Welcome! Meet:

Jordan + Paul

Software Program Manager, Property Manager, and Yoga Teache / Senior Contract Manager and Property

Utah

Caucasian / Asian

None

All About Jordan & Paul

“Some call it an adventure, we call it our way of life!

Both of us have an insatiable desire to explore and experience the world and the various cultures within it.  It was our strong family values, adventurous outlook on life, and desire to share our lives and adventures with others, that brought us together. We both believe that “Real happiness doesn’t come from getting everything you want. It comes from sharing what you have with the people who matter”.  We both have been very blessed in our lives, and would be beyond humbled to share these experiences and resources with others who bless our lives. 

Being wanderlusters, we have so many hobbies, traditions, and favorite things, but decided to highlight a few below and provide a little more detail into: Socks, Tết, and Phở.

Socks: A game played by Jordan’s bio-mom’s family that is a mix of dodgeball, hide and seek, and sardines played indoors -inside the house, when it is dark outside with the lights turned off (minus maybe a couple small lights for safety) with clean socks.  The family actually has special socks saved just for this game.  Currently played by picking a walnut out of a bowl that one of Jordan’s brothers made.  The walnuts have either an “S” or “H” on them (seeker or hider) and were grown in his parent’s front yard. The hiders go out first equipped with a couple socks and hide and wait for the seekers to come and attack- also with a couple socks.  The dodgeball element of this game then ensues and the team that is wiped out first loses – if you are hit you can be saved by going to the safe/starting room and being tagged back out. 

Tết: Short for Tết Nguyên Đán, is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. Tết celebrates the arrival of spring based on the Vietnamese calendar.  It is a time full of celebrating family, current and past - through honoring our ancestors and elders and passing on luck and good fortune onto those younger.  For our family, it is an occasion to wear our Áo dais (traditional Vietnamese dresses), eat lots of food, give red envelopes and blessings, and share our cultural identity through visiting the Vietnamese temple. It is sort of like New Years and Memorial Day combined with a lot more importance placed on the family (past and present) and brining in prosperity and health for the family into the new year.

Phở: A Vietnamese noodle dish the couple enjoys and makes all sorts of ways.  Phở is like a multipurpose staple in the house used sometimes as a meal, a second meal, late night snack, immune booster, and so much more. It is a warm comforting dish that can be adapted for the situation and mood.  The couple likes to make ghetto phở, a lot with various basic broths, a bunch of herbs (there is always, ginger, garlic, Thai basil, etc. in the house), and noodles.  Definitely one of Paul’s happy dishes and also one of Jordan’s favorites.

Other Hobbies, Traditions, and Favorite Things

  • Bike rides (especially between street art)
  • Board Games
  • Celebrating Cultures
  • Eating
  • EDM Concerts
  • Family adventures/spending time with family
  • Gardening
  • Home remodeling
  • Karaoke
  • Kayaking
  • Performances (ballet, symphony, opera, street acts, EDM, jazz…)
  • Rollerblading
  • Scuba Diving/Snorkeling
  • Skiing/Snowboarding
  • Sunsets
  • Spending time with our nieces and nephews (family)
  • Tag or board games with the nieces and nephews
  • Taking pictures
  • The sun
  • Travel
  • Walking around the neighborhood
  • Wandering around new cities

What people think of us as parents:

  • “Loving, adventurous, open and very involved parents” – Brother
  • “They will be a lucky, lucky baby! ... No two people I know have a broader range of experiences caring for others than Paul and Jordan. With literally a combined dozen younger siblings, they always prioritize time with each person, even when we are spread all over the world." – Step-Mom
  • “Your child will be in amazingly loving hands!” – Former boss
  • “I know you will be amazing parents. You have lived a life of service so being a parent will come to you naturally.” – Long time friend met dancing in the street
  • “You two will make great, loving and caring parents!” – Career and Life Mentor

Our Promise:

  • WE PROMISE to allow the child and you to be the guide for the openness of the adoption
  • WE PROMISE unconditional love, support, and guidance
  • WE PROMISE to provide great educational opportunities and support for late night school projects and competitions
  • WE PROMISE to provide a safe environment to allow them to grow into their best self
  • WE PROMISE to teach family values: respectful, honestly, tolerance and respect for differences, kindness, strong work ethic, and love for and of others
  • WE PROMISE to prioritize family
  • WE PROMISE to have continuous adventures, laugher, and joy

Q&A:

Q: What activities or interests are you excited to share with a child?

