Something that makes us unique is that we are both professional musicians and music educators. Music plays a huge role in our relationship, careers, and daily routines, and fills our lives with so much beauty and joy. Ross is a classical guitarist and Megan plays the oboe. When we were younger, we got to travel and perform all over the world. Now we both focus on teaching music at a community music school in our city so that we can share the gift of music with a new generation. We see how much music enriches the lives of our students and we are looking forward to making music with our own child.

Something that helps us connect with each other are the hobbies that we have in common. We both love taking long walks around our neighborhood, doing puzzles, playing board games, reading, cooking, and gardening. We love learning and these hobbies involve challenging our minds and exploring new things. Our shared hobbies also allow us to let go of what happens during our workdays, unplug, and spend meaningful time together.

Some other hobbies allow us to pursue our individual interests–Ross likes video games and swimming, while Megan enjoys yoga and learning languages. It’s fun to learn from each other when our interests differ, and we cannot wait to one day see our future child grow up and share their own unique interests with us as well.

Our lives have been enriched by the cultural diversity of our family, neighborhood, and workplace. We are an interfaith couple, meaning that we have many beautiful holiday traditions to celebrate–Christmas with Ross’s family, Hanukkah and Passover with Megan’s, and Thanksgiving with both. As we’ve settled into our home and careers, we’ve been drawn to the beauty and strength of diverse multi-racial and multicultural communities. Our neighborhood is considered to be one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the world, representing heritages from over 80 countries. We also both work for a tuition-free music school that is racially, economically, and culturally diverse. We feel fortunate to have neighbors, colleagues, and students from such a wide variety of backgrounds– it allows us to constantly learn about and try new foods, music, and languages. We cannot wait to celebrate the diversity of our community with our future child, and to learn and share the cultural background of their birth family.

We live in a residential neighborhood at the edge of a large city. We chose our neighborhood because it is very friendly, and we love that it is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the world!

We know our neighborhood will be a great place to raise a child. Two parks with playgrounds are within a block from our home. We also live close to a sandy lakeside beach, which we walk to almost every day in the summer. There are a lot of families with young children nearby and an excellent local public elementary school.

Because we live in a city, there are so many things for kids to explore--museums, sports teams, art classes, dance concerts, and more. As music teachers, we excited to bring our future child to kid-friendly music concerts, especially outdoor concerts in the summer.

We live in a single-family home, which we purchased so that when we have a child, they will have plenty of space to play. We love spending time in our backyard gardening, grilling, and entertaining. During BBQs and get-togethers, we have had a ton of fun playing with our friends and their children in the backyard. In the winter, we cuddle up in the living room, play games, and watch movies. The layout of our house is perfect for having kids and we cannot wait to bring a child home one day.

We met and started dating when we were freshmen in college, so we’ve been able to experience our families changing and growing together over time.

We visit Ross’s parents for Christmas every year. Christmas time is filled with many fun family traditions, like decorating gingerbread cookies, reading Christmas stories together on Christmas Eve, and opening presents on Christmas morning. We also love traveling to Maine with Ross’s family every summer. While we are there, we are able to unplug (no TV or internet!), relax, and eat lots of seafood and blueberries!

Megan’s family often connects over their love of animals. Megan’s sister, Hannah, runs a pet-sitting business and her other sister, Carrie, is a veterinarian.

Megan is very close to her mom, Sue, and talks to her every day. Although Sue lives in another state, she loves to travel and visits frequently. Sue is very energetic and loves to try new things, and we both love exploring Chicago with her.

We both have cousins who were adopted and other cousins who have recently adopted children. Our family is inter-religious and multi-racial, and we love to celebrate our diversity with yearly traditions like "Christmukkah," a party with both our families that takes place around Christmas and Hanukkah.

All of our relatives cannot wait to welcome another child into our loving family.

Each morning as we look outside our living room window, we see a neighborhood filled with toddlers being led on their daily parade from the local preschool, school children playing in the park across the street, and parents taking their youngest ones on a stroll around the block. We’ve been wanting to have a child for a long time and we can’t wait to share and introduce this beautiful world to our child. Looking out at all the happy families and children is a great way to start the day. It’s a great reminder of an exciting future, and it brings a smile to our faces. Right now, the only thing missing from the picture is us. Our family joining in.

We are tremendously grateful and in awe of your decision to consider an adoption plan, and we hope that you will take a moment to also think of us as future parents. We’re excited to share our wonderful home, family, neighborhood, and love with a child. Without you, our future family could not exist, so we want to express our incredible respect for your compassion and your consideration.

Our adoption journey properly started a few years ago when we discovered that we probably won’t be able to conceive. But adoption has always been on our minds and it has been part of our family lives for as long as we can remember. Many of our friends growing up were adoptees, and Ross’s cousin was adopted into the family as a baby. Megan’s cousins have more recently adopted two wonderful children into the family. When we consulted with the officiant for our wedding (Megan’s uncle, a former clergyman) he asked us about having children. We mentioned adoption as one of the many ways we would like to have children, and we are thrilled that it will be a reality soon!

We promise to offer a stable and loving home life. We met in music school in 2002 when we were teenagers. We began dating shortly after that and we got married in 2011. Our life as partners and best friends has been incredibly blessed. We both achieved our dreams of becoming professional musicians. We play music together regularly. We attend our students’ recitals together, and we look forward to sharing recitals and concerts with a child of our own.

In our twenties, we began our music careers and we travelled the world together and with our families. We’ve enjoyed meeting koalas in Australia, sipping coffee in Vienna, encountering great snowy owls in Sweden, and many more adventures-- often while touring with an orchestra, playing impromptu concerts, and attending various music festivals. We cannot wait to share some of this amazing part of our lives with our child.

At this point, we have settled into secure teaching jobs and purchased a home. Our travelling days aren’t totally behind us, but we are very happy and have no plans to make any changes. We love our students, we love our home, and we love the stability that this life offers. This is the life we want to share. As musicians who work with children, our lives are still full of creativity, spontaneity, and surprise. And, of course, traveling on the occasional family vacation is something we’ll always plan for and cherish.

When our child arrives, we promise to give all the love and happiness our family has to offer. We promise to keep track of milestones and day-to-day life with photographs, videos, journals, and scrapbooks. We promise to send letters and pictures and video so you, too, can share in our happy and healthy family. We are also interested in an open adoption that could include phone calls, emails, and occasional visits.

Thank you for considering us as adoptive parents.

With respect, love, and gratitude,

Ross & Megan