Greg and Derek
Hello! We are Greg (right) and Derek (left) – A fun-loving, adventurous, family-oriented pair who is excited to start our family!
We met online in the winter of 2015 while Greg was helping his sister’s family move cross country. A steady stream of text messages revealed a mutual love of the outdoors, travel, and, most importantly family. From all the car singing videos Greg sent, Derek also took quiet notice of how great he was with his baby niece. When Greg got back from his trip, we scheduled our first date – a run around Discovery Park in Seattle followed by coffee – on New Year’s Day. Trying new things and saying “yes” to zany ideas has been the foundation of our relationship ever since.
We got married in 2021 and moved into our South Seattle home in 2018 with our loving dog Frankie (a brindle boxer!). We were blessed to find an incredible community of loving and supportive neighbors and friends that we now call family. Both sets of our parents also live in Washington, along with large extended families who can’t wait to be involved in our child’s life.
Greg grew up on a dairy farm in Eastern Washington where, from an early age, he learned the value of hard work, along with the importance of family and community. After spending ten years as an accountant working with and for non-profits, Greg now oversees the operations team for a small investment firm in Seattle. His position allows him the flexibility to spend time doing what he loves: adventuring with Derek and Frankie, completing home improvement projects, and spending time with friends and family. He also spends a good deal of time volunteering, most recently as the board Treasurer for Seattle’s LGBTQ Center and Big Brothers Big Sisters, where he also spent a few years as a youth mentor.
Derek works in marketing and communications for a sportswear company in Seattle. With a degree in journalism and a background in sports and coaching, he has been able to combine several of his passions into his career. He is thankful for an adjustable schedule that allows him to work from home most days and have flexible hours as we start our family. Outside of work, Derek is a loyal friend and family member. He is always the one to remember birthdays and anniversaries, show up to every family event, and check in with loved ones just to say hello. He tries to prioritize his daily run and spends time outside enjoying the sun whenever it makes an appearance!
When we’re not working, we love to travel (most recently to Thailand) and enjoy anything outdoors that lets us soak in the coast, mountains, and rivers of the Pacific Northwest. We also love road trips to see our family in Oregon and Montana. Seeing and experiencing the world with our child is something we really look forward to. Weekends at home have us tending to the garden, which is full of dahlias and rhododendrons, native northwest flowers and berries, and lots of summer veggies.
We knew early on in our relationship that we wanted to be parents. We both love kids and find ourselves playing with our nieces and nephews and the other kiddos in our lives every chance we get. We both share a similar story of visiting our nieces in Montana and watching one another play hide and seek/ push the girls on the swing and knowing in that moment that we had found the perfect person to start a family with.
As parents, we want our child to feel loved, cherished, and empowered. We want them to know who they are and where they come from and to be able to form their identity based on the full beauty of their story. Having the opportunity to build our family with our child’s birth family, in whatever shape that relationship takes, helps to create an authentic and meaningful community for our child to be raised in.
We hope this has given you a peek into who we both are and our hopes for starting a family. We’d love to meet you if you feel we might have a connection. Whatever your path, we wish you the very best.
All our best,
Derek and Greg