in the long run, I am able to leave the world at least a slightly better place than I found it.
I grew up in a south Florida home that was full of love. It is clear that my parents made my brother and I their top priority and made sacrifices so that we could have every opportunity possible. It would be my absolute honor and plan to pay it forward with your child — to teach them the meaning of service and thinking of others, giving them every opportunity to succeed, and supporting their needs and dreams.
As a kid, I loved performing arts and maps/traveling. I have amazing memories of summers spent at camp surrounded by people who looked, thought, and sounded different from me but were contributing to the world in their own unique way – I loved every second of it!
I would endlessly stare at maps as a child. I consider myself extremely lucky that my job allows me to live out those fantasies, traveling to some of the most remote places on Earth. But as Cecilia will tell you, I end up missing home just as much as I love traveling (I've been known to call her from far away places just to tell her how much I miss her!). I feel more than ever that I am ready to build a family with Cecilia and being a father to your baby would be my greatest honor.
Our Home
We live in a diverse community with couples and families of all different backgrounds. Diversity is important to us not only because we are a multiracial couple, but because we also want your child to experience that people exist in a variety of different identities, abilities, and appearances. We want to help your child embrace their own heritage and gain different perspectives about the world.
We are close to city activities but can still enjoy the quieter pace of suburban life. We like exploring our favorite museums, outdoor spots, and local events in the area. We have close access to trails and parks, and there is no shortage of birds, insects, and sometimes a groundhog along the way. Experiencing nature is a gift that we hope to share as parents.
We have really enjoyed turning our house into our home. There is nothing better than spending time on our balcony and relaxing on the roof deck when the weather is warm and the sun is shining. We are excited to continue to create memories in these spaces and share lots of stories, laughs, and conversations with your child.
Holidays & Traditions
One informal tradition we have is pizza night on Fridays. We either make or order pizza from one of our favorite local places. For us, pizza night is not only about savoring a great slice but also taking a moment to slow down, reflect on the week, and check in with ourselves and each other. Over the years, we have gotten pretty good at making dough and we can make our own sauce!
For us, holidays are a time to spend time with loved ones. We don't have a set holiday tradition but we take advantage of opportunities to see our families. Family bonding moments are everything! We expect your little one to guide our holiday plans in the future. We will cherish incorporating new holidays and cultural traditions into our lives to celebrate your child and their heritage. It is normal for us to celebrate more than one culture because that is who our family is and we want holidays to be about love and acceptance. We are not religious but Nathan identifies as Jewish so we celebrate some holidays with his family over meals. We foster the connection to his extended family and a sense of community during major holidays. We also honor Cecilia's Chinese heritage by making dumplings for lunar new year and moon cakes for the mid-autumn festival. In our home, food brings people together.
Our Loved Ones
We are both close to our families and friends and are lucky to have grown up in loving and supportive homes. Cecilia is a single child from a small family and has a tight-knit relationship with her parents. Her parents are beyond excited that we are growing our family through adoption!
Nathan’s younger brother and father are both in the medical field, focused on the care of newborn infants and young children. We feel blessed to have their expertise to answer our kid-related medical questions. Nathan’s parents are also incredibly excited that they will be welcoming their first grandchild! Nathan has a large extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who are thrilled that we are expanding our family. Our year is punctuated by various birthdays, holidays, and events, where we gather with some or all of our tribe.
We count our close friends and neighbors as family because we support each other in the same way as our relatives. We have a solid support system of friends with young kids, including other adoptive parents, who look forward to sharing advice and future playdates with us.
Travel and Adventure
We promise that your child will share adventures with us where we can share new experiences and create memories as a family. Travel has played an important part of our lives and our relationship. We visited, studied, or worked in 12 different countries before we met and traveled to another eight as a couple. While we expect to move slower and more deliberately with your child, we want to show them the world. We have enough frequent flyer miles to provide more than a few long distance trips!
Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about us and our dreams to become parents. Thank you for considering us and our home to make these dreams a reality. Thank you for hopefully entrusting us to care for and raise your child. Thank you for keeping yourself and your baby safe over these nine months. If given the opportunity, we will continue to love and cherish your child for the rest of our lives.
We hope to meet or speak with you someday and if not, we hope to stay in touch through letters and photo sharing. Whatever level of openness you prefer, we will always tell your child about the selflessness you showed to make your adoption plan.
With Love and Gratitude,
Cecilia and Nathan
