Our Photos

Our family hiking in Tahoe, CA

Craig fishing with his Dad

Jan gardening in the backyard with our daughter

Biking around the neighborhood park

Craig sledding with our daughter

Jan taking cooking lessons in Italy

Craig playing guitar with the boys

Jan chatting with our nieces

Craig crawling over boulders with his jeep (yikes!)

Jan (middle) learning to play golf with friends

Playing with our dog at the beach

Our family’s first snowman

Jan & Craig

Dear Expectant Mother,

Thank you for taking the time to read our letter and consider us as adoptive parents. We can only imagine what a difficult time this is for you and admire your strength and courage in making this challenging decision. We met sixteen years ago in college and have grown up together – laughing and exploring the world. Our hope is to continue our journey as parents by sharing our adventurous spirit with children.

About Us

We met in college sixteen years ago at the University of California, Davis. We were neighbors and when our roommates left for the summer, we fell in love over coffee and midnight walks. This year we will celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary.

As a couple, we share a passion for exploring – whether we’re trying out new recipes in our kitchen, backpacking at Lake Tahoe, or traveling the world. Craig’s job as a commercial airline pilot has allowed us to visit some amazing places.

We always dreamed of raising a family together. After trying unsuccessfully to have a baby, we were blessed to adopt our daughter, Jessica in December 2009. Our adventures now include trips to the local zoo and building sand castles at the beach. It’s exciting to share our love of the outdoors with Jessica and watch her learn and grow.

We hope to once again expand our family through the gift of adoption. Adopting a child has transformed our house into a home filled with more laughter and love than we could have imagined. Being parents is the most magical and rewarding adventure of our lives.

About Our Home & Community

We live in Pleasanton, California, a small town located in the San Francisco Bay Area. We love the community and family-friendly atmosphere. Pleasanton has all the perks of a small town, with local bands and family picnics on Friday evenings and a Saturday morning Farmer’s market.

Our home – which we have slowly remodeled over the past ten years – is perfect for summer BBQs with family and friends. We enjoy gardening in the backyard and winding down the day by having a relaxing dinner on the deck under the trees. Our home is located on a street with parks at both ends and excellent schools within walking distance.

When we feel up for a day in the city or Jan wants to see her beloved baseball team, we head to San Francisco which is less than an hour away.

Our Values

We embrace the values our parents taught us – the importance of hard work, respect, and kindness to one another. Both sets of parents have been married for over 45 years and serve as constant role models to us – showing us how to be great parents and the dedication required to have a successful marriage. We try to live healthy lives full of laughter and curiosity. We value our family and friends and are lucky to have careers that provide us with flexible work schedules to raise a family.

Jan (described by Craig)

Jan is a civil engineer for one of the Bay Area’s largest water districts – working to find solutions to California’s water supply problems. She is analytical, thoughtful, and deliberate – that comes with being an engineer – but she is also kind, compassionate, quick to laugh, and never takes herself too seriously. Jan is definitely the rock of our relationship and brings stability and wisdom to our marriage.

Jan loves sports and the outdoors. For exercise, she runs with our dog on trails near our home, listening to music and Lance Armstrong as her “personal coach” on her IPod. She’s learning to golf with friends and once she’s addicted, we can all go golfing together. Jan is a die-hard San Francisco Giants baseball fan. I’ve never seen her more excited than in 2010 when we went to the World Series and the Giants won.

Jan enjoys playing with the family, reading mystery novels, gardening in the backyard (I dig the holes), and shopping at the local Farmer’s market. She likes cooking and trying out new recipes for family and friends. She is famous for her chocolate chip cookies!

I see Jan reading and watching baseball with our daughter. I always knew Jan would be a loving and devoted mother. I never knew how goofy she could be.

Craig (described by Jan)

Craig is a commercial airline pilot and flies all over the United States. He enjoys the challenge and excitement of flying to new and interesting places. Flying is a perfect career for Craig and I love knowing that such a dedicated and competent pilot is in the sky! Luckily, his schedule is very flexible and allows plenty of time for family.

