Amber’s parents and four siblings (two brothers and two sisters) live in Connecticut and Rhode Island, about two hours away from our house. We are close with them and make sure we video chat with them weekly. Amber has two nephews and two nieces whom we see monthly. Either we drive to visit them or they come to see us, sometimes for a day trip or a long weekend. Amber’s brother-in-law was born in Jamaica and moved to the states when he was young. The relationship between Amber’s sister and brother-in-law has been a firsthand experience for how to raise biracial children in a transracial family. It also provides Bryce with a positive exposure to other cultures and nationalities. Dean’s parents and two brothers are about a 20-minute drive away from our house. He has two nephews with whom Bryce enjoys playing basketball, football, and Hot Wheels racecars with. We’re able to spend time with his family several times a month. We’re able to swim in Dean’s parents’ pool in the summer months, play in the backyard, and pick vegetables from their garden. He also has family members in New Hampshire and Florida whom we visit a few times a year. Both families are very supportive of our parenting journey and our plans for adoption. Everyone is excited to expand the family and share their love. 

We make sure to start and end each day with a hug. We love spending time together outside; whether we’re hiking, spending time at a lake or beach, or riding bikes in the neighborhood. We enjoying picking fruit during summer and fall and roasting marshmallows for s’mores. We love picking oranges and grapefruits in FL, cherries and blueberries in CT, and apples in NY.Dean’s passion for running has influenced Bryce to run in his first (of many) kids’ fun races. Dean has a cousin who works for Disney World in Florida, so we’ve been able to give Bryce the magical Disney experience of the Disney theme parks. So far, he’s met Goofy, Chewbacca, Spider-Man, and Daisy Duck! We make a lot of great memories at the beaches of Rhode Island, Maine, and Florida; where we have fun building sand castles, burying our bodies to form mermaid tails, and search for seashells and marine life. During the winter months, we snowbird to Florida for weeks at a time where we swim, go to Disney parks, explore botanical gardens, and visit family members.We love looking back at the year’s worth of photos to relive the adventures we took, as well as build a bucket list for the upcoming year.

Dean is a loving, supportive dad and is a role model for Bryce every day. He encourages Bryce when he’s learning a new skill, such as climbing a rock wall or putting together a puzzle. Some things Dean loves to do with Bryce are to give airplane rides through the house, sing along and dance to children’s songs, teach him how to play sports, make fruit smoothies together, and snuggle up to read a book. Being an engineer, Dean teaches Bryce problem-solving skills, fun math games, and demonstrates a growth mindset during play for Bryce to learn from. Dean is always learning new things by listening to informative podcasts, reading, and researching topics. He’s always trying to think about things differently from other people’s perspectives, and challenge people’s biases. He’s a great listener and enjoys letting others lead the conversation. I’d describe Dean’s love language as time and service, because he believes in spending time with others and helping in any way he can, whether that be a house project or sharing a book recommendation. Dean is a present father while also working full-time to support our family. He brings laughter and joy to our home. I’m so lucky to parent alongside Dean. Some of Dean’s Favorites:• Comedy movies like Step Brothers and Anchorman • Doing jigsaw puzzles and puzzle games like Sudoku • Disney movies…I’m a sucker for Encanto, Coco, and Moana • Running marathons…I’ve currently completed 9 marathons • The sun and warm weather, summer is my favorite season • Singing around the house, even though I have a terrible singing voice

Like many of the other stories you may read, our journey to parenthood has been filled with challenges. We tried to conceive naturally but were unsuccessful, so we decided to do fertility treatments to get pregnant. After lots of trying and two years of treatments, we were finally blessed with the birth of our son, Bryce. Unfortunately, during Bryce’s birth, he contracted an infection which forced him to spend the first ten days of his life in the NICU. Those ten days were very challenging for our family. Fortunately, he fully recovered and we were so grateful to all go home together as a family.

We always knew we wanted multiple children, so when we began trying to conceive another child, we expected to go through many long rounds of fertility treatments like we did with Bryce. Instead, we were overcome with joy when we miraculously got pregnant naturally. After a normal pregnancy, Amber gave birth to our incredible daughter, Daisy. However, unexpectedly during the delivery, there were complications and Daisy suffered a severe brain injury called HIE. She was transported to the same NICU where Bryce had been years earlier. We were able to spend every day with Daisy, splitting our time with Bryce at home and Daisy in the hospital. During our time with Daisy, Amber read her books, sang songs, showed her pictures of our family, and learned the complicated medical care Daisy required. Dean talked softly to Daisy reminding her how loved and strong she was, and learned to massage her delicate muscles. During Bryce’s visits, he would stroke her head, hold her hand, and ask when she could come home. Daisy passed away from complications of the brain injury at six weeks old. Although Daisy is no longer physically with us, she is weaved into our lives in countless ways. Bryce will tell you that Daisy is in our hearts, the sky, the breeze, and the colorful flowers.

