Procurement Analyst / Software Engineer
Minnesota
Caucasian
Hello! We are Ben & Eric, and we are both eager and ready to welcome a child into our lives. We've been together for over nine years and married for more than three. We live in a mid-sized city along the southern Wisconsin-Minnesota border, right on the banks of the Mississippi River. Our careers are both in the healthcare business industry, with Ben as a Procurement Analyst and Eric as a Software Engineer.
We’ve always dreamed of becoming parents. With our careers and finances established, our long-term home secured, and our hearts ready, we feel it's the perfect time to grow our family. We’re committed to creating a nurturing environment where our child can explore their own interests & passions, knowing they have our unwavering love, support, and guidance every step of the way.
We both have known for a long time that we eventually wanted to be parents. Now, with our careers stable and our long-term home secured, we are both ready and excited to grow our family! As a same-sex couple, our main options for parenting were surrogacy and adoption. While that choice is highly personal to each couple, we felt that giving a child who is already coming into the world a loving, secure, and happy home was the best match to our beliefs and goals.
We live in the La Crosse, Wisconsin area - a community of about 170,000 people located along the banks of the Mississippi River, right on the southern border of Wisconsin and Minnesota. La Crosse is known for its natural beauty, featuring both towering bluffs and lowlands along the river that create scenic hiking trails and charming lookout spots. The community hosts a variety of festivals and events throughout the year, including a well-known Oktoberfest celebration with community parades and a December light show that transforms the park along the river into a winter wonderland. The area also offers a range of educational institutions, allowing families to choose the learning environment that best fits their children's needs and interests.
We have been in our long-term house for three years and appreciate the space it offers our family, both inside and out. Our neighborhood is safe, supportive, and diverse, with a good mix of new parents, households with older children, and retired couples. Additionally, we’re fortunate to have a large park within walking distance that features a busy playground and hosts kids’ sporting events.
Family means the world to us. We’re fortunate to live just minutes away from Ben's mom, oldest sister, and brother-in-law, which means we get together weekly to support one another with life’s everyday moments. The rest of our immediate families are within about a 2.5-hour drive - Ben’s includes his dad, stepmom, middle sister, and second brother-in-law, while Eric’s includes his mom, dad, oldest sister, and middle brother. We’re also excited that Ben’s oldest sister is expecting in fall 2025!
Our families are warm, humorous, and always ready to lend a hand. We typically host both families at our home for one or two holidays each year, and we often travel to visit them for other celebrations or impromptu weekends of fun. We cherish time spent cooking together, playing board games, enjoying outings, and simply watching our pets interact. Everyone is excited about our adoption journey and looks forward to welcoming our future child into our supportive and loving extended family. In line with their own values, our family members will help our child learn empathy, curiosity, diligence, and support for others.
From Eric: Ben is caring, bubbly, and very conscientious. What I love most about him is his sense of humor and genuine desire to help others. Beyond the daily work he does for our family and around the house, Ben frequently takes on projects at his mom’s house and is always the first to offer assistance at gatherings. His fun-loving nature reminds me that taking time away from the daily grind - whether it’s planning a vacation or simply enjoying quality time together - is essential. Ben also has a hunger to experience all that life has to offer. When we go on vacations, we aren’t just relaxing by a pool. Instead, Ben plans each day so we can explore new places to their fullest extent.
I’m incredibly excited to raise a child with Ben. I know he will instill empathy, care, and self-confidence in any child he helps bring up. He’ll work tirelessly to ensure our child is well cared for, openly express his love, and bring humor and joy into their life. Ben has already taken proactive steps to set up our nursery and gather all the essentials we need - a testament to his readiness and commitment. I have complete confidence that his dedication, kindness, and thoughtful planning will create a nurturing and joyful environment for our future child.
From Ben: Eric is one of the most humble people I know. He is constantly striving to improve himself and our lives, yet he doesn't seek out recognition for his efforts. Eric is patient and supportive, and he has a unique ability to make even the toughest situations feel manageable. Outside of his demanding career, Eric is always seeking the next adventure, whether it's finding new hiking trails for us and our dogs or learning new skills. What truly sets Eric apart is his insatiable curiosity and his eagerness to learn and embrace new challenges.
Eric radiates energy and positivity wherever he goes. He's always surrounded by dogs and is the first to join in the fun with our cousins' and friends' kids. Whenever we visit family or friends, he heads straight for the dogs, earning him the well-deserved nickname of "the dog whisperer." His natural connection with animals and his playful spirit make him unforgettable to everyone he meets.
I can't wait to see Eric step into the role of dad and share with our child the same love and support he shows me every day. He will raise them with the same enthusiasm for learning and the spirit of adventure that he brings to everything he does. I have no doubt that his endless curiosity and passion for life will inspire them every step of the way.
We met through an online dating site and had our first date at a local park on the Mississippi river, which is the same park we got engaged at years later! Our connection was immediately apparent, and we started officially dating after just a couple dates.
We both are so excited to watch you grow, learn, and become your own person! Our home will be filled with love, support, and respect. We want you to follow your own interests and ideas, and we will be there every step of the way to support you, guide you, and ensure you have a safe space to explore those passions.
Through our adoption agency, we learned in depth about the benefits and considerations of open adoption. We both warmly welcome an open, ongoing connection to the birth parent(s), believing it can make the child feel more connected to their birth story and heritage.