Enjoying a park in Austin, TX
Relaxing at the SF MoMA
Cake toppers of us in Halloween costumes from the night we met
Excited for shave ice on a recent Hawaii trip
A friend's wedding in Austin
Kenneth shortly before proposing in Japan
Kenneth, The King of Westeros
We're not sure who's happier - Kenneth or the sloth?
Dan on a recent trip to LA
Dan having fun at a Portland bookstore
Dan showing his pride
Dan's family in tacky Christmas sweaters
Taking Kenneth's parents on the SF cable car
View from the nursery
Castro Neighborhood
San Francisco, CA
Halloween!
It's when we met!
Japan!
It's where we got engaged!
With friends, bellies full, gathered around the dinner table
Kenneth: Junior Mints
Dan: Reese's Pieces
Hi and thanks for taking the time to learn about us! We’re Kenneth and Dan from San Francisco. We met in Austin, TX, 10 years ago on a fateful Halloween night, with Dan dressed as Crackle (from Rice Krispies’ Snap, Crackle, and Pop) and Kenneth dressed as Bruce Lee. Since then, our love for each other (and our Halloween costume collection) has grown every year, and we are now ready for the next phase of our life by becoming parents.
We spent the first 7 years of our relationship in Austin, watching the city grow, working on home improvement projects, and progressing in our careers. We were on vacation in Japan when Kenneth surprised Dan by proposing in the middle of the Imperial Gardens (spoiler alert: he said “Yes!”). Things progressed quickly from there – within a year, we were married, Dan graduated with his MBA, and we moved to San Francisco, ready to take on our next big adventure.
Since then, we’ve embraced San Francisco as tech professionals working in the heart of downtown. We’ve enjoyed getting to know the Bay Area through its wide array of food, weekend getaways with friends, and diverse cultural activities. On weekends, we usually spend our time checking out new parks and neighborhoods during the day before trying a new restaurant for dinner. We also take a couple vacations each year, most recently having an interest in the Western US, giving Dan a chance to practice his photography with Kenneth taking in the local sites.
Kenneth is a nurturer – he’s got a huge heart and enjoys taking care of me and others, especially with home-cooked food. His parents owned the local chinese restaurant growing up, so I’m lucky that he knows his way around the kitchen. He’s always the life of the party, but can be found reading a book or playing Candy Crush when he needs personal time to recharge. Kenneth is a stable, yet soft-hearted rock for our family – able to deal with whatever life has in store in a laid-back, yet confident manner. I know he’ll make a great dad, and I can’t wait to hear him telling bedtime stories to a little one!
Dan is a driving force in our family. He is curious, smart, determined, super organized, and can accomplish anything he puts his mind to. Without his strength, neither Dan nor I would be where we are today. Dan loves to be around people. His ideal evening would be having our friends over for a potluck dinner followed by board games late into the night. He is very health conscious, eats well, and can be seen at the gym several days a week. He loves deeply and has the best intentions for people. Dan is going to make a wonderful father and a great role model.
We live in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco – a centrally located, vibrant area with lots of restaurants and shops. We are in a spacious 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment uphill from the center of the Castro where it’s quiet, clean, and safe, with a small secluded patio and lemon tree in the backyard. We love trying new cafes for brunch and then relaxing in the nearby Golden Gate or Dolores Park. We’ve fallen in love with the beauty of the Bay Area since moving here, given that lounging on the beach, hiking through the redwood forests, and skiing down the mountains are all just a short drive away.
A lot of Kenneth’s family lives in Hawaii where he and his younger brother were born. His parents moved to Houston when he was 4 so that makes him almost a Texan, right? Kenneth’s parents still live in Houston and his brother now lives in New York, with extended family all over the world. His parents and brother are overjoyed we’ve started the adoption process, and his brother even volunteered to babysit (though the logistics of living on opposite coasts might make that difficult)! It’s always been a dream of theirs to see our family expand.
Dan comes from a very close (and very large) extended Hispanic family based mostly in Albuquerque, NM. They are always coming up with new ways to have fun and were a big inspiration for his decision to adopt. They usually join us on vacation at least once a year, and we have spent every Christmas with them since we started dating. Dan’s parents and younger brother were thrilled to hear we are adopting! After Dan’s coming out, they never thought they’d get a chance to be grandparents, so when we told them we applied to be adoptive parents, they were ecstatic and are more than happy to support us in whatever we need.
Thank you for getting to know us. We are excited to be taking the next step of our journey, and want to thank you for your courage to make what must be an incredibly difficult decision. We began talking about becoming parents 10 years ago after we had been dating for a few months and we feel we are finally in the right place in our lives for it.
We promise to give your child a stable and loving home full of learning and laughter (and good food). We would love an opportunity to learn more about you, so please reach out to us so we can get to know each other.
