David & Andrea

We are David & Andrea from The Jersey Shore Introduction: We are both filled with gratitude that you are taking the time to learn about us, and we hope to have the chance to learn about you as well. We know the decision you are considering is courageous, selfless, challenging and scary. However, your bravery gives us the opportunity to build our family. We have looked forward to becoming parents and spoke about our children and family from the start of our relationship. We were fortunate to know once we started dating that we had found our forever partner.... we’re best friends, soulmates, and share true love. When we got married, we looked forward to starting our family and worked to get established so we could begin trying to build our family. Unfortunately, we later learned that we could not conceive a child naturally. Yet, we are fortunate that our road has not led us to a dead end as we both have a heart open to adoption. We trust that our child is out there and though the road to our family may be thru adoption vs. us naturally conceiving we believe that our child will come into our family as God intended them to arrive. We cannot wait to welcome our child into our family and our life together which is filled with love, commitment and adventure. We are so excited to meet you and share with you a little more about ourselves and our life, as well as the hopes and dreams we hold for our future child. We can’t wait to be parents and so look forward to welcoming our future child and growing our family! On Adoption: Due to reproductive health issues that Andrea faced for almost 20 years, we are not able to conceive our child, but we’re grateful our road to a family does not stop here since we both have a heart for adoption. We are excited to be exploring adoption to grow our family, and we are so grateful that our extended family also has an open heart towards adoption. We are fortunate to have a strong bound with each other and our incredibly supportive family who are 100% supportive of our choice to adopt. Our extended family is just as eager as the two of us to meet the newest member of our immediate family.... our future child....our little blessing. About Us Our Love Story: We are both originally from the Midwest, and first met while in school in Michigan. After we realized we were destined for each other and fell in love, we were married in Puerto Rico in 2004 on a private beach off the Atlantic Ocean. We eventually migrated to the east coast to follow our dreams and reach our career goals. This move afforded us both the opportunity to expand and establish our careers as we anticipated, but it also brought adventure and growth into all areas of our lives. We are surrounded by a great community of family and friends here and are truly fortunate to have found our best selves here. We look forward to expanding our family and promise to always love & support our future child; all while being dedicated to making the best life possible for them. We will support our little blessing and love them ensuring they always have a safe and happy home. Our Lifestyle: We love to explore everything our area has to offer – and there’s a lot to do here! From the beaches to the cities, we love to have adventures exploring areas and learning about history. Sometimes, though, we just like to stay home and be casual, watching our favorite shows or movies, or hanging out in our backyard and enjoying the nature. Things That Make Us Happy: • Exploring new places together • Traveling • Spending time with family and friends • Watching a great movie or television show • Stepping out for the occasional concert, play, musical, ballet, or symphony • Listening to music and sometimes dabbling with playing an instrument or dancing • Playing board games and assembling puzzles • Hosting family and friends for a dinner parties or cookouts • Curling up with a good book • Walking along the beach down the road from our home • Exploring local cuisine and festivals About Andrea (by David): I fell in love with Andrea’s beautiful smile and amazing heart for all people, especially those she loves. She is both true to herself and to others, and always transparent about what she believes and where she stands. That’s one of the many things I love about her. She has an amazing natural ability to be the life of a party or crowd, especially if it’s among family and friends. She is passionate about spending time with family and cherishes the times we spend with our five nephews and when we get to chat or spend time with our nieces and nephews living afar. Andrea is also passionate about her faith in the Lord. She volunteers at church and attends weekly Bible study sessions with friends. She makes our faith-filled home full of love, happiness and memories, and is excited to share this with our new child. Andrea always comes up with new and creative ways to prepare gifts for both visitors to our home and family members for every occasion throughout the year. Usually these are gift bags creatively and ingeniously composed of collections of items from various stores, which you would never guess based on the way they’re put together and presented. I love spending time with her, whether it’s going on an adventure like browsing shops in a quaint local town, or something simple at home like making dinner together and watching a movie on a date night. Andrea is Puerto Rican and takes pride in her diverse heritage. I know she will raise a child to have both open eyes to diversity as well as an open heart to all people, just as she has. Andrea works in human resources and is blessed to be able to work from home full-time. When the time comes to adopt, we are fortunate that she will be able to have a flexible schedule to care for our new child. Andrea’s Favorites: • Listening to her favorite music • Reading daily devotional • Watching Christmas Movies • Listening to Podcasts • Frosted sugar cookies • Walking along the beach down the road from us About David (by Andrea): I fell in love with David’s honest sincere no-nonsense personality. David is comfortable with himself and is always genuine. He is kind, considerate and confident. He is committed, always follows through, and shows up for his loved ones. He has a sense of humor and is handsome too. He is comfortable being the center of