We are Zarina & Eric from the beautiful city and state of Seattle, Washington. We look forward to meeting you and we hope you decide to get in touch with us. And even if we don’t get to meet, we wish the best for you and your child in finding the right home!

The two of us have been together for almost eight years, and just got married in Spring 2021. Eric has always known that he wanted to be a father, whereas it took longer for Zarina to be sure. We immediately began trying to conceive but soon discovered fertility challenges.

The importance of family and community is one of our biggest shared values as a couple. We are firmly rooted in the Seattle area, and both sets of grandparents, as well as siblings, cousins,
and extended family, live nearby. With us, your child would be surrounded by loving family.

Much gratitude to you for considering us,
Zarina and Eric

The two of us met in 2012 in a shared living situation with a mutual friend. We got to know each other gradually as housemates.

Zarina loved that with Eric she felt safe and accepted. Eric was attracted to Zarina because she is genuine and honest, open to experience and possibilities, and has a positive, fun-loving spirit. Eric is an athlete in the sport of orienteering—a cross-country running race using a map and compass—and early on we got to know each other by taking trips to outdoor events. We still live with the same friend in the same house. We both have flexible work schedules with a lot of working from home. We go for a neighborhood walk together almost every day, and we love cycling and swimming in a nearby lake. Our lives are centered around our home and our circles of family, friends, and neighbors.

We enjoy both! We both love getting exercise by exploring the great outdoors, and we love including children in our adventures.

For many years we have been very close to our neighbor children and have taken them swimming, sledding, cycling, camping, and hiking, as well as joining them to kick a soccer ball, toss a Frisbee, or play badminton in the street. We very much look forward to including our own children in outdoor fun.

We also both love books. Zarina always has a pile of books she’s checked out from the library, and Eric typically has an audiobook loaded onto his phone. We both look forward to story time and sharing our love of books with our children.

My strengths and Eric’s complement each other well: I am highly organized and have great motivation to get things done and to do them well. I love people and am very loyal to those I love. I am thoughtful and live life with care and deliberation.

Eric was attracted to my fun-loving spirit and it is true, I am up for most kinds of adventure and I look forward to organizing fun times for our family.

Kids, I love them! One of the great satisfactions of my life has been my relationships with our neighbor children, now ages 10 and 13, seeing them nearly daily, doing fun things with them and nurturing them in a semi-parental role.

The thrill of discovery fuels my adventures, whether orienteering, trail running, biking, kayaking, hiking, or camping. I’m fortunate to have been able to make my passion for the outdoors into a business. I really look forward to sharing outdoor activities with my children and introducing them to the beauty of the wilderness. A model for me is a friend who has been bringing his daughter to outdoor sporting events all over the world since she was a toddler.

I also enjoy doing things with others, especially collaborative activities like singing or team games. Understanding people and how they work together is an interest of mine, and I enjoy reading and learning about culture and politics.

Zarina and others say that I am kind, patient, and accepting, and this is one of the biggest strengths I will bring to parenthood.

We live with our close friend Terry in a 96-year-old house in the Ravenna neighborhood of Seattle, just north of the University of Washington and close to parks and shops.

There are several families with children who play together on the block, and in the summer, we keep our doors open and pop in and out of one another’s homes. There is a well-regarded Catholic school just a few short blocks from our house, and we tentatively plan for our children to enroll there where they will be able to walk to school.

The focal point of our home is the spacious and light-filled kitchen. In warm weather we throw open the French doors to the back deck. In winter we turn on the floor heat installed by the previous owner, and visitors are always delighted to stand barefoot on the warm tiles. The kitchen table is where we most often spend time with people when they come over. Eric does most of the cooking and his desk is in the kitchen where he can work while dinner is simmering on the stove. We already know what it is like to have the kitchen be filled with kids because of our neighbors coming over frequently, and we love it!

Our cat Twig has been an object of our affections since we took him home as a kitten more than two years ago. Twig is well-known and beloved around our neighborhood, as he strolls the streets, visits with other cats, and enjoys going into other people’s homes.

We are so lucky to have loving and strong family ties. Zarina’s parents, both immigrants from India, live just a half hour’s drive away and have large, close-knit networks of nearby relatives and family friends. They often have us over for meals and to enjoy inner-tubing or jet-skiing from their dock on the lake. Zarina’s brother lives very close and we like to go there to visit his two kittens or to hang out on his rooftop deck. Zarina’s other brother and his wife live 3 hours away and have a one-year-old; we spent a week with them last fall and hope to do it again soon.

Eric’s parents and 101 year-old grandfather also live close by. There are big gatherings on both sides for holidays. Pretty much every week there is a family get-together of some kind! All four grandparents are looking forward to spending a lot of time with our children. We have deep roots in the Seattle area and many close friends.

We both value tolerance, respect for the dignity of human life, kindness for all, open communication, knowing our own worth and value, and letting our true selves shine forth. We look forward to expressing these values in the raising of our children.

Our philosophy in parenting is: balance, care, and fairness. Consistent love is important. Kids need boundaries and the feeling of safety that comes with that. They also need to have the space and the ability to develop thinking for themselves. Their own understanding of right and wrong, their own tolerance for risk, their own understanding of values and consequences.

We see our job as parents to love our children with all our hearts and provide boundaries, understanding and knowledge, helping them grow into themselves and become the individuals they were born to be.

We are both so grateful that you have taken the time to review our book. We are mature, stable adults who have explored a lot on our own, learned many of life’s lessons, and are more than ready to direct our focus to raising children. Should you choose us, your child will be surrounded by a large, loving extended family and will have parents who dearly want to be parents.

Becoming parents to your child would be an incredible gift, and your generosity and trust will be part of your child’s story during their growing up. If you wish, we will be happy to be in contact throughout your child’s life and think this would be a wonderful thing for the child and for all of us.

Thank you again for considering us, and, as we said at the start, no matter the outcome we wish the very best for you and your child.