We are Daniel and Siobhan from Pennsylvania

Hi! We're Dan and Siobhan (Shi-vhawn).  How are you? We’re thinking you may be feeling a little stressed and like your brain is spinning with all these choices to make and worries for the future. Real quick, before we dive into why we are the coolest, nicest, most loving people, and will make the best parents, take a deep breath! Like a big deep sigh, we do this any time we’re feeling stressed and it really helps!

We are really excited to start this process and get to know you. But our excitement is also coming with a whole bunch of emotions for you and your situation. We can’t imagine this choice you are considering and what brought you here, but know how brave and selfless you must be. We are here because we want to grow our family through adoption. As much as we want to grow our family with a baby, we are also looking forward to being able to support you and give you the opportunity to know your child as they grow. Siobhan’s mother was adopted as a baby and recently connected with her birth mother, who we call our Gi-Gi. We’ve had many conversations about how hard it was to not know where one another was and if they were okay. Over the past few years, we have learned about Siobhan’s mother’s emotions as a child and how much meeting her birth mother has helped her even at over 60 years old! We hope that together we can create a scenario where both you and your child feel whole.

We are so grateful that anyone would consider us to parent their child. We feel that as warm, loving, and fun people we are able to provide an amazing life for your child. A life full of unconditional love, freedom to ask questions and explore, and a safe and supportive family.

Your child will grow up in an amazing community, diverse in every way, welcoming, and full of fun activities. We love hiking, traveling, sports, arts, and music. Although we have a ton of hobbies and interests, we hope to encourage what your child likes and dive into that as well! We also find balance with practicing a much-deserved mental health day with movies and comfort foods. We feel our most important role as parents will be balance. We want to teach being active and having fun, while also taking breaks for yourself and expressing your emotions honestly.

A little more about us: Siobhan is currently a family therapist after a short-lived career as an art teacher. She loves kids and has infinite patience and understanding for them, especially those with special needs. She currently does sessions in their homes, and spends about half of her work time at our home writing notes and preparing for sessions, and half out in the community. She is passionate about social justice and taking care of the earth. She loves learning and has been preparing for adoption by reading parenting books for adoptive parents. She is growing a huge vegetable garden, and working on making our home zero waste.

Dan is a software engineer and also changed careers about 7 years ago; He used to work in an art gallery. He now works from home full-time and has an awesome office with guitars, sketch pads, and a putting green to give himself little breaks throughout the day. He is very handy and can fix anything in our house after watching a few YouTube videos. He also loves learning and is always sharing some “dad facts” which typically are about sports, history, or science.

We hope this letter gives you hope for the future and a brief moment of calm in a very stressful process. We are here for you and look forward to being a family.

Sincerely,

Dan and Siobhan