Our lifestyle is balanced between down-time at home and getting out of the house. We love having coffee and breakfast together in our recently renovated home. Our neighborhood is very walkable so we often go for leisurely walks to get fresh air, and we look forward to taking the new little one to Lincoln Park or Maury elementary school to play with other children. We also enjoy going out to restaurants and attending art openings and the theater, and as the child grows we would love to introduce them to many types of cultural activities. We believe that experiences are more important than possessions, and one thing we're really looking forward to is traveling with our child. Travel exposes us to cultures and histories that are not our own, expanding our understanding of humanity and allowing us to empathize with others much more easily.

We both love playing and listening to music of all kinds, so we are looking forward to introducing the child to music at a young age. Anna enjoys gardening and cooking and is excited about spending time in our back yard and kitchen teaching the child about nature, food, and life. Hiroshi is an architect and artist and is involved in a local non-profit arts organization. He is looking forward to introducing the child to art, design, and creativity. Both of us also grew up playing sports and we believe in the power of sports to teach life lessons like teamwork and resiliency, in addition to being a source of friendship, confidence, and a healthy lifestyle.

Because we are a mixed-race couple, there is a certain amount of cultural diversity that will be inherent in the child's life just by who we are. But we know this is not enough. We are firm believers in being intentional about introducing the child to different cultures and activities from an early age.

One thing we know is important is for the child to have social mirrors, or people that look like them, as part of their life. We feel fortunate to live in a neighborhood that is very racially and economically diverse at only 53% white. Both of us work in fields that are racially diverse and have many colleagues of African American, Latin American, and Asian heritage. Hiroshi is also very connected to the arts community in our city which has tremendous diversity. Some of our best friends are of non-white, like Josue who is Salvadorian and Vidya who is Sri Lankan.

We love our kitties! We love animals of all kinds, but we are very much cat people. When we got married, we adopted an orange tabby named Hunter and he was our world until he sadly passed away from cancer a few years ago. After a year of mourning we were finally emotionally able to adopt two very young sister kittens in 2020. We decided to get two because we wanted each of them to have a companion to grow up and play with. Much of what we do revolves around the kitties and we have cat toys all over the house. Julep is black and white and is the clever and vocal one. Whiskey is grey and orange striped and is more timid but quite snuggly. We make the effort to learn about cat care and cat behavior through training courses, books, and blogs, much like we would do in caring for a human child. We are currently training them to walk on a leash and join us on hikes both on the leash and in a special backpack designed to hold kitties. They are amazingly smart kitties, so they are learning quickly! We look forward to teaching the child about the amazing bond between humans and animals and to respect and care for all kinds of animals. We also look forward to going on hikes and outings in parks with our kitties and the child together!

Our community is amazing! We're very happy to live in the NE Capitol Hill area of Washington, D.C., which is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city. It is full of young growing families, in addition to other people of all ages and family types. Our next-door neighbors on both sides have very young children (infants and toddlers), and there are many more young children living (and playing) on our street. Our neighborhood has several elementary schools, public parks, and even a rec center with a pool within walking distance, where we imagine spending lots of time with the child!

We live in a two-story brick rowhouse that was built in 1892, and our street was recently designated as a historic district by the city of DC. We purchased the home in 2012 and have since completely renovated every inch of it to create the home of our dreams. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with a generous kitchen and lots of built-in storage. Our favorite room is the bedroom we recently renovated that we currently use as a home office, but are looking forward to converting into a bedroom for the new child! The architectural style of the home is in the original Queen Anne style on the exterior, with a more modest clean mid-century aesthetic on the interior.

Anna's parents and her sister (Maya) live a few hours away in Philadelphia. We're fortunate enough to see them several times a year and enjoy spending time with them while sharing a meal or visiting museums. We are also very close with Anna's extended family, and often see them at larger family gatherings. Her cousin Jane and her husband Paul also live in Washington DC and we see them and their three girls often. We also see her other cousins and aunts and uncles at least once a year at the 4th of July family gathering in Connecticut. The family's polish heritage means there's always lots of laughter and keilbasi (polish sausage) at these gatherings.

Hiroshi's parents spend half of the year in Japan and the other half of the year in St. Louis, so we see them less frequently. Hiroshi's brother Jeremy and his wife Melissa have seven kids (one is adopted!), and they also live in St. Louis. His younger brother Makoto is in the Marine Corps, and he and his wife Chelsea just had their first girl! They are stationed in San Diego now, but before that they were stationed in Washington DC so we saw them a lot. Before the pandemic we would get together with Hiroshi's family over New Years for a skiing trip in Colorado.

Everyone in our families is excited about our adoption plans and will be ecstatic to welcome the child into our home and family!

Hi! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this letter and consider our profile. Our sincere hope is that this is the first step in a lifelong relationship with you and your child, and we couldn't be more excited to begin this journey with you!

If you're anything like us, this process can be overwhelming and a bit scary. It's a difficult time and there are weighty decisions ahead, ones that come with many emotions. But, we want you to know that we are strong believers in being intentional with our lives and really committing to the things we take on as partners. Raising a child is the most significant thing we will ever do, and that is why we are pouring our whole heart and energy into it.

So, a little bit about us!

We are Anna and Hiroshi, a mixed-race couple living in Washington, D.C. Although we still think of ourselves as relatively young, we've been married for almost 20 years. We met in college, and because we were friends for a long time before we began dating we attribute much of our strong marriage to our unbreakable friendship. We have a lot of fun together whether it's hanging out at home, traveling, or contributing to the culture of our community. We feel very lucky to work in jobs that we believe improve our society. I (Anna) am an attorney who advises the National Institutes of Health because I believe in the mission and importance of public health. I (Hiroshi) am an architect who designs schools and housing, and an artist who creates temporary installations in public spaces and volunteers with a local non-profit arts organization, because I believe in the power of creativity to change lives. Now, we are looking forward to shifting our energy from own ambitions and activities to bringing up a child who can contribute to a better world.

We describe our personalities as outgoing introverts. We very much enjoy and need our time recharging at home with our two adorable kittens Whiskey and Julep. They give us so much joy and we can't wait to introduce them to the new baby! We also love people – especially good people. We have fun hanging out with friends and making new ones, dining out, attending art openings, and going to sporting events. We're strong believers in being well-rounded contributors to society, and are looking forward to teaching the child these values. We love traveling, because it introduces us to other cultures and builds our empathy for people who are not like us. We love listening to music but also making music! We love viewing art but also making art! We love watching sports but also being active! We imagine doing all of these things with the child, beginning at a young age. Not to push them in any one direction, but to give them a broad set of experiences and chances to fall in love with life.

As the child's birth parent, we understand you probably have conflicting emotions regarding your future relationship with the child. We want to let you know that we are approaching this with an attitude of openness. We anticipate sending you periodic updates and pictures, but for the child's benefit we would appreciate your continued involvement in their life through periodic contact via email, phone, and in-person visits. We know there may be times when the child has questions about their own story that we can't answer, and we also know that having a relationship with you will be pivotal to their sense of self-identity. Of course, the level of contact will be completely up to you and we understand it may change over time as you are comfortable.

We hope this letter and the rest of our profile gives you a sense of who we are and we are thrilled that you are open to selecting us as adoptive parents for your child. Written words and photos can only give a small impression of who we are, so we would be more than happy to meet and get to know you via phone or virtual meeting.

Yours truly,

Hiroshi & Anna