John is the world's greatest father!
John is one of the most thoughtful people I have met. It is amazing to see what a confident, natural father he is. He consistently showers Vera with affection and love. It seems like he never runs out of energy. John is very playful, while still getting the job done, like when he dances to Diana Ross, while folding laundry with Vera giggling by his side. He is great at funny faces to make Vera smile, and when he does my heart grows in size.
As a partner, John makes me feel my best. He is very complimentary of aspects of my personality big and small and shows his love openly and often. He is dedicated to our extended family and has cultivated many friendships from all of his experiences, including pre-school friends! He has created his own relationships with my aunts, sending them photos of Vera, flowers in bloom or cats. He loves to read and understands how powerful language and stories are to broaden imagination. I know that he will build your child up to make him or her feel that they can do anything they put their minds to, while teaching him or her responsibility in English and in French!
Hi!
We’re Amos and John, and we are so grateful that you are taking the time to get to know us. You must have many questions about us, and we hope that our story will give you a better picture of who we are and the kind of unconditionally loving and nurturing family we long to give to your child. After you read this, we hope we will have the opportunity to get to know you too and hear about your hopes for your child!
A few years ago we had the opportunity to move out of New York City and to a house in New Jersey where we have more space now for a family and a backyard to get fresh air. We live on a quiet, safe, friendly, tree-lined street just a few blocks from a harbor with a Moroccan-French restaurant on one corner that plays live jazz music on the weekends. It is a very kid friendly neighborhood with many other families and lots of parks and public spaces for play. We chose our home with the idea that we would welcome children. We are ready!
We love having friends nearby - it has been nice to have neighbors and we’ve gotten to know the family who live next door to us who have three teenage girls Alex, Sarah and Jules who play volleyball. Their parents Mike and Carmela are very kind and if we’re cooking or baking we try to make an extra portion to swap with one another. Mike has a smoker and makes delicious food! We are lucky to have a range of friends nearby - from traditional family arrangements to a mix of gay and straight, and diverse international backgrounds.
Thanksgiving
Turkey day is both of our favorite holidays, ever since we were both little boys. It means family, delicious food – and the turning of the seasons. For the past several years we have taken over this tradition ourselves, cooking a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for our families at John’s parent’s house in Vermont – everyone at a long table up to 30 people gathered together to enjoy a huge feast. The best part is cooking together, with everyone helping out – from the little kids to adults working together decorating and baking, mixing and setting up. The turkey starts to get brined and some side dishes prepared the day before, and all day on Thanksgiving it smells amazing with the cooking smells filling the house while we catch up with each other. This past year was made even more special because it was the day our daughter, Vera Ariel, was born!
Amos is the sweetest, kindest Dad.
Amos is a caring, thoughtful and attentive father. He always makes sure that our daughter is safe and comfortable, and he is constantly researching her development stages and adjusting her routine and environment so she can continue to thrive. Amos is someone who always takes a look at the situation and isn’t afraid to stand up for what’s fair. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and cares for everyone around him. I love seeing him interact with our daughter, he is loving and attentive to her every need, giggle, smile and chirp. He has a unique way of making people feel like they are special, and that he sees them. When he first met my aunts, uncles and cousins - he jumped right into playing games, cooking, and swimming in the lake. Amos always tunes into how people feel and makes sure they are ok and having fun.
Amos is very focused and disciplined - he sets goals for himself, and makes them happen. He is a great partner and always chooses the kind yet effective way of approaching a challenge or difficult situation. I am always surprised with how patient he is with each step of caring for Vera, and the fun, creative ways he engages her and other kids to play a game or explore their imagination. Somehow during the fun and creative play, our daughter has also had dinner on schedule, diapers are changed and she is in bed on time after reading her favorite books.
I’m excited to be on the journey of parenting and raising a family with Amos, I am so lucky that my partner is a natural father to our daughter, and to whoever we are lucky enough to meet as a new cherished member of our family.
