Ali and Michael

Hello!

We are Ali and Michael and are so happy to be sharing with you a little bit about ourselves and our desire to welcome a baby girl into our lives.  What a courageous step you are taking to seek a supportive family who will love, nurture, and guide your child through life!  We acknowledge you for your commitment to making a choice that feels right to you.

We have been married for almost 7 years and have known each other for over 9 years. Our relationship is based on respect, trust, communication, and humor.  We have a 5-year-old son, Nathanial, and have always hoped to have two children. We are both very engaged in the care and upbringing of our child and look forward to loving a second child, as well. We have given years of thought to adoption, and it is clear to us that this is the wonderful way in which we want to expand our family to support and love one another throughout life.

We live in a comfortable 3-bedroom, 2-bath home about 10 minutes North of San Francisco, California. One of the things we love about where we live is that we have easy access to fun city offerings such as science, art, and kids' museums, as well as to nearby mountains, the San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. We spend lots of time outdoors and have a kid-friendly back yard garden and lawn where we tend our flowers, enjoy meals, kick around a soccer ball, and explore bugs together.

Ali grew up in a town of 400 people in Vermont, an only child raised primarily by her single father. She went to school in a 2-room schoolhouse while her father worked various jobs, including being her teacher. He instilled in her a love of books and education and a knowledge of how to use lots of tools. Ali worked very hard in school and was accepted into Harvard University, where she earned a B.A. in French. She later received an M.A. in Counseling from the University of San Francisco. Now, as a Career Counselor, she works part-time to help clients find jobs they love. One of her favorite quotes is, “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”

Michael was raised as one of seven children in a suburb of Buffalo, New York. His father was a meat cutter and owned a grocery store where Michael started working at age 14. Neither of Michael’s parents went to college. Although education was important to him, his family had little money, and he worked his way through college to earn a B.S. in Physical Education from University of Oregon and an M.S. in Physical Education from California State University, Hayward. Michael owns a health club and spa business with two locations near our home. He brings his love of exercise and fitness to others in his work. His focus is on overall wellness and his clubs offer his clients a warm, family-owned environment. Michael works with two of his five brothers. His business offers different fitness programs and classes like spinning, yoga, Pilates, and Zumba.

Our interests are varied; as a family, we enjoy walking up the hill behind our house, gardening, picnicking at the beach, going to the weekly farmers' market, and volunteering for things like beach clean-ups and community fundraisers. We try our best to "live green" and eat mostly organic, local food and really try to support sustainable agriculture. We love to travel and learn about people and cultures in different places, as well as to stay in touch with our California and East Coast families.

Ali also loves writing, reading to and speaking French with Nathanial, taking classes in improvised theater acting, and volunteering as a hot-lunch server at Nathanial's school and as an occasional assistant to the minister at our church. Michael particularly loves the outdoors and activities such as cycling, kayaking, and skiing. Nathanial attends a bi-lingual French kindergarten and is interested in anything to do with books, animals, building things, and space ships. Legos are his current fascination, along with raising ladybugs from larvae and visiting our local library. He has also enjoyed taking tennis, Brazilian dance, and soccer lessons after school this year.

While we live most of the year in California, we are fortunate also to own a lovely old country farmhouse on 90 acres in Vermont. After Ali’s parents passed away five years ago, we chose to keep this wonderful place in our family and began spending Summers in this small town where Ali grew up. There, we have a pond with plenty of animal life (including a pet turtle last summer), large meadows on which a neighbor's cows graze during the summer, and a big red barn with a tractor and all sorts of interesting tools that belonged to Ali’s Dad. We enjoy how relaxed our Summers are there and how much we get to just slow down and enjoy the stars at night or gathering corn husks after dinner and feeding them to the cows.

A little about our physical descriptions: Ali is 5'8", 40 years old, with brown hair and blue eyes, and a medium build. Michael is 6'1", 55 years old, with wavy brown hair, blue eyes, and a slim build. Nathanial is 43 inches tall, with blond hair and blue eyes, Ali’s family background is Hungarian and English/Welsh, and Michael’s is Irish, German, and Dutch.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and look through the photos we have selected to give you a sense of our family. We look forward to encouraging in our future daughter, as much as we have done with Nathanial, a sense of security, trust, hope, and happiness. We so enjoy the experience of being parents and are immensely excited to provide a welcoming and loving home for another child.

If you would like to learn more about us and whether our family is the right fit for the child you are looking to place for adoption, please contact our lawyer, David Radis, at 1-800-637-2882.

With warm wishes,

Ali and Michael

If you would like to speak with us about adopting your child or have any questions for us, please contact our lawyer, David Radis, by calling 1-800-637-2882, toll-free.