Hello, We Are Liz and Dan!
Welcome To Our Page!
Welcome To Our Page!
Dear Expectant Parent,
Hello and thank you for taking the time to get to know us! Our names are Liz and Dan, and we’re hoping to grow our family through adoption. We recognize the courage and love you have for your baby to choose adoption and want to ensure that your child grows up always knowing that they are truly loved and supported through knowing their adoption story. We welcome an open adoption and building a relationship with you in whatever way is most comfortable. We are grateful for the time you are taking to learn about us, our values, and our hopes for the fulfilling life we would build with a child in our family!
Our Story
We are a committed married couple in our early-to-mid 30’s. We met through online dating 11 years ago and have been happily married for over 6 years. After only a couple of weeks of dating, we knew that we were meant to be together forever and have been great partners in life ever since.
We love to get outside on daily walks to connect about our days, and also enjoy cozy nights on the couch with a good tv show. One of the many things that brings us joy is food and some of our favorite cuisines are Japanese, Mexican, Indian and Thai food. We both love music and enjoy listening to live performances, whether it be rock shows, tribute bands or classical music. Over the years, we have traveled to new destinations to experience nature, culture, and art in different cities, and we look forward to continuing this tradition as a family with our future child. Adoption is familiar to both of us, as we have grown up throughout our childhood and into adulthood with close friends who are adopted.
About Liz
I work in marketing technology and enjoy making new connections each day in my career with people all across the world. I’ve always been very close to my family and have a tight-knit group of friends from college that I consider an extension of my family since we talk almost every day. One of my biggest passions in life is animals and I’ve grown up with pets ranging from exotic fish to cats to frogs to guinea pigs. I’m also an amateur musician and have been playing the flute since I was ten years old. I enjoy listening to a variety of musical genres from jazz to R&B to classic rock. I love nature hikes, going to the beach, and taking care of the many plants in our home to bring the outside in with a lot of greenery. I also enjoy baking and experimenting with different recipes to find our favorite ones to add to my recipe box. I am excited to be a mother to share these passions and discover fun new activities with our future child as a family!
About Dan
I’ve worked in the video games industry my entire career, fulfilling a lifelong dream and passion of mine in interactive storytelling and art. Since a young age, all forms of art have helped to propel my creativity and pushed me to see things from new perspectives. I couldn’t live without music and I listen to a diverse amount of musical genres: jazz, rock, classical, ambient, pop, and soundtracks. I like all types of film and animation, but my all-time favorites would have to be anything in the Star Wars franchise. I enjoy learning about history and find stories of the past to be hugely beneficial as opportunities to learn and grow from. Some of my favorite pastimes include collecting pop culture figurines, listening to vinyl records, reading comics, seeing live music, hiking, cooking, and spending time with family. I hope to expand and foster my love of family as a father and share in the joy of raising a child!
About Us
Liz’s Favorites:
- Vacation Spot: Nassau, Bahamas – swimming with sea turtles!
- Bands/Musical Artists: Amber Mark, Ella Mai, Remi Wolf, Styx, Usher, Blink-182
- Color: Yellow
- TV Show: Seinfeld
- Movie: The Sound of Music
- Animal: Alpacas
- Holiday: Halloween
- Season: Fall
- Store: Homegoods
- Drink: Matcha lattes with coconut milk
- Snack: Pickles
- Dessert: Lemon cake
- Scent: Burning firewood/bonfire
Dan’s Favorites:
- Vacation Spot: Seattle – the pacific northwest is a great place to explore!
- Bands/Musical Artists: Woods, The Orwells, Lord Huron, Sigurros, Magic City Hippies, Vacationer
- Color: Seafoam green
- TV Show: Curb Your Enthusiam
- Movie: Spirited Away
- Animal: Capybaras
- Holiday: Thanksgiving
- Season: Winter
- Store: Marine Layer
- Drink: Vanilla Sweet Cream Nitro Cold Brew coffee
- Snack: Pepitas
- Dessert: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
- Scent: Freshly baked apple pancake
Home and Community
We live near Chicago in a tree-lined, family-friendly suburb just northwest of the city with our two adopted cats, Berlioz and Mago. Our home is walking distance to parks, schools, restaurants, shops, and grocery stores, so we spend much of our free time going on walks around the area to get fresh air, grab dinner at a local restaurant, attend events, or go shopping. There are many young families with children in our area and many fun activities to participate in as a family throughout the year. We’re lucky enough to even be walking distance to Liz’s parents’ house, so we see them often for impromptu gatherings and dinners in the area.
Family Lifestyle
We value family time together and want to prioritize time each day to unwind and share the day’s happenings over dinner with our child. We like to stay active outside and look forward to going on long walks in nature preserves or heading to the beach for a relaxing day on the lake. We love trying new restaurants with friends on the weekend and enjoy many types of different cuisines that we can introduce to our child. For holidays and birthday gatherings, we see our extended families frequently throughout the year and are excited to have our child share in these family events.
Support System
We are very close to our family and are lucky to have most of our immediate family living within an hour and a half of our home in the suburbs of Illinois and Wisconsin. We have overwhelming support from our family and friends for this adoption journey and everyone is very excited for us to welcome a child into our family.
Liz has a younger sister and brother, and Dan has two older sisters, a younger sister and a younger brother. We also have aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews that live close by in the surrounding Chicago suburbs. We talk to our family multiple times per week and get together for dinners, birthdays and holiday gatherings on a regular basis. We are a proud aunt and uncle to two nephews and three nieces at the moment, and are looking forward to our family expanding. We’re very excited to raise a child in our family soon, as more of our siblings and cousins are just starting to have children that will grow up together and share these great memories!
Parenting Philosophy and Values
We want to raise our future child in a loving, fun, and nurturing household where we spend quality family time together. We believe it’s important to ensure our child feels secure and supported throughout their life and that we teach them to treat others with respect and kindness. Open communication is very important to us, as we want our child to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and expressing themselves freely. We value learning and having new experiences with different cultures to raise a child who will be open-minded and inclusive. Our child’s education would be a priority to ensure that they discover a career path in life that will be both financially stable and fulfilling for them. We want to carry on our current family traditions and make new traditions with our child to continue each year, whether that is with food, gatherings, seasonal activities, or family vacations.
Thank You!
We promise to provide a loving, safe, fun, and nurturing home for your child and will be committed to ensuring they grow up knowing their adoption story, including their family and adopted family. We are excited to incorporate and explore your child’s culture and heritage, along with introducing our culture and traditions into daily life together to establish a strong foundation of family. We hope after reading more about us and our life that we are the best choice for adopting your child. We’re looking forward to hearing from you soon!
With gratitude,
Liz and Dan
FAQs
What is open adoption and how does it work?
Open adoption allows you to select the adoptive family yourself, get to know them, and remain in contact following the placement. Every adoption and every birth mother is unique, so the amount of openness and type of contact can look different. You can make choices about the level of openness depending on what feels comfortable for you.
What support is available for me?
The adoption process can feel complex and confusing. We are working with a licensed adoption agency in our home state. They are also available to provide counseling and support services to you to help navigate the adoption process. Alternatively, if you prefer, they can also connect you with an agency or attorney in your home state. For information on the support they can provide, click here.