Hello! We are Rachel, Buck, and our son Jonah from Los Angeles, California. We love cultural activities and travel! Our passions include concerts, art museums, hiking, beaches, and sightseeing. We also love staying at home and playing with our dog and doing all the activities that come with having a kid.

Our son adds to the many enriching activities we enjoy like seeing movies, going to amusement parks, playing piano, and soccer games.

Our son Jonah planted the spark of our idea for more children as he has always wanted a sibling. When we realized how much we could bring to another child, we wanted to do everything possible to make it happen. We have many friends in our life who are themselves adoptees, and also adoptive parents and have learned so much from their experiences. So it made perfect sense to us to share our great love for children in this way and to continue learning.

It is so exciting to us to embark on this journey and to feel the sense that we can bring everything that we have given to Jonah to a new child, as his childhood has been filled with abundance and joy.

Rachel invited Jake to a screening of her documentary film which had a premiere at Outfest in Los Angeles, as soon as Jake arrived it was like they’d known each other a lifetime and hit it off as friends immediately. Neither expected to date! They both had different relationships end previously and were just happy to make friends but soon it was clear that Rachel and Jake’s paths were meant to be intertwined.

We both have careers in entertainment, but our real life is very simple & domestic. Buck walks our dog every day up a mountain near our street. Rachel takes our son Jonah to school and to his activities like soccer and piano lessons. Our favorite thing to do is find time to enjoy a moment like going to the beach or taking a weekend trip to somewhere new. We also love having backyard parties around the holidays and sometimes in the summer. Our son has a great group of friends whose parents we enjoy. And Rachel’s brother has two very young children, who are a big part of our lives. They are two and six years old. We love them dearly and they often come over and have a great time with our dog Arjuna who is very good with kids. He’s almost like a big angel. Rachel’s family is Jewish, and Buck loves all of the Jewish holidays. Buck’s family celebrates Christmas – and we enjoy going to Palm Springs with Jonah who gets a great pile of presents under the tree every year.

We absolutely love to experience new adventures and we also truly love our families. It is really a passion for these two things that are the center of our lives. We have a great bond with our parents and both of us, mutually, adore each others’ parents which is more than what many can say! Rachel loves visiting Buck’s parents Patty and Bill and he enjoys conversations almost every Friday night with Rachel’s parents – as well as her brother and his two kids (who are 2 and 6) for a family dinner called “Shabbat.” It is a very simple Jewish tradition where we say a blessing and share dinner together. Usually it ends with the kids running around while the adults sit around and chat.

Buck enjoys working out and he loves it so much he is a trainer to one of Jonah’s friends, Sammy who lives nearby and is Jonah’s Godbrother. Sammy and his Mom Michelle are like family to us. We enjoy doing activities with kids. Being parents to Jonah opened us up to the community of parents and we often have play dates at our house or take kids to the beach, the park and movies. We also love making time to get away and find a really cool weekend trip. We love going to a place called El Capitan which is a glamping retreat near Santa Barbara. Most recently we traveled all the way to Japan, which was Jonah’s idea – but we went for it and had an amazing time.

I started out as an artist, studying sculpture and working in the fine art gallery world. Now I am a documentary filmmaker and make content for major TV networks. My son Jonah is from a previous relationship and he is now 12. I share custody with his biological father who lives nearby and we get along great. I was raised with two siblings and am in good touch with them. Micah lives nearby and Josh lives in London. I have always been passionate about kids, and all of the unique things that have come to me will be passed along to a new child.

I grew up with strong Jewish traditions. Jonah has learned to appreciate his unique culture but also has a sense of connection to many other cultures because our family looks like a world gathering as we have people from every continent represented.

I met Rachel because we had mutual interests as well as the same community of artists and performers. Rachel sparked my interest for many reasons but the main one was her amazing intellect and humor. Rachel piqued my interest almost immediately as she was so grounded and very mature. When I met her I was not interested in parenting at all and actually thought I never would be. But when I was introduced to Jonah, it was like magic. Her child was extraordinary and Rachel was a parent who showed me you could have a child and it will bring so much joy into your life. She has shown me the ability to be grounded and the opportunity to bring a child up to be a responsible and loving caring human. Rachel is loving, caring and has so much integrity. Many people could learn from her ability to defuse situations before they become negative.

As a parent, she is so caring and Jonah shows so many great qualities because of this.

