We have a lot of fun as a family. We love to camp with our extended family and friends. We also love playing games together: board games, card games, Wii, and games outside like basketball. We have a lot of friends, many with children. We often have friends and family over for fun meals.
About us
Bobbi is a child psychologist and administrator at a local community mental health center. She specializes in Adventure Therapy, where groups of kids learn social skills by playing cooperative games and solving challenges. She loves working with children. Bobbi’s great love is the outdoors. She would always rather be hiking, camping, or boating! She also loves to travel, read and spend time with her large family. Bobbi is the oldest of seven children, many of whom have children already (with more coming), and it is in this large family that Bobbi thrives.
Dani is a regional trainer with an insurance company. She loves to help others learn and finds fulfillment from her job when she helps others do their jobs well. She is active in our Unitarian Universalist Church where she sings in the choir and is a worship associate. She values diversity, acceptance and love, above all else. Dani has taken trips to rock climb and ice climb. She also loves to read and go to the theatre. She has two sisters, Kiersty and Kim. She is very happy to have found herself a part of Bobbi’s large family.
Jesse is Bobbi’s son from a previous relationship and we share parenting with Jesse’s other mother. He is in the 6th grade at a public Montessori school. We plan to send any children we adopt to the same school. Jesse loves soccer, playing games (especially Wii), and playing with his cousins. Since he does not have siblings yet, we make sure he gets a lot of time with his cousins. There are eight cousins, more coming, and Jesse is happiest when running around Bobbi’s parents’ farm with all the kids. Jesse is very social and loves playing with and helping younger children. He is a natural leader, and we are very proud of him. He has been looking forward to being a big brother for a long time!
About our family
We have been a couple for seven years, and knew each other for several years before we became involved. We plan to marry once it becomes legal in Ohio and would love to have our children be a part of the ceremony.
The fact that we are a couple may be difficult to understand for some people. But we are very comfortable with who we are and feel like a very “normal” family! Everyone around us knows that we are a couple/family, and we are welcomed in both of our extended families, at work, in our communities and at our church. For us being gay is a very small part of our lives. We love each other and our family very much, and are proud of the love we share.
Bobbi’s family lives within an hour of us, so we spend most weekends with them at her parents’ house. It’s a large house, with some land and the kids love to swim in the pool, jump on the trampoline, and help Grandpa with his ever-changing array of farm animals! We frequently go camping and on vacations with other family members. There are many of us, but we are all close, and much of our socializing has family involved. We see Dani’s sisters and mother for holidays and family events.
Why adopt?
We have always considered adoption as a way to grow our family. We both have come to this decision in different ways, but it is very meaningful for us. We have learned that things don’t always happen the way you plan, but sometimes what happens is exactly what is supposed to happen. Our son, Jesse, is not our biological child together, so we already know that parenting a child has very little to do with biology, and everything to do with love!
We look forward to an “open” adoption and we are very interested in having some type of contact with our future children’s birth family. We have had practice with “shared” families, and understand how important it is for children to have information and contact with all family members! We both agree that being open with children about adoption is in their best interest. And we have learned through parenting Jesse that the child’s best interest is the only thing that matters.
We are aware that we may be adopting a child of a different race. While this is not at all an issue for us, we understand that it can bring up issues throughout the life of the child. In our community, there are many other adoptive families and our church has many families with trans-racial adoptions. As Unitarian Universalists, one of our founding principles is embracing all cultures and religious backgrounds and we plan to immerse all of our children in a community of acceptance and exploration.
We will always be so thankful to our child’s birth family for sharing their child with us, and plan to value our relationship with that family. We are happy to talk about what type and amount of contact that will be, and are willing to do whatever we need to help this child grow to be healthy and happy.
Thank you for reading about us! We wish you grace and love during this difficult time of decision making.