We both take work seriously, and take a lot of pride in our careers. Being a hard worker is one thing that drew us to each other when we first met. We both like what we do, and have worked towards careers that can provide for a family, while having a flexible schedule to be very involved and present fathers. Since we both work from home we will have lots of flexibility and opportunities to play and foster your child’s growth!
For fun we like to cook, and have friends and family over for dinners and parties. Being surrounded by people we love and sharing a meal and an experience is one of our favorite ways to create new memories. Traveling, going to movies, theater, and out to dinner are fun ways we like to explore new experiences and spend time together. We regularly go on long family walks with our sweet and gentle dog Hattie Mae, around the city where we live and on hikes in the woods. Hattie is great with kids.
Our families know how much love we have to give and are we are all ready to open our arms to your child. We love our own siblings and want Vera and your child to have the kind of bond we share with our brother and sister. We are excited for the opportunity to have children close in age because we know it guarantees and very special connection that they will share their whole lives. Vera is very interested in our dog Hattie Mae and we can tell she is going to make a wonderful big sister – we are so excited for her to have a sibling.
Adoption: Please call/text anytime 1-800-989-6766
Loving, creative professionals long to adopt.
We look forward to welcoming your child into a loving, positive environment where he or she can grow creatively and feel safe and nurtured. We are lucky to have great parenting examples in our own parents, who found a balance of encouraging creativity, imagination, and a healthy lifestyle with reasonable rules and boundaries to keep us safe and secure. We want your child to have exposure to experiences that will help him or her grow as a person and experience a well-rounded education. We both have big families, and are excited for your child to grow up with grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles, to share holidays, play at the beach, in the woods and become a part of our lives together in every way.
Please call/text 1-800-989-6766
We are the proudest Papas!
Early Thanksgiving morning we got a call from Vera’s birth mom, and we rushed excitedly to the hospital to meet her. The minute Vera was placed in our arms everything felt at peace. We had been waiting for this moment for our whole lives, and those first 24-hours were magical. We asked Vera’s wonderful birth mom to choose Vera’s middle name, Ariel, because we want to make sure that Vera always knows how much her mom loves her and is a part of her life.
We had been able to spend some time getting to know Vera’s mom and her fiancé. After Vera was born, we were able to visit several times. We send photos and videos of Vera to her weekly and are looking forward to visiting her in person again soon.
To help you in making such a big decision, we thought you might like to know us, how we came to fall in love and marry, what our extended families are like, how we grew up, and the life that we would provide for your child, should you so generously choose us.
Please call/text 1-800-989-6766
Meet our daughter, Vera Ariel!
Please call/text 1-800-989-6766
Beach Vacations
Our “happy place” is definitely by the water, and we love going to the beach or the pool with an iced coffee and getting some sand and sun. We took a family trip with Vera with John’s sister Becca and her boyfriend Adrian so that she could see the ocean for the first time. It was a fun filled week of long walks on the beach, delicious food that Amos cooked and lots of playing and growing for all of us. We celebrated Easter with Amos’ family the following weekend. As you can see Vera loves the water!
Please call/text 1-800-989-6766
Please call/text 1-800-989-6766
Amos grew up outside of New York City, and was always a very dramatic child. Amos’ family is very creative - Amos’ father Daniel is a poet, author and documentary producer, and Amos’ mother Marta is a choreographer and filmmaker. As a kid, Amos’s parents always found ways to keep their sons, Amos and Lorenzo curious and occupied, whether that was long walks in nature or cultural opportunities like exploring the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or seeing a Broadway show or the ballet with Amos’ Nana. They are very eager to do many of these, both, creative and outdoorsy activities with your child
We met through a friend at a Fourth of July party on the ocean. We spent that evening watching the fireworks together holding hands. Several years later, Amos proposed by the New York Harbor. While we stood by the river, the waves crashed against the shore while the sun was starting to set. Amos got on one knee and proposed. It felt like we walked on air as we strolled through a beautiful night in moonlit Central Park, with the streetlamps turning on as we passed.
