- New York -
We met when we were 15 years old at a summer camp. We quickly became best friends and along with a handful of our other close friends - Danny, Josh, Jessica and Jillian - all started spending a lot of time together. As soon as camp ended and we parted ways, we started the tradition of nightly phone calls. When I, Rachel, first got my driver’s license at 17, I was most excited to be able to go see Scott, who lived 20 minutes away.
I was born into a family with two loving parents. My parents (Nancy and Dorian) already had 2 children (my brother and sister, Manda and Jordan) to whom I am very close. I was musical from the day I was born and music has been a big thread in my life. I was playing piano and guitar and singing since before I can remember. Instruments were all over my house. We had a piano, guitars and a bass. My first love was the piano. My father Dorian would teach me chords and melodies and I couldn’t wait to master them. Everything else in my house Jordan and myself turned into a drum set. Counter tops, pots pans - you name it, my dad played Jazz and would tell me and Jordan there were no wrong notes in Jazz so play whatever feels good. It was always a free and creative way to play that I still use today when I’m working on music. Nancy, my mother was an English teacher and was always relating everything in my life to a story with morals. I remember if I got into the least bit of trouble she would make me write an essay either apologizing or defending myself. I was involved in lots of sports growing up and played on lots of basketball and baseball teams in my community. My father Dorian coached some of the teams I played on. I look forward to being able to coach sports for a child of ours.
When I think about my childhood, the first thing that comes to mind is my grandma telling us over, and over again “family is everything". As a kid, I didn’t really understand why she felt so strongly about that but as an adult, I find myself living by that value in almost every decision I make. I was born to two loving parents, Janice and Eric, and the first grandchild to all four of my grandparents, and a bunch of Aunts and Uncles who welcomed me by writing my name in the snow on the blizzard-like day I was born. Just two years later, my sister, Ilana, (and best friend) was born and our family was complete. Some of my favorite memories from my childhood happen to be things that still make me very happy — spending time at the beach playing in the ocean, gathering around the piano while my dad plays whatever his favorite song-of-the moment is over and over until he gets it just right, cooking and baking (so much cooking and baking!), taking long road trips to go skiing, traveling and making new friends wherever we went, and holiday celebrations so filled with family we could barely all fit in the house. Whether a holiday celebration or Friday night dinner, there was never an empty seat at the table — because if there was, my mom and grandma would quickly open their arms and fill it with someone from the community so they didn’t have to eat alone.
It’s so nice to meet you.
Hi! Our names are Rachel and Scott. We really can’t thank you enough for taking the time to read about us. We know that it takes a very strong and loving person to consider making an adoption plan.
We’re so grateful that you’re open to learning more about who we are, and hope for the opportunity to learn more about you, too.
We put this letter together for you to get to know more about us. We can’t wait to meet you in person too so you can really know us in order to trust us.
Our greatest hope is that we can become parents. We love children, are not able to have children on our own and would love the opportunity to adopt and make a child – perhaps your child should you so generously choose us – the center of our universe.
We were both very lucky to be raised but two loving parents. We would love to provide that unconditionally loving and supportive upbringing for your precious child.
Music is a tremendous part of of our lives. We both grew up surrounded by music, but it has truly become a core element to our world in a way we never could have dreamed of. Scott’s career as a Grammy-award winning songwriter has provided so much joy, friendship and taken us to places we’d never imagined. Whether it’s going to see our best friends play concerts at the biggest venues in the world, dancing to Scott’s songs on the radio, having a singalong with friends and family in the living room, or even teaching our friends babies how to play instruments, music is with us daily.
We are so grateful for the role music has had in our lives and so excited to share this very special world with a child.
If given the opportunity, we will fill your child’s life with love and music.
Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
We’re so excited about the possibility of starting a family together and our interest in adoption comes from a place in knowing that none of us are on this journey alone. As cliche as it sounds, we’re all in this together. Our commitment is to raise any child in our home with love, patience, honesty, open-mindedness and acceptance. We’re so excited to continue on the traditions we’ve built, and build new ones with our family as it grows.
We’re so grateful to have the opportunity to connect with you, here today. We also know that you are in a position that requires so much courage and is probably incredibly difficult. Whatever decision you make, we truly trust that you are making the right choice and are sending you all of our love, support and positive energy.
If you’re open to it, would be so excited to learn more about you and your dreams and aspirations for your child. Please feel free to call or text 917-410-4914 or email [email protected]. If you have any questions about us or the legal process, please feel free to contact our attorney, Suzanne Nichols. Suzanne will be happy to speak with you and has a toll free number where she may be reached: 800 255-1415.
Thank you for taking your time to meet us through this book. We appreciate your time and we appreciate you.
With love,
Rachel & Scott
As you probably know by now, music is a big part of our lives and another thing we love to do and do often is to see live music.
Music is something that has always been a huge part of both our lives from childhood and definitely a shared passion — one that Scott has turned into an incredible career. We’re so grateful to have a tight knit community formed from people Scott works with. Scott is a professional songwriter and over the years so many fellow songwriters, artists and musicians have become like a second family to us.
Our gatherings with them are almost always centered around music – often going to concerts and shows and even awards shows to see artists we’re most inspired by and just having a good time with like-minded, creative friends. We can assure you that your child will be surrounded by music…all types of music!
Our life together now.
We’ve lived in Brooklyn for over 10 years – since about the time we got married. A few years ago we bought our home that we currently live in which is on a tree-lined street right down the block from the park and playground.
In the spring and summer, the neighborhood is super lively and we love to have friends and family over to enjoy the energy here. We’ll often walk down the block and hang out at the park and then have everyone to our backyard for a BBQ dinner.