Our fertility struggles, difficult deliveries, NICU experiences, and loss of Daisy have led us to decide not to have more biological children. However, as difficult as these experiences have been for us, we are stronger partners and more inspired parents because of the hardships we have been through. We continue to have the desire to grow our family and so we have entered our adoption journey. We are excited to see our family grow and have much more love to give.

Amber is the oldest of five children, and she served as a motherly role to help raise her four siblings. As she grew up, her drive to raise and nurture others led her to education. After getting her master’s in teaching, she joined Teach for America and taught in an urban school in Mississippi. She went on to be a founding teacher for a school in RI, and after that, was offered a job to teach at a highly sought-after upper-class school in NY. She turned it down because she didn’t feel she could make the biggest impact in a school of privileged kids with wealthy parents. Instead, she started teaching at an inner-city school in NY and loved it. After teaching for many years, she shifted all her energy from being a teacher to being a parent. We had many discussions about how we wanted to raise our children. Ultimately, we decided to make personal sacrifices so that Amber could take time away from her career to stay home with our children, and I would get a job that allowed me to work remotely so that we could spend as much time together as a family as we could. With all that being said, the most important thing to Amber is being a mother and caring for others. She is a mother down to her core, even before she was an actual mother. She’s patient, caring, protective, and provides unconditional love to myself and Bryce. I have no doubt that she will show that same unconditional love to our future child. I am incredibly lucky to have her as my partner and the mother of my children, and I am proud of who she has become.Amber’s Favorites:• Baking (favorites are zucchini brownies and sweet potato chocolate chip cookies) • Cooking (favorites are peanut rice noodle stir fry and three bean cocoa chili) • Dumbbell workouts or runs through our neighborhood with Bryce in the jogger stroller • Reading memoirs or fiction books. I read around 40 books a year! • Yardwork during every season of the year; planting our vegetable garden, mowing, raking leaves, or shoveling snow • Sitting on the beach at the ocean and listening to the waves.

Bryce is imaginative, active, talkative, and gives the best hugs. He loves to give mommy and daddy sandwich hugs throughout the day. He has tons of love for our family members, always asking to visit them and do “x number of sleeps” at their house, aka sleepovers that he tracks on his wall calendar. We are raising him to be generous and kind. We make regular donations of clothing and toys to our community with Bryce helping decide which items to donate. We cook meals and bake cookies to share with neighbors. We also put piece’s of Bryce’s artwork in friends’ mailboxes. For each of our family members, Bryce loves to make homemade birthday cards and mail them to their houses. Bryce asks to have a baby at home; to chase around, read books with, and teach cool tricks like a summersault. As we’re writing this, Bryce is 4 years old. Some things Bryce says are his favorites:-Riding my balance bike-Playing basketball-Swinging (we’re not sure if he means swinging on swings or swinging a baseball bat, but he likes both)-Listening to books read to me-Baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies-Vehicles like garbage trucks, construction vehicles, and racecars-Playing games like UNO and Go Fish

We live in a quiet neighborhood at the end of a road; with woods as our backyard view. Our house is filled with books, plants, and family photos. One of the walls in our kitchen is covered with Bryce’s artwork. We have an open floor concept with our kitchen/dining/living area as one big room where most of our time is spent as a family. We built a sunroom and a deck off the back of our houses where we have more natural light and additional space to sit and watch animals in our backyard, or eat meals. We have a fireplace on the first floor of our raised-ranch house where we burn firewood during the winter months and curl up on the cozy couch together, playing games or reading books. We’ve lived in our neighborhood for six years and have the best neighbors! We live in a suburban area with many houses of neighborhood friends close by. Bryce and our future child will have a range of peers to play with; from all different backgrounds. Bryce plays with friends in the neighborhood that are from Nepal, Ghana, India, and Virginia USA. We have a large group supporting us, not only our family but our neighborhood community as well. We are walking distance to the local elementary school which has a very large playground. We regularly walk or ride bikes to play with neighborhood friends there. We are about an eight minute drive to the local library which has a large park and playground next to it.

We gather for family dinner every night. Amber is the chef of the house with Bryce as sous chef. During dinner, we talk about our days and what we had fun doing. We typically order takeout once a week with friends or family and a fun meal. We love eating meals outside on our back deck, where we watch deer, birds, or trees swaying. On weekends, we spend as much tine outside as we can; whether it be going to a playground, hiking, or playing in the yard. During spring and summer, we enjoy tending to our vegetable garden or running through our sprinkler. In the fall, we love raking leaves and jumping into the piles, carving pumpkins, or stacking wood for our fireplace. On rainy days, we jump in muddy puddles, watch for lightning, or hand out inside watching a movie or playing board games. One snowy days, we build snowmen, have snowball fights, and watch Bryce drive Amber’s childhood snowmobile.We alternate spending Thanksgiving and Easter with each side of our families. For Christmas, we spend with both sides of our families. We spend Christmas Eve just us at home; cooking a meal to Christmas music and watching our favorite Christmas movies. We always wake up in our home on Christmas morning, so Bryce has the excitement of being home to begin the day. As our family grows, we hope to build many new fun traditions to share with our children and pass down for future generations.