A: The world – expose the child to different cultures, languages, family values, food, sports and nature. Play socks and eat Phở. As well as help with homework (especially science and math) and other school projects and even go pinenut hunting.

Q: What are you looking for or open to in reference to adoption?

A: Any child regardless of age, gender, or racial identity. Our target is age three or under to help the child assimilate into our niece and nephew peer group, as well as be around the same age as our core friend groups.  Open to any race or nationality and Open adoption.

Q: What qualities do you and your partner admire about each other?

A: The ability to balance between living frugal and living large/experiencing life. The respect and support provided to others.  Ability to prioritize family and provide grace in disagreements. Thoughtfulness and ability to make genuine connections and friendship and considerations given to others and for the environment.

Q: What makes you feel the happiest in life?

A: Spending time with family, waking up to each other, and spending time with each other.

Q: What do you want to tell expectant/birth parents?

A: We have the upmost respect for you and your child, please leverage the resources apart of the adoption agencies arsenal to ensure you are provided with resources and education to support you in your journey.  We examined 20+ adoption agencies and picked the one we thought best supported you.

If selected as adoptive parents, we know we can provide a good home full of love and adventure and raise your child to the best of our abilities, to be a good human being.

Q: What are your core values?

A: Integrity, Courage, Honesty, Generosity, Respect, Open-mindedness, Dependability, Love, and Fun

Why Adoption?

Being an interracial, gay couple, we are unable to have children on our own, and have a strong desire to grow our family and share our life experiences with others who bless our lives.  Both of us have investigated the surrogacy route, and do not feel a strong desire to take that approach.  Jordan also has extensive experience working with children in the foster system and even was a prior foster parent and Paul has attended all sorts of workshops and conferences on how individuals can start families, and was even approached by a few single gay men and women, as well as lesbian couples to co-parent, but felt timing and the opportunity was not right.  Since being a couple, we have continued to take extensive parenting classes and now feel we are ready to adopt and that we have created an environment and lifestyle that will allow child(ren) to thrive. We have been blessed and learned so much about ourselves and can’t wait to share what we have learned and experienced with the next generation.

Family & Home

We live in a quaint suburb of Salt Lake City, across from one of Jordan’s friends and old neighbors. They used to live in the same apartment complex downtown as young adults and actually told Jordan about the house. They currently have a two year old girl and another on the way and are excited to see our family grow and have other kids in the neighborhood to play with.  Some of our other friends in the neighborhood are foster parents and are fostering to adopt. They just got a placement and it has been fun to see them grow.

Our house has two kitchens, six bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a detached garage full of kayaks, paddle boards, bicycles and other adventurous stuff. The couple currently rents out half of the house (the basement), as it would be too much space for only two people and the basement has a separate entrance, kitchen, laundry etc. but could see using all six bedrooms as the family grows. 

We enjoy going on daily walks around the neighborhood and doing yard work.  The property has a hot tub, outdoor fireplace, and lots of outdoor seating for parties.  The yard also has a large raspberry and black berry patch, as well as an established apple tree and some additional space the couple uses to garden.  We  frequently have lunch outside together in the summer, or sit on the porch swing at night chatting and watching the sun go down. 

We are  pretty involved in the community with Jordan on multiple boards and always finding fun things to do. The couple likes to celebrate different cultural celebrations whether with the Kurdish Community of Utah or another local event or organization in the city. For example we attended multiple Kurdish events, Diwali celebrations, the Equality Utah Gala, the Italian Festival, and a neighborhood Brazilian Festa Junina Party just to name a few. We also find ways to volunteer in the community, historically with children in the foster system or unhoused populations and love to find new restaurants to visit - small family owned are some of our favorites. 

We also do a lot with our families and make it a point to visit family regularly. Most of Jordan’s bio-mom’s family is close, so we usually see them a few times a month. Then with Paul’s family, we make a trip to the bay (California) about every 1-2 months and usually stay for a couple weeks.  We make it a point to stay engaged with our families and be present for key holidays, milestones, and other celebrations. We have positive relationships will all of our family members and see and talk to them frequently. We both value creating positive memories with our biological, extended, and chosen families.

