Thank you for taking a minute to learn more about us. This is a big decision, and we are a bit in awe of your courage in considering an adoption plan for this child. 

If we are chosen as adoptive parents, we hope to remain in contact and send updates and photos as the child grows, potentially scheduling time together. We intend to proudly celebrate adoption in our home and look forward to telling the child about their birth mother and the incredibly difficult choice she made, and how it was made out of love. 

We also intend to celebrate the cultural background of the child, and recognize the significance of a healthy racial, ethnic, and cultural identity. We look forward to celebrating our unique identity as a family, and openly discussing the sometimes challenging realities of being a potentially multi-ethnic family in a diverse community.

We know this process is not an easy one, and we are thinking of you. Know that we think you are strong and brave, and we deeply admire you. We hope that you find love, peace, and comfort, wherever this journey leads you.

Wade and Avery

We spend a lot of time outdoors, hiking or enjoying the beach. Our son’s first outing was a short walk along Great Falls National Park, strapped to Wade’s chest at a week old! Our weekends often revolve around barbeques in the backyard, big Saturday breakfasts, or homemade pizza nights with a movie. 

We love to read and listen to music. We also strongly believe in the benefits of travel for a child’s education, and have tried to incorporate travel from the start, whether internationally, around the country, or in our own city.

In Wade’s family, most of their traditions revolve around the table, which means big meals at Christmas and Easter with family from all over. We love to eat together jammed around tables (sometimes for multiple days!) and celebrate with big picnics for birthdays and the 4th of July. 

Avery’s family bonds over art, and she’s inherited a love of writing, drawing, and painting. She loves incorporating art and creativity into our home and is excited to teach the children to draw and paint.

We are also active in our church and have a large community of good friends in various stages of life, from differing backgrounds and experiences. We love that Everett is now an integrated part of that community and has many “aunts” and friends both young and old. We have an incredible support system that has made it easier to transition to parenthood.

Wade comes from a close-knit family with many members. His parents travel quite a bit for work and lived in London for a time. We were fortunate to get to visit them there, and Everett’s first international trip was to visit them and take a family vacation to Ireland! 

Wade’s parents just recently moved into a home on the Chesapeake, a 45-minute drive from us. We now get to see them frequently, and enjoy having an extra set of hands and childcare options! They live right on the water, and we are thankful that the kids will have an opportunity to grow up spending time on the water. Wade’s brother Garrett lives in New York but visits frequently. Everett loves his “Uncle Gawet.” 

Avery’s family is very creative. Her parents are both visual artists and writers, so visiting Everett’s grandparents often involves creative activities, hiking through the Brandywine River Valley, and long fireside chats. Everett loves riding the old rail line near them. 

Avery has two siblings, Whitney and Will. Aunt Whit lives in Texas but facetimes and visits very often. Uncle Will, Aunt Nessie, and Kaya live two hours away and Everett gets to spend time with them frequently. He loves playing with his younger cousin, racing his uncle, and cooking with his aunt, who kindly lets Everett help her make delicious Filipino food.

Our family has been so supportive of our adoption journey and is excited to welcome another child!

Finding the right place to put down roots was important. After seven years on Capitol Hill, we bought a 101-year-old home with a large backyard right on the shared Maryland-DC border. Our small town is known for its diversity, vibrant art scene, and local food co-op. 

The area is full of trees, playgrounds, and walking trails, along with many restaurants, shops, and galleries. The local theatre and music scene is also quite active, and our elementary school has an arts curriculum. Living right on the border of DC allows us the benefits of the city - free museums, zoos, and events - while still having the green space and community connectedness so important for thriving kids. 

We love the charm of our home, including the wood floors and big windows, but also appreciate the updates, such as a kitchen with open shelving that allows for all three of us to be creative. Avery loves to bake, Wade loves to cook, and Everett loves to taste!

We love our big yard and have a garden full of herbs and vegetables. We just started growing melons! Some of our favorite things to do are to sit on the front porch, talk with neighbors as Everett plays in the garden, or sit around the fire pit in the backyard with friends and family making s’mores. We often eat outside on the back deck under the trees.

