We are from vastly different cultural backgrounds. We both respect each other’s cultural heritage and have established routines and traditions celebrating elements of both our heritage. Our unique “Americanized Indian” or “Indianized American” life-style blends and some-times puts a new spin on our traditions. We have our own unique and somewhat eclectic set of traditions and excitedly look forward to including our child in these traditions and create new ones. Christmas and Thanksgiving are very important to us. We make sure to spend these holidays with our friends and families. Sometimes we travel to see my extended family in other parts of the country during Thanksgiving. If we don’t travel, Stacie invites over her friends. For Christmas, Stacie loves to prepare a feast. She spends several days preparing for Christmas dinner and makes sure to cook some delicious vegetarian main dish for me since Pratik doesn't eat meat. To complement her meal, Pratik makes some Indian side-dish. So, the Christmas day meals turn out to be eclectic mix of different cuisines. Diwali – the Hindu new year, is the major Hindu holiday we celebrate. For the five days of the festival, Stacie lights up the house with candles or “diyas.” We dress up in traditional clothes and perform a symbolic ritual or “puja” on one day and then on New Year’s Day we go to the local Hindu temple to partake in festivities.

Being a parent is the most exciting and the most terrifying thing. We hope to be able to raise a child and help them grow, learn and reach the best of their potential to become an adult and hopefully live a happy, healthy and prosperous life. We hope to be prepared for this monumental task by being open to the child’s needs, learn new skills and knowledge that may help us with parenting, seek help where we need it and surround ourselves and the child with friends, families, other parents who could guide us and friends and peer groups for our child to create his/her own support system. The thing that we most look forward to is giving our time and attention to the child and give them our unconditional love. Nothing would make us happier than moments spent playing and holding the child in our arms. Watching the child grow and turn into an independent person with their own personality, likes and dislikes and with their own lifegoals will be our greatest achievement in life. 

Experiencing other cultures enriched our lives and we hope for our child to benefit from the same. We are open to adopting outside of our cultural heritage. We are aware of the potential challenges this may pose, and we aim to provide a loving and open environment for the child to explore their cultural background. Our friends come from different backgrounds of East Asian, African to Latin-American descent. We try to participate in our friends’ cultural events and holidays and learn more about their cultural heritage every opportunity we get. Pratik as someone raised in Indian and Hindu traditions and now residing in Western tradition society, especially appreciates and celebrates cultural diversity.

At home we celebrate major Christian and Hindu tradition holidays. We plan on knowing and actively participating in cultural events of the child’s heritage. We will make all the reasonable efforts to teach the child his/her cultural heritage, language and help establish a support group of friends and role models of their background. We know this will be a hard task, but believe we are ready to take on the role and put our best food forward.

We live in the city called Grapevine within Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex area in Texas.  Grapevine is a great suburban community with its own charming historic downtown. The city claims to be the Christmas Capital of Texas and puts up great Christmas lights and decorations in the historic downtown area from Thanksgiving to New Years'. The city holds several culinary and cultural festivals throughout the year and there are lots of unique things to do and experience all year round.  Most homes have huge mature trees in their front and backyards. The neighborhood is very walkable with people walking their dogs or out with their babies in strollers throughout the day. We see kids playing in the yards, riding their bikes, scooters and skate boards throughout the summer. Halloween is especially fun with neighborhood kids and their parents dressed up in their costumes and many cul-de-sacs have their own block parties. There are a couple parks near house that have sports facilities like a soccer field, walking, jogging and bicycle trails for miles, a sprayground with water fountains for kids and a community built rock garden. The city also has an Olympic size outdoor pool and an excellent rec center with an indoor water park.

Here's some information about our extended families:

Pratik has a huge extended family from his father's side in the northern states of the US. Most of them live in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. About once a year we get to see them all. Pratik has several cousins his age and many of them have children ranging from infants to teenagers. We hope these nieces and nephews will be great influences and roll models for your child. On average we end up seeing the extended family once a year and each such reunion is a blast!

While Stacie doesn't have any extended family, she is very close to her best friend's family who serve as her "found family." Additionally, she has a handful of close friends that she considers like family.

With this found family they gather together for the holidays, major life events, and special occasions. They have even traveled to Italy together. This found family is very warm, excited about our adoption journey, and looking forward to an addition to the family.

We are Stacie and Pratik. Thank you for considering adoption and us as adoptive parents. We admire your strength and selflessness in considering adoption for your child. It is an honor to be considered as adoptive parents to your child.

We have been happily married for three years and meet in 2020. We currently have no children. We began discussing adoption when we became engaged. The more we researched it, the more we preferred it over conceiving naturally.

Pratik is the lead pharmacist at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth. He works on site Monday through Friday and is generally home by 6:30 p.m.. Stacie a federal employment attorney at law firm in Dallas. She exclusively represents federal employees and specializes in workplace discrimination cases. Stacie works full-time from home four days a week and goes into the office one day a week.

Pratik was born in India and moved to the United in States in 2001. He became a naturalized citizen in 2008. Stacie was born in Texas and lived primarily in the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex. Although she lived in Korea for two years when she was in the Army. Pratik grew up in a somewhat secular Hindu family and considers himself a secular Hindu; more attached to the spiritual aspects of Hinduism than religious practices. Stacie grew up secular but celebrates Christmas as part of family tradition.

We live in a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Grapevine, Texas with our three dogs. Grace is the largest at about 45lbs; she is an old and gentle Australian Shepard mix. There’s Bigsby the near toothless chiweenie weighing in at about 20lbs. Bigsby’s favorite thing is treats and barking at nothing. Then there’s Syd, the young chihuahua at about 10lbs who is always on a quest for cuddles.

Grapevine is part of the Dallas and Fort Worth metroplex. It has a historic downtown area where artisan wineries flourish. It’s also a great place for outdoor sports and activities as there are multiple parks, hiking trails, and a lake. It’s also centrally located next to some great shopping and dining hubs. We like to kayak and picnic on Grapevine Lake, ride bikes in the park, and walk the dogs to a nearby café. We hope to share similar activities with our child.?We also love to cook and visit national parks. Pratik’s other hobbies include reading and Yoga. We have a reading nook in our house and Pratik looks forward to story times with the child. Stacie also likes to draw and play vintage video games; she looks forward to playing Sega Genesis games and other games with the child.

Our neighborhood is within a quiet family-centric area. The trees along the houses have canopies that merge on top creating green arches over the street. The elementary school, middle school and high school are located near each other and are about two miles from our house. The Grapevine Independent School District is ranked as one of the top school districts in the state of Texas. We intend to give the child the best education available and whatever they need to encourage and develop their particular interests, skills, and talents. Our goal is to ensure that the child has a happy and healthy life and always knows that they are loved. We understand that as adoptive parents our role is to supplement and not replace the child’s biological family. We want you and your family to be a part of the child’s life. We want them to know your personality, hear stories about their biological family, and to have open communication with them.?We will send you letters and pictures and are also open to more contact such as exchanging emails, phone calls, and in person visits.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and for considering us as adoptive parents to your child. If you would like any other information, please feel free to reach out. We hope to get to know you soon.

Pratik & Stacie