How others describe me

Meet Jordan

Jordan is the oldest of 11 (all of which are half siblings) and was adopted by his dad (step dad) when he was ~12.  He maintains relationships with all siblings and parents and greatly appreciates his bio-dad allowing him to be adopted.  It is because of his own non-traditional family experiences, that he supports allowing the bio family and child to be the guide to the openness of the relationship and is grateful that he was afforded the opportunity to be adopted and determine what that would look like and was able to maintain positive, regular relations with both families.  In fact, both families were an active part of the couple’s recent wedding and all love Paul – but what’s not to love.

Jordan was born and raised in Utah and moved to New York at 18 to attend college on a scholarship he got from participating in the international science fair.  He subsequently moved to/lived in Thailand, Spain, Antigua and Barbuda, and Utah over the next five years while he finished his Bachelors in Molecular Biology, MBA, and Masters of Education in Instructional Design. He later went to school to earn a Master’s of Science in Leadership and Management – primarily to get cheaper symphony and opera tickets and because work would pay for it.

Jordan currently teaches yoga at a five-star hotel and is about to start a job with the US Government as a Software Program Manager, in addition to some property management he does on the side.  He has previously worked at multiple startups and fortune 500 companies across the finance and biotech sectors and used to run a non-profit in Southeast Asia and a regional science fair in Utah.

Jordan has always had a strong desire to be a father, and told himself growing up that if he wasn’t married by 24, he would just adopt and be a single dad.  Well 24 hit and he realized he wasn’t quite in the position to be a father yet, so he became a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) and has been volunteering with children in the foster system ever since. Then in 2019 he again felt a strong desire to mentor more, so he started taking classes with Utah Foster Care and Catholic Community Services and became a refugee unaccompanied minor foster parent.  When there was a gap in placements, Paul moved in and Jordan had to stop being a foster parent due to state policies around unwed couples cohabitating while fostering. Jordan was okay with this because it was all a step towards his ultimate goal of being able to adopt and he knew that there was something special about Paul and really loved his family values.

Jordan has completed training programs with Utah CASA, Catholic Community Services, Adoption Learning Partners, and Utah Foster Care (2019 and 2023) and is excited about the opportunity to adopt and be a full-time, permeant parent.

Jordan speaks English and Thai, some French and Spanish, and is learning Vietnamese.


Jordan (by Paul)

I have great admiration for Jordan and for his kindness and compassion. I still remember the first Christmas flight we took together to fly back to the Bay Area. Jordan brought a bunch of Korean paper facial masks to give to all the flight attendants and workers at the airport. He did so to show his gratitude for their service. I was impressed by his thoughtful gestures towards strangers and people around him.


Jordan is the most socially aware person I have ever met. He has a strong passion for social justice and is deeply concerned about underprivileged communities. He volunteers with several non-profits, and once a year he brings medicine to poor villages in Guatemala.

Jordan has a deep affection for his family and makes it a point to call his mother every day. He has a special fondness for children, particularly his nieces and nephews. It's heartwarming to see how much he adores them and is always on the lookout for opportunities to spend time with them, playing strategy board games and making memories that will last a lifetime.

Jordan serves as an inspiration for me to lead an eco-friendly lifestyle by purchasing sustainable products and volunteering in my community to help the underprivileged. He constantly reminds me to visit my mother's crypt at the church and say a prayer for her. I have always wanted someone like him in my life so that we can start a family together. His kind heart and tremendous dedication to making a difference in the world are truly remarkable.

I am looking forward to raising children with him.

Meet Paul

 Paul grew up in Vietnam and immigrated to the US at age 12 post the Vietnam war with his parents and three older siblings.  He remembers going “camping” in Vietnam with his family and coming back after only a few days.  Later he learned that the “camping” trip was a failed escape plan.  Paul and his family first moved to the Monterey, California area where his mother worked as a housekeeper at an inn.  Paul’s first job was actually a bell boy at this same inn that looks out to the Monterey coast. His family instilled a strong work ethic and worked extremely hard to get off of welfare, start a family business, learn English, and ensure the children were able to excel.  Education was a strong focus in his life and he graduated with Bachelors in Finance and Business Management, as well as an MBA. 

