Hi! We are Jon and Lucy, a clergy and artist couple who have been married for 10 years and together for 15. We live in Massachusetts, but we are ready to travel and have open lines of communication to nurture a healthy open adoption relationship wherever our child’s birth family lives. We both have immediate family in Washington (Lucy grew up there) and take 1 or 2 trips there each year, which is one of many reasons we chose to work with OAFS. On our trips out west, a favorite thing is to gather with parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, so that we can be a big messy family for a while.

We met in New York City when we were both living there. Lucy’s roommate set us up on a blind date after telling Lucy she knew her “future husband.” That first date was awkwardly and accidentally on Valentine’s Day, but it turned out her roommate was right, and we’ve grown closer and closer over the years. We’ve been through a lot together, but some of the key things that keep us going are that we find each other hilarious, we completely trust each other, and we are comfortable in our own skin when we are together.

We both feel very blessed to work doing the things we love, in jobs that reflect who we are as people and who we want to be as parents. Lucy is a professional artist and teaches painting and sculpture at a university out here. As an artist, she mixes different materials and techniques to try and create new forms that challenge how we see things. She works with oil paint, paper, resin, silicone rubber, and she even makes her own pigment in the biology lab using bacteria. She does important work in helping to shape artists as they head out into the world, and is very involved in developing the diversity and inclusion of her program. She also loves doing art projects with our niece and nephews. Lucy is infinitely curious and is constantly reading and researching new ideas. As an artist, it was hard for Lucy to leave NYC when Jon got a job in Massachusetts, but now she loves it and can’t imagine moving back. She has grown to love nature and wants to share the woods, lakes, beaches, and mountains with our child while also being near the vibrant culture of a big city.

Jon is a clergy person in a progressive denomination and currently works in a small, economically, racially and socially diverse church. One of the things he loves about his work is that so much of it is about hospitality, about making sure there is room at the table for everyone. A lot of his work has been with youth and their families, focusing on finding ways for them to have meaningful relationships within a bigger community. Jon is also a certified Parkour coach and teaches Parkour to people of all ages. He has always been someone who needs to keep moving. He loves that Parkour is physical and helps him see the world around him in a new way. It’s also a great way to meet people he never would have met otherwise. Right now, Jon is keeping both sides of his work very part-time, with the hope that being a parent can soon be his primary focus.

We come from different backgrounds and have many interests beyond art and spirituality that we are excited to share with our child. Lucy was born and partly raised in South Korea, is fully bilingual, has family in Korea, and wants to share this culture and language with our child. She has a very supportive family who are eager to embrace new members. Jon grew up in the Midwest suburbs, and his father was also clergy. He had extended family in the east coast and the south, so he grew up traveling around the country a lot to see them. Growing up traveling might we why we both love to travel so much. We love to do things outside, whether it is biking, hiking, or just sitting on a beach. Another favorite thing is sharing meals with family and friends, and we would cherish the opportunity to include new family members around the table.

As we have explored adoption, we’ve both really come to believe that open adoption is the best way to go – for the kids and for the families involved. It would be a lie to say that the whole thing isn’t a little scary, but at the end of the day, we both have deep, deep feelings and a lot of love that we truly want to share as parents. We also want to grow a bigger, messier family than we have right now, and look forward to welcoming our child’s birth family into our lives.