Our home has plenty of room for another kiddo - we can’t wait to watch the children play together throughout our home!

Everett (two-and-a-half) is a ball of joy. He is full of energy, and easily excited, flapping his hands in anticipation. He is very friendly, waving at everyone who passes by the house, hoping to tell them about his day. He is very loving and sweet. 

One of his favorite things is to gather us both in for a “family hug.” He is good at sharing and being kind to other kids, including his younger cousin. He holds her hand and leads her around the house, or will do something silly to try to get her to laugh. Kaya thinks he’s very funny. 

Everett loves trains, watering the garden, playing in the water, and building things. He is a gifted and imaginative child, who comes up with the craziest ideas, and has the verbal skills to share them with us. He also loves “school” and is currently enrolled in part-time daycare located in the building where Avery works. We are grateful that her work situation provides an excellent care option that she can visit frequently throughout the day. 

Everett knows we are involved in the adoption process and is excited to be a big brother. We can’t wait to see him love on and play with another little one!

Wade was born overseas and has spent much of his life traveling, first with his family, and later as an adult. Given those experiences, he is incredibly open-minded and loves to learn more about the world. 

He loves to read, listen to music, grill out, and travel. He also enjoys the work that he does, and is motivated by a strong desire to make the world a better and safer place for us, and for the next generation.

Wade is the stabilizing force in our home. He makes sure our family is safe and cared for, whether physically, spiritually, or emotionally. He is an incredibly attentive and present father, who also enjoys goofing around with Everett. Everett absolutely adores his dad, and they play all sorts of imaginative games together such as “astronaut” and “bear hunting,” as well as racing each other to “get the wiggles out.” 

Wade is incredibly kind and thoughtful. He is a deep thinker and loves teaching our son about the world around him. He does the bedtime routine every night; one of my favorite things to do is watch him read to our son and listen as he sings him to sleep, instilling in him a love for stories and old folk songs. He has been such an amazing dad to Everett and I can’t wait to see the way he will love and encourage another child.

Avery is a one-in-a-million individual, someone who makes every room she walks into feel a little bit brighter, warmer, and friendlier. I knew from the very first time I met her, I would never meet anyone else who cared so much for all the people around her. Whether it be her 2nd-grade students when she was a teacher in the DC public school system, the Syrian refugee family whose kids she tutored, or our own son who she loves to the moon and back, Avery is someone who puts her entire heart and soul into loving someone.

Avery grew up the oldest of three children outside of Philadelphia, in a house that still to this day is the most open, friendliest, and caring home that I have ever known. She works hard every day to make our house and family feel the same way, ensuring that everyone who walks through our door is treated like family, no matter what. 

Now, Avery works as the director of local outreach at a church. She spends our days off chasing around a toddler with a very active imagination (the secret is that Avery has even more fun than our son!). She loves spending time with us exploring the city and finding new interesting places to visit, or just enjoying time together as a family, having cook-outs in the backyard. Avery is the loving, beating heart of our family!

Hey! We’re Wade and Avery. Thank you for taking a minute to learn about us and our family.

We first met on a summer student exchange program in Mumbai, India while we were both in college. We became good friends during that trip and over the next few years, our friendship grew into something more. We started dating after Wade graduated from college in DC and during Avery’s last semester of college in Pennsylvania. 

On our first date, we met halfway in Baltimore and walked around the Inner Harbor drinking dreamsicle milkshakes. Wade says he knew we were meant to be after that first date. Avery wasn’t too far behind. After dating long-distance for a year, we got married in Avery’s parent’s backyard, under a canopy of lights, surrounded by family and friends. 

We both had close friends in our lives who were adopted, and had individually felt early on that adoption might be the path for us. When we started dating we found we shared this dream. 

Seven years into marriage, as we started to explore adoption options, we were surprised to find out we were pregnant. Our son Everett was the world’s best surprise. Now that he’s two, we feel ready to continue the journey we started, and are so excited to welcome another baby into our family.