Paul’s professional career has been primarily in Tech working at Intel, Palm, Hewlitt Packer, Twitter, Square, and Coinbase with a three-year stint as a Deputy Sheriff for Santa Clara County, after the financial crisis in 2000.  Paul currently is a senior contract manager at Coinbase and also does some property management. Paul has lived primarily in California in Monterey, San Jose, San Francisco, and Chico, as well as abroad in Barcelona and Girona in Spain. Upon meeting Jordan, he quickly moved to Utah.

Paul has always had a strong desire to be a parent and has attended multiple parenting workshops and conferences on how gay and single men can start families, as well as completed training programs with Utah CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), Utah Foster Care, and Adoption Learning Partners. Paul actually has had multiple offers to co-parent with other single gays/lesbians and lesbian couples, but felt that he wanted a more committed partner to best support and share loving the child with and is grateful he has finally found this with Jordan.

Paul speaks English and Vietnamese and some Spanish.

 

Paul (by Jordan)

Paul is one of the happiest, most genuine people I know.  The way he looks at life and the world, is as if he is experiencing it for the first time. He takes lots of pictures and is always on an adventure. His pure joy, for even the simplest things is contagious. It is crazy how quickly he is able to connect with others and make them feel special.  Seeing Paul interact with my nieces and nephews has completely demonstrated how great of a dad he will be and the positive impact he has on others. One of my nephews (age 4) that lives out of state, shared only a few days with Paul at my step-mother’s inn, in upstate New York, and almost a year later made sure that Paul was the one driving the Mars rover on his play expedition.  Or Another nephew (age 5) asked where Paul was, while riding a rollercoaster, because he liked hanging out with Paul so much – Paul had stepped away for an escalated work call, but quickly came back and rode a ton more rides.

Paul is a great partner and is super supportive, not only of me, but of other members of my family.  I truly appreciate how he prioritizes family events and finding way to individually support and connect with my immediate and extended family. Paul prioritizes people and the balance of living in the moment and preparing for the future.  He is extremely resilient and has far too many hobbies to list, as his main hobby is life, and living life to the fullest, with those he loves most.

how we met

How We Met

Paul and Jordan met on the dating app Hinge while Paul was on his annual snowboard/ski trip in Park City, Utah. Whilst adoring the winter wonderland and cuddling up on a couch with some friends, Paul and some chosen family (close friends) started to swipe. Jordan’s profile popped up and they were intrigued – sense of adventure, family values, and professional.  Upon first glance of Paul’s profile, Jordan thought he looked like a boring dentist – well Paul isn’t a dentist and Jordan could not have been farther from the truth. Paul’s adventurous spirit and genuine happiness is contagious and bubbles for all to see – it also keeps Jordan on his toes for what will come next. 

During the COVID era, Paul decided that instead of spending his days working from home in a tiny San Francisco apartment, that he would fulfill one of his dreams to experience more of the world (he had previously taken a year off work to backpack and sail around the world – as well as take his parents for Europe for a month). It was during this six-month period of time that Jordan and Paul graduated from a chat here and again on the platform, to daily messages and video calls.  Eventually the two decided that they should meet in person and Paul was able to squeeze Jordan into his jetsetter life between living in New York City and Hawaii. 

Jordan invited Paul to stay at his house for the week and wasn’t worried if it didn’t work out, because Paul was essentially Airbnb homeless/a vagabond with a job, but Paul made sure to book a rental car in case he needed to jet and didn’t want to wait for an Uber. Thankfully it did not happen, and both were so surprised how easily they got along. It was in this rental car that the couple took their first of many road trips to Jordan’s condo in Moab, UT.  On the way there, there was a crazy hail and lightning storm and the couple saw how calmly each other reacted during intense situations.    

Things went so well that Paul invited Jordan to come visit him in Hawaii, and Jordan booked a flight for the following week. This trip further reiterated how well the couple could coexist, as they both worked out of a tiny studio apartment a few blocks from Waikiki beach. Jordan was working at Goldman Sachs at the time and started work at 2am to support the market, which meant their afternoons and evenings were spent chasing sunsets, wandering around town, taking street-art bike tours, and exploring restaurants and massage schools – Jordan always finds a deal and even took Paul on a coupon date, but that is a separate story.  

