We have been together for over five years, and live in a small, comfortable, vintage city neighborhood in Upstate New York with lots of young families. Our house is within walking distance of a spacious park, a public library that we use all the time, and an award-winning elementary school. Because we are both teachers, we also have the option of having our child go to school in Jon's school district, which is in a more rural setting.

As teachers we absolutely love what we do. Not only will this allow us to have vacations, snow days, and entire summers to spend as a family, but we feel lucky to have a job we look forward to going to every day.

Having children in our lives in this capacity has been incredibly rewarding and we are excited to share that feeling with our own children.

We love to explore nearby cities (including our own) and all the great restaurants, museums and adventures they provide!

Of course you HAVE to have your picture taken every time you see one of these things!

Besides exploring cities, we spend most of our longer vacations in the outdoors canoeing, hiking and camping. We have so many great memories from all the places we have been and are so excited about the possibility of adding new memories as a family.

During the week Brian is usually the cook, which isn't easy as Jon is a vegetarian and Brian doesn't exactly love his veggies. We love to make our famous homemade pizza together, especially pizza on the grill in the summertime! Many of our friends are close enough to pop in for an unplanned dinner, BBQ, or to just hang out. On the weekend, we love to have a lazy morning breakfast; either Jon's gingerbread waffles or Brian's mixed berry pancakes. Then we'll sit down for a game of scrabble, dominoes, cards, or to watch the never ending supply of movies Jon gets from our local public library.

During our free time we both like working in our backyard, going out to eat, or just watching the latest guilty pleasure TV show. Brian plays soccer and basketball, and Jon likes to mountain bike and work out at the gym. Jon's biggest loves are music and a good book, and he can't wait to play a lullaby CD as he reads our child a bedtime story. Brian is constantly on the move and can't wait to have a little one to chase around the house and get into trouble with. We look forward to family time together; walks to the park and to the library, lots and lots of play-dates with our friends' children and a new helper for our backyard garden!

During the holidays Jon is always being asked for his cookie recipes, and you haven't lived until you have had his "butterhorns" or molasses cookies. Brian is known for his love of Christmas and birthdays. In his house (and now ours) there were always "birthday weeks"! We both enjoy our tradition of going to see Jon's family for one holiday and Brian's for the next. We can't wait for family trips with our child to see both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends!

We truly believe that the best things in life are to be shared and we feel blessed to have such a great sense of community with our mix of family and friends.

We cannot wait to share our lives with a child. We imagine a house filled with non-stop laughter, learning, and most importantly love. We wish you well as you consider your options. Please feel free to contact us through FIA by calling their toll-free number (1.800.844.3630) if you have any questions. We would love the chance to get to know you and would also like the chance to meet if that would be comfortable for you.

We wish you all the best and hope you have nothing but happiness in your life. Thank you again for taking the time to get to know us.

Jon & Brian