Hi! We are Debbie & Ted
WE LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY
We are humbled that you are looking at our profile and learning about us.
WE ADMIRE YOUR
courage
in considering an adoption plan for your child.
Adoption (open adoption, too, if that’s what you want) is a natural choice for us because we have not been able to have a biological child and because Debbie’s older brothers and Ted’s cousin were adopted.
When we think about family, we often think about how family is like a quilt—a beautiful whole, stitched together with love and respect, but without any one block losing its uniqueness. In our case, our quilt is well-established in many ways. We have been together for 10 years and envision sharing all that love, respect, and warmth with a child.
“WE HOPE TO SHOW YOU THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF OUR OWN QUILT AND THE STITCHES OF LOVE WE PLAN TO SEW.”
How We Met
WE LIKE TO SAY THAT DEBBIE HAD TED AT
“Jell-o”
When we first met at a trivia contest, Ted mentioned that he grew up in Rochester and Debbie excitedly asked if that was near the old Jell-O factory, which had been in the news that day. Once we started talking, we hit it off and the rest was history.
OUR LIFE TODAY
Now, 10 years later, we are about to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary.
We live in NYC and both work from home (Debbie is an editor and Ted is a lawyer). We live a block from Central Park, and we walk there daily. We love to cook, enjoy all the art and music the city has to offer, and we both still love trivia contests—we can’t wait to share all of this with our child.
We love Central Park and frequently read there!
Taking our daily walk through Central Park
We also envision baking cookies and doing yoga with a son or daughter and having him or her ride bikes in the park with the many other young kids in our neighborhood. Our child won’t lack for playmates since we also have tons of friends close by with young kids.
We also think that having a close extended family is important—Ted’s sister, nephews, and parents (who can’t wait to be grandparents again) all live nearby.
Meet Debbie
Yoga is one of my favorite hobbies
FUN FACTS!
I SPEAK FRENCH & SOME ARABIC
I PLAY THE FLUTE
Written by Ted
I’ve loved Debbie ever since I first saw her smile. It’s a great smile because it reflects her tremendous capacity for joy and hints at her deep reserves of warmth and empathy.
Debbie has also always been extremely curious about the world—she learned French and Arabic and has done a ton of travel abroad. She’s a lot of fun to be around. She loves spending time outdoors and playing board games with me. She can’t wait to share all of this with a child.
Professionally, Debbie works as an editor for a newspaper. She enjoys working there because she loves writing and is passionate about free speech. Her employer is also very flexible about scheduling and working from home.
However, Debbie’s virtues shine through the strongest when she’s around kids. They bring out Debbie’s sense of creativity—she’s always making up songs, stories, and games that endear her to kids everywhere. She’s very nurturing and patient with kids, and any child would be lucky to have her for a mom.
Debbie with baby Leo
All smiles at an art exhibit
Meet Ted
Watching sports and cheering on my favorite team!
Written by Debbie
Ted is warm and caring and will make a great father. He emanates a sense of calm and welcoming that kids pick up on—they are quick to gravitate to him at gatherings. I love that he is a glass-half-full optimist.
What stood out for me when we met was his sense of humor, and we have a life full of laughter. He is devoted to family, and he enjoys consistent, meaningful family time.
Ted has traveled around the world, and he has an entirely different perspective from me that leads me to consider situations differently. I can already see how great this will be for a child who is growing and exploring, and how it will nurture curiosity.
He loves being a lawyer and using his skills to help people. Ted also has a love of sports that is contagious. I know he’ll love sharing this passion with a child by going to games and playing frisbee and soccer with his child in the park. He is a joy to be around when things are great, and he is steadfast when things aren’t going perfectly. Plus, he loves to cook and he makes amazing chocolate chip cookies. He is great Dad material.
Happy to receive birthday cards to celebrate Ted’s big day!
Cookies anyone?!
Home Sweet Home
WE LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY
We love all that the city has to offer, like great museums, art, music, food from all over the world, and Broadway shows. We cannot wait to share all of this with a child.
Our favorite part of the city is Central Park. We love hiking through the park and watching the birds and turtles. It makes us feel like we’re a million miles from the city. The park also has amazing playgrounds and its very own zoo! We go there every day and are excited to share nature with a little one.
Last year, we moved into a family-friendly apartment next to the park that has lots of space and a kitchen where we bake cookies and Ted whips up great dinners and even better pancakes. We love our neighborhood and have a K-12 school right next door. Our building has its own playground, kickball court, ping pong tables in the basement, and an indoor playroom! More importantly, there are lots of young families living here, so a child will have lots of kids their own age to play with!
We enjoy baking and cooking together
Stopping to smell the new blooms
We love the view from our patio
Hobbies & Interests
DEBBIE
I do yoga, meditate, love to read books, paint, and be involved in music (singing or playing the flute). Nature is very soothing and amusing, so I love exploring the park, which is almost a second home. I also participate in an online trivia league.