attention, but just as comfortable stepping back; this is an amazing trait of his comfort and appreciation for both socializing and quiet time. He is smart and committed to always striving for his best, not just for himself but for our family. I am so lucky that we can talk about anything and everything together and for the love and support he demonstrates towards me and all our loved ones. David is supportive and always willing to lend a helping hand at home, to our family and friends, and even to a stranger.... it always amazes me when he stops and helps others... I cannot tell you how many times in our adventures in the city he has stopped to help someone struggling to carry an item up or down the stairwell. I love spending time with David, whether spending the day at home or out exploring or participating in an event. I’m fortunate to have found my love, best friend and soulmate, and look forward to welcoming our future child together. David comes from a loving family, and he has recently uncovered more about his family and his diverse heritage... including his Jamaican roots. He has journeyed to connect with his family and excitingly continues to meet new members. I know that he will be a wonderful dad and show our child how to be true to themselves and embrace all their family and heritage. David works as a finance director at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He loves bringing family and friends to the Museum to see the exhibits and taking them on behind the scenes tours. David’s always excited to share with people his work place, and he can’t wait to show his new child where he works and have him or her experience the Museum and learn all about science and astronomy. David’s Favorites: • Listening to his favorite music • Reading a great book • Watching the Andy Griffith Show • Drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee • Lighting up our firepit and sitting outside taking in nature • Walking along the beach down the road from our home Our Home: Our beautiful New Jersey shore community is quiet, safe, and filled with fun activity options. People from all over the country vacation to our area to enjoy the beaches, boardwalks, and history that New Jersey offers, and we are blessed to live here full time. Our backyard backs up to protected woods, where wild white tail deer appear daily. We have a fire pit that we relax to year-round, making us feel like we’re camping in our own yard. Around the corner from our home is a large neighborhood playground, clubhouse and pool. The Jersey Shore: We are only 30 minutes from several family-fun activities, including Storybook Land, which for 50 years has kept the spirit of childhood alive with 20-acres of storybook attractions depicting children's stories and nursery rhymes in a lovely park setting, Long Beach Island, which houses the Fantasy Island Amusement Park with carnival rides & games, the Atlantic City Aquarium and the indoor Island Waterpark in Atlantic City. We are an hour and a half away from the huge American Dream mall, which has an indoor mall, theme park and water park. Just beyond that is New York City, which has countless museums, attractions and other educational opportunities for kids. We are also an hour away from historic Philadelphia and peaceful Cape May at the foot of New Jersey. Our Friends & Family: We are fortunate to live near Andrea’s mother and two sisters and their families. Throughout the year we are always getting together for family parties, BBQs or dinners at local restaurants. We also go on family trips to local retreats or have sleepovers at one of our homes. Andrea’s father and extended family primarily all live in northwestern Indiana near Chicago...with other family members in Connecticut, Colorado, South Carolina, Florida, Washington, California, and Puerto Rico. David’s family lives throughout the Midwest. His father lives in Wisconsin, one of his sisters lives in Minnesota, and the other sister and his brother live in southern Indiana. David’s extended family lives in Minnesota, but he also has family members in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Kansas City, Missouri, in southern California and in Jamaica. In 2012 David discovered through genealogy that his great grandfather came from Jamaica through Ellis Island in New York, settled in Boston, and became a successful businessman and inventor, eventually ending up in the Midwest. Having lived in New York City for 10 years, we made amazing lifelong friends in the city, who we stay in touch with and visit. David still works in the city on a hybrid schedule and goes into the city three days a week. We can’t wait to take family trips with our future child to visit our family and friends who are both locally and also spread out across the United States, Puerto Rico and Jamaica. Our Kitty Family: We adopted two sister cats from a shelter in a nearby town about three years ago and they have become one of the family. Bella is a calico cat and Gracie is a black and white long hair cat. They both have amazing unique personalities, are the most gentle and loving cats, and love kids. They’re also always hungry! 😊 Our Traditions: We love to host big family and friend gatherings. Each year we usually host Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. We have a couple holiday traditions: Every Christmas morning we wear matching pajamas while we open our gifts. Every Christmas we also book a family weekend at a local hotel, where we play games at the arcade and do crafts in one of the rooms with the nephews. We also do a family Easter egg hunt each spring at one of the family members’ yards. We look forward to sharing these traditions with our future child for years to come. Our Promises and Future to Your Child: • Provide a safe, healthy, happy and blessed home • Provide and promote opportunities for education, creativity and adventure • Help inspire and develop their unique talents and interests • Laugh as much as possible and teach them to persevere through life’s challenges • Teach them to be honest, generous, kind, self-respecting, courageous and confident • Share with them our faith and love for the Lord Please Reach Out: We would love to meet you and learn more about you! If you would like to speak with us or have any questions for us, please contact us.

David & Andrea