Craig is very outgoing and friendly. His natural warmth and many interests make it easy for him to strike up conversations with others – from discussing home improvement projects with neighbors to laughing with strangers (now friends) at a pub in Ireland.

Craig is an adventurer at heart and loves anything outdoors – hiking, mountain biking, fishing, skiing, jeeping. He is also an incredible photographer and the walls of our home are filled with his pictures. Craig is known for making his delicious, home-made bread for family gatherings. He is a talented musician and enjoys playing songs for our daughter on the guitar. I love Craig’s passion and enthusiasm for life – especially trying new things. It’s a good balance to my more cautious nature and inspires me.

Craig is a terrific father! He is both silly and patient with our daughter. I can’t wait to see him teaching our child to ski and fish.

Jessica

Jessica joined our family in December 2009. We are grateful to her birthparents for making us parents and trusting us to love and raise Jessica. As adoptive parents, we know the enormous responsibility we have to make sure Jessica understands how she became part of our lives.
Jessica is a very busy, curious two-year old girl. She is always on the go – running, climbing, and jumping. Jessica is our little explorer and wears a backpack with a map inside to go on adventures. She already loves the outdoors and is a great traveler. Jessica enjoys cooking in her kitchen and reading books. Her specialty is pretending to make hot soup and coffee for us.
Jessica has a very outgoing personality. Even as a baby, she would say “hi” to everybody in a store and give them a surprised look if they didn’t respond to her greeting. Jessica is constantly talking and giggling. She says the funniest things to make us laugh too (like saying “oh mannn” if something doesn’t go well). Jessica is looking forward to being a big sister and helping to take care of the baby.

Our Dog Cali

Cali is the four-legged member of our family. She is a black Labrador-mix that loves playing in the snow, swimming, and chasing squirrels. She is our adventure dog and joins us on hikes and fishing trips. Cali even has her own backpack. Cali is extremely gentle and LOVES playing with children. She even puts up with Jessica bossing her around.

Family & Friends

Our family is a fascinating blend of different cultures. Jan’s dad is from China and her mother is from Panama. Jan and her siblings were born in the United States. Craig’s parents are native Californians. His mother was raised on a farm that the family still owns today. Family is very important to us and we love to get together to EAT, laugh, and tell stories.

Our combined family includes grandparents, two sisters, a brother, and lots of aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews. Craig’s opinionated, 97-year old grandmother still teaches water aerobics and pushes Jessica around on her walker! Both sets of parents live nearby and can’t wait to cuddle a new grandchild. One of our nieces is adopted and we have friends with adopted children – so we have always treasured the role of adoption in building families.

We are blessed to be surrounded by a fantastic network of friends from childhood, college, work, and our many adventures. We enjoy BBQing, camping, and traveling together. Two years ago, a group of 20 of us vacationed together along the California coast. It’s incredible to us that even with our busy lives, we still make time to be together.

Our Hopes as Parents

We hope to teach, encourage, and inspire our child to embrace life – to be positive, curious, and fearless in facing new challenges. We want our child to understand the value of hard work and respect and to grow up confident and independent. Most importantly, we promise to raise our child in a home filled with opportunities and unquestionable love and support.
We have wonderful childhood memories growing up in California. We both ran track in school and took summer vacations with our families where we hiked, camped, swam, and fished our way through National Parks. We were surrounded by music and played in school bands, Jan the oboe and Craig the keyboard. We spent weekends playing with neighborhood kids and ate meals as a family where we laughed and shared the highs and lows of the day. This is the environment in which we plan to raise our family.

Thank You for giving us this opportunity to tell you about ourselves and our hopes for building our family through adoption. Regardless of whether your journey includes us or not, we wish you well. If you would like to know more about us, please contact us through Cindy Simonson at A Loving Alternative 1 800-556-5635.

Sincerely,

Jan & Craig

Contact This Family

To talk to this family, please call Cindy at 800-556-5635 or by sending an email below