Our neighborhood is filled with shops and art galleries but has a very intimate neighborhood feel. One of our favorite parts about where we live is that so many different types of pople from all over have found a home here and everybody is celebrated for exactly who they are.
We love living here – we are so so exited to rediscover the area as parents.
When we’re not home in Brooklyn, we tend to spend a lot of time upstate NY in the mountains. This tradition started when we would go spend the weekend camping with friends for July 4th every year and has grown to us now having a cabin upstate that we love to spend time at. Our annual camping trip is still something we do (but now we do it with Jordan, Diane and Joshua) and we also spend many weekends at our house upstate hosting groups of family and friends.
Over the summer, we spend a lot of time having picnics, campfires and floating around the lake and in the winter, we cozy up and listen to old records, do fun arts & crafts projects and cook with friends, and our friends small kids (who are all between 0-5 years old). Every family member is eager for us to add a child to the family group – and so are we!
Rachel loves hiking (and Scott loves making Rachel happy and has grown to love it too) and doing anything that involves nature and sunshine. Our love of nature also draws us to travel a lot — whether traveling to the National Parks or even internationally. Every summer, we try to take some time off to visit somewhere new, explore the nature there and learn about the culture.
Sometimes we’ll travel just the two of us (which often leads to meeting some new friends along the way) but usually, we get together a close group of friends or family and use the opportunity to spend time together.
We are looking forward to adding child friendly trips like visits to Disney to our list of travels.
We’ve both always cherished holiday traditions and quality time with family and one of our favorite days of the year is celebrating Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day for us starts the same every year — by watching the Thanksgiving Day parade, which is so special as it signifies holiday season in NYC – a magical time of year filled with holiday lights, weekends ice skating and festive dinners with friends. As soon as the parade is over, we hop in the car and all drive to Rachel’s Aunt’s house in Connecticut where we are greeted by a warm house full of cousins and a cup of hot apple cider. We spend the day eating a very traditional Thanksgiving feast (turkey, stuffing, freshly baked breads, sweet potato pie, etc.), watching football and sharing stories. The kids table where we once sat is now filled with our nieces and nephews and our cousins kids. Just like we used to do, after we all eat, the kids all run down to the basement where Rachel’s aunt sets up a wonderland for them filled with ping pong, toys, stuffed animals and games.
As a kid, playing down there with all the cousins was always a highlight and it’s so much fun that it’s a tradition the next generation loves, too. Right before dessert is served, Rachel’s uncle always makes a toast and we then all gather around the piano for a singalong — which is a tradition that has been ongoing for 4 generations. Rachel’s great grandparents were both piano teachers and taught everyone in the family how to play so this is a tradition that is full of laughs and smiles but equally so, a moment we collectively share an immense sense of gratitude for the joy we share and for the amazing supportive, loving family we are surrounded by.
Our Family.
Family is and always had been the most important part of our lives. We live very close to our parents and see them frequently. Since we have been together so long our parents have developed a wonderful relationship with each other as well – and will even hang out together when we’re not there! They actually met when we all used to go see Scott’s band plan when we were in high school, so they’ve known each other almost as long as we have! We spend lots of weekends together and often bring our families together for holidays – including aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents.
Adoption has always been a very important part of our lives. Scotts brother Jordan and his wife Diane adopted their 7 year old son just last year after they cared for him as their foster son for 6 years. He joined our family as a foster child when he was just a few months old, so we’ve all known him and loved him since he was a baby in diapers. Jordan, Diane and Joshua live just 5 minutes away and we see them multiple times a week for coffee dates, movie nights or even just little walks around the neighborhood. Joshua loves coming over and he’s even claimed a room in our house as Joshua’s room. He races to it when he walks in the door.
It’s been so much fun building new traditions with Joshua – like going for weekly pizza dinners, cheering him on at his baseball games in the park on Saturday mornings, taking him to the pier to go fishing and of course, building many new holiday traditions with him. Halloween is such a fun one — every year, we take Joshua trick or treating and then head over to the community garden where people from the neighborhood set up a haunted garden for all the kids. The night usually ends with watching a movie together and playing games until bedtime. Joshua is eager for us to have a little one to join him on these adventures. He has told us he will share his old costumes with his new cousin.
We love to share the excitement of the holiday season with Joshua and creating our own special Christmas traditions together is definitely a highlight. The first weekend in December every year, we all meet up at the park just down the block from our house where there is a seasonal Christmas Tree farm set up. Together we pick our trees (really, Joshua picks the trees!) and stock up on seasonal goodies like fresh maple syrup and Christmas decor. We then all drag the tree back to our house, put Christmas music on and have a decorating party which always includes lots of hot chocolate and usually, and a lot of dancing to whatever Joshua’s favorite song of the moment is — usually Michael Jacksons’ Thriller. Joshua is so excited to think that he could have a baby cousin to join him.
We are also very close with Scott’s older sister Manda, our brother-in-law Mike and niece and nephew Dylan and Lauren. We have babysat Lauren and Dylan since the time they were little and are in shock every time we say we can’t believe Dylan is in college already. Scott has also been a big influence on Lauren’s life. She has taken a big interest in creating music and he has been able to create a special bond with her teaching her how to write. It’s pretty wild to think Rachel has known them their entire lives too.
Rachel’s sister, Ilana, just got married and we’re so excited to welcome Joel to our family. We’re also very thrilled of the possibility of having children close in age so they can grow up together, like we did with our cousins. Whenever we’re with Ilana and Joel, we find ourselves on spontaneous mini-adventures together – like going for hikes, renting kayaks and spending the afternoon on the water, or venturing out to find the best ice cream shop around. We can’t wait to continue those adventures together as our families grow alongside each other.