I am an LGBTQ activist and public speaker. I communicate through various social media platforms, interviewing people on topics related primarily to gender identity. I speak out about issues that affect the transgender community, having transitioned from female to male almost 30 years ago. Even though I started out female, I am about as much of a “dude” as you can possibly be! I was an athlete when I was younger, and I have inspired a love of soccer in Jonah. I often referee games and play with Jonah’s two young cousins. My family is very supportive of me, and they love having me come out to visit them in Palm Springs which is just a two hour drive away from us. I am the middle of two siblings, and I am in very good touch with my older sister and her two grown kids who we see at least once a year. We went on a family trip to visit my older sister in Idaho, where she lives on a small property with horses. We spend Christmas with my parents who love to get presents for Jonah.

I was well aware of Buck before we ever met. He was almost like an icon in the LGBT world with so many fans who adored him because of his unique way of being in the world. When we met I found him attractive, and his personality to be really fun but I was not looking for a relationship. My entire focus was on raising my son Jonah and I was enjoying being a single Mom. But the first time we really hung out Buck met me at a park with my son and my feelings suddenly changed when I saw how amazing Buck was with kids. Jonah fell in love with him even before I did because he was so playful and natural with him. Jonah’s reaction opened my heart. And so trusting in Jonah’s instincts, I let myself fall in love.

Buck has enriched both of our lives in more ways than I could ever have imagined. And the rest is history.

Jonah is super silly and a little bit nerdy. He’s into video games, soccer and horror movies. He loves Astrocamp which is a summer camp for geeks. He’s well behaved at school and makes friends very easily. He often comes up with funny songs and dances because he loves to make people laugh. He also enjoys learning complicated songs on piano. He also really enjoys doing things with his grandparents like baking!

“I’m an only child and because of that I get a lot of things. I think it would be nice to be able to share everything with another child. I really would love to also take care of my new sibling. If I have a sibling who can have presents and be happy too, then I’ll be happy.”

Right up our street is one of the rare natural mountain ranges where people from all over the city come to hike. We go there almost every day with our dog Arjuna, and in the other direction there is a park for kids to play. Because we live right in the middle of the city, we also are able to do things like go to museums, soccer games, and we’re not far from the beach. In the winter we often go on an adventure to the snow which usually lasts about a day. So many of our friends are creative people and we often get invited to their events – like movies, concerts, or art shows. We love being around people that are creative – and we see how much the community of kids reflects all of that inspiration.

We love animals! We have a beloved doggie named Arjuna who is great with kids and acts as a protector for everyone in our home. We also have two turtles named Thelma and Louise.

All of our pets came to us from people who entrusted us as their caretakers. Our turtles were given to Rachel by an elderly woman who was moving away and our dog was given to us by our friend Mishelle. We love and treasure our pets.

We are both very close to our families of origin and also those who have joined our family through marriages. Although our parents are both Caucasian, our larger family includes relatives from India, China, Vietnam, South America, and African-American descent. And although we are Jewish in our family traditions others in our family are Baptist, Mormon, Hindu and Buddhist. We love this diversity and have found a way for all of our faiths to be woven together in the spirit of enthusiasm for the different customs.

We also have many friends of lots of different backgrounds and nationalities as well. Our son Jonah attends a school with a diverse student population. Rachel’s brother has two children whom we see every week. Their mother is Chinese-Vietnamese and they are a big part of our life. Jonah’s biological father is Ukrainian and Russian – and his partner is from India. We also see them regularly and are very good friends with them. They are extremely intelligent, and often help Jonah with his math homework. Buck’s family love to take cruises and also golf. They enjoy a leisurely retirement life and love nothing more than to give presents on Christmas and be grandparents to Jonah, as do Rachel’s parents. Basically our family is a large pool of grownups who love to shower kids with love and adulation.

We want to thank you for spending a little time with us here. Because Rachel has experienced childbirth we are aware of the many emotions that come with this moment. But we can’t imagine the choice you are now facing, as you look for the people to embark on this journey. Our primary goal is that you find the right choice for you. And if that right choice for you, means us, we want you to know that we will be forever grateful and fully committed. The love that we will have will be no different than that which we have for our son Jonah, who will be the most devoted big brother to your child. It is so important for us to know that you feel right in this choice. As this is your decision, and not ours. We only want you to feel that we can match your needs. But no matter what happens, we believe that things happen for a reason, beyond our control so we are simply grateful for the time you have taken to get to know us.

We wish you many, many bright days ahead.
~ Rachel & Buck