Hi There! We are Andrew and Brett from Los Angeles, California. We can only imagine what you must be feeling right now with so much change and so many choices to make. We hope that you get a sense of who we are and what life might be like for your future child if you choose us. Since we met, we've talked about wanting to be dads together. We have created a fun, beautiful life and we cannot wait to add a little one to complete our family. Thank you for checking us out and hearing our story!
Dear Birth Mother...
Why We Are Adopting
We both come from close-knit families and have always imagined continuing this tradition in being parents. We feel strongly about the importance of adoption in building families, having witnessed adoption stories in our family and friend circles. We have so much love to give and are so excited to begin this journey!
Our Story
We met in 2016 at a mutual friend’s Labor Day party in Los Angeles. We chatted for hours that evening. We learned we both grew up in Pennsylvania and immediately felt a shared sense of east coast mentality. Brett suggested we see the 1991 cartoon version of Beauty and the Beast for our first date at Disney's El Capitain movie theater. This sense of whimsy and fun connected us and is at the core of our relationship. On our second date at Brett's home, we cooked dinner together and have been inseparable ever since. We married in 2019 and (fun fact) our mutual friend who introduced us performed the ceremony! Our life together is a balance of work and spending time with our loved ones. Every year we celebrate the holidays in Pennsylvania with family. We love hosting brunches, coordinating movie nights out, and day trips to neighboring spots in California with friends!
Interests and Hobbies
- We are both physically active people and believe in the importance of a healthy mind and body. We go to the gym regularly and enjoy hiking.
- A core value we share is connection with one another, but also spending quality time with our family (and chosen family)!
- We love playing "monster" with our nephew when he is at our home, where we chase him around as a tickle monster. Brett has also been known to pull out our hula hoop when kids are over (we are terrible at it!).
- Andrew has a love of horses and took horseback-riding lessons as a child
- We both love movie nights on the couch with a big bucket of popcorn!
- We also love international vacations with friends (Cannes, France was a recent one), and we look forward to creating memories abroad one day with our future child!
- Brett loves vintage toys and his collection includes Star Wars, Barbies, and Hot Wheels cars
- We both also love doing arts and crafts with kids, especially drawing. We are excited to foster our future child's interests, whether they are creative, academic, and/or physical.
- We love to take day trips to nearby spots in California to explore our beautiful state, and we cannot wait to take our future child on adventures with us and our pup Jordache!
- We are excited to support our future child's interests, whether they are creative, academic, and/or physical
About Andrew, by Andrew
I am originally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and also grew up in New York City. I am the middle sibling of three kids, and I am often the peacekeeper in my family. I grew up with a love for the performing arts and took singing, acting, and dancing lessons at our local youth theatre. I attended a performing arts high school in NYC and went on to study theatre at New York University. I had many adventures within my performing career—touring in musicals, acting in plays, and dancing on cruise ships! I eventually found my way west. In between performing jobs, I worked as a "manny" to children here in Los Angeles and also taught theatre class at a preschool. I recently switched career paths, earning my graduate degree in Clinical Psychology. I am now an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist in a private practice, and I am also a middle school counselor. I am a natural listener and caretaker, but also have a creative, silly side with children. I love kids, and I am so excited to be a parent with Brett and experience this new role.
More About Andrew, by Brett
When I met Andrew I knew he was different and special. On our first date, I could see that he is smart and sensitive, with a passion for life. Andrew’s heart is big and encompassing. I see how he cherishes his family and friends and it inspires me. He is a thoughtful and patient person-such a wonderful combination!
They say we choose people to balance us and fill our gaps, and I definitely did this with Andrew. Andrew’s mother had a medical scare a few years ago and it was inspiring to see how he swooped in to help her. He’s dependable, wise beyond his years, and so loving to anyone in his orbit. All that gooey stuff aside, Andrew is also a mash-up of funny, earnest, and adorable. He’s my person. I’m lucky we met and that I didn’t mess it up!
Fun Facts About Andrew
- Andrew had a previous career as a professional dancer and performer
- Andrew loves gardening and plants
- Andrew gathered his Grammy's hand-written recipes and created a recipe book for his family
- Andrew loves bad romantic comedies
- Andrew is a visual artist and loves to draw portraits
- Andrew has an enduring love for Britney Spears and all 90's pop
- Andrew loves playing beach volleyball
- Andrew's favorite movie is Beetlejuice!
