Hello! We are Marissa & Antonio from Eastvale, California. We are so grateful for you taking the time to get to know us. We can only imagine how difficult this must be for you. Thank you for your bravery and courage to do such a selfless act of choosing a family to raise your child. We would be honored if you choose us. Being able to share our lives with a child would be a dream come true, showing them our love of travel all around the world and starting new family traditions and introducing them to some we already celebrate. We promise to unconditionally love them and to keep them safe.

We’ve always known someday we would have a child to add to our family. We would talk about having kids. When we talked about it, adopting a child was always mentioned, even if we had our own. We haven’t had a child biologically, but the feeling of us being parents and raising a child is still strong. At the beginning of this year, we started talking about adopting a baby so we could have the opportunity to raise him/her as our own. Since those conversations started, we have never had a doubt about adopting, it feels like this is what was meant to happen. We are so happy to have started the process of adopting and look forward to do all we can, to have a child. We want to thank you for considering us and we look forward to getting to know you as well.

Believe it or not we met online 25 years ago. When we met in person only one of us knew what the other looked like. We fell hard for each other and we were engaged 5 months later then married 4 years after that in Maui, Hawaii which is why it became our favorite vacation spot. Being each other’s best friend makes our life fun. We are a team that is constantly encouraging one another to try new things. However we still can’t bring ourselves to try fish! We laugh a lot, mostly at each other. We allow ourselves to make mistakes and learn how to fix a problem together. We love traveling around the world and trying local food, taking a vacation once or twice a year. Our California summers can be hot, so inviting family over to BBQ and swim is one of our favorite things to do. We also enjoy being home and watching movies or binge watching Netflix.

I was born and raised in El Monte, CA, with two sisters and one brother, sharing a two bedroom apartment with our parents. In the 4th grade, we had a police officer visit our class. He talