Nice to Meet You!
Before we say anything about us, we wanted to first reach out to you to tell you how much you have our compassion, support and best wishes for what must be a challenging time for you and how much we respect your courage and heart to bring your baby into the world. We are certain that these days have not been easy for you and we are grateful and as we are humbled by your strength - thank you.

We don't even know where to begin or know how to think that simple words and a few pictures will be enough to let you know how much love Karen and I are looking to share with a child and to grow a family together.

Karen
Karen is the star of the family. Though she will never tell you herself (because she is shy to a fault) she has done enough living in her time so far to fill many lifetimes.

A state champion swimmer; a Chief Financial Officer at age 25 and CEO at age 30; a semi-professional volleyball player; a member of Rotary working across Africa for Polio vaccines; can sing any song on the radio; and cries at every movie. There could be pages about her, but we hope you can get the chance to meet her and see for yourself. A visit and a smile are worth a thousand words.

Karen grew up in Arizona outside of Phoenix and was the oldest of three children. There were always friends in addition to her younger brother and sister to play Barbies with and to swim in the backyard pool when they were young. Later in school, she loved dancing, singing, playing the flute and organ and camping with her family and friends.

Throughout her childhood, Karen was exposed to numerous sports, arts, and other recreational activities. She enjoyed horseback riding/barrel racing, swimming and running as sports as well as cooking/bake sales and theater as activities in her community. In high school, she danced competitively, swam and ran track.

Her family spent time with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins on the east coast each summer and also traveled via motor home throughout the southwest and west coast.

Hard working and always looking to please her teachers, Karen has always been diligent in her work and her studies. As a child this was expressed in schoolwork, extra-curricular activities and even included asking for more chores from her mother when she was young (her friends were doing them so she wanted to do them too!).

Academics came easy for Karen and she frequently looked for other activities/projects to do at school (create bulletin boards, grade papers, etc.). She went to school with kids from her neighborhood and play time at recess continued each day into playtime after school.

Karen attended Arizona State University on a scholastic scholarship. She went to school full-time while also working full time and was even able to make enough money to buy a home during college. With the spare time available between work and school, she spent time with family and extended family and worked on her new home. Her college experience was busy and fast paced, but it was all about taking advantage of the opportunities presented to her.

Jeff
As for Jeff, he frequently thinks too much, often talks too fast and doesn't usually like to sit still. He was a college athlete in both football and track and in high school earned 8 varsity letters while also being a four time class president. Jeff graduated from Brown University and was also accepted to Harvard and Princeton.

For more than 20 years he has worked as a marketing executive and at one time ran the team that designed McDonald's Happy Meals for all the restaurants around the world. He still looks to play sports whenever I can, but now it is more just for the fun of playing than trying to compete.

Jeff grew up in the suburbs of Washington DC with two parents and an older sister. He was active in sports and school and friends with the many other "kids on the block".

Jeff grew up with a lot of freedom to run and explore in the woods and floodplains behind his house and played daily in the street or at the park. He attended public school and lived close enough to walk to school each day (even kindergarten). For Jeff, the childhood years carry many fond memories and few regrets.

As a child, his parents were active in the community and supportive of his school and sports interests but without being smothering. The family took one month vacations each summer as a family and hiked and camped regularly on extended weekends. His parents come each year or either Christmas or Thanksgiving and the whole family gets together each summer with the kids and cousins for a one to two week vacation.

What We Do For Fun
Jeff enjoys playing and coaching sports (soccer, basketball, bicycling, swimming, surfing...). He is also a talented artist and has shared his talents teaching children at elementary school.

Karen likes swimming and playing tennis, spending time with family and friends, as well as home remodeling.

She also spends time with the local Rotary club working on projects both domestically and internationally. We have two dogs, Rascal and Abby, who we enjoy taking for walks and hikes. On weekends, you would probably find us at the beach, camping, or enjoying the many benefits of the San Francisco Bay area.

What We Do For Work

Karen
Karen is a market leader in Finance and Accounting.

Today she is the CFO of Bruvado Imports and she is responsible for the oversight, leadership and execution of all company finfnacial reporting, accounting and investor relations. Before her work with Bruvado, Karen was the founder and CEO of Corefino, a process based approach for providing outsourced accounting.

Leading up to Corefin, Karen had been a CFO for severeal venture-backed technology startups and also held management positions at Frontier GlobalCenter and Coopers and Lybrand. Karen holds both a CPA and CMA and was named to the prestigious "2009 Women of Influence in Silicon Valley" list compiled annually by the Silicon/Valley San Jose Business Journal.

Jeff
Jeff is a business storyteller and marketing strategist.

In addition to this work with global brands, Jeff has a deep history in new technologies and start up ventures through working as the marketing lead or as co-found for technology leaders like Intership and Commerce One.

Jeff holds a B.A. in Economics from Brown University.

Our Home
We live in a very nice suburban 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2 story home with almost 3,000 square feet of living space on 8750 square foot lot (fenced) situated within a family friendlycommunity south of San Francisco.

We are walking distance to San Francisco Bay, schools, parks, transit, shipping and a short drive to the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco and San Jose.

As for our income our home and our ability to provide for your child and send him/her to college someday, we have been very fortunate financially, the real richness wea re hoping for is for growing our family.

Looking Forward to Meeting You
Please know that we have a home and hearts that are full of love and we are looking for the chance to share it all with a child. We hope to have the chance to talk more with you soon and thank you so much for taking the time to learn more about us.

All the best to you.

Jeff and Karen