After Jordan left, Paul quickly realized that paradise wasn’t quite so magical without someone to share it with – even though he had a steady flow of friends and family to come visit. So after both completed some previously arranged travel, Jordan in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro for a friend’s wedding, and Paul with some friends around Hawaii and Burning Man, Jordan flew to California to meet Paul’s family (only the second boy to meet the fam) and then bought a one-way ticket back to California a little over a week later to move Paul to Utah.

The couple has been living in Utah ever since, but comes back to the bay usually every 1-2 months for a few weeks for family parties and to maintain close connections with siblings, nieces/nephews, and friends. Being an active component of both families lives and cultures, is something that both prioritize. In fact, both listed the importance of families and being fathers on their dating profiles and have really tried to grow their lives so they can provide an environment for children to excel. 

After Jordan proposed atop a cliff, above the St. Francis Azizi (Paul’s and his mother’s saint) monastery, off the coast of Italy at sunset, the couple was wed at a ski resort in Utah in a cultural emulsion of a wedding that incorporated both Paul’s Vietnamese and Jordan’s post-Mormon families cultures. Because the couple likes to dress up and party, and also keep cultural traditions live, most of the guests changed outfits three times – we won’t say how many outfits the grooms had. The grooms flew to Vietnam to explore and get traditional attire for both sides of the family, so all could participate in the various traditions and ceremonies.  Creating an accessible and respectful (food, religion, culture, etc.) ceremony/event for all was very important. All in the wedding had ~200 in attendance and an additional ~300 for the evening open house and dance. The couple DYI’d almost everything – even the wedding cake. It was a huge party with tons of food: Vietnamese, American, Indian, Tibetan, Lebanese, European, and even liquid nitrogen ice cream (a family favorite on Jordan’s bio dads side), a build it yourself Vietnamese spring roll demo (favorite from Paul’s family), and a lick it up plate (essentially various savory purees that the guest had to lick up at their tables as an ice breaker) the whole event ended in a white party. 

 Their whole courtship and marriage has been focused on completing conscious steps to prepare themselves to be prepared and eligible to adopt and share their love of the world with another special someone(s). For them, it has been great to take parenting classes during and after courtship and listen to parenting and adoption podcasts and resources on road trips throughout the US and when they drive between Utah and California. The more they learn about parenting and each other, the more they continue to fall in love with each other.  They cannot think of another individual that they would rather parent with and share the love of people and the world with!

Advice to Future Child

You are lucky to have so many people love you!

Be curious, seek out adventure, continue to learn and grow and know you will always have a huge fan club cheering behind you, only wishing you the best.

Now get ready for your next adventure, it is going to be a blast.

Perspectives on Open Adoption

We support allowing the child and birth parents to be the guide for the openness of the adoption.  

Jordan is grateful that in his own life, he was given the opportunity to manage the connections with his bio dad’s family and understands that the level of connectivity may change, depending on the child and birth parents' needs and situations, as it has in his own life. 

We support open adoption and plan to send regular photos and text updates to the birth parents, if desired, and will speak positively of and encourage positive relationships with the birth parents.

Favorites

Jordan
  • Favorite Movie: Ugh.. too many
  • Favorite Holiday/Tradition: 4th of July with the family.  Having a big family party outside with lots of food, fun games, fireworks, and a huge sleepover in grandma’s backyard.
  • Hobbies/Interests: yoga, biking, kayaking, snorkeling, skiing, painting, exploring new cities, baking/cooking, music, gardening, and spending time with family
  • Dream Vacation: Thailand - used to live there, it is amazing
  • If I Could Choose a Superpower: teleportation
Paul
  • Favorite Movie: Indiana Jones
  • Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Tết - Vietnamese New Years
  • Hobbies/Interests: travel, outdoors/hiking, being a foodie, snowboarding, scuba diving, snorkeling, and spending time with the family
  • Dream Vacation: going on an African safari with my husband and future kid(s)
  • If I Could Choose a Superpower: teleporting

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