
Hello!
Our Story
We are a happy, playful, adventurous, and artistic couple with wonderful families and friends. We try to lead with compassion and joyfulness. Every day, we celebrate and uplift each other’s individuality while growing stronger as a family.
We are both theatre artists and met working on plays in Chicago. Susaan (rhymes with “shoes on”) is an actor and Joe is a set designer. After our third production together, we started dating and were married three years later in 2017. In many ways our personalities are very different, but we complement each other perfectly!
Some of our favorite things:

- Cooking We love creating things in the kitchen. We always make delicious and healthy meals.
- Traveling We love exploring close to home and around the world.
- Art We believe art is a vital part of life and we go to theatre, concerts, and museums regularly.
- Outdoors We love tennis, bike riding, the beach, picnicking, farmer’s markets, apple picking, hiking, camping, and outdoor events.
- Creating We’re always making things and we relish a good creative project including painting, drawing, ceramics, crafts, renovating our basement and more.
- Families We are super close with both of our families and love talking to them often.
- Friends We love seeing our friends, having them over for dinner and hosting parties. We’re always up for a group adventure!
- Toby Our dog! He’s very cuddly and sweet.
Susaan (by Joe)


Joe (by Susaan)
Our Families


Susaan has one younger sister and Joe has one older sister. We are spread out across the country, but we talk to each other a lot by phone and video and try to visit each other as often as we can. Our Families=Fun!
Susaan is from western Pennsylvania where her mom still lives, while her sister, brother-in-law, and our 3-year-old nephew and baby niece live in Washington DC. Her dad grew up in Iran and moved to the USA to practice medicine, where he fell in love with her mom, a nurse. Sadly, he passed away while Susaan was in college, but the warmth of his spirit is still present. Joe’s family is in Kansas City and California and his sister travels the country choreographing for contemporary dance companies.
Everyone is very excited for us to be adopting, including Joe’s aunt and uncle who adopted their two boys years ago. One of them just had a baby, and it’s been such a joy to see our families grow in new ways.
Our Community

We recently bought a house in Chicago and love the tight-knit multicultural community around us. We love having a yard and have easy access to parks, public transit and downtown. We have a very close group of friends in Chicago and beyond. Many have young children who will welcome a new playmate. Our friends are eager to be aunts and uncles to our child and we feel lucky to have such amazing support closeby.
We are also fortunate to be part of the Chicago theatre community which is spread throughout the city. It feels like its own small town full of people from many different backgrounds and experiences. We are always learning and growing from the varied perspectives of those around us and we believe anything is possible with a strong community.
Thank you!
