When we have the time we love to go to the movies. We like the experience of watching a movie in the theater with a cold soda and some snacks, especially on an opening weekend for a big blockbuster like Avengers Endgame. Recently we've also been able to experience a drive-in theater which had never been in our area before. TV is also something that we enjoy, we met while we both worked in TV broadcasting, and we still try to keep up with some of the new shows. Cooking our favorite foods and trying new recipes is something we also really like to do, whether it's trying to replicate a childhood favorite or something more trendy such as food boards. On the weekends we like to entertain friends at our house or meet up for a hike on one of the many trails around the area. We also love to travel and since we have family and friends that live all around the US and all over the world, we have been lucky to visit some amazing places. Annual visits to see family in Tucson, Arizona or Jakarta, Indonesia have been highlights for us for years. In the last few years we've also been able to attend weddings and visit family in New Zealand and France. We both have lived in different parts of the world before we met, so naturally, in between family visits, we also love to explore new places and countries.

As an interracial couple that comes from very diverse backgrounds we have lots of traditions taken from our past and added even more in the eleven years that we've been married. Every year we have many celebrations with family and friends. On Thanksgiving and Christmas, sometimes we are able to have a big meal with our parents and another one with our friends on a different day. We also enjoy picking out our Christmas tree and decorating the house. Some of the decorations we have are 30 or more years old.

We also celebrate Ramadan each year. This also is a time for us to decorate our home, reflect on our lives, and give to charity. At the end of Ramadan we host a big get together to celebrate with close friends and lots of food that we spend days preparing.

Another yearly celebration for us is Chinese New Year. Filled with good food and reconnecting with family all over the world we wear and decorate with lots of red for good luck and give young children in our circle of friends and family little red packets with money in them.

Something that Gigin has enjoyed for a long time and that Justin has only recently really embraced is Halloween. If we are not at home giving out candy to trick-or-treaters we are probably at a party usually dressed up in matching costumes. Last year we did both as we were dressed up as Minions while giving out candy.

We are an interracial couple so we have been exposed to and have personal experience dealing with different cultural backgrounds. We are blessed with close friends who are also interracial couples who have mixed race children. We also live in a very diverse neighborhood of all races, which would help make our future child, regardless of their cultural heritage, feel welcome. Gigin is Asian American, and being a foreign-born immigrant, she understands firsthand the importance of having to maintain a connection to one's cultural/racial heritage or roots. She taught an intercultural communication course at the college level, and teaches public speaking to groups of students with different cultural backgrounds, which should also prepare her for the task of addressing potential cultural differences with our future child. Justin is multiracial; his father is Caucasian and his mother is Asian. He has lived experience navigating across racial and cultural differences himself. Before we met, both of us had also spent significant time living in different countries overseas. Our unique and shared backgrounds have taught us to be tolerant and accepting of all cultures, and we can use that lived experience and learn any cultural background of our future child to raise them with full respect of that culture.

We have been in our home for about seven years now. Our neighborhood is just about 15-20 minutes outside of Washington, D.C.; it is almost 80 years old and has a great mix of residents that have lived here for a very long time and newer families that have recently moved in. It is also a very diverse area with plenty of young families with children. People from many different cultural backgrounds live just in our row of seven houses.

Our townhouse has three bedrooms, a small front yard, and a larger space out back with a picnic table, flowerbed, and deck. It's a great place for having friends and family over for a BBQ. We even have a pergola with a retractable shade to give us some relief when it gets too hot.

Our neighborhood is really great, there are lots of trees lining the streets and there are two parks and playgrounds less than a block away, with even more a short walk further. The local elementary school is just around the corner. Also a short walk or bike ride away is the main street that has lots of great restaurants and shops. That street is also where they have many festivals and parades throughout the year. Some of our favorites are the yearly food festival and the Halloween parade. We really love our neighborhood.

Our family is one of the most important things in our life.

Gigin is the middle of three sisters and Justin is an only child. Gigin's parents and younger sister live in Indonesia where she was born. Her older sister lives with her husband and their teenage twins in France. Although Gigin's family lives far away at the moment, she usually is able to visit them twice a year with Justin coming along for one of those trips.

Justin's mother and father still live in the house they moved to when he was 12 years old. They are only about a 25-minute drive away from where we live and we go visit quite often to have lunch on the weekends and of course for holidays and special occasions.

Both of our parents are retired so that gives us lots of time to spend together when we are able to visit. Besides our immediate family we both also have many aunts, uncles and cousins that live all around the country and overseas. All of our family enjoys traveling to see each other, especially during special events like weddings. Those times are extremely fun getting to catch up with family and eat good food.

We are looking forward to giving Gigin's parents a new grandchild and Justin's their first!

Thank you for taking the time to read our story and consider us as potential parents for your child. This is probably one of the most difficult decisions you have to make, but we know that you have your child's best interest in your heart. We hope that once you get to know us a little bit more, we can earn your trust to do our best to love and raise your child.

We met at work a little over sixteen years ago, and have been married for eleven. Prior to our encounter, both of us had been living in different parts of the world, so naturally our love for travelling and learning about different places and cultures grew stronger as a couple. We hope to share our love for adventure and respecting diverse cultures, within and outside the United States, with our future children.

We spent the majority of our dating years living apart half way across the world(!), and so after we got married, we took our time in making plans about growing our family. We have always known that we wanted to expand our family with a child or two (or three!), biologically and through adoption. Our families are scattered around the world, but we have groups of close friends nearby that we also consider family. We spend many times with them for theirs and their children's birthdays. Justin's parents live nearby us, so we are able to meet with them most weekends, usually over lunch or brunch. Gigin's always made the time to visit her parents and her siblings overseas during summer or winter breaks. We always look forward to family weddings so we get to meet our cousins overseas. We have family members and close friends who are adoptees or adoptive parents, so adoption is not an uncommon subject. We talked about the possibility to foster or adopt for our second child, but when we learned that we were unable to have a child biologically, adoption became the obvious path for us.

We are looking forward to this important milestone, the next chapter of our lives that we can share with a child or two. Our families and friends are very supportive of our adoption plan and they eagerly await to welcome our first child and introduce them to their cousins. We hope to share our family traditions with our child and teach them the values that we believe in. We come from multiracial families and live in a very diverse neighborhood. We are eager to learn our future child's cultural background and commit to raise them with full respect of their culture, just as we continue to maintain a connection to our own cultures.

We are happy to meet with you if you would like to know a little bit more about us. We are committed to honor this open adoption journey and will share with you photos, letters, or emails as your child grows. We are also open to schedule visits when the time fits all of us. We want them to know that they are very much loved by both their biological and adoptive parents, and how difficult this decision was for you.

Thank you again for reading our story and considering us as your child's adoptive parents.

Best,

Justin & Gigin