Greetings,

Thank you for being you in the world as you are. We value your courage and care and appreciate this opportunity to connect with you here even if just briefly. While both of us have experience as guardians to friends' children, we do not have children of our own. An integral part of what brought us together with a lot in common, first as friends and then in marriage, is a shared interest in contributing to the life of a child. We know each other well and welcome that our understanding of ourselves and each other will grow with a child. We value and appreciate the connection in us whether we are physically together or apart with work or leisure at any given time. We’ll share these roots and wings with a child. We are excited to parent together and provide early enrichment and social opportunities that include, for example, a second language immersion, music and other arts, and physical well-being. We have grown with our careers — Laurel as a school counselor and later licensed mental health counselor and Joel as a designer/architect. We feel fortunate to be with compassion, community, energy, flexibility, time, and financial resources to nourish another along their life’s journey.

We both grew up in small towns (Joel in Louisiana and Laurel in New York) and after college lived in major cities (Joel in Los Angeles for thirteen years and Laurel in Washington, DC for eight years) and today appreciate access to rural and urban resources. We value and advocate for diversity, inclusivity, and equity. We are communicators and can sit with and tend to any emotion and need with curiosity and compassion. We enjoy supporting and encouraging each other and being real and with balance, including with playfulness.  No matter what, we value you as forever an irreplaceable, respected, and appreciated part of a dear one or ones you are carrying into the world. We welcome an opportunity to meet you where you are at the current time and beyond. So too, we welcome an opportunity to meet an evolving creation where she, he, or they are in any moment. Thank you for considering us as potential parents.