Elizabeth & Danny

Our day-to-day life is centered around our home on the Fox River, spending time together, and welcoming the people we love. Some of our favorite mornings start with Danny cooking breakfast outside on the Blackstone while we enjoy the river view.

During the warmer months, we spend as much time as possible on our boat or wave runners, sometimes with just us and our dogs and other times with family and friends. We love ending a day on the water with dinner at our house. Danny is the grill master, while Elizabeth makes the sides and proudly calls herself the queen of mayonnaise-based salads.

We also love cooking, entertaining, and taking evening walks with our dogs to the riverfront park by our house to watch the sunset.

In colder months, we enjoy restaurants, movies, and exploring nearby towns. Travel is also important to us. Elizabeth’s family has owned a travel agency since 1963, making exploring new places a meaningful family tradition we hope to one day share with a child

We live on the Fox River in a close-knit community outside of Chicago. Elizabeth grew up spending summers on this same street, and in 2018, we built our home ourselves with the help of family and friends, making it incredibly meaningful to us.

Life here revolves around family, friends, and the river. Our boat and wave runners are docked in our backyard, our families live nearby, and Elizabeth’s parents have a home down the street. We can see the most beautiful sunsets right from our backyard and are a short train ride to downtown Chicago, giving us the best of both worlds.

We love that we can walk our dogs to get ice cream, have two parks on our street, and can walk to the train, schools and library. We love hosting holidays, decorating, entertaining, and creating traditions that make our home feel special.

Family is at the heart of our lives. Elizabeth is one of three children, and Danny is one of four, so we are incredibly fortunate to have large, close-knit families on both sides. Between our families, we are proud to be the fun aunt and uncle to nine nieces and nephews, with another baby on the way. We love being involved in their lives and cannot wait for our future child to grow up alongside so many cousins.

Elizabeth also grew up with 22 first cousins, many of whom are still some of her best friends. We regularly see our aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, nieces, and nephews for dinners, holidays, and large family gatherings. Our parents have even become close friends, and we often celebrate holidays with both families together.

One of our favorite traditions is the annual family vacation Danny’s parents treat the entire family to each year. We rent a large house, stay together, take turns cooking dinner, and spend the week making memories.

We are also still best friends with many of our childhood and high school friends. Many now have children of their own who already cannot wait for a future bestie to grow up alongside them. Our future child will be surrounded by family, lifelong friends, and so much love.

Adoption first touched Elizabeth’s heart in college, when she wrote a journalism story about a couple who had adopted 13 children from around the world. Learning about their family and the love they shared sparked something in her that stayed with her.

Adoption was so important to Elizabeth that she brought it up to Danny on their very first date, sharing that she hoped to adopt a child someday. Over the years, adoption became even more personal through close family connections, including Elizabeth’s goddaughter and Danny’s brother-in-law.

Through these experiences, we have seen firsthand that families are created in many different ways, but love is always at the center. Adoption has been part of our dreams from the beginning, and we feel incredibly grateful and hopeful for the opportunity to grow our family this way.