Hello, and thank you for considering us as adoptive parents for your child! Our names are Aileen and Ian, and we live in Redwood City, California along with our two year old daughter, Isabel. We grew up in the Midwest (Aileen born and raised in Michigan, Ian in Indiana) and met while living and working in Chicago, after which point we got married and moved to California! We share passions for travel, rock climbing, board games, and eating at our favorite restaurants. But the greatest passion we share is our love of family, and we are excited for your child to join ours!

During one of the first times we hung out prior to beginning dating, we discussed how many children we wanted and both answered that we wanted to adopt!

There are many children who grow up without a family or stable support structure, and we both wanted to adopt a child to give them a loving family, happy childhood and whatever life opportunities we possibly can.

We met rock-climbing at our gym in Chicago - Ian enjoyed his courtship of Aileen so much, he tried to schedule his gym days to align with Aileen’s. One day Ian asked Aileen out on a date to a funk concert, and after that day we hung out nearly every day ever since. We are both fun-loving and adventurous, love to laugh, and enjoy spending as much time with family and friends as we possibly can. After getting married, we moved to California to chase our dream jobs, live somewhere more diverse, and enjoy the great weather! We spend the majority of our free time nowadays bringing Isabel to fun activities like the zoo or children’s museums on the weekends. On weekdays we enjoy intense rounds of hide-and-seek or splashing in our water toys in our backyard.

I try to live by the “golden rule” and treat everyone with respect and make an effort to brighten someone’s day.

I am always laughing and smiling! A friend recently joked they couldn’t think of a time they’d seen me mad. I’ve always had a big imagination since I was a kid and there is nothing like watching children full of joy and laughter.

Occupation: I am currently a Real Estate Accountant and find my work to be fascinating. I have a real passion for what I do.

Ian is incredibly selfless and sweet. I am constantly in awe of him and how he treats me and our family. Before we got married, I suffered a back injury that at the time had me almost bedridden. Ian did everything for me, he took care of the household chores, cooked and cleaned and even bought me flowers and put them on a chair next to the bed for me. He supported me and never wavered on being with me. I feel so lucky that not only is my injury behind me, but during one of the most difficult times of my life Ian’s commitment to me grew even stronger.

Ian is the best dad. He is always making sure our daughter loves life. He was the first one to get her to laugh and he always makes her laugh the hardest. When I see how other parents watch their children and how attentive and fun Ian is, I love him even more than the day before.

My friends would say that I am very loyal and empathetic. That I have an adventurous spirit that brings a lot of fun to their lives. Most importantly, that they never feel alone because they know I am always there for them.

Occupation: I am a Data Analyst, and I am so grateful that I not only get to work for my dream company, but also that my career allowed us the opportunity to move to California.

I’m excited to do so many wonderful things with our family as Isabel and our future child are a little older. I think the memories and experiences will be amazing and I so look forward to them.

Aileen is the most passionate mother I have ever met. She does tons of research about every little decision to make sure she is doing everything perfect for Isabel. She is always worried and prepared for any possible issues/concerns of hers, and always thinking ahead.

The things that drew me to Aileen when we first met was her passion for life. When we would spend time together, she was always very happy, outgoing, and funny. She cared deeply about her friends and family, and would do anything for them. She loved me in a more powerful way than I had ever felt before. She always had a big, beautiful smile on her face, and she loved to laugh. Every day was a new adventure, and it still feels like that today!

She is extremely smart and organized, and handles the responsibilities of adulthood and parenthood with grace. She is my love.

We both have jobs that are great for raising children. Aileen works 100% remotely as an analyst and has unlimited sick leave, a great baby bonding leave policy, and flexible working hours. Ian works remotely 80% of the time as an accountant and has a good baby bonding leave policy and flexible working hours as well. We are both available to drop everything immediately in the event of sickness or an emergency. We both have work cultures where we are able to sign off around 4/5pm and focus 100% on family time after work.

We love spending time together as a family, traveling, rock-climbing, hiking, and eating at restaurants. We have also traveled to Asia, Africa, and Europe together on multiple occasions and love a good adventure.

Even before we had Isabel, we knew that we wanted our children to be happy, healthy, and good people. We now spend our free time trying to fill Isabel’s life with happiness and experiences. We do physical activities like swimming lessons, family hikes, and dancing. We also explore the zoo, children’s museums, and farmer’s markets. We try to get at least one play date with another family per month.

