Welcome! Meet:

Mike + Kate

Marketing Executive / Healthcare Writer

Ohio

Caucasian

Catholic / Jewish

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

All About Mike & Kate

Hi, there! We’re Mike and Kate, and we’re honored that you’re reading this. Mike is a warm-hearted introvert who loves to read and learn; Kate is a friendly, social extrovert who loves getting to know people. We both work in marketing and love to write: Mike has published a book, while Kate is a healthcare writer who also reviews restaurants for a magazine.

In our case, an introvert + an extrovert = a perfect match. We pride ourselves on being each other’s rock-solid support and seeing our personality differences as strengths. We complement one another and balance each other out!

Our favorite thing to do together is to go on mini-adventures in our medium-sized Midwestern city, which is packed with parks, tourist spots, and cute neighborhoods. We’re always exploring something fun and new — and we’re lucky to have a large group of close friends, so our adventures often turn into group events.

Why Adoption?

We’re so excited to start a family through adoption, especially because adoption has touched us in so many ways.

We both come from close families made up of both biological and adoptive relatives, including, in both of our cases, dads who are not our biological fathers. We also have many cherished family friends who are as close as family.

We’re not able to have kids biologically, so we feel that it is a gift to be able to create a healthy, secure, and loving family through adoption.

Family & Home

We live in the coziest house on the block in a community where everyone seems to know each other and you can walk everywhere. Our big yellow house has a huge backyard that’s perfect for our cookouts and bonfires, and we love to host guests when the weather is nice.

We live right near Lake Erie, and we can literally walk from our house to a beautiful beach, marina, and a park right on the lake. We also live within walking distance of some of the best schools in the area.

When we get home, our super-cuddly cats, Helo and Dora, greet us like they’re dogs, jumping up into our laps like they’ve missed us. (We know they really just want treats.)

Our families are looking forward to welcoming their first grandchild! Mike’s parents live about 20 minutes away, and we regularly get together for family dinners. His younger sister lives out of state but stays with us whenever she visits. In her absence, we have a funny, active family text thread going.

Kate’s dad has passed away, but she’s very close with her mom, who we see once a week — and she’s a retired children’s librarian, so she’s great with kids! Kate also recently connected with her biological half-sister, who recently adopted a son. They’ve become close and look forward to raising their kids as cousins.

We’re both close with our extended families, too, including aunts, uncles, and cousins, plus a handful who aren’t blood relatives but who we consider family. We have traditions we absolutely love with all of them! We do Thanksgiving every year with Kate’s extended family, complete with an annual Scrabble tournament (which Kate always wins), and we host Mike’s extended family for Christmas every year, exchanging gifts around a big Christmas tree in our living room.

(Oh, and we love the 4th of July and Halloween. We go all-out with decorations both inside and out, and we celebrate with friends in our neighborhood.)

How others describe me

Mike, on Kate: “Kate makes friends wherever she goes. She truly thrives on making meaningful connections and is always thinking of others in big ways and small. She's the first to call or to send a card or a gift, and she never forgets a birthday. No matter who our child becomes, I know Kate will be there to love them, nurture them, and support them in becoming their best, happiest self.”

Kate, on Mike: “Mike is endlessly curious about the world and genuinely loves learning new things. I can't imagine better qualities in a parent than the commitment to (and genuine excitement about) learning, growing, and understanding that are at the core of Mike's personality and values. I truly can’t wait to see him in dad-mode — and he’s already got corny dad jokes at the ready, too!

How We Met

We met in the classic millennial way: online. We’d both recently moved back to Ohio from other states (Kate from Washington, D.C., and Mike from Pittsburgh), so when we met up for our first date (eating tater tots at a dive bar), we bonded over our shared love of the Midwest. We also realized we’d grown up just a few miles apart! We moved in together quickly but dated for a year and a half before getting engaged, and loved ones from all over the world flew in for our wedding.

Advice to Future Child

We hope to teach our child some of the most important lessons our parents taught us, and others we’ve learned throughout the course of our lives, like:

Cultivate your inner life to be harmonious, peaceful, and happy.
Find and do things that light you up and bring you joy.
Do your best to become someone who you would want to spend time with.
Experience the world in ways both big and small. Seek out the beauty in life.
Be fully present as much as humanly possible. Savor every moment life has to offer.

We will always encourage our child to be themselves, to embrace what makes them unique, and to treat others with as much interest, empathy, and dignity as possible, no matter what. And we will raise them to know that we will not only accept them for who they are but help them thrive and live their best life in any way we can.

Perspectives on Open Adoption

We're interested in an open adoption and being in touch to whatever extent you're comfortable with. Regardless of the level of openness you choose to have with us, we promise that you can rest easy knowing your child won’t want for anything, least of all love — and that they will always have everything they need to be safe, happy, and fully themselves.

Favorites

Mike

Favorite Movie: Indiana Jones
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: watching Christmas movies while we decorate the Christmas tree each year
Hobbies/Interests: reading, writing, traveling
Dream Vacation: going to Rome
If I Could Choose a Superpower: being able to read minds

Kate

Favorite Movie: Home Alone
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: dressing up for our friends’ big Halloween party every year
Hobbies/Interests: boxing, reading, trying new restaurants
Dream Vacation: visiting the Greek Islands
If I Could Choose a Superpower: teleportation (aka free travel!)