Welcome! Meet:

Bob + Es

Computer Security / Software Developer / Physician

Minnesota

Caucasian

None / Jewish

All About Bob & Es
Why Adoption?
Gallery
Family and Home
How We Met
Advice to Future Child
Perspectives on Open Adoption
Favorites

All About Bob & Es

Hello!

We are Bob & Es (aka Esther or Essie). We have been married since 2015, and share our lives with two lovely dogs, Ori & Afi.

We have long been interested in growing our family through adoption, and hope to build a loving, trusting, and open relationship with our child's birth family. We dream of creating a nurturing and supportive environment where a child can feel safe to explore the world and their own interests, grounded in compassion and care.

We hope that this will help you get to know us better, and thank you for considering us.

Bob and Es

Why Adoption?

We have long been interested in becoming parents, and have always been open to the idea of adoption. Biological parenthood never happened for us, and we have never felt strongly about having a biological child. Both of us have been privileged to have close and loving relationships with people who have become family to us, and so we always imagined that it would come naturally to welcome an adoptive child to our family as well.

Family & Home

We moved to Minneapolis with our two dogs in the summer of 2024 for work. We live in a home with a fenced backyard and a little garden, close to a beautiful lake and a big park. We have enjoyed building our community here in the Twin Cities, and are lucky to have long-time friends in the area, with whom we often meet to celebrate the holidays or enjoy local live music and theatre. Our extended family lives around the country, in Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, Durham, Baltimore, and Rochester NY. We see all of them at least once a year, usually more often, and connect through Zoom and phone calls in between visits.

How others describe me

How Bob Describes Es:

Es is a kind, empathetic, and open-minded person who leads everyone around her toward more thoughtful ways of engaging with each other and with the world at large. She is dedicated to healing and teaching, but never stops looking for her own opportunities to learn something new. She has a gift for making people feel appreciated. Es sees the best in other people but still finds ways to encourage their growth.

How Es Describes Bob:

Bob is incredibly smart, analytical, and thoughtful. He is also multi-talented - when he sets his mind to do something he does it well. Bob always leads with values, and for that reason, I often turn to him when I encounter difficult situations at work or elsewhere in life. I always know that he will offer advice that is compassionate, respectful, and shows grace to others, recognizing the humanity in everyone. With the people he loves he is silly and playful.

How We Met

We met while living abroad in Kenya over a decade ago. Es is a physician, and was working at the time with a local non-profit organization on a school nutrition project. Bob is a security engineer and computer software developer, and he was based in Nairobi at the time for work. We met through an auspicious posting on Reddit by a close friend. A conversation that started in East Africa continued after we both moved back to the US. Eventually Bob moved to Arizona to be with Es as she finished her family medicine residency training. Less than two years after meeting, we were engaged, and then married a little over a year later in a small ceremony at a nature conservatory near our family in Baltimore, Maryland.

Advice to Future Child

We look forward to meeting the person you grow to be, and welcome all of your questions about the many facets of your identity, history, and all of the people who care about you and make up your family. We look forward to seeing you explore your interests and passions, whether in art or science, sports or music, or something else entirely, and we can’t wait to celebrate those interests with you. We hope that you will prioritize compassion, and realize the importance of caring for the people who share this world with you.

Perspectives on Open Adoption

We see openness as an essential component of adoption, a principle to be honored even if/when a member of the adoption triad (ex: a child's birth parents) are not present or may even not be in a position to engage with us/a child. Openness encompasses proactive communication about a child's birth family/heritage, holding this in high regard for a child, and also proactively engaging in regular contact with birth parents/families, nurturing and sustaining relationships between all involved in our child's life.

Favorites

Bob

Favorite Movie: The Princess Bride
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Thanksgiving and it’s not even close. I really like the idea of a holiday that centers on the concept of gratitude. The good food is pretty great too.
Hobbies/Interests: Jiu jitsu, baking, music production and composition, candlemaking, tinkering, and video games
Dream Vacation: a small quiet cabin on an island on some lake surrounded by a vast forest
If I Could Choose a Superpower: I would love to be able to instantly learn something new without the usual process of spending thousands of hours to get there.

Favorite Movie: Contact
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: I love handing out candy to trick or treaters with my older dog Ori on Halloween (Ori loves to get pets from all the kids).
Hobbies/Interests: exercise (weight-lifting, biking), walking with Bob and our dogs, cooking for friends and family, listening to and making music, and reading
Dream Vacation: going with both of our families to a beautiful location (a national park?) where we could cook meals together, hike and play, and relax
If I Could Choose a Superpower: to clone myself so that I could simultaneously take care of all of the tasks of life (laundry, cleaning, etc) and also engage in all of the activities and hobbies that bring me joy