Our families have very similar traditions, especially around Easter and Christmas. We both have great memories of celebrating both holidays by gathering the whole family, going to church, and sitting down to a home cooked meal with too much food. There's always lots of excitement at Christmas, spending time together and passing around gifts. Elle's family made gingerbread houses every year on Thanksgiving weekend for many years.

At Easter, when Elle was young, her family would spend a day dyeing Easter eggs and then went to her paternal grandparents' home where they let the kids take turns hitting a pinata full of candy. We continued this tradition of dyeing eggs every year and now host an Easter Egg hunt for Zeke and his cousins.

Both families celebrated birthdays with special meals chosen by the birthday boy or girl, and Connor's family has continued this tradition into adulthood. Our families also tried to get away each summer for vacations, often to go camping with other families. We continue to go island camping and bring our dogs too. We started a new tradition of spending some time each summer in the Florida Keys to fish and relax.

We live in a warm climate and spend a lot of time outdoors after dinner and on weekends. We both enjoy spending time on our boat, going for rides and fishing. We also enjoy island camping and we bring our dogs with us whenever possible. At home we enjoy splashing around in the pool and hanging out with friends. Zeke takes swim lessons and loves anything water related.

Elle loves to read and looks forward to sharing that activity with a child. Elle dabbles in a mix of baking, cooking, sewing, and crafting trying out new things. More recently she is building out her indoor plant collection. Elle participates in a monthly game night with some girl friends.

Connor loves to fish and is looking forward to sharing that passion with a child. Connor and Zeke take the paddle board out frequently to check crab traps. Connor is a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and attends class multiple times a week. Elle enjoys casual kickboxing classes, yoga, and going on walks. We are both athletic and like to keep active.

We met at a bar - at least according to Connor. Truth is, we met on Match.com. Elle’s profile mentioned sewing as a hobby and Connor messaged a hello and that his mom had sewn her own wedding dress. He got a message back for actually reading what Elle wrote instead of a "hey girl how r u still single" and sharing a super cool story. We met at a local brewery to make sure the other person wasn't crazy. It was instant chemistry. We talked for about 3 hours straight that first night.

Skip ahead several dates and it was time to Meet The Parents. We joined his parents and his aunt and uncle who were down visiting for dinner out. All is going well until his aunt asks Elle how we met. Elle says “we met online” and the rest of the table goes dead silent mid conversation. Turns out Connor had told his parents he had met Elle at a bar. Technically true; just not the full story. He got a dirty look from Elle for not giving them the full story, then we laughed and the awkwardness disappeared. Mr. Baird informed Elle he was supposed to be on his best behavior per Connor's request. So that night there was much less teasing than Elle would expect now. Overall it was a great introduction to his awesome family. 

We see a lot of our families and spend time with many friends. With Elle's family, we love to make homemade dinners, egg rolls being one of our favorites, play card games, and gather for DIY projects. With Connor's family, we love to get together for homemade dinners too, or go out for the afternoon on our boat. We enjoy all the people in our lives and are looking forward to including another child in our activities.

Connor's immediate family all live within a 30 minute drive. It's nice to have the support of family close by and we are always happy to help them out too. Connor's mom "Omi" watches our son Zeke 3 days a week for us. His cousins are often there with Zeke. Elle's immediate family lives a few hours away in Florida as well. We make the effort to visit back and forth as often as we can, mostly for holidays and birthdays. A child in our family will see their grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins often.

Our families are very excited that we have chosen to adopt a child soon, especially our siblings that have children themselves and are excited for the day we add another child to our family. We both came from families that are generous with their time and love, and pursuing an adoption was a natural choice for us. Our families support us and will love this child unconditionally.

We live on the gulf side of Florida, a few miles from the beach, in a small suburban family neighborhood. Our house is in a cul-de-sac with minimal traffic. Our favorite part of our home is the backyard. We live on just shy of an acre with a pool, custom swing set built by Elle's dad, and creek access. While bummed to lose several trees to Hurricane Helene, it did create room for Connor to build a boat ramp to launch our skiff and paddle boards right from the backyard.

Our house is an open floorplan great for hosting. We love having our friends and family over. Everyone gathers in the kitchen featuring a topographical map mural Elle painted. On the far side of the house are 3 bedrooms (master, Zeke's room, and future nursery). Elle and Connor each have an office as we both work from home.

We are in biking distance from an amazing park with a playground, walking paths, and pond. There are several other parks, including splash pads to stay cool, nearby along with the beach. We love this area of Florida and plan to stay here.

We have known since we started dating ten years ago that this day would come, that we would be asking a woman or set of parents, if we could have their blessing to raise their child. Medical issues prevent us from having a child born naturally, but we have held out hope for a child of our hearts. We believe in God and his plan for us to raise a family, and that he would place us where we are needed.

We were married six years ago, adopted our son Zeke four years ago, and are ready to share ourselves and our love with a child again. We have had beautiful examples of good marriages with both sets of our parents. Our marriage is a great balance of what we each can bring to our family, and we will pass that on to your child. Elle is the calm and organized one. She's definitely the planner of the two. She's pretty reserved and relaxed. Her ideal night is hanging out on the couch cuddling with their pets and reading a good book. She is the oldest of three sisters, so she is pretty maternal. Connor is kind of the opposite. He's extremely outgoing. He can pretty much talk to anyone about anything. He loves fishing and being out on the water. He's got a lot of energy. We continually strengthen our relationship by spending time together and bonding over the things we have in common. This includes little things like eating dinner together every night as well as big things like family vacations to the Florida Keys.

We are both driven and goal orientated people. We know how to make a plan to achieve our dreams. For example, both of us were working jobs that made us unhappy. Connor made the transition about six years ago to real estate. This was a big change and required both of us to be on board. Elle's support and encouragement allowed him to take time to learn, and he is now a successful realtor. More recently Elle changed companies to one that keeps her mentally challenged while being supportive of work life balance. We would love to teach your child about our pastimes; whether it's reading, cooking, sewing, fishing, skiing, boating, or something new altogether. Most importantly, we would want to raise a child that is happy, healthy, well-rounded, strong, and has good character.

We would also like to include a letter from Zeke's birth mother: Jean

As a mother raising 5 children, having an ongoing open adoption was extremely important to me especially for my older children. I absolutely cherish the relationship that I have with Elle and Connor! Elle is truly like my sister. I was blessed to have her with me through labor in a women only birth; after the cord stopped pulsing and Zeke went to her waiting arms, it was tears all around. Tears of joy. I know that Zeke was meant to be with her. Conner and Elle were meant to be his parents.They have been absolutely perfect in communication, sending pictures, answering questions, and responding quickly to my texts. We have done several visits, many video calls, video messages, and exchanged thousands of pictures. They encourage and foster an open, honest, and aware relationship where Zeke is being read storybooks about adoption and having pictures of his extended family surrounding him. I could not have dreamed up a better mother to birth mother connection!

We promise to send pictures and letters written about your child every year, so that you can see how much they are loved. We believe it is important for a child to know their life was and is valued by both their biological parents and their adoptive parents. We have the full support of both our families as we grow our family through adoption, and our child will never be unsure of the love we have for them. We will do our best to honor and respect the hard decisions that led to what will be one of our greatest blessings. We want you to know that everything has a season, and that this time in your life could be a blessing in our life. Thank you for reading about us, and for considering us as parents for your child.

Connor & Elle