We are lucky enough to have known each other almost our entire lives. We met in first grade! Paul grew up right across the street for our elementary school and Gabby grew up one neighborhood over. Gabby's childhood best friend lived four houses down from Paul, which mean that we spent a lot of time playing outside right down the street from each other. Despite knowing each other for so long, we didn't become close friends until high school. Paul sat behind Gabby in fourth period Latin class, where he endlessly asked to copy her homework. We started dating the following summer and managed to stay together throughout high school and college in different states. We've been together for more than 15 years now. We got married in Virginia, surrounded by friends and family, about 4 years ago. We're excited to start the next chapter of our lives and become parents!

We both come from French families who immigrated to the US a few generations ago. Paul's family doesn't embrace a strong cultural heritage in everyday life. But Gabby's family has cultural roots in southern Louisiana, where most of her family still lives. The Cajun culture is important to her and he family.

We are very excited to bring a child with another cultural heritage into our family. Although we may not be able to personally identify with our baby's cultural heritage, we're excited to grow and learn about their cultural heritage with them.

While Gabby was in grad school, she studied cultural heritage and race relations. This means that she brings a unique perspective to building cultural bridges and educating others about the beauty of every cultural background. Armed with this knowledge, we're excited to continue educating ourselves and create a cultural heritage for our new family that beautifully combines the heritage we grew up with, with the heritage our children will bring into our family.

We both come from families rich with traditions. Gabby's family loves to play a round of putt-putt golf every time they go on vacation. Paul's family loves to watch A Christmas Carol every holiday season. We're excited to carry these traditions on with our kids, but we've also worked hard to create new traditions as a family. Gabby's favorite new family tradition is going to our favorite pumpkin patch in early fall to pick the biggest pumpkin we can possibly find, right off the vine. We spend the dat getting breakfast, picking up coffee, driving to the patch, finding the biggest (and often times ugliest) pumpkin in the patch, and bringing them home to set in the front yard and carve for Halloween.

Paul's favorite tradition is to go shopping for Christmas stocking stuffers! Every Christmas eve, we go to our favorite store, set a stop watch and a budget, and run around the store trying to get everything we can for the other person's stocking before the clock runs out! It becomes a fun race around the store to find all the best things for stockings on Christmas morning. When we get home, we stuff the stockings, watch a Christmas movie, and wait for Santa to come!

We both come from big extended families. Our child with be the first grandchild on both sides, and they will be spoiled with all the love (and toys) in the world. Paul's family is from Virginia. The entire extended family comes together for Thanksgiving at Paul's parents' house every other year. We cook turkey, ham, greens, and (Gabby's favorite) pea surprise! Their home has a large game room where everyone gathers after dinner for rounds of pool, loud music, and a hand of poker. The party goes to late in the night before the women head out for Black Friday shopping!

Gabby's family comes from all over, but her parents and sister also live in Virginia. Gabby's extended family gets together every year for a week-long vacation lovingly called "Brock Week," usually held at Gabby's parents vacation home in North Carolina. The week is spent dancing in the kitchen, taking the boat out on the water, cooking way too much food, and floating on rafts off the dock.

Despite our families being very different, they have one important thing in common, they will love our child with everything they have. We can't wait to bring our kids to Thanksgiving dinner, take them out on the boat, take them Black Friday shopping, and float our cares away every summer.

We live in a suburban neighborhood outside a small Nebraskan city. We moved to the area about 6 years ago so that Gabby could go to school. By the time school was done, we had fallen in love with the city and decided to make it our home.

We built our dream house in early 2021. Our neighborhood is a new development with many homes, sidewalk-lined streets, and the local elementary school right down the road. Many of our neighbors have young kids and they love to run around the neighborhood and play in the street.

When you enter our home, the main living space has an open kitchen, living room, and dining room. Up the stairs, you'll find four bedrooms and a loft that will make the perfect play room. Out the back door, there's a large patio and outdoor living space. Our back yard has a large fence with plenty of space to play. Our home was build to entertain our friends and fill with a growing family. We're excited to welcome our first little one home.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us! Your bravery amazes us, and we know that the child you’re carrying is going to carry that bravery with them wherever they go. We are truly honored to be considered as part of your brave, little one’s future. A profile like this must bring up as many new questions as it answers! We would love to answer any questions that you have as you’re considering adoption. Please don’t hesitate to reach out for more information or pictures.

In the meantime, we want to share a bit of our story. We are both from Richmond, VA. which means that we are lucky enough to have known each other for most of our lives. We met when starting elementary school and we’ve always just been in each other’s lives. Gabby’s first clear memory of Paul is of him racing bikes around the cul-de-sac outside her best friend’s house. Paul’s first clear memory of Gabby isn’t until much later, in a Latin class we took together in high school. During that class, we quickly became close friends and started dating that summer. Despite being young, and then going to college in different states, we’ve managed to stay best friends ever since. We’ve been together for 15 years now, and in that time, we’ve built a life together that we adore.

After finishing college, we moved away from our hometown for Gabby to earn a Ph.D. in public administration. We got married about two years later. Moving so far away from our support system at such an important time was hard but we learned so much. We learned that sometimes a late-night walk around Walmart clears the mind. We learned that we had to fully rely on each other no matter what. We learned that puppies make the world’s best companions. And we learned that family is more than just the people you’re related to, it’s the people you choose to bring into your life with open arms.

We’ve always dreamed of a big family sitting around the kitchen table for Sunday dinners. When we first started trying to have kids, we thought that dream would come easily. But when we realized that conceiving naturally wasn’t in the cards for us, that dream seemed out of reach. We found new hope when we began learning about adoption. In the years that we have been preparing for adoption, we’ve come to understand just how much stronger and more loving the family around that kitchen table can become through open adoption. We’re excited to send pictures, exchange letters and phone calls, and even plan trips with our child’s first family. We are excited to welcome new family with open arms and make the group sitting around the kitchen table even stronger for our future kids.

Gabby has since finished her doctorate degree and started a career as a researcher. She works remotely for a nonprofit based in DC. Although her job requires some travel, the position allows her to work from home so she can be present for morning school runs, nighttime stories, and everything in between. Paul is a project manager for a regional construction company. He occasionally travels around the area, but he works from home about half the time. When we’re both working from home, we love nothing more than eating lunch together and popping into each other’s offices to say hello.

Working from home just wouldn’t be the same without our two dogs. Patton, our 100 pound golden retriever, is absolutely convinced that he’s a lap dog. Juniper, our 50 pound mutt, loves with every anxious fiber of her being. They are so excited to have a little sibling to play with! There’s so much more to tell you, but we will stop here for now. Thank you again for taking the time to read our profile. We know we will never be able to understand what this time is like for you, but we want you to know how much it means to us that we were part of your story, if even for a second.

All our love,

Paul & Gabby