Gina and Rhiannon

About Us

We live just outside of Pittsburgh in a small community where our neighbors are also our close friends.  We have a dog, two cats…. and four backyard ducks who love quacking, pool parties, and laying massive eggs!

We met in 2015 and were married in 2018 in Pittsburgh’s Riverview Park. We enjoy traveling together, from the Scottish Highlands to the beaches of Puerto Rico, and we plan to continue exploring as many new places as possible. Our favorite place, though, is our backyard, where we often have friends and neighbors over for campfires and s’mores (and playing with the ducks!). We look forward to traveling with our child, whether it’s an afternoon trip to the Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens or an overseas adventure.

Gina grew up in upstate NY and traveled all over the country before landing in Pittsburgh where she met Rhiannon. She enjoys different artsy hobbies like crochet and embroidery and loves plants and watching them grow. She also loves to sing Taylor Swift at the top of her lungs (regardless of her terrible singing voice!). Most of Gina’s family still lives in upstate NY, but they all travel often and like to visit Pittsburgh and spend holidays together. This Halloween, she took a trip to Finland with her mom and sister. Gina is a career nanny, and because of that she will be able to bring our future child to work with her instead of daycare. She is playful, silly, caring, and loves her job.

Rhiannon is originally from England but spent most of her childhood in Michigan and moved to Pittsburgh for work – and stayed there after meeting Gina! She traveled often as a child, mostly around Europe. Her favorite family vacation was a trip to Malaysia. Although Rhiannon’s family lives in England, we have a close relationship, with weekly family video calls and visits about every other year. Most recently, both Gina and Rhiannon traveled to England for her brother’s wedding.

Rhiannon works as a manager in the financial services industry and has a flexible schedule that allows her to work from home most of the time. She enjoys martial arts, music, video games, and reading in addition to spending time outdoors with Gina.  Rhiannon is goofy, kind, and persevering.

Both our families are so excited for our adoption journey and will be a wonderful support for us and our child. We are also lucky to have a community of close friends who we consider family. We are proud to have a diverse and multicultural family. We have relatives in the UK, Nigeria, Croatia, and friends who come from all types of backgrounds and cultures. Although neither of us practice any formal religion, we have friends and family who come from Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Christian faiths and we would happily encourage any spiritual path our child might choose.

As Parents

While we don’t currently have children of our own, our former experience as foster parents taught us how to understand the different needs kids have and creative ways to help them grow and learn. As a result, we feel confident in our ability to provide a patient, understanding, and loving home to a child of any race or gender. We will prioritize treating our child with kindness and respect and teaching them about their story. For that reason, we prefer an open adoption, as we want our child to feel connected to their birth family.

Our Values

More than anything, we want to raise a child who is happy, confident, and knows they are loved. We will encourage them to find their own voice and advocate for themselves. We want to empower them to discover the world and follow their own interests. We also believe it is important to have a healthy relationship to food and their own body – as well as bodily autonomy. Diversity will be important in our child’s life because we feel it is so important to learn about people different from yourself. We want to raise a child who is kind, not only to others but to themselves.

Thank you for taking the time to read a little bit about us.

G & R