Thank you for taking the time to view our profile and consider us as adoptive parents!

We are Benson and Jesse, a warm-hearted couple that is looking forward to expanding our family, which includes our loving son, Liam, and cat, Huxley. We live in a friendly city neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Jesse is a partner at a law firm and Benson is a director at an environmental non-profit.

Both of us have wanted to have a family of our own, even before we were married.  This desire has been reinforced over the past decade surrounded by our adorable nieces (9, 6, and 4) and nephews (11, 8, and 4), plus the wonderful children of many of our friends.  We have also known for a long while that adoption was the right path for us, even before Liam joined our family, which only confirmed it.  We were also fortunate that many of our friends have gone through the adoption process in starting their families and we have learned from their experiences as well (and Jesse’s grandfather was adopted too). 

Our journey together started in 2014 at an LGBTQ ice hockey tournament in Toronto.  Fortunately for us, neither Jesse’s New York team nor Benson’s Pittsburgh team had enough players for the tournament, so the two cities joined forces and brought us together.  As fate would have it, Jesse had a pro bono civil rights case in Pittsburgh two weeks later, and three years later our family and friends gathered on the dance floor to celebrate our marriage!

Before settling down in Benson’s hometown, we have lived all over the US and internationally. Originally from Canada, Jesse moved to Montana to live on a cattle ranch during high school, Boston to attend college at Harvard, and then to NYC to attend Cardozo Law and start his legal career.  After high school, Benson moved to Virginia to attend college at UVA, Germany to work for an environmental consulting firm, Connecticut to attend graduate school at Yale, and then back home to Pittsburgh to manage the corporate sustainability program at a major bank, prior to joining an environmental non-profit.  

While work keeps us busy, we take time to unwind by tackling DIY projects around the house, testing out new dishes and baked goods with friends, and spending time in the fresh air, such as biking and hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter.  Fortunately, we live a half-block from Frick Park, the largest wooded park in Pittsburgh and have made frequent use of the gorgeous hiking trails and the nature found within!  Liam loves seeing all the local wildlife -- deer, hawks, squirrels, and an abundance of birds -- and can’t wait to share everything about his woodland friends with a sibling.  We also volunteer our time to give back to our community, and hope to instill in our children the values of compassion, empathy, and kindness for all our neighbors.

We are blessed with loving family, friends, and neighbors, who will provide a strong support system for our children. By having Benson’s family all within a 10-minute drive, and Jesse’s spread out around the world from Saskatchewan to Sweden, we feel prepared to provide our children with both deep roots and adventurous wings. Benson’s family will be a fantastic local support network for our children (and for us!), and Jesse’s family will provide added excitement for special visits and family gatherings in many fun places.  Our family is extremely thrilled to add more grandchildren, nieces/nephews, and cousins! 

We are very excited to add another child to our family, give Liam a little sibling, and look forward to the greatest adventure yet.  Thank you for considering us, and hopefully making our most important dream come true!