We absolutely love being parents!
Vera is an amazing little girl and we absolutely love being parents! She is very physical, grabbing, exploring and putting anything she can in her mouth. She has a great smile and babbles a mile a minute, squealing with pleasure, blowing raspberries and chirping like a bird. She loves the bath, which is good because she sure does make a mess when she eats! We’re trying to get her to like vegetables, but it’s definitely a work in progress. Her hair is really the star of the show and we excited to be able to style it now that it isn’t just sticking up straight in the air!
Please call/text 1-800-989-6766
Family Vacations
As you can tell, we both have big families and like spending time with our aunts and uncles, cousins, and our cousins’ little kids playing at the beach, the lake, and in mountains in Vermont. It’s even more fun now that there is a new generation to experience things like learning to swim, sailing, picking blueberries, making sand-castles, fishing, and toasting marshmallows. We try to balance exploring new places and things with friends, and also spending time in special places with family. We are so excited to share these experiences with your child.
Please call/text 1-800-989-6766
We are in awe that you are considering an adoptive plan for your child. We understand that this is a big decision, for you and we don’t take that lightly. It takes a very special and courageous person to commit to bringing a life into this world and help two men’s dreams of raising a family come true. Without your kindness we would never get to be the kind of family we have been hoping for since we first met. We love children and always dreamed about caring for children.
Should you choose us, we will appreciate your tremendous gift to us and honor your gift by being the best parents that we can be. And as the eldest in our families, our parents and younger siblings are equally as excited about spoiling your child! We hope you will see that family is a very important part of our lives and everyone is so excited to embrace the newest addition. Thank you for considering to help us make our hopes become a reality.
This Christmas was a bit different and our families came to us. They brought so many presents for Vera from extended family and friends. We ordered Chinese food with Amos’ family and watched silly movies, but mostly all eyes were on Vera! Amos’ mother Marta is a wonderful knitter and made a special Christmas sweater for Vera. She is very excited to knit a baby blanket for your child, just like she did for Vera.
Wherever we go, whether it is close to home or further away, we discover new things about one another and are reminded of what initially drew us together: a passion for life and curiosity to try new things. And we hope to pass this curiosity and passion on to your child one day. We look forward to learning from your child also…if we find that he or she has interests and talents that are different than ours, we intend to learn about their interests and encourage that they pursue them.
Please call/text 1-800-989-6766
John grew up outside of Boston, his cousins lived down the street and all of his grandparents lived in the town next door. He always wanted to experience a different country and language, and was very interested in his French classes. He did a couple exchanges with families in France before he went to college, and then lived in France for a couple years during and after college. John followed his love of reading and books to work in publishing, and now has a successful career in advertising where he helps people write, speak in public and be interviewed for TV, radio and print publications. He loves being in the mix with creative people and helping them to express themselves.
This mixture of extended family closeness, small-town activities, appreciation for the playing in nature and the exciting, busy city life, travel, music, art, literature are all things we will share with your child.
We felt drawn to have our parents and siblings gather near our family home on the water to have a small intimate wedding, the joining of two families. John’s sister Becca and Amos’ brother Lorenzo officiated the ceremony. Each member of our family gathered and shared touching, personal blessings for us, the newlyweds.
Amos’ theatrical tendencies continued to push him to train and build his skills, eventually fulfilling his lifelong dream of performing on Broadway in several shows, including the long running hit musical CHICAGO. After traveling the world as a performer, Amos decided that he wanted to help people who were having difficulty connecting to their families and loved ones. He went to graduate school to get a Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. He now has an established career working with couples, individuals and families (many of them actors) to help them reconnect and remember that even with their differences, there is always the opportunity for love and support.