TED
I really enjoy cooking and love making new recipes. I read a ton of books, and especially like detective novels and historical fiction. I’m also a passionate sports fan, especially for the Giants and NYCFC, a professional soccer club. Trivia also has a special place in my heart since that’s how I met Debbie.
Playing games together is a favorite pastime
A few of our FAVORITE things
Vacation Spot
> DEBBIE Paris
> TED Paris
Place to take a child
> DEBBIE Disney World
> TED The zoo
Lunch box snack
> DEBBIE Apple with peanut butter
> TED String cheese
Children’s book
> DEBBIE Anything Dr. Seuss
> TED Where the Wild Things Are
Dessert
> DEBBIE Lemon cake
> TED Brownies
Musical Artist
> DEBBIE Norah Jones
> TED Rolling Stones
Painting
Watching Jeopardy
Our Loved Ones
We are both fortunate to have close relationships with our families.
“THEY ALWAYS SEEM TO WORK AS A TEAM AND THEIR CALMNESS SEEMS TO RUB OFF ON ANY KID AROUND THEM.”
– Natalie (our dear friend)
“THEY ARE BOTH WARM AND KIND WITH A SENSE OF WHIMSY THAT ENCHANTS MY KIDS”
– Kelly (our friend of 25+ years)
Debbie and our nephew Jason
Debbie and her brother Lonnie
Debbie has four brothers and Ted has a sister. Debbie’s two older brothers were adopted and Ted’s first cousin was adopted, and everyone in our family is thrilled to have another child join us through adoption. Some of our close family live in suburbs less than an hour away and have houses with yards and swing sets. We get together all the time for family BBQs and to play soccer in the backyard.
Ted’s parents love running Grandma and Grandpa Camp during school vacations. They have so much fun with activities like writing and illustrating comic books and making ice cream. Debbie’s mom, Grandma Sharon, makes pottery and paints pictures and would love to do this with another grandchild.
Every year there is a big trip to the beach with siblings, their partners, and their children, and there are often about 14 of us at a time. We spend long weekends riding waves, walking the boardwalk to the amusement parks and mini golf, and riding bikes on the boardwalk. Our family is also getting ready to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa’s wedding anniversary with a family trip to the Poconos.
Ted visiting family: Adam, David, Grandpa Alex, Grandma Helene, Leo and Viv
OUR FAV FAMILY TRADITIONS
We run a FAMILY MARCH MADNESS POOL every year (for glory, not money)
We love BACKYARD BBQS in the summer
We all watch WORLD CUP SOCCER together
We love giving each other FUNNY GIFTS
Thanksgiving
IS A BIG HOLIDAY IN OUR FAMILY!
We usually gather at the home of Debbie’s cousin in New Jersey.
There are a lot of cousins, as Debbie’s grandfather grew up on a dairy farm in New Jersey and had a lot of brothers and sisters.
The cousins have hosted a Thanksgiving like this for 40 years. Everyone brings food (Ted bakes a pumpkin pie) and we set up lots of card tables for eating. There is always a football game outside in the yard. There are also arts and crafts tables for kids where they can make macaroni necklaces or just color. Of course, there is lots of turkey and trimmings later in the day. We can’t wait to share this celebration with a child.
Debbie visitng family (brothers, aunts, uncles, nephews) in Ocean City
Debbie with cousin Laura
Showing our nephews a new game
Grandma Sharon at Thanksgiving with nieces (Danielle and Sam) and nephew (Jason)
HOLIDAY AND CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS
At Christmastime, we gather with our nieces and nephews or our friends and their children for festive meals and to exchange gifts. We make cookies and do a lot of eating. If it’s snowy out, we like to watch the kids make snow angels. We play games like “I Spy, With My Little Eye,” or we play with the toys that arrive for the holiday or read some of the new books aloud.
We LOVE road trips, which we embark on a few times a year to visit family. We relish our time with them and love to stop and see the sights along the way. We also love traveling abroad—we have friends in Paris and visit frequently—and have also traveled to Australia, elsewhere in Europe, Mexico, and China. We also plan to go to Morocco, where Debbie lived for a year and taught English to kids. We love exploring the world and all it has to offer and cannot wait to share all of this with a child.
Close friends who would love to dote on a baby.
OUR PROMISES TO YOU AND YOUR CHILD
> We will provide an environment of love, safety and support that will allow your child to thrive.
> We promise that your child will always know their entire life story, beginning with you and your selfless love for them. We promise to share our love of education and curiosity about the world, especially our love of books.
> We promise to nurture your child’s love for art and music and innate sense of creativity.
> We promise to share our love of the outdoors and healthy living with your child.
> We promise to pass on our values and traditions to your child so they can participate fully in our family and community. We believe it’s important to volunteer in the community and support family togetherness.
We Are Home Study Approved.
Our Contact Info
CALL: 800-243-1658
TEXT: 800-243-1658
EMAIL: debbietedadopt@gmail.com
Our Adoption Attorney
Suzanne Nichols