Hello! We are Ben, Lydia & Asa living in sunny Alameda, CA in Northern California! We feel very fortunate to be included in your journey as you consider adoption for your child.

Our family loves adventures, having fun, treating each other with kindness and growing in love. We hope that you will sense the love, care and joy we can bring to your child. Asa joined our family three years ago and he is excited to welcome a baby sibling into our crew! We have flexible work schedules which allows us to co-parent easily. Should you choose to bring us into your life to support and raise your child, we will be forever honored.

Ben and I have been married for close to 15 years; we knew from the start, that our partnership would flourish if and when we had kids in the family. Also, we think kids bring an immense amount of fun, joy and love into people’s lives. The path we are on is to build that family through adoption. We adopted Asa at birth in 2019 and are now ready to welcome a second child into this family, extending the love and fun and care to another child. As individuals actively seeking to improve the world we are in, we know adoption is a hard choice and we are happy to be a part of helping our communities flourish by participating in open adoption. We are excited to extend our family to you and yours.

Ben and I met at a birthday party in 2008. Even though I soon moved to the Czech Republic and Ben was in Florida, our connection was strong enough that we ended up dating. I was intrigued by Ben’s sense of humor and his responsibility, while he loved my desire to travel, explore, and my unique perspectives on the world. These things allowed the long distance relationship to succeed. We got married in Florida in 2010 and we’ve been together ever since. Since then, we have survived job losses, family shifts, and moves across the country and I can honestly say we are more committed to one another than ever. Ben and I strive to have a balanced life where we work hard, but have plenty of time to adventure, travel and love on our family and friends. We love to make each other laugh and are pretty affectionate. We believe in keeping an open mind and enjoy continuously learning. We cannot wait to include your child in our daily lives and share in the joy together!

I am an extrovert, the 3rd of 4 children, a creative and a leader... and I love being a mom.

It's a wild ride, full of laughs, deep breaths and snuggles. After a long day at work, I love to cook a delicious and healthy meal for us, but also appreciate relaxing and watching my shows on Netflix. I value my relationships deeply and so I try to spend time with friends and family on free nights and weekends.

I stay active 4-5 times a week. I really enjoy trying new restaurants and drinking the delicious coffee found in Oakland. Asa and I go on dates to the zoo or to the beach which is a mile from our house!

I work in education because I believe it is foundational for success and happiness for all. Youth are often over-looked and I so value their perspective and love being a part of their journey of self-discovery. I have taught ESL, English and entrepreneurship.

Lydia is a social extrovert. Relationships are everything to her. She loves to explore and travel. She has a strong passion to work toward social justice and equality for everybody in the world, starting with teens from under-resourced communities right here in the Bay Area. She keeps in close touch with all of her friends and family, with frequent calls and FaceTimes.

She is active, and enjoys a good workout at the gym when she gets the chance. A great weekend to her looks like the whole family playing at the beach or exploring a big park, like Golden Gate Park. Lydia is a wonderful mom who is patient and fun. She loves to adventure with Asa and is always reading about how to improve as a mom. She is an optimist and believes the best in people and situations.

I’m a computer programmer, soccer player, musician, and the youngest child of three.

I’m often trying to get people to laugh. I enjoy having a productive workday, working from home as an IT consultant, then getting in a good workout before returning home to help with dinner and hang with the family.

My hobbies are soccer, hiking, learning new skills, and a martial art called Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I really enjoy the community bonding aspect of the Jiu-Jitsu classes and the soccer games.

I also love going to the park on a nice day, with some snacks, and throwing a frisbee around.

I love making up silly phrases or giving Lydia a new goofy name. Sometimes she laughs, and sometimes she just shakes her head and tells me “you’re such a dad.”

Ben is the best partner for me and is an incredible father. He is silly and kind and sensitive. He is very dedicated and when he sets a goal, he becomes disciplined to get there. I know he will help our future child discover new things and reach their highest goals, just like he has done with Asa - teaching him how to ride a bike or get dressed on his own. Ben is intelligent and loves to learn. He values fitness, nutrition, and strong relationships. Ben loves to work hard and then pick Asa up, play games and then cook a healthy dinner for the family. I’m excited to watch his bond form with our second child.

Ben is a family man and cares deeply about those relationships. Ben is responsible and plans so well for the future, by taking care of his health, our finances and more. Ben and I can’t wait to get our family of 4 on bikes and go on long rides around the bay!