We spend a lot of time together trying to make every day of Isabel’s the best we possibly can, and we’re excited for the opportunity to do the same with your child!

We have a big open living/dining/kitchen room area, and it has transformed into Isabel’s giant play room. We usually spend our time reading books, playing hide-and-seek, dancing, and pretend play. We love music, and have a great time playing guitar/ harmonica/ tambourine (sometimes as a family band!), and listening to Ian’s record player. There is a toddler kitchen and a step-up tower in the kitchen so she can watch us prepare and cook meals and hang out with us.

We’ve created a private, safe, fenced in play yard oasis filled with push toys, a water table and splash pad, a slide, and a bunch of other outdoor friendly toys.

Redwood City is very close to hiking trails in redwood forests, beaches, and airports for traveling.

San Francisco is only 40 minutes away! We are fortunate to live in a safe area and have wonderful neighbors, many with young children, that we are friends with.

Isabel was born in July, 2021. She is a very talkative and happy child, she is very social at daycare and is constantly giggling and dancing at home and with her friends at daycare. She loves Minnie Mouse, cars/trains/planes, dogs/cats/insects. She carries a baby doll around named “Baby”, and is always feeding it or patting it to sleep. We know she will love your child and be an incredible big sister.

We have two pet bunnies - Bowser and Boo. They are adorable lion head/lop mixes. Isabel and all of her friends in the neighborhood and in daycare love them! They are free roaming, which means they run around the house just like cats and dogs. They groom themselves like cats and always use their litter box. They love being pet as well!

We both come from very big families with different and diverse backgrounds! Ian has 14 aunts and uncles so his family is big. Which means lots of cousins and lots of talking and shared good times at get-togethers. Ian has one sister, Hanna. She and her husband, Jake, have 3 children (ages 11, 8, 5). Their kids LOVE having younger cousins and are constantly helping with Isabel and making her laugh. They even kept a conga line going for 30 minutes because Isabel was having so much fun and kept asking for “more Conga”!

Aileen’s family is very diverse, with lots of interracial families and also lots of aunts/uncles and cousins. Get-togethers on Aileen’s side always have enough food to feed 3x the people that are there, so the party can last for two meals and there is still food for people to take home. There are lots of kids on Aileen’s side and every get together is full of laughter, hide and seek and running around. Aileen has one brother, Alex. He and his wife, Nancy, have two children (ages 2, 6 months). It’s exciting to watch the young cousins play together! In total, our extended families account for over 100 people. It makes it a lot of fun, and calls for a lot of food and laughter.

For our first Easter together, Ian needed to run an errand. So Aileen secretly hid Easter eggs for him around the home they shared. She then recorded him searching for eggs so we could always look back at this fun memory. We kept this tradition every year, but we split the eggs and hide them from each other. 2022 was the first year we could hide them for Isabel and her cousin, and we are so excited to continue this tradition every year onward.

Being a good person is so important to us. We both volunteered a lot in Chicago, and have done some volunteering while in California too. As soon as our kids are old enough, we want them to volunteer in their communities too. Making sure they are a well rounded person is very important. We did not grow up with the privilege we are affording our kids, but want to make sure that they are still grounded and still provide them with great happiness and opportunities.

We try to incorporate as much of Ian’s European and Aileen’s Chinese heritage and traditions into our daily lives, holidays, and family traditions. We are passionate about being parents and we prefer to spend our free time engaging with our daughter versus handing her an iPad as a distraction. We are so excited to have the opportunity to raise another child alongside Isabel, exploring all that the world has to offer. The most important things we value for our child and future children are for them to be happy, and to have a good foundation for how to be happy in life. We plan to teach them that community is important, that you should treat others with respect and always be empathetic towards all people. We are going to emphasize the importance of a good education. We are going to always be there to offer our care and support, no matter what, for the rest of our lives.

Thank you for taking your time to learn about our family! This is an incredibly selfless and loving thing you are considering, and we hope that our parenting philosophy, family values and personalities align with yours.

If they do and you select us as your child’s adoptive family, we promise we will give all of the love and care that we possibly could to them. They will be our world and we will love them dearly. We look forward to getting to know you and what your wishes for your child’s future are as well. We would love it if we could stay in touch and you could be involved as your child grows, if that is something you are interested in. No matter what, we will love your child and fill their hearts with joy, their bellies with delicious healthy food, and their minds with the tools to be compassionate and kind to others. Most of all, we hope the very best for you and your child!