We have many things we enjoy doing together, but we each have our own hobbies and interests also! Together we love to explore new coffee shops, go for walks with our dog, vacation, ski and snowboard, go camping, and work on house projects.

One of Greg's passions is fitness and nutrition. He strives to lead a healthy lifestyle and genuinely enjoys going to the gym every day. He also enjoys restoring classic cars. He has a 1974 Nova that he is always tinkering with. He also enjoys restoring and selling cars with a friend of his. He looks forward to passing down his knowledge about cars to his children.

Amanda is passionate about wellness and non-toxic living. She has a side business creating and selling non-toxic cleaning, household, and beauty products. She is passionate about health and how different foods and chemicals interact with the body. She is also an avid reader and looks forward to reading to her children and passing her love for books on to them.

We have quite a few family traditions that are dear to us, some old and some new. Both of our mothers come from large families, and each of those families have their own traditions. Greg's grandparents live nearby, and his family often congregates at their house for birthdays, dinners, and any celebrations. When all of the cousins are together there are lots of children running around, and it is always a good time.

Amanda's grandparents live a few hours away, but her family always congregates near them for Thanksgiving. She also has a big family, so it is always a fun time filled with lots of food, games, and playing with her cousin's children.

We have our own traditions as a couple too! We love trying new coffee shops. Greg loves coffee and Amanda loves tea, so every Friday after we go to the gym we go on a "coffee date." We also make homemade sourdough pizza for dinner every Friday night. Every Sunday we get together with our Bible study group, and that is always an encouraging time.

Due to our work schedule we usually take vacations around the same time every year. We take a big vacation every winter break, and we go camping on the beach every Fall! We also love to take a ski trip every winter.

Addressing culture diversity was one of the topics foremost on our minds when we decided to adopt. We knew that we were open to adopting a child from any race, ethnicity, or culture, and we wanted to be mindful of how cultural differences may affect our child.

It is very important to us that we help our child connect with his or her culture and that they feel a sense of belonging within that community. One way that we plan to do this is by making sure that they have role models in their life that share their cultural background. We are blessed to belong to a community that is very diverse. We have a large client base at our martial arts studio, and because of that we are able to connect with families and children from all different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Our child will grow up in this environment, and we believe that will help promote feelings of security and belonging.

We will make it a priority to familiarize ourselves with all aspects of our child's culture. Whether we need to learn a new language, take a trip to a new country, and learn to cook some new foods, we are committed to making our child's culture a part of our daily lives.

We live in Southern California and absolutely love our city. It's the perfect location, only an hour from the mountains, beach or desert. Our city is known for its orange groves and there are orange trees everywhere you go. Our city is renowned for its school districts and all of the schools are less than a mile from our home. There are also so many beautiful parks near our home. There is a park a block away that we walk to often. Our favorite park has walking trails that overlook the orange groves. You get the best view of the mountains and we love taking lunch there and having a picnic. We are also less than an hour from Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo, and several other theme parks!

Our neighborhood is safe and quiet. There are quite a few young families on our street. Our next door neighbors have young children, and there is a group of kids that play together down the street. It's so fun seeing all of the children out riding bikes and playing basketball together.

Our home is a three bedroom home with two bathrooms. We have a living room and a family room that we love spending time in. The family room is our favorite room in our house. It has windows all around it that overlook the backyard so it is really bright and cozy. Since buying our home we have worked hard to make it feel homey. We love spending time there.

We are so lucky to have our family very close to us. Greg's parents and three siblings all live within 20 minutes, with the exception of his sister who lives about an hour away. We are very close to them and see most of them at least once a week. Amanda's parents both live about an hour away. We are very close to her mom and see her every weekend. Amanda's only sibling, her brother, lives four hours away with his wife and their daughter, and we see them once a month on average.

Greg's family loves to play games, so that is something that we really enjoy doing together. We play board games and card games, as well as Spikeball and cornhole. Greg's mom comes from a big family, and we like to get all the cousins together often at his grandparents' home for dinner.

Amanda's family loves to celebrate anything and everything. A tradition that is important to them is going all out for birthday's. Whenever it is somebody's birthday we all go out to dinner and gather at Amanda's mom's house for dessert. Amanda's mom also comes from a large family, and they all love to gather for big family Thanksgivings.

All of our family is so supportive and excited about us adopting. They all know how badly we want to be parents, and they cannot wait to see that dream become a reality for us!

Hello,

We want to thank you for taking time to get to know us and our story. We appreciate you for considering adoption and we cannot fathom the strength and courage that a decision like this takes. Please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers and we hope that you can find peace during this time.

We have known each other our entire lives. We have been friends since we were children, and that friendship continued into our teens and twenties. We were there for each other through some hard times, and that friendship continued to deepen. Eventually we realized what everyone else already had: that we would be great together! We started dating and immediately knew that we were meant to be. We fell in love quickly and got married 10 months later! We just celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary and can genuinely say that we are more in love now than we were four years ago.

We are the proud owners of an adorable one year old Goldendoodle puppy and a bunny. They are so much fun, and they bring laughter and joy to our lives every day! Some of our favorite conversations happen during walks with our puppy, and its such a fun way to spend time together.

One of Greg's passions is martial arts, and he is blessed enough to have been able to make that his career! He started martial arts at age 12 and is now a fifth degree black belt. He taught martial arts for many years, and opened his own studio five years ago. Greg is very patient, and he has a way of connecting with all of his students that is amazing to witness. He is so much fun, and he brings that energy into every class he teaches. Amanda started taking classes when we got married and she is working on her black belt as well. Amanda was a preschool teacher for eight years prior to getting married. She is exceptionally caring and has a way of connecting with kids and helping them learn that is incredible. Teaching is a passion of hers, and she now uses her skills to help out at the studio. We both love working with children, and building relationships with our students and their families brings us so much joy.

Greg is very passionate about health and fitness. He loves working out and strives to be as healthy as possible. He loves sports, especially volleyball, baseball, and snowboarding. Greg has always looked forward to playing sports with his children. He also loves working on cars. He has an old Nova that he enjoys working on, and has recently helped restore several other older vehicles. He has learned how to do all the maintenance on our cars, and looks forward to passing on his knowledge to our children.

Amanda loves being outdoors and working in her garden. She has recently started planting vegetables and herbs, along with a few citrus trees, and uses her produce in a lot of her home cooked dishes. She enjoys baking, and makes homemade sourdough bread every week. Over the last few years she has become passionate about health and wellness and living a clean/non-toxic lifestyle. She started a business selling clean and non-toxic household and beauty products at pop-up markets around town. Amanda is also an avid reader and looks forward to sharing some of her favorite books with her children.

If you choose us to parent your child, we hope that you will be a part of our family's story. We will be open and honest with our child and share with them their adoption story. We understand that life is constantly changing and that communication may change based on life events. We are open to it all, whether it be phone calls, emails, or letters and pictures.

We understand the courage it takes to consider this decision and we admire your strength. Thank you for considering us to be parents to your child. We are so excited for this next chapter of our lives! We hope you have a safe and healthy pregnancy and are sending you our love and prayers.

Greg & Amanda