We adopted our son Beckett in January of 2023, and he brings so much joy to our lives! He is so curious, silly, creative, and caring, and we love seeing the world through his eyes. He is incredibly social and loves playing cars with his friends and cousins. It has been especially exciting to see how he interacts with younger children; he loves showing off what he knows, sharing toys, and teaching younger kids how to do what he can do. We know he is going to make an amazing big brother someday! Hopefully our children will also be able to help one another navigate their adoption stories and life in general as they grow up together. We feel much more prepared to enter this second round of parenting, as Beckett has taught us so much about the importance of having patience, working together as a team, and communicating with one another! (We are also pros at diapers now!) As parents we try to be warm, supportive, and responsive, while also setting clear expectations and boundaries in a calm and loving way.

Our son is Hispanic, and we have made it a priority to honor his cultural heritage. Chelsea speaks intermediate Spanish, and she enjoys reading Spanish stories and using everyday Spanish phrases with Beckett throughout the day. We also enjoy listening to bilingual children's Spanish/English podcasts in the car and reading books that highlight Latino characters. Educationally, we chose a daycare and future elementary school that offers Spanish language immersion and which has a high population of Hispanic students and teachers. We live in Tucson, where Hispanic culture is celebrated and our son is able to be surrounded by Latino role models in his everyday life (friends, teachers, nurses etc.). One of our favorite yearly events is a cultural festival downtown that features food and music from over 60 cultures, and we look forward to sharing this tradition with a future child as well. We are well aware that non-white individuals are not always treated fairly simply because of the color of their skin in this country, and we will discuss these inequities with our children as they grow, and help them navigate any injustice. Sabemos lo importante que es honrar la herencia cultural de nuestros hijos, y asumimos esta responsabilidad con mucho respeto, cariño y seriedad.

We live in a diverse, family-friendly neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona. Our weekends are full of fun activities together around town including visiting fairy and dragon story times, riding the carousel at the zoo, racing cars down slides at our favorite indoor play space, and beating the AZ heat at the local splash pads and pools. We also love cheering for sports teams (because our son loves sports and we think it is important to value kids' interests), and exploring science at the two children's museums in town. The daycare that our son attends is at a community center within walking distance from our home. It has an indoor play space, multiple pools, a splash pad, a basketball court, and several playgrounds.

Since becoming parents our home has become a million times more chaotic, but a trillion times more FUN! On our dining room table you might find kinetic sand, stickers, and play-doh for craft time, and it's not unusual for our living room floor to be covered in cars, fort cushions, and Magnatiles ready for imaginative play. Our long driveway is the perfect place for chalk and obstacle courses. We have a loft space upstairs that we use as another play area, complete with ball pit and slide (and Ryan's home office--he's learned to share!), and we have an extra bedroom that we are excited to decorate and convert into another nursery!

Our families are adventurous, silly, and great with kids! Ryan's parents ("Grammy" and "Grampy") and siblings live in a nearby city, so we are able to hang out and celebrate birthdays and holidays together. His sister has two daughters (and another on the way!), and Beckett has a blast playing with his cousins. They love dressing up, having tea parties, and racing around the kitchen island together. Near Grammy and Grampy's house there is an animal sanctuary, and they love taking the kids to feed the goats, pigs, and donkeys. We have enjoyed organizing cousin play dates to the splash pad, dinosaur museum, and arcade.

Chelsea's parents and brother live in Michigan, but they visit us in Tucson several times a year and we visit them a lot too! As we both work in education, we have a lot of time during the summers and school breaks to see them. Chelsea's mom ("Nanny") loves baking with Beckett, taking him to the zoo, and organizing arts and crafts projects. Chelsea's dad ("Bubba") loves sharing salty snacks with Beckett during sports games.

Our families are so excited to potentially welcome another child to the family, and they have been very supportive of our adoption journey.

Hi there, and welcome,

While we cannot assume what you are thinking or feeling, we imagine that you are trying to make a very heartfelt but difficult choice for your baby and we respect you for that. We tried to present ourselves honestly in this profile so that you can get to know us, but ultimately we want you to choose what is right for you and your child. We know that adoption involves so many different emotions, and we hope that as you navigate those, you also find some peace.

We met in 2013 as teachers at the same high school, and we connected right away with our senses of humor, love of learning, and interest in exploring restaurants, plays, and events in Tucson together. We took our time becoming best friends, falling in love, establishing our careers, and getting married. We always knew kids were in the future, but by the time we felt we were financially and emotionally ready to become parents, we discovered that the universe had a curve ball for us. Chelsea was diagnosed with several hormonal disorders which prevented her from becoming pregnant. That was a shock, and we took the time to process what it meant and what our future might look like. Adoption was something that had been on our minds for a long time though, and we both knew that pregnancy and having biological kids wasn't what mattered most to us: being parents and helping navigate children through the ups and downs of their lives was what mattered most.

We adopted our first child, Beckett, in 2023 and we felt incredibly humbled, overwhelmed, and grateful to his birth mother. The amount of gratitude and love we still feel towards her to this day can never be fully described. We soaked up the newborn snuggles cheered for each milestone, and laughed as he began to show off his silly side. We also cleaned up diarrhea, survived the plague of daycare germs, and learned how to keep our cool during toddler tantrums. It's been a huge learning curve, and we would be lying if we said every moment has been easy. It's undoubtedly the most challenging thing either of us has ever done. But it has been worth it! Seeing our son's personality emerge, watching him learn new skills, hearing him ask questions and develop his own unique sense of humor...it's been the most amazing adventure of our lives! We know that our son is going to be a great role model, play-mate, and hopefully life-long confidante and friend to our future child, and we know whole-heartedly that we have more unconditional love in our hearts and our home for a second child. We promise to support our second child as they develop their own personality, and to give them lots of opportunities to explore the world and their own personal interests and passions. They will be so loved!

If you choose us with the incredible opportunity and responsibility of raising this child, we look forward to getting to know you and your story too. What are your hobbies, goals in life, and hopes for this child? We value openness in adoption and promise you that no matter what level of contact you are comfortable with, this child will know who you are and will be told by us how much you love them. We would be happy to share photos with you and keep you up to date about how they are growing up through emails, texts, calls, and visits. If open communication is something you would like, we hope that you would also extend kindness to our first son. Ultimately, we will respect your boundaries when it comes to communication as we navigate this new journey together.

Wishing you comfort,

Ryan & Chelsea