Hello from sunny Los Angeles, California! We’re Colleen, Pip and four year old Finn.

Wow! What you are doing right now is wildly brave. Wildly brave and also hard. We’re in awe of the courage and love you have in considering adoption and we’re honored that you’re open to taking some time to learn about our family.

We’re excited to share a little about our hobbies, our home and our travels. But the thing we really want you to know is that we have alot of love to give. As you navigate this difficult choice, we want you to know that any child that comes into our life will grow up knowing without a doubt that they are deeply, truly loved (by you, by us and by our whole extended family). And they’ll also get to have alot of adventures along the way.

We both grew up surrounded by love and we view growing our family as an extension of that love. That’s why we had our son Finn and his sister Penny. Unfortunately Penny passed away. After taking some time to grieve, we began to feel deep in our hearts that our family was meant to take this new path to adoption. Pip’s mom and aunt were adopted, and it changed their lives.

We believe that the universe connects us with people in unexpected ways (we met by chance on a subway train!). So we’re sending our love out into the world and hoping that it connects with the mother and baby that were meant to find our family.

Pip and I met on the subway in New York, but he didn’t get my number. He later wrote a Missed Connections post that found its way to me (yay!), but after one date, I ghosted him (sorry Pip!).

Five years later, we matched on a dating app and went on our second first date. Clearly the universe wanted us to be together. We got married and now live in Los Angeles, California, with our son Finn.

We both work in creative fields (I’m a writer and Pip is in film) so we love taking advantage of all of the movies, art and theater that LA has to offer. We love to cook and host big dinner parties, from dumpling making to taco barbecues. Travel is a huge part of our lives, from weekend beach trips to annual international trips to visiting our big extended families in San Francisco and Philadelphia.

I love approaching life as an adventure. We never had much money growing up, but my parents always brought a sense of joy and wonder to my world, doing their best through music, theater, books (and the occasional roadtrip) to expose me to the world. Later, I pursued a career in food and travel writing, which took me everywhere from Tanzania to Thailand.

But despite all of the adventures I’ve had, the best adventure by far has been motherhood. I love seeing the world through my son’s eyes. I love bringing magic into our everyday. I love building forts and telling stories and taking him on nature walks. We cannot wait to grow our family and learn from this new amazing little being, to love on them and help them to grow and to love this world. I vow that any child that comes into our family will live a life of love and adventure.

I started my career as a travel and food writer, exploring the world and writing about it for magazines like National Geographic and Condé Nast Traveler. When I met Pip, I realized I wanted a job where we could be based in one place so we could build a life together.

Now, I lead content strategy at a music-streaming tech company. I love that it allows me to be creative, constantly learning and always up on great music. The free concert tickets are a good perk too! But most importantly, I love that it gives me work-life balance—I’m always home by 5, get unlimited time off and six months of leave when it comes time to bring home the new baby.

The first thing you notice about Colleen is her laugh. It’s a big, full, warm-hearted laugh you hear from across a crowded room - the kind most people could only make if they throw their heads all the way back and let the glee erupt from their bellies. It’s a laugh that reminds you that despite how hard life can be sometimes, you can always find joy and wonder and magic. That is how she lives life, and our family is so incredibly lucky for it.

She is our chief adventurer, party-planner, mischief-maker, and imagineer (she’s also a great baker to boot).

It’s not uncommon for me to come home from a work trip to find that our entire living room has been transformed into a pillow fort in the middle of the island from Where The Wild Things Are. She has an endless wellspring of love and joy to give, and I can’t wait for her to share her joy with the new child we’re welcoming into our lives.

My happy place is sitting around a full dinner table with our dearest loved ones, stuffing our faces and talking over each other. A lot of times, the table is laid out with a meal I’ve spent all day cooking in the kitchen (which is my second happiest place). Nothing brings me more joy than those moments of togetherness. My hope in life is to have as many of those moments as I can fit in.

I grew up in San Francisco in a Chinese-Vietnamese family as a first generation American. My parents are immigrants from Vietnam. My sister and I didn’t grow up with much in the way of financial resources, but we had an abundance of love and watched everyday how our parents worked multiple jobs to give us the start in life they never had. Putting family first was how I grew up and how I live now.

My first job out of school was working for a Broadway producer in New York City. It was an incredible – I got to go to Broadway shows, scout playwrights, and help put together shows that would go on to win Tony awards!

After that I transitioned into independent film. I help filmmakers put together films and find distribution for them. It’s gratifying to be able to take someone’s dream and make it a reality. I’m so lucky to be able to travel to film festivals to celebrate the films we’ve made and see audiences experience them for the first time.

