A hero is defined as a person of outstanding bravery and courage with noble qualities; someone who puts others before themselves. You are truly a hero in our eyes. The baby you are bringing into this world is already so fortunate to have your courage passed down to them through you. We are humbled by your ability to love so deeply and unselfishly. Gratitude is not a strong enough word to use to explain how we feel about you in our lives.
Justin & Christina
Dear Expectant Parent,
Our Adoption Story
From the time we were children, we knew there was a special place in our hearts for adoption to be part of our lives. Adoption has been part of my, (Christina), extended family for a few generations. My Mom's cousin was adopted many years ago and later, she welcomed adoption into her home by adopting her daughter. Adoption has been woven into the fabric of our family for years and has been such a special and exciting choice. Those who have been adopted are somehow "extra-special" members of our family. Finding out that I was not able to carry a baby to term was not as devastating to us as it could have been, since adopting a child was something we always wanted to do.
OUR PROMISE TO YOU
Promises should only be made if they are intended to be kept and we believe we are more than able to fulfill all of our promises to you. We promise to listen to all of your hopes and dreams for the child you are bringing into this world. Your feelings and hopes are important to us. We promise to raise this child with the knowledge that their birth mother is truly their first hero. We promise to be devoted to this baby with unconditional love and acceptance throughout our lives. We will give them every opportunity to be loved, encouraged and supported in all of their dreams. Finally, we promise to always be honest with you and support you throughout this journey.
About Us
We actually met in 2013 through an online dating service. Our first date was a coffee shop and as soon as we met there was an immediate connection. We dated for several years until we were engaged. The proposal was a like a dream. Justin decided to make a rose pedal path leading to him dressed in his best suit. Along the path he placed pictures and mementos of our relationship. We were married in a beautiful ceremony shared by family and friends. Shortly after being married we bought our first home together. Throughout our relationship we have shared many different interests. Justin has shared his love of sports with me and I have shared my love movies and baking with him. In our free time we love to watch movies, hiking, gardening, barbequing and just spend time with family and friends. As a trained chef Justin enjoys cooking delicious meals and rooming the grocery store for the rarest ingredients to make magic with. I enjoy baking and experimenting with different family recipes.
Meet Justin
What can I say about Justin - he is my everything, my world and my best friend. There is nothing he won't do for me or his family. He is funny, charismatic, hardworking and a truly kind person. He is a trained chef and at a very young age, as proof of his hard work, he had become an executive chef at a fine dining restaurant.
A few years ago, he decided that being a chef was not conducive to the life he wanted where he would be able to spend time with his family. He again worked hard and is now a very successful salesman.
In his free time, he enjoys traveling, watching or playing sports and just having fun with friends and family. He is a true sports fan in every sense. He has favorite teams in almost every sport and watches or follows his teams avidly throughout their season.
We both love to travel and although covid changed some of our travel ideas, we still go on day or weekend trips to see family. Before covid, we had traveled to Aruba and Punta Cana. During covid, we decided to take a trip to the finger lakes and rent a small AirBNB.
Justin still loves to cook and will often cook wonderful seafood or steak dinners for us.
Meet Christina
Christina is my exact opposite, yet perfect 'other half.' Where I am impulsive, she is calm and under control. When I forget things, she remembers. She is the constant voice of reason when I come up with crazy ideas. All of that said, I wouldn't change a thing. She is my best friend, my rock. I love her with all my heart.
All of these attributes serve her well in her job as an elementary special education teacher. She loves her students and always tells me cute stories about things they do in class. Christina loves to decorate for any occasion. Our house is constantly changing with the season and holidays. I blame it on her HGTV addiction, but it keeps me on my toes. She loves to bake, spend time with her friends, and just hang out
Our Home
Our Loved Ones
We have a very close-knit family. Both of our parents live near us in the towns and homes that we grew up in. Christina's older sister lives in Virginia with her husband and two young children, Charlotte (2) and Henry (4). We love visits to Virginia so we can play with our little niece and nephew!
We are also blessed to have Justin's step brother living nearby with his wife and our nephew, Leo (3).
Family time spent apple picking, swimming and playing with the kids are truly the best moments of our day. Our family has been by our side throughout every step in the adoption process and cannot wait to welcome a new little member to the crew. Our friends have also shared in this journey with us. Covid has changed our time with our friends but we still get together through zoom chats, dinners or parties and when the weather is nice we all enjoy going on hikes, sitting by fire pits or having barbeques. Our friends have also been very helpful with house projects, whether it is lending a hand or giving their advice.
The Best Time of Year
Holidays and upholding family traditions are very important to Justin and I. We love to barbeque with family and friends and watch the fireworks for the fourth of July and we love to watch the trick or -treaters for Halloween. I was raised Christian and Justin was raised Jewish so we have created a very multicultural home deep with family traditions. For Christmas, my sister usually comes up from Virginia and we open presents and watch the Disney Parade on television. Later in the day Justin's parents come over to my mom's house for a wonderful family meal. For Hanukkah, we again are surrounded by family playing dreidel and making latkes. Of course, who could forget Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving, we have recently taken over hosting our parents in our new house. Everyone comes hungry with anticipation for Chef Justin's wonderful turkey.
Where We Call Home
We live in a very cozy single-family home in a suburb. We chose this home for is charm and unique style as well as the tight neighborhood feel. We have wonderful neighbors whom we have become close with. We are always looking out for each other lending a hand with projects or simply asking how your day went. We have a cute sunroom that leads to the fenced in backyard. We currently have a small vegetable garden that we enjoy taking care of in the spring and summer. We have a nice finished basement and we like to spend time with our family and friends watching movies and sports. Upstairs we have a cute reading nook outside the bedrooms. We both have enjoyed taking care of our home and have spent a lot of time with family and friends fixing up and making this home feel like our home with various projects. We have painted, decorated, and renovated this house in the time we have spent here.
CONCLUSION
We like to say thank you again for taking the time to read our story! We hope you can sense our excitement and joy in growing our family through adoption. We hope that you would like to take the time to get to know more about us and our story. Best of luck in our journey and please know we would love to learn your story!
With Gratitude
Justin & Christina