Joanne & Rene

Contact us toll-free anytime through Friends in Adoption: 1-800-844-3630

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Hi! We are Joanne and Rene and thank you so much for taking the time to read about us. We hope these few pages give you a good insight into who we are and our commitment to building our family through adoption. Although this glance into our lives is brief, we want you to feel confident knowing that if you choose us as parents for your baby, he or she will have a lifetime of love, security, happiness and (lots of) laughter. We can only imagine how difficult this decision is for you and want you to know how much we admire your strength and courage. Please accept our heartfelt gratitude and thanks during your decision making process.

Enjoying the outdoors

about us

We share many hobbies, particularly our love of the outdoors. You will find us most weekends in Vermont hiking, skiing, horseback riding and sometimes all three in one weekend!

We also enjoy the good company of our friends and family and always knew we wanted to have children. We feel we have so much to offer and can’t wait to welcome a new member to our family.

We met seven years ago in New York and knew instantly that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. We have been married for over four years and it has been an amazing journey of getting to know each other better and better. Originally from Europe (Jo is from England and Rene is from Switzerland), we have made the U.S. our permanent home and cannot imagine a better place to raise a family.

In Vermont

In London, England

Joanne - by Rene

Joanne can spend hours with our nieces reading books.— she is a true bookworm! She reads at least one book per week and will be a great story teller for our children.

Jo is passionate about horse riding. She has a horse called Splash and loves to go riding on weekends with her best friend Lina — and sometimes she even persuades me to come along! I love the fact that Jo is very active and we always find new and fun things to do together, be it discovering a new hike in Vermont or driving around on ATVs.

Joanne is simply a wonderful person, who is not only the love of my life but also my best friend. She is an intelligent, fun and deeply caring person, who always makes time for other people. Jo has many friends from all over the world and always amazes me how she keeps in touch with them on a regular basis.. I can’t wait to see Jo as a mom. She is a very practical person and a natural teacher.

Jo with her horse Splash.

Splash is great with kids

With best friend Lina

Cooking with our nieces

Rene - by Jo

His nieces simply adore “Uncle Rene” and there is always a sparkle in his eyes when he is with them. With his calm and friendly demeanor, people naturally gravitate towards Rene. Two of our closest friends have a one-year-old daughter who is shy around people other than her parents. Rene, however, seems to know the secret formula and she happily approaches him and allows him to read her a story or play with her favorite toy.

Family and friends are also very important to Rene. He has stayed in touch with many of his friends over the years and two of his friends from high school also live in New York. On a weekend you can find them playing soccer in the park or perfecting their swing on the golf course.

Snowboarding with Uncle Rene

Being Swiss means Rene not only makes a great cheese fondue but also was born on skis! He is an amazing skier and snowboarder and enjoys nothing more than spending a day on the mountain with his four nieces: Kristina, Theresa, Antonia and Grace. Rene always plans fun events for their birthdays. Past outings include a carriage ride in Central Park, ice skating and a visit to a working farm in Vermont.

Volunteer event at work

Hiking in Hawaii

With high school friends John and Patrick

present & future

Professionally, we both work in Investment Banking and enjoy our careers interacting with a diverse group of interesting people. We feel fortunate that one of us is able to give up work when we have children and we plan to eventually move to a suburb north of the city, which will make our frequent journeys to Vermont shorter.

Our current home is a historic brownstone in a neighborhood close to New York City and all it has to offer. Our love of the outdoors has inspired us to build a second home in Vermont. We have 12 acres of land and Joanne has spent countless hours planning all the details. We can’t wait to spend our first holidays with family and friends. Nothing would excite us more than sharing this with a new family member!

The dream home is finished…

...plenty of space for the horses!

family & friends

Speaking of family, we have to mention Henry, our 18-month-old Labrador, who is simply the cutest (just look the pictures!), softest and friendliest dog in the world. Known as a “family breed”, he will be a great companion for our children.

Both of our families support our dream to adopt. We have great relationship with our parents who live in Europe but visit us frequently in our new home country. We feel fortunate that Rene’s sister Claudia and her family live less than one hour away — we enjoy spending time with them and their great family. Our intra-family basketball and tennis games are famous and we can’t wait to add a new member to the team roster.

Henry receiving a hug from niece Toni

With Rene’s family in NY

Want to play?

With sister in law Jacqui in Switzerland

With Rene’s family in Connecticut

We are blessed to have great friends from all over the world with different cultural backgrounds. A great testimony of the strength of our friendships was our wedding in Switzerland, when people flew thousand of miles for the most important day of our lives! We always find an excuse to bring our friends together in our home. Joanne loves to cook her “world renowned” roast dinner on a Sunday afternoon for everyone.

Hiking in Hudson Valley with Jo’s brother Ashley

Family tradition: jumping into the new year!

With Jo’s family in London

We love to spend time with our nieces

Thank you so much for allowing us the opportunity to tell our story. Please know that we wish you and your child warmth and peace, whatever your decision may be. We hope you choose to learn more about us and we look forward to meeting you in the near future.

Please call us anytime at Friends in Adoption – 1-800-844-3630. Warmest wishes,

Rene & Joanne