But the best part about my job is the flexibility. Every night I’m home in time to cook dinner and share it together as a family. Family is my priority!

Pip loves with his whole heart.

He shows his love in the delicious meals he cooks for our family each night, in the gentle way he tucks Finn into bed, in his quiet strength when times get hard. I fell in love with his positive, generous outlook on the world. He always looks for the good in people and will go to the ends of the earth for the people he loves.

Pip’s also crazy smart and a lifelong learner - he reads a book a week and is always quick with a crazy fact about history or food. He makes everyone around him want to be a better, more patient, more generous person. And no one can cook a more delicious bowl of noodle soup.

One of our favorite songs says “I want a house with a crowded table, and a place by the fire for everyone.” And that’s what we’ve created in our historic home here in central Los Angeles, California.

Our house is always filled with family and friends trying Pip’s latest noodle soup creation or Colleen’s chicken pot pie. We have outdoor movie nights in the backyard and make smores in our firepit. There’s a big orange tree in the front yard and every winter we make batches of fresh squeezed juice to share with friends. In short, it’s a house filled up with friends and love.

LA has the best of city and suburban life rolled up into one.

We’re just fifteen minutes from the museums, theaters and restaurants of downtown, but our neighborhood has the charm and warmth of a small town. Kids ride bikes between each other’s houses and the big wide streets are lined with beautiful trees that explode into purple flowers every spring. It’s a diverse, positive community.

We also love that living in LA gives us access to a world of different cultures and experiences. We love to go for morning hikes in the mountains followed by tacos for breakfast or afternoon beach walks followed by Vietnamese food for lunch. Because we both work in creative fields, we get to attend lots of exciting cultural events, from movie screenings to concerts. But we love that we always have our warm home to cozy up in at the end of the day.

We have a four year old son named Finn. He’s obsessed with building forts, jumping in puddles and French fries. But the thing he wants most (even more than unlimited donuts or Hot Wheels cars) is a sibling. He’s wildly funny with a big big heart. And he can’t wait to be a big brother.

Dear baby! My name is F-I-N-N N-G-O. That’s how you spell it. I can’t wait to play with you and show you how to build towers and slide down slides. I’ll share my donut with you but you can’t eat the whole thing cause you’re still a baby. I love you! No matter what!

Love Finn

Colleen’s family is the definition of a good time. They’re a warm, rowdy bunch, from her parents (who Finn calls Nana and Pop Pop) to her two sisters and their husbands. I already have two nieces and two nephews (with hopefully more to come) so any future child will have lots of cousins to play with. They’re based in Pennsylvania but often visit California. And we spend lots of time back east, whether it’s staying at a lakehouse together or having our epic two-week Christmas visits, complete with matching PJs and Mariah Carey singalongs.

My parents immigrated from Vietnam in 1980 and now live in San Francisco, California, in a condo just a block from the Pacific Ocean. Finn calls them “Yeh Yeh” and “Ah Ma” (Cantonese for grandpa and grandma). Yeh Yeh is a fun, silly grandpa who loves to give piggyback rides and watch the Golden State Warriors. Ah Ma is an incredible cook, always dreaming up delicious, hearty meals to warm your soul. They are the most loving, generous grandparents. My sister, Kristy, lives in South San Francisco with her husband Jon and loves to take Finn on adventures.

In a life full of adventures, parenting has taken the cake. One thing we’ve learned is that kids don’t come into this world as blank slates – they arrive with their own personalities, quirks, and talents. It’s our job to nurture what makes them unique, while instilling a deep sense of respect for the world and people around them. We want our children to know that we are their safe and happy place, that no matter what we will always be here to catch them when they fall, to comfort them when they’re scared, to celebrate their wins and soothe their losses. Because when a child knows they have a solid foundation, they feel free to explore the world, discover who they are and pursue their dreams.

We may be the first profile you’ve read, or you might have flipped through so many at this point that your eyes hurt. At the very least, we hope that you’ve gotten a small smile out of learning a bit more about our silly, fun little family. Thank you for spending some time with us in the middle of what must be an incredibly uncertain time.

We are deep believers in fate. Maybe it’s because fate kept bringing Pip’s parents together, and then 30 years later kept bringing us together. We truly believe that there is a sweet little soul out there just waiting to come make our family complete. And that there is mother out there that was meant to find our family. Could it be you?

Love,
Colleen, Pip and Finn