- Andrew loves dark chocolate
About Brett, by Brett
I grew up in a loud and energetic family, so I will for sure bring that to our household. I move through the world in a playful way and some might describe me as silly! I was always the kid that could draw and knew from an early age that I wanted a career in the arts in some way. While in school for graphic design, I started dabbling in makeup. Turns out my calling was to be a makeup artist. I leaned into that and now work full-time in Hollywood doing makeup for actresses. In 2007 I started a line of brow products, where I get to use my training in drawing and design. I've always loved kids, and I'm 'Uncle Brett' to many of my friends' little ones. On our first date, Andrew said that he wanted to be a father. After getting to know him I thought, "This is a man I want to be a parent with!" I consider our friends as chosen family and take those connections seriously. I look forward to Andrew and I being parents alongside our friends and family who have started families of their own.
More About Brett, by Andrew
Brett brightens every room he enters with his open energy and wittiness. He puts others around him at ease with his sense of humor, which always comes from a sense of playfulness. I love that he makes me smile and laugh (especially in moments when I need it), but I also love that he shows up for life's serious moments. I remember after our first meeting, I told my best friend I had met a handsome guy, yet more importantly, he had "kind eyes.” I love that he is so caring and thoughtful with our friends and family.
He is the ultimate organizer of social gatherings and movie nights, connecting people together! Brett also has a strong work ethic, which I respect so much. He understands the balance in working hard and also enjoying life. I love that he is so silly with our nephew and our friends' kids. I know he will encourage our future child to explore and follow their passions, as he did. He is so looking forward to starting our family together and being a father!
Fun Facts About Brett
- Brett had a previous short-lived career as a teen model (at the mall)
- Brett kept a diary from 7th grade until his first year in art school (every single night). Reading it is both hilarious and makes him cringe.
- Brett's favorite holiday is Halloween
- Brett loves horror movies and light-hearted documentaries
- Brett loves pop music and has done makeup on pop singers Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and Mariah Carey
- Brett was a competitive swimmer growing up and was a local champ in his hometown
- Brett's favorite food is pizza!
- Brett's guilty pleasure is Panda Express
Our Home
Our house is on a tree lined cul-de-sac. We have a true sense of community on our little street and regularly socialize with our neighbors, many of whom have kids and doggies! We have a fenced-in backyard with plenty of space for our future child to run around and play in! Andrew's happy place is gardening on weekends while Brett watches TikTok's on his phone (haha). We love to go for long walks around our neighborhood with our pup Jordache or go to parks nearby. Andrew is the cook of the family and enjoys whipping up creations in the kitchen. He makes his Grammy's homemade apple pie every year for Thanksgiving! Though not a cook, Brett does bake one thing that's a crowd pleaser: his Nam Nam's chocolate chip cookie recipe (Shhh...the secret is milk chocolate chips and sea salt). As we are both creatives, we draw from our environment. We love interior design, mixing modern and contemporary with retro flea market finds! A perk of living in California is our proximity to so many beautiful destinations! We are twenty minutes from Malibu's beaches and a couple hours from Big Bear's Mountains or Palm Springs' deserts.
Meet Jordache
He is super friendly, playful, and a snuggle-bug. Fun story about how our fur-baby Jordache came into our life! During the pandemic, Brett's cousin fostered a dog from a local shelter. She soon realized the dog was pregnant and watched YouTube videos on how to mid-wife the birth of the 4 tiny puppies. When we heard the news, we rushed over to meet them and one in particular fell in love with us. Andrew dreamed of having a dog his whole life, so Brett surprised him by secretly coordinating with the rescue to bring him home.
We Value
- Having a solid moral compass
- Always leading with love
- Treating others with respect
- We plan to teach our future child to move through the world with kindness and openness to those who are different from them, with the belief that we are all connected. We strive to embody these values in our day-to-day lives, since we think children learn by example (not just by being told something).
Our Family
We are both from Pennsylvania originally and our families mostly still live there. Andrew comes from a close and talkative Italian family, who love making big meals together for holidays and gatherings. Brett jokes that his Jewish upbringing was similar to Andrew's Italian roots, with family events centered around homemade food. Andrew's mom and stepdad have a big house in the Poconos, where we gather for snowy holidays in December with Andrew's siblings and their significant others. Andrew's dad and stepmom are close-by in Pennsylvania, so we see them too! Andrew's parents and stepparents cannot wait to be grandparents to our future child and shower them with tons of love!
Brett’s parents have passed, but he is close with his siblings. Brett's brother, known for his dad jokes, loves to plan visits to Los Angeles, and his flight attendant sister is always jetting off to different cities. Andrew's younger brother is a film editor and lives in NYC. Andrew's older sister, brother-in-law, and nephew are bi-coastal, so we spend time with them in our neck of the woods a bunch! We're lucky we get to see our 3-year-old nephew often for cookie-making and movie nights with his uncles! We are close with our cousins (and each only have a few), so they feel like additional siblings! One of Brett's cousins was adopted, and he grew up valuing her story first-hand.