Forth of July (before Vera was born)
Every summer around the Fourth of July we visit John’s parents for a few weeks at their home in a beach town in Massachusetts. We’re even more excited so we can continue to play at the beach with Vera and go downtown to get ice-cream. At the end of the hill John’s parents live on is a small neighborhood beach, which is great for kids. At high tide there is a big rock in the water that the older kids climb up on to jump off into the cool, clear water. We love playing in the water with cousins Porter and Josephine. Cousin Josephine is an expert baker and is excited to show her new little cousins how to lick the batter off the spoon!
Our families could not be more in love!
Our families could not be more in love. John’s parents Jeanne and Dave are going to be called Gigi and Grandpa and Amos’s parents Marta and Daniel are Me-Mart and Mr. Wolf (we’ll see what Vera makes of that LOL!). Amos’s brother Lorenzo is very goofy with her and John’s sister Becca speaks in French to her and you can tell Vera looks up to her. Amos’ mother comes to stay with and we’ve visited John’s family in Massachusetts for a couple weeks so that Vera could meet her large extended family. Vera has so many aunties that want to play with Vera, helping her get stronger physically and mentally so that she can become all that she is meant to be. We just know she is going to be a special young lady, whether an athlete, a ballerina, a scientist or whatever interests her.
Christmas
Christmas is a time when we make an effort to spend time with both sides of our families, it’s a special time to celebrate traditions and create new memories. Usually we drive to both Massachusetts and New York to try to see as much family as possible. John’s Aunt Anita throws a family Christmas Party the weekend before the big day, which always falls on the same night as the live nativity downtown, with a procession of all those in the manger (including real horses and sheep walking through the town). We love seeing the excitement in our little cousin’s eyes when we walk by the sea through the little town, and the streets are filled with people singing and holding candles to light the way. We can’t wait for your child to experience moments like this, surrounded by family in the salty air after a big get together and delicious food.
When we land in upstate New York to see Amos’ family, we are greeted by many cousins and even more of their kids excited to begin unwrapping presents. The best part is decorating the tree together, with ornaments from when Amos’ dad was a little kid. The cousins (even the ones with kids) all put on a funny outfit or pajamas, and walk down the staircase together trying to sing – but usually laughing too hard to really get all the words.
Both sides of our family celebrate adoption, and it is close to our hearts. John’s grandfather, Francis, was adopted back in the 1920’s because his mother felt she was not in a position to give him the life that he deserved, and through being nurtured in another family he became a father himself to 7 children, and a leader in his community as a police officer, fireman and sports coach. After having four children, Amos’ Aunt Paula and Uncle Wayne adopted their fifth child, Daniel, when he was a teenager after their eldest daughter, Amanda, met him in an after-school program. Having grown up with these experiences we truly understand that family is not just made with blood, family is made with love. As two men, we recognize that family is not “traditional,” nor just biological, and is a combination of different cultures and communities of people that help shape children’s lives.
We both have big extended families, so while only our immediate families were present on the day of our wedding, each side of our families threw us wonderful celebrations with extended family, friends and people we grew up with. Amos’ mother Marta threw us a great party with a delicious trés-leches cake, and John’s mother Jeanne hosted an amazing boat party for us, on the Boston Harbor with family coming as far as Alaska for a joyous reunion complete with family traditions like riding into the night on Uncle John’s putt-putt.
Please call/text 1-800-989-6766
We hope that our story has helped you get to know us a bit better, and we would be happy if you would call or text us at: 800-989-6766 so that we can get to know you better and learn what you hope for the future of your child. You may also feel free to email us at: email@johnandamoshopetoadopt.com.
If you choose us, we look forward to welcoming your baby into our family with open arms and are so excited to see the amazing person they grow up to be.
If you have any legal questions about us or the adoption process, please contact our attorney, Suzanne Nichols.
We wish you happiness and peace no matter what decision you make.
We excitedly look forward to hearing from you!
With love,
John and Amos