Hello, we are Maggie and Josh!  Thank you so much for taking the time to learn about our family.  We are excited to meet you through this letter.  While we can only imagine how you are feeling right now, we would like to offer you comfort and support as you work through your decision.  We have nothing but respect for your courage as you decide what is right for you.  We hope that as your read our profile, you will feel a sense of peace and calm about your next steps.  We would be honored to complete our family through adoption, and welcome your child into our loving and supportive home.  

We met in NYC in 2005, where we were both doing karaoke with separate groups of coworkers.  Josh sang something by Bon Jovi and Maggie tried to sing TLC.  It was a lot of fun, although neither of us did Grammy worthy performances.  The way we met says a lot about the way we approach life - trying to bring fun and laughter into each day.  We were married in 2008.
 
We live on a quiet tree-lined street in Brooklyn, NY with a lot of friends and family close by.  We always knew that we wanted to have children and we started our family in 2011 with the birth of our son, Magnus.  In 2014, his brother Axel was born.  Because of medical complications, the doctor advised us that it would be too risky to have another child, so we began to embark on our adoption journey that has led us here.  We are so excited to complete our family through adoption and the kids are very excited to be big brothers!  
 
Josh works as a lawyer and Maggie is just starting an Advanced Visual Art and Design degree part-time after working for many years in real estate.  Because of Maggie's flexible schedule, we have a lot of time to make art, cook, and garden as a family at home.  We also love to travel to upstate New York, Minnesota, and Nebraska to visit our extended families.  We spend a lot of time in nature, and much of the summer at our beach house on Long Island, where we fish and build sand castles and are even learning to sail.  This year, we started a new family project -- writing a fantasy children's book that is inspired by some of our favorites (Harry Potter and Star Wars!).  

We have good friends who have grown their family through adoption. We will help your child understand where they come from and we will appreciate the openness of the process with you to whatever degree you wish. The idea of adding a child to our family fills us with so much joy and light! We are honored that you are considering us. Thank you so much!

Maggie is a steadfast, caring, and joyful person and mother. She is very funny and loves to make people laugh. She is thoughtful toward her friends and family; always doing special things for their birthdays or reaching out when they are going through a rough time.
 
Maggie is originally from Schenectady, NY, but moved to NYC for college, and then to Brooklyn.  Maggie loves to watch comedies, HBO shows like The Wire, Sporanos, and Game of Thrones, listen to music, and make pancakes. She has worked in real estate for a long time but is now taking Art and Design Classes to get a Certificate in Interior Design, which gives her very flexible hours and the ability to be the primary caregiver to the kids. Maggie is an animal lover (koalas and dogs are her favorites) and enjoys traveling—especially to the beach!
 
Maggie's close-knit family lives in NYC and upstate She spends a lot of time with her Mom, Dad, and sisters.  Maggie’s father comes to visit every week or two and is one of the best storytellers on the planet. He is also a big Yankees fan and tries to convert the kids. There are a lot of cousins in Schenectady, NY, where Maggie's sister still lives.  

Hobbies:  cooking, making art, writing.

Favorite food:  veggie dumplings with sesame sauce.

Favorite season:  fall

Josh is a very hands-on dad who is caring, smart, and funny. He is our family's rock and someone we can always rely on to be there.  He is good at outdoorsy things like chopping wood and starting a campfire, but is also great at setting up our electronics. Josh is the oldest of two brothers and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and went to college in Kansas. He moved to NYC for law school and then to Brooklyn when he and Maggie met.  He likes to ski, play soccer, and throw BBQs for friends and family. His greatest joy in life is his family! Josh has always wanted a big family, and he is a really fun and caring dad.  
 
Josh’s mom, stepdad, and younger brother (along with his wife and young child) all live in Omaha. Josh’s parents visit us as much as possible. Josh also has extended family in Minnesota where his mom grew up.  We get together with Josh’s extended family every year for Christmas.   Josh loves to play baseball and soccer with our kids.  He loves giving piggy back rides and reading to them at bedtime.  He does a great Chewbacca impression and is the one who makes all the movie night snacks in our house. 

