Hello, we are Kristen and Andrew! We are a loving, fun, and active family, and hope you are able to feel that through our profile. We are beyond excited to grow our family through adoption and begin the next chapter in our story. Thank you for taking the time to get to know us!
We met in 2012 on a dating website, Match.com. Our first date was on February 13 because Andrew was nervous about asking Kristen out on Valentine’s Day! We had dinner and drinks and immediately hit it off. Now, each year, we celebrate February 13 as our Valentine’s Day.
After a couple of months of dating, we both knew that we were ‘it’ for each other, and Andrew proposed in Central Park, New York City 10 months later. We got married in October 2013 and went on an amazing honeymoon to Rome, Florence, Venice and Paris. When we returned, we decided to immediately start trying to grow our family.
Our journey to build our family had some twists and turns, but in June of 2018, we were overjoyed to welcome our son, Dominick, into the world. In December 2020, Kristen had some health complications that required a hysterectomy and can no longer carry a baby. We walked a long road of infertility to get to where we are today, but that experience has made us stronger as a couple and given us a new appreciation for the gift of adoption.
For starters, Kristen is my rock. She truly is the glue that holds our family intact. Kristen is a loving, intelligent, selfless, and extremely compassionate person. People find her to be very likable and thus she has no shortage of friends! She is as loyal of a person that anyone could have, as she is continually willing to do anything for the people she cares about.
Before becoming a stay-at-home mom, Kristen worked as a social worker with children who have special needs and babies in the NICU. During this time, her experience and focus were almost exclusively in the realm of helping families with children. These days, Kristen’s top priority is our family. As a stay-at-home mom, Kristen not only cares for our son but also enjoys planning fun activities to do with him on an almost everyday basis. One of her favorite activities lately is to bake or cook with Dominick. He really enjoys being mommy’s little helper, and I must admit, over the years Kristen is becoming quite an impressive cook!
In addition to being a great cook, Kristen has a real eye for design and loves to decorate our house—especially around the holidays! She also enjoys Yoga, biking with the family, and the occasional run with Dominick in the stroller. In a social setting, Kristen’s easy-going personality lends to her having no issues with making new friends or carrying on hour-long conversations with old ones. I’m so blessed that she is the person I’ll spend the rest of my life with!
Andrew is my best friend and an amazing husband and father. I think the thing that really brought us together was our shared love of being surrounded by family and friends. Andrew is both confident and social and has no trouble at all making friends with strangers. He is also a natural at creating good conversation!
Andrew has a Master’s in Business Administration and enjoys his career in the biopharmaceutical industry. He works hard to take care of us but he also places emphasis on the importance of family time. When Andrew comes home, Dominick goes rushing to the door excited to spend time with his Daddy. I love how Andrew will get on his hands and knees and play with Dominick, even if that means crawling into the tiny ball pit meant for a toddler!
Not only does Andrew take pride in caring for our family, he takes great pride in caring for our home too. He enjoys gardening, just like his father, and has made our backyard an oasis with all the bushes and flowers he has planted over the years. He’s also quite the handyman. He’s done many upgrades to our home on his own and even built an entertainment center with floor to ceiling shelving in our family room. Dominick always wants to copy what his Daddy is doing and will get his toy drill and screwdriver to help with home projects. I love how patient Andrew is, even if that means it will take four times as long to complete whatever task he is doing.
Dominick is a sweet and energetic little boy. Watching him grow and become his own little person has been the best part of being parents! Dominick loves giving hugs and blowing kisses. He loves his grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins, and runs to the door with the biggest smile on his face to greet them when they come to visit. He just loves being around people and always says “Hi” to neighbors or even strangers when we go for family walks.
Some of Dominick’s favorite toys include anything car, train or truck-related and his tools. He is very inquisitive and curious about how things work. He will walk around the house with his toy drill or hammer pretending to fix things. Dominick also has an adventurous side. He loves being outdoors and one of his favorite games is to race Mommy and Daddy in the backyard. He also has a very loving side to him and enjoys snuggling up and reading books, which is a nightly routine before bed.
