We struggled with infertility for years before becoming pregnant with Joaquin. It has truly been amazing to watch Joaquin learn and see things for the first time through his perspective. He is so curious, loves to ask questions, and loves to learn and experiment through play. We are reminded every day that happiness can be found in very simple things, and we cherish that. It has been the most amazing, emotional and love-filled experience to date.

We are blessed to have been able to experience pregnancy, but we understand that is only a part of the whole experience of being a parent. Being a parent is so many things at the same time. It's this huge responsibility of making the best decisions for your child, and at the same time it's making sure that you are enjoying yourself and having fun, because kids love having fun and they feel loved when they are playing. Being a parent means not taking yourself so seriously all the time, and at the same time, knowing when to set boundaries because you know your child doesn't know any better yet.

We know that our family is not yet complete, and adoption is the path for us. We are so excited to welcome another child into our family and for Joaquin to be a big brother!

Adventures are great and so important for kids! We love instilling a sense of adventure out of any activity for Joaquin. This can be anything from walking down to the bridge and throwing a stick in the river and watching it float away or learning about all the insects we can find in our backyard.

Adventures can be big like riding on airplanes to get to abuelito and abuelita's house in Mexico or walking into a new class and feeling anxious about meeting new friends. We hope to teach our children to find adventure in everthing we do.

We love exploring by the stream at our park, going for walks, strolling our main street, going to the library and Joaquin now knows the shops and his way around. We also love getting away and visiting new places or family in their home. Every trip is a new adventure for us!

Casandra grew up moving around a lot with her family. Her dad's job took them to several cities in Mexico, Washington state, North Dakota, Iowa and the Netherlands. Cultures, languages and differences in backgrounds has just been a part of Casandra's life growing up. Casandra knows the importance of incorporating identity, culture and heritage into a person's life.

Living in a college town brings people from all over the world and it is a big part of what makes Ames an amazing place to live, because we all get to live in the same place together. There are many opportunities to attend events, meet new people and learn about others.

We want your child to know about their heritage and feel a sense of connection with it and its culture. We would love to incorporate it in any way that we could.

We live in Ames, Iowa. It is the home of Iowa State University and it is a lovely college town. We love living here because it has all the amenities of a larger city but has the small-town feel of a close-knit community.

The house we live in is within walking distance of parks, the river, trails and the forest. We are a few blocks away from the hospital, an a quarter mile from downtown and main street.

Our street is fairly quiet and we have become close friends with our neighbors, especially our next door neighbors. They have two boys who absolutely love Joaquin.

Our house is small, but cozy; we have made it our home. Casandra has lots of ideas for projects around the house and Wade is the handyman that makes them all possible! Wade completely renovated the upstairs bathroom on his own. Wade completed the basement, painted our house, the list goes on. Casandra has painted three murals in the house. We have three bedrooms and two full bathrooms and each space is unique in its own way.

Our community has so many events for family and for kids from free outdoor music, to parades, farmers market, art fairs, and we love attending all that we can.

Casandra and her family are all from Mexico. Everyone but she and her brother (and his family) are currently living in Mexico. Casandra speaks Spanish to Joaquin so that he grows up being bilingual. We usually visit Mexico about once a year, and most often for Christmas or a different holiday. It is the time we get to see all of her extended family, spend quality time together, eat good food and make memories together. Casandra's brother and his family live in Minneapolis so they are not too far from each other and get together when possible to spend time in each other's home.

Wade has two older sisters, one is close by and the other out of state but we manage to see them fairly often. Our time together is spent around the kitchen, in our homes, or going to an event in the community. We love talking with each other and having fun and making most of our time. Wade's sister Jenny always brings lots of delicious baked goods to share. Joaquin absolutely loves having company at home. When Casandra's parents come to visit they usually stay for a few weeks at time to make the trip worth wild and Joaquin soaks up every minute with abuelito and abuelita.

Please know, we don't pretend to assume how you are feeling, or the many thoughts that must be going through your mind in this process. The only thing we can imagine is the difficult decision you are considering must be beyond words to describe. We hope you have someone in your life that supports you and that you can rely on.

We have been together for 11 years and have been married for nine. Wade is from a small town in Iowa and Casandra is from Mexico. We knew we wanted a family before getting married and soon realized we were struggling to conceive. Infertility was a huge challenge we battled for years, but were blessed with our son Joaquin who is now four years old. Since then, adoption has always been in our hearts and now that we want to expand our family there is no other way we would want to do it but through adoption.

Our family lives in a lovely little city with so many green spaces and parks. We love the location of our small but cozy home as its walking distance to a fun new agility course, a park and playground, walking trails and beautiful river and scenery. Our location is less than a mile from the hospital Joaquin was born in. It is a little over a mile to our downtown where we spend a lot of time going to Farmers Market, out local bookstore, and ice cream shops. Both Wade and Casandra's work is a mile from home, and daycare is just two miles from us. We are truly lucky living in our neighborhood and having wonderful neighbors that we call friends and have been a part of our and Joaquin's lives. We frequently host family at our home whether it's for a weekend or several weeks. Casandra's family is from Mexico so when they come to visit they really make it count. Casandra speaks Spanish to Joaquin as it is important to us that he grows up bilingual. We find it equally important for your child to grow up with their sibling and learn Spanish too.

We are a good mix of being homebodies and getting out to attend events and travel on vacation. We make sure to visit family in Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado and of course Mexico. In Iowa we experience all the seasons so we make sure to have a garden in the summer where Joaquin loves to help. We play outside, we dress up for Halloween, we build snowmen and go sledding. We love to go to the lake, enjoy outdoor music, the library, and staying home to watch a movie together.

We offer Joaquin consistency, a home that is safe, and two parents that love each other, communicate and model the behavior we want him to learn. We want our children to have self-confidence, empathy for others, self-control, integrity, curiosity, perseverance and optimism.

We want there to be openness and communication with you, us, and with your child. It is up to you how much you want to share, and we hope that with time we can all build trust and a good relationship. We want your child to know where they came from, and know they are made of the best parts of you. Letters and pictures will give you a glimpse into their life and hopefully make you feel like you are always a part of theirs. If a letter to your baby would help you through this process, we would love to receive it and share it with your child. We hope you will consider and know that we would love to be in contact through other means too-emails, phone calls and even visits.

We hope you choose us because there is something about us that you feel you connect with, trust and see us building a relationship.

With hope and unconditional love,

Wade & Casandra