Hobbies:  soccer, skiing, playing guitar, crossword puzzles.

Favorite food:  his late father's award winning spicy chili.

Favorite season:  spring.

Our neighborhood is full of kids and families and a lot of different restaurants with cuisines from around the world. We have block parties every week during the summer. Everything is within walking distance and we love spending time at the great parks and playgrounds. We love grilling in the back yard and visiting with friends on the stoop. Our community of friends is filled with a lot of love. We love having playdates at the local playgrounds, library, and the movie theater.
 
We share our home with two rescue mutts, Bailey and Arthur. Bailey (age 16) loves chicken treats and relaxing and watching movies with her family. Arthur (age 10) loves any kind of snack. Once Arthur got himself stuck under the sofa (he is a little chubby and could not get out)! Every night at bedtime, Bailey likes to curl up at the foot of Axel's bed. Both pups are relaxed and gentle with kids.
 
We go to Fire Island, which is a barrier island with beautiful beaches, every summer.  It's 1.5 hours from NYC but feels like it's a million miles away.  There, people do not drive cars but walk around and carry their groceries on wagons and ride bikes.  The whole community gets together for sunsets every night on the dock and there are amazing activities for kids, like learning to sail in little Sunfish boats or playing basketball or tennis, and a lot of bike riding.  We grill out every night when we are there.  We also love going on vacations to places like Harry Potter World at Universal Orlando, and we have a list of fun places that we want to discover as a family, like the Galapagos Islands to meet the penguins, and Hawaii because it just looks so beautiful there.  

We have two kids who cannot wait to be older brothers!!  Magnus is 8 and will be entering 4th grade, and Axel is 5 and will enter 1st grade in the fall.  Magnus is a very empathetic child who makes friends very easily and loves playing and following basketball, organizing family meals, building with Legos, and loves Harry Potter and Star Wars.  Axel is a very imaginative child who loves Wild Kratts and learning and teaching us about different animals.  He is a very humorous child and he has easy friendships.  He's very smart and runs fast!  Both of them are great with babies and love holding and playing with our friends' younger kids and infants.  They will be protective and caring big brothers!

Hobbies:  (both) Star Wars, Harry Potter, Legos, Walkie Talkies, Reading (especially animal stories).

Favorite Foods:  Magnus - sushi, Axel - ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins on top)

Favorite Season:  Magnus - summer, Axel - winter (Christmas!)

We go to the Fire Island every summer. We love the ocean! We enjoy being in a place with no cars, where kids run free, and daily activities include sand castles, bike riding, and boogie boarding. We also love going to Florida or the Caribbean in the winter or early spring and can't wait to someday take our family to Hawaii, the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, and hopefully Hawaii!  Learning about the world and all of its beauty is our greatest hobby, whether that is here in NYC or on vacation. Lately, we have focused our trips to places like Harry Potter World for Magnus and Axel.
 
We spend a lot of time at NYC's parks. We go on nature walks in the hiking trails, where we make up games about magical animals with Magnus and Axel. 

Our favorite holiday is Christmas, where we have big family meals and celebrations, and make rice pudding and Swedish pancakes for breakfast.  We also love Halloween, where we come up with a family costume like the Avengers or Star Wars characters and all go out together with friends in the neighborhood to trick-or-treat.  

Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know us here through the photos and letters.  It is impossible for us to fully understand what you are going through, but we want you to know that our mission in life is to be loving, caring, supportive, and understanding parents.  We have nothing but respect for your courage and bravery as you make your plan.  We understand also that our role as adoptive parents is not just caring for a baby, but nurturing a person at every stage and honoring where they came from and where they will go in this life.  The openness in letting the child know where they come from is very important to us and we will take your lead on how you want that to happen.  We are so excited to be on this adoption journey and welcome the opportunity to get to know you better. We hope that you’ll get our biggest message here, that family is everything to us and we would be honored to complete our family through adoption.
 
With All Our Love,
Maggie and Josh