Our story begins on Valentine’s Day 2020 in the most romantic of locations… the hospital. We are both nurses, and were both on shift when we saw each other for the very first time. We immediately were drawn to one another for the compassion, knowledge, and strength it takes to be a nurse. We really bonded during the 2020-2021 pandemic because we were often the only person the other one could see. Fast forward to February of 2022, and we were both planning surprise proposals for the same night. The only one who knew was Skyler’s mom, who had to try to keep both a secret! We both said “yes,” and the following year we were married on the beach in Hawaii with some of our closest family and friends.

Fast forward a few trips around the sun, multiple vacations, and different jobs—we are now 6 years into knowing one another. We love date nights, trying new things, and learning new things about each other. We believe the greatest adventure is the one we share. We have so much to be grateful for and are so lucky to share our happiness in any way we can.

Our parenting style will be heavily influenced by our parents and grandparents. Our family instilled strong values of honesty, love, and compassion. They also recognized that people are not perfect and forgiveness is very important. In addition, we think there is huge value in being a good communicator with your child. Being able to teach or discipline without making a child feel bad about themselves is something we find very important.

As far as childcare goes, Skyler recently moved into a job that allows much more flexibility. It also has the benefit of 12 weeks of paid paternity leave that can be used throughout the first year after the child is born. Matty has changed jobs in the last year to have a more flexible schedule in anticipation of adopting too. Matty will also have 12 weeks of paternity leave, and will then be moving to a part-time schedule where he will only be working 2-3 days a week.

We are very close with our families and both of our families are BIG! Skyler’s mom and dad are like best friends to us. We typically see them multiple times per week. Between the two of us, we have 7 brothers and sisters, with 9 nieces and nephews—all who can’t wait to have a baby to snuggle with. We also have tons of cousins, aunts, and uncles who we see at family get-togethers throughout the year. We take every chance we get to spend time with them.

In addition, we have a lot of truly amazing friends who are basically family. We travel, spend holidays/birthdays together, work together, and some have even lived with us at times. Our friend group is also ethnically diverse, which teaches us many lessons and values we wouldn’t know from our own family.

The best part is, all of these people are so supportive and excited about our decision to adopt. Having such a large group of loving, caring people in our lives is something we feel incredibly blessed to have. We hope to have the chance to share this support system with a child someday.

We live in a cute, small town with lots of shops, restaurants, and parks. We love our neighborhood because it has tons of walking paths, a playground, and a pool. We are friends with our neighbors and truly love how supportive our community is. We built our cozy house a few years ago. It overlooks a small lake where we see all kinds of wildlife. We have a big fireplace that is usually on all winter long. We have a big, fenced in back yard where our doggos love to play and sunbathe. We are so excited about our family growing that we completely finished the nursery, including a star wall (and our niece put up the first star!) Overall, we love our little town and our little home. We think it is the perfect place to raise a little one.

From the time we started dating, it was important to us to be completely open and communicate with each other about anything and everything. After 6 years together, we still make time to check in with each other weekly: “how are you feeling,” “is there something we can do better,” or “are you getting what you need from me?” We ask these questions without judgment or fear because relationships take work and communication throughout their entirety. We don’t ever want to just be “ok.” We plan to use this same strategy with a future child and the birth family we will be lucky enough to welcome into our lives one day.

Empathy, kindness, and compassion do not cost anything! We try our best to live our lives with that in the back of our minds at all times. This is something we feel very passionate about in the world we live in today, and we hope we can pass this value on to a child.

Putting in work to get what you want out of life is so important to us.  Whether that is with school, a career, a trip you want to take, or that one special purchase that you’ve been wanting. Nothing in life comes for free, and putting in the hard work to achieve something teaches you more than just getting what you want; it teaches you the value of putting in the effort and how much stronger it can make you as a person to reach your achievement.

We love to make efforts to put a little good out in the world. We truly believe in leaving the world a better place than we found it, and we want to instill that value into a child someday.

• We love decorating for the holidays and keeping our house cozy! We probably keep our Christmas decorations up a bit too long, but with Matty being a Christmas baby, we find it suits us!
• Speaking of holidays, we typically spend every holiday with our family. Sometimes it’s multi-generational with 20-25 people, everyone bringing their favorite dishes. Other times it’s just a few of us, and we order pizza. The important thing is being together!
• We try to have dinner as a family at least once a week with Skyler’s parents, his brother and sister in-law, and our three nephews. We love being close with them and sharing our lives with each other! They can’t wait to have a new baby cousin!
• We’ve made it back to Hawaii every two years since we got married. We fell in love with it when we had our wedding ceremony/honeymoon there on the beach. We want to take a little one there one day so they can experience it and fall in love with the beauty of Hawaii like we did!
• We also want to pass on our love of winter sports one day to a little one. Skiing and skating have become things we just love to do. We can’t wait for a little one to someday come on these AMAZING trips with us, and share our love of them!

Matty came into my life at a time when I least expected it, and it changed my world in such a positive way. I was previously focusing on my career, and suddenly all I could think about was this kind and hard-working man who constantly made me laugh. We shared a lot of values, especially when it comes to empathy, family, and love. I had never encountered another man who had so much thoughtful concern and awareness for others. Early on, we had some very vulnerable and honest conversations about what the future might look like. This included being a safe haven and provider for our family, eventually being a father, and always being open to different perspectives. What really made me the biggest Papa Matty fan was how he interacted with our nieces and nephews. He just naturally jumped in, playing whatever made-up games they decided to play that day. What I saw with them (that I don’t think even Matty realized) was how he became the best version of himself when he played that role. He lights up with energy and the kids absolutely love it. I am so fortunate that I get to share this adventure called life with Matty and am so excited for our future.

Skyler came into my life at a time when I thought I was going to be content just being by myself, but in the true irony of life, I met the love of my life when I wasn’t even looking for someone. His good looks were what I first noticed, but then we started talking regularly… and I realized quickly that this was much more than a simple crush. He was kind, gentle, incredibly smart, charismatic, uniquely giving of himself and his time, funny, and generous without ever asking for anything in return. I have never met anyone like him in my life, and from the second I realized that, I knew I had found my forever. I know Skyler is going to be a fantastic daddy one day. The way he interacts with and treats his nephews is really something special. Those boys think he walks on water and is the best “funcle” ever. He is always willing to play chase, games, toys, cards, hide and seek, and video games whenever they want. He is also not afraid to teach them if they misbehave, but always with patience and kindness. When Skyler gets to do those things with them, he completely lights up and the happiness just radiates off of him. I know one day he will light up like that for our child.

We are so incredibly grateful and humbled to be considered as adoptive parents. We knew from the time we started dating that having kids was something we both desired, and we couldn’t do this without you. We can’t thank you enough for considering us to take on this massive responsibility; it truly means so much to even be considered by you. We promise to be open, honest, loving, and just to be ourselves to you and the precious life you are willing to share with us.