Hi there! We are Richard and Alyssa. We want to thank you for your consideration and for taking the time to learn a little bit more about us. We want you to know how incredibly amazing you are and how much admiration we have for you as you embark on this journey. As you look through our photos and read more about us, we hope you can gain a better sense of who we are, how we love, and what we value most in our lives. 

We were both raised in New York, Alyssa in Upstate and Richard in Downstate. In 2014, we decided to leave New York and move to South Carolina to attend college and begin our education in dental hygiene and medicine. We each signed up to take an anatomy and physiology course, were paired up as lab partners, and the rest is history. Well, sort of… a year later, we finally started dating. 

For the next several years, we moved around the state as we finished our schooling. The one thing that has always brought us closer together is our desire to help other people, and we get to do this in our professional and personal lives. 

We got engaged in 2018 and married in 2020, and we always knew that we wanted to have a family. After a difficult few years of unsuccessfully being able to start a family biologically, we have opened our hearts to the possibility of growing our family through adoption.

I have never met anyone else like Richard in my life. On our very first date, he made me laugh until I cried. As the tears of laughter fell down my face, I knew that was it. Richard has a way of making everyone in the room giggle as he is so quick with his one-liners. Not only is he funny, but he is brilliant. He is the absolute smartest person that I have ever met. I learn something new from him every single day. 

For as long as I have known Richard, he has been incredibly passionate about helping other people. He took this passion and turned it into a career in medicine, and he cares for patients every single day as a Physician Assistant. 

I’m serious when I say that he can solve any problem, and he always makes it look so easy. At work, he is able to diagnose patients with things that have been overlooked by previous doctors, bringing them peace with finally having answers as to what has been wrong with them. At home, he is a pillar of strength for me and knows just how to make a bad day good again. He celebrates my little victories and all of the big ones, too. He loves and spoils our dogs and continues to teach them new tricks. He is the most amazing cook and keeps my belly full with the best-tasting food.

Richard has a big heart, and I am lucky to have a piece of it. I have to share it with the Buffalo Bills and Liverpool Football Club… but that’s okay. 

Alyssa is simply amazing. I was originally drawn to her because she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. As I got to know her, I fell in love with how beautiful she was on the inside, too. She is a good person to her core, and is the most caring and selfless person you’ll ever meet. She’s always the first person to volunteer to help someone else. Alyssa is also highly motivated. She doesn’t stop or let obstacles get in her way, ever. If she says she is going to do something, you better believe she does it. 

She will always go above and beyond for those whom she cares for and makes an effort to show people how much she cares. Her caring and compassionate side doesn’t stop with how she treats people – she may be scared of spiders but will always attempt to save and “rehome” them outside. 

We’ve had our struggles in life, just like everyone else, but Alyssa makes those problems seem like speed bumps, even if they are mountains. Her positivity and constant optimism are what keeps us all going at times. I wouldn’t want to raise a child with anyone else. I am lucky to have met her and blessed to go through life with her as my wife.

We live in a newly built home in a new neighborhood near the beaches of South Carolina. Our home has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and additional living spaces throughout. We have a fenced-in backyard and two sets of wonderful neighbors on each side of us. 

We have access to quite a few amenities living where we do. The neighborhood has multiple playgrounds, an olympic-sized community pool, basketball and pickleball courts, hiking trails, and we are a quick golf cart ride away from being able to spend time at the beach. 

We also love living five minutes away from Richard’s parents, and our dogs love it, too! All we have to say is “Who wants to go for a ride to Grammy’s?” and the four of us are loaded into the car and ready to go in less than 30 seconds. 

We each have two siblings, and have a ten year age gap between us and our youngest sisters. Our families still live in New York, with the exception of Richard’s parents. We have a nephew who is in his toddler years and niece who is ready to start preschool, whom we absolutely adore. We are on FaceTime every day either talking with the kids, chatting with our grandmothers, or talking with our parents to show them when the dogs are doing something really cute. Everyone in our family is over the moon about our plans to adopt a child. 

Fergie is our pup who was born in 2011, and is the sweetest chihuahua you will ever meet. She will fall asleep cuddled right up against you and snore loud enough to shake the entire house. Even at her older age, she runs around the house like her tail is on fire every night to play with her not-so-little doggie brother, Luke. Lukey is our happy-go-lucky fella, and was born in 2019. He is a golden retriever and has the funniest personality that we have ever seen in a dog. He loves to do the new tricks we teach him and then show them off. He really knows how to work those puppy dog eyes to score a munchkin at the Dunkin’ drive-thru. When our niece and nephew visit, or we visit them, Luke has the time of his life playing with the kids, and so do we. We are very active with the dogs, and they make our little family whole.

We have many shared hobbies and interests, including hiking trails in state parks, walking the beach with each other or with the dogs if it is not too hot, going for bike rides, taking the golf cart for a neighborhood ride, working on home projects, helping our older neighbors when they need it, and FaceTiming our grandmothers. Some of the best times we have are in our upstairs loft, when we turn on some music, get the fun lights turned on, and just dance our little hearts out to some of our favorite music.

Things that fill up Richard’s cup are yoga and meditation, traveling, listening to audiobooks and podcasts, researching new updates in medicine, cooking/grilling, golfing, playing video games, playing guitar, and listening to old records. 

Things that fill up Alyssa’s cup are anything that involves being creative/artistic, doing anything outdoors, trying new restaurants, eating anything sweet, ordering Cookout trays, listening to ‘The Toast’ podcast, starting each day with a Dunkin butter pecan iced coffee, providing dental tips to strangers in the toothbrush aisle of the grocery store, going to a pilates class, singing along to any song from the 90s or 2010s Hip Hop, and winding down in bed each night by reading a book or scrolling through Pinterest.

Our traditions include football season and watching the Bills, and soccer season and watching Liverpool with our group of friends who are all team supporters. We enjoy hosting a Halloween/Oktoberfest party, hosting a Christmas gingerbread-building pajama party, taking a Christmas morning walk on the beach, having Friday night pizza nights, and Sunday dinner (usually with homemade Italian) with Richard’s parents.

We know that none of this is easy. We want to thank you for your courage and for your strength as you continue through your journey. Thank you for considering us and for taking a glimpse into our lives. We pour all of our love into those who mean the most to us, and we know that someday we will be able to share all of that love with a child. 

Bringing the child we adopt into our home will mean that they will always be surrounded by warmth, love, support, and laughter. We look forward to the days of sitting down after school and helping them learn their times tables, working on math homework, celebrating their first passing score on a spelling test, picking up the pieces after their first big heartbreak, and teaching them that when you get knocked down in life, you get right back up again.

When the time comes for us to welcome the child into our family, we will make sure they always know where they came from and how much love their birth mother had in making the decision for them to become part of our family. You will always be honored. Saying thank you will never be enough; even still, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts and wish you peace during your decision-making process.