Jeremy & Esther

Dear Birth Mother: THANK YOU for considering us as adoptive parents for your child – we’re honored and grateful!

Over the next few pages you will get a snapshot of our lives; who we are, how we met, our life and our family. As you can see from our pictures, we don’t look like your average couple! We are unable to have a biological child and hope to expand our family through adoption.

WE BELIEVE WE HAVE LOTS TO OFFER OUR FUTURE CHILD – including a supporting network of family and friends, a safe and secure home and a childhood that we will fill with lots of love, laughter and wonderful opportunities to learn and grow. We hope we get the chance to talk or meet you soon!

About Us, by Jeremy: While we were both born and raised in New York, we met on the other side of the country in Los Angeles, CA. A good friend of Esther’s was dating a good friend of mine, and in the months following we spent a good amount of time in the same group. I fell for Esther pretty quickly, but it took me a few months to work up the courage to ask her out on date. The timing was perfect, however, and she said yes!

We knew early on we had found something special. Esther introduced me to vegetables and sushi (which I now love!). I introduced Esther to fantasy football (which she now knows well enough to make fun of me when I lose every week). We discovered a shared passion for trying new food – whether it is a new restaurant or experimenting on new recipes at home. WE ALSO FOUND A SHARED DESIRE TO BUILD A LIFE TOGETHER WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS, FULL OF GENEROSITY, HOSPITALITY AND LOVE.

I proposed to Esther overlooking the Pacific Ocean at one of our favorite spots. We were married later that year.

Looking back, 7 years in, it is even more clear that we were fortunate to find each other. OUR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER HAS GROWN DEEPER EACH DAY, AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE MANY YEARS OF LIFE TOGETHER AHEAD!

Fun Facts About Us:
• We enjoy RUNNING DISNEYLAND 10KS together!
• We love to TRAVEL – in our first year of marriage alone, we traveled to Haiti, Hawaii and Italy.
• We enjoy HAVING FRIENDS OVER AT OUR PLACE — whether it be drinks on our patio, dinner parties, just to watch TV or game night.
• We are both fairly ADVENTUROUS EATERS (even bugs!)

Things We Love To Do
• Visiting the beach
• Traveling around the world
• Trying new restaurants
• Exploring Los Angeles
• Going to musicals and shows
• Spending time with our family & friends

By Esther: Jeremy was raised in upstate New York by a loving, single mother who worked hard to get their family off public assistance. At age 14, he was in an accident that left him partially paralyzed, but he persevered to become independent again.

Jeremy’s experiences led him to have a heart for caring for people in need; which found expression for the first part of his life in service as a pastor and a counselor. He served for several years in a congregation in Santa Monica, CA, generously caring for people, including those grieving loss or struggling with addiction or mental illness.

JEREMY’S PAST EXPERIENCES AND WORK LED HIM TO ULTIMATELY CHANGE CAREERS – TO PURSUE MAKING AN IMPACT THROUGH BECOMING A LAWYER. Through hard work, Jeremy is now a law student at UCLA Law School where he is among the top of his class. As his wife, I’m not only proud of his academic achievements, but I’m also proud of the person he continues to be – someone who his friends and family love, trust and respect.

I believe that the characteristics that make Jeremy a wonderful person are the same characteristics that will make him a terrific father to our future child!

Jeremy’s Work: Jeremy’s law school schedule gives him a lot of flexibility (e.g., Jeremy will only have classes two days a week next semester).

By Jeremy: As Esther’s husband, I am the luckiest human being in the world. Esther amazes me every day. She is kind, and generous (several times a month she comes home and says, “I hope it’s ok, but I donated/gave/promised to this person in need…). She is hospitable and welcoming. People are immediately drawn to her and put at ease by her warmth and calm spirit.

Esther is supremely gifted: An Ivy League graduate who then graduated from the University of Southern California Law School, and practices law at a large law firm in Los Angeles.

Esther is a strong and brave woman, passionately loyal to her friends and family. She is also passionate about justice: before we met she took a year off to move to India, to work with an agency fighting against human sex trafficking.

More than all of that, though, Esther is my best friend. SHE HAS BEEN MY BIGGEST CHEERLEADER, STRONGEST SUPPORTER, AND A WISE COUNSELOR. I am so grateful to be married to her, and so excited about the many years to come!

I know Esther will be a wonderful mother. As you will see in pictures, CHILDREN LOVE ESTHER – she is “Auntie” to a large group of our friend’s children (Gabby, Boyd, Maddie and Clarence, to just name a few), as well as our own nephews and nieces.

Esther’s patience, kindness, warmth and love will make our future child the second luckiest human being in the world.

Esther’s Work: Esther currently works reduced time, and her job gives her flexibility to work from home. Once Jeremy starts working full-time, Esther plans to scale back on work to spend time with our future child.

We have a large group of friends and family who are excited to meet and love our future child!

Esther’s parents live about 45 minutes away from our house and her brother Daniel and his wife Czarina live about 30 minutes away. We have four nephews! We spend a lot of time with our family. Our nephews like tackling us in the pool, or racing with Jeremy in his wheelchair, or dueling us with light sabers!

Jeremy’s family lives in Rochester, New York. We try to see them as often as possible, whether it is meeting them on the East Coast, or having them come visit us in California. They are thrilled about the possibility of a new member of the family! Jeremy’s mom (Kathy) is planning to move to Los Angeles in the next few years to live near us so we can spend more time together.

WE ALSO HAVE A LARGE “FAMILY” OF FRIENDS IN LOS ANGELES AND AROUND THE WORLD! Most of our friends have young children – our future child would have an instant large group of “cousins” to play with!

We spend a lot of time with our friends: whether it is at movies or shows, (like the Sound of Music Sing-a-Long at the Hollywood Bowl), or at the Happiest Place on Earth (We have a group of friends that goes to Disneyland every year together at Christmas).

Our Home: WE LIVE IN A ONE-FLOOR SPANISH BUNGALOW IN A CUTE NEIGHBORHOOD IN THE HEART OF LOS ANGELES.

We take walks around our neighborhood nearly every day. Our neighborhood is family-friendly, with many young families with pets. Twice a year our neighbors gather for a carnival and neighborhood block party!

We are centrally located and are just a short drive to the beach or the mountains, or the many parks in and around Los Angeles. We love exploring Los Angeles and cannot wait to bring our future child to the many parks and museums in our hometown!

We Promise That We Will:
• LOVE your child.
• Spend QUALITY TIME with them – laughing, reading & playing with toys
• TEACH them the value of kindness, forgiveness and service to others.
• Give them OPPORTUNITIES to learn and grow
• Give them a chance to know a large group of DIVERSE PEOPLE
• Take them on TRIPS to see the world
• SUPPORT them and love them no matter what

THANK YOU for taking the time to read our profile! We hope you were able to sense our deep love and commitment for each other, and our desire to share that love with a child.