We both have flexible jobs with employers that value parents and families and give time off for families to spend time together, go to doctor’s appointments or to take vacations.

Asa is sensitive, snuggly, funny and as most three-year olds go, has a wild streak!

He currently loves dinos and trains and playing outside. The beach is a happy place for him. He was born in Houston, Texas and has been with Ben and Lydia his whole life. Asa knows about his first Mom and we are excited to see him be a big brother. Lately, he has been talking about how he will help take care of his future sibling, by holding them and teaching them all about his toys!

Our family’s core values are centered around being empathetic, joyful, kind and curious. We are a house that chooses love over ease. We find the good in ourselves and others. We work to build up and make better the world around us.

Through empathy, compassion, love and authenticity, we seek to bring more joy into the world and the lives of each other.

We do this by honoring our health; we love to cook stir fry and tacos and blueberry muffins. We bike along the coastline in Alameda. We visit our friends all over the Bay. We travel to find snow and love to ski.

We live out our values by reading and learning more. Lydia focuses on issues of social justice and building strong communities and teams. Ben focuses on understanding how our world works through science and is a fix-it guy who learns new skills all the time.

Our bucket list includes visiting Hawaii, Nigeria, Zion National Park, Argentina and Banff, Canada. All these places seem magical and we can't wait to take our family all over the world!

Our home is a bright and cheery three bedroom house in the family friendly community of Alameda, CA. There are wood floors and many windows bringing in lots of sunlight. Lydia and Asa spend time baking treats or making dinner in the awesome kitchen. We have a back patio for cook-outs and a front yard for slides, a basketball hoop and neighbor play-dates. We love the charm of our place and can’t wait to snuggle into our comfy couch with our future baby. Our neighborhood is safe and lively during the day, calm at night. We’re walking distance to local restaurants, the beach, and the grocery store. We can’t wait to go on exploring walks with our future child and enjoy treats at Tucker’s Ice Cream. Ben can’t wait to throw a frisbee with his new little buddy at one of our 2 favorite playgrounds right down the road from us! Lydia can’t wait to read books, make guacamole and tacos and play at the playground. We love being goofy around the house and invite our family friends over from daycare or our adoption group!

The Bay Area is a special place full of fun city-life mixed with some of the most beautiful nature. We can hike and then find delicious food and then go to the beach all in one day!

We love celebrating Christmas. We think it's magical and love walking to streets in our neighborhood that go all-out with decor and lights. We love picking out a fresh tree each year and decorating while we drink hot cocoa.

Ben’s Side: Ben comes from a big family who all live in Franklin, Tennessee. We love visiting them twice a year and getting covered in hugs from all eleven nieces and nephews and eating ice cream! Tennessee has beautiful waterfalls, fun parks and his brother has a small farm with chickens and Ben’s mom is always making fresh, homemade bread. When we visit, everyone pulls out their guitars, pianos and violins for a jam session.

Lydia’s Side: Lydia comes from a big family who live in North Carolina (two sisters and parents) and Spain (brother)! We all get together once or twice a year at my parents house or at a location on a lake or a mountain to enjoy nature. My family is a game-playing, dinner-making crew and our gatherings are full of lots of laughter and good times. Asa loves playing with his cousins; one of them in North Carolina is also adopted and the ages of the cousins range from 6 months to 16 years old! Asa also has family in Houston, Texas.

Our family values are empathy and kindness. We value adventure, fun, and silliness. We value learning, unlearning, empathy and curiosity. We believe that parenting children is about helping them discover their best version of themselves - this means that we seek to provide opportunities to explore subjects, hobbies, friend groups until we help them feel their most authentic self. Adoption is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself and your family in multiple cultural perspectives - it is challenging, it is fun, it is hard, it is an honor. We are excited to have an open relationship with both our children’s first families.

We can’t wait to travel the world with our children, seeing new and old places through their eyes. We intend to raise our future child in a household of unconditional love, to encourage our child to be curious, make friends, be kind, considerate, thoughtful, and have fun. We pledge to enable & support them without judgment as they grow into their true self, whatever that may look like.

We hope you feel connected to us and our story; we know that you have some hard decisions to make. If you choose to place your child, we promise to give unconditional love and care to your child. We commit to learning as much as we can about how to best parent your child, to honor their beliefs, values and hopes while helping them establish a strong foundation of self-awareness, strength and confidence. We are excited to welcome your child into our lives and can’t wait to know you as well.