Family Life

Since Ariela is Jewish and Tiara is Christian, we have discussed how to approach our dual faiths extensively over the course of our relationship. Our home, family, and life are centered around mutual respect for both faiths. We attend church together and we attend synagogue, celebrating major holidays together and with our families. For example, we go to Tiara’s parents’ house for Christmas and Ariela’s parents’ for Hannukah. Both of our families are equally respectful and kind to one another, which we are immensely grateful for.

We intend to raise our child with the same level of consideration. We will continue celebrating and supporting each other’s faiths, attending services and holidays as a family, and exposing our child to both religions as they grow. We will leave their choice of faith up to them as they get older, giving no preference to either or any other faith they choose to follow.

Overall, we value strong communication, respect, dignity, and love.

Lifestyle

Our household is warm and inviting, and our community is kind. We have a great playground in walking distance and there are several families with children on our street, including our next-door neighbors. Our neighborhood is full of trees, plants, and fun wildlife we sometimes spot, including deer, a few outdoor cats, and even foxes! We like to take family walks with the dogs in the neighborhood and sometimes drive to larger parks for longer walks and adventures. Ariela likes to go to a tai chi class each week and Tiara goes for runs in the neighborhood.

We also like to meet with family and friends for game nights. We enjoy both board games and video games, such as Scrabble, Mario Kart, and Catan.

Adoption

Our hope is that when we connect with you, we will gain a lifelong friend as part of our extended family and your child’s support system. The more caring people in your child’s life, the better! We would be happy to send photos and videos regularly and hope you will be a positive presence in your child’s life. We also hope to see you regularly, along with any other biological family members your child has, now or in the future. Of course, we want to be respectful of your needs and preferences in this structure, so we are happy to be flexible.

Being an interracial and interfaith couple, diversity is a natural part of our daily lives. Whether our future child belongs to either of our ethnic/racial backgrounds or neither, we know we will love them and respect their heritage. We plan to incorporate any differences in language, religion, or ethnicity into raising our child so they will grow to be proud of where they came from. For example, if our child is Hispanic, we will learn Spanish with them, attend Hispanic heritage festivals and events in our community, and incorporate Hispanic recipes into our daily meals. We will also have plenty of books, movies, and shows that have positive representation for our child’s background. Whatever culture they’re from, they should be proud of who they are.