Dominick has such a huge heart and will be an amazing big brother. We can’t wait for the day that he will have a sibling and have someone to grow up and experience life with.
We live in a two-story, colonial-style home. We spend the majority of our time in our open-layout kitchen and family room. We have a finished basement with plenty of space for toys. We also have a large backyard with a screened-in porch. Andrew, with the help of Kristen’s father, built a treehouse for Dominick, complete with a slide and swing set. We love to entertain, and our backyard is the perfect setting for that. We also recently welcomed a chocolate Labrador puppy named, “Kona” into our family.
We live in a community that has a pool, tennis court, and multiple tot lots. We are close to our neighbors and are often outside with the kids playing. Our community hosts an Easter egg hunt, Memorial Day pool party, Halloween parade, and other events throughout the year.
Being in the suburbs of Washington DC, we have the best of both worlds. At the end of our neighborhood are acres of horse farms. We often walk there and watch the horses with Dominick. We are also less than 15 minutes away from urban areas where there are lots of shops, restaurants, museums and countless other activities to do. It’s truly a great place to raise a family!
We have a very close-knit family. Kristen’s parents, brother, and his family (wife and three kids) live about 45 minutes away. Andrew’s parents live about 30 minutes away. Typically, we see both sides of the family on a weekly basis. Andrew also has a younger brother (wife and two kids) that live in England. Due to the distance, we see them about once a year, but keep a close relationship through phone calls and video chats. At just six-months-old, Dominick had a U.S. passport and before he turned one, he had his first international flight!
We have many family traditions outside of just spending quality time together. Andrew, his brother, and his parents all have birthdays in March. To celebrate the ‘March birthdays’ we go to Andrew’s parents’ beach house on the Delaware shore every year. We celebrate Father’s Day every year with Andrew’s parents at a local brewery with beautiful views located on acres of farmland with horses. We rotate Easter and Thanksgiving with both sides of the family. When we are with Kristen’s family, we rent a house on the ocean on the Delaware shore with Kristen’s parents, brother, and his family for the long Thanksgiving weekend. We also do an annual cookie baking in December with Kristen’s family, where we make Italian classics like Strufoli and Rainbow cookies!
Kristen enjoys cooking, baking and crafts. She recently took up crocheting and made Dominick a scarf and stuffed jellyfish. Andrew enjoys collecting sports memorabilia, caring for our lawn/yard, and taking on home DIY projects.
As a family, we love to stay active and busy. We are usually either out meeting up with family and friends or just hanging out in our cul-de-sac with neighbors while the kids play. We enjoy riding bikes, going for family walks, strawberry picking in the Spring and farm festivals in the Fall. We also love to travel. Since Dominick was born, he has been to England, Miami (twice!), Charleston, SC, and New York, among other shorter trips.
Kristen’s parents have a boat, which they keep just outside Baltimore. During boating season (March – October) you can typically find us spending the day relaxing on the Chesapeake Bay. And as we mentioned before, Andrew’s parents have a beach house on the Delaware shore which we frequent during the summer season. We love being on or near the water, and watching Dominick explore in the sand and splash in the waves!
Thank you for taking the time to read our profile. We hope that our profile has given you a little glimpse into our family. While we don’t truly know what you are going through, we do understand what a difficult decision adoption is and have so much respect and appreciation for you and the plan you are making.
If we are chosen as the adoptive family, our promise to you is to give your baby the most loving life that we have to offer. We promise to love them unconditionally, provide a nurturing and caring environment, and to encourage their interests and talents. We will provide them with a great education and anything else they need to succeed in life. Most importantly, we will teach them kindness, patience and provide a never-ending supply of hugs and kisses!
Please know that we would be happy to stay in touch with you throughout the child’s life, if that is something you would like to do. Whether that is meeting up in person, talking over the phone or through video chat, or just getting updates from us throughout the year – we want to do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable. Adoption will always be talked about openly in our home, and we will always remind the child of just how much love you have for them.
We wish you the best and hope to hear from you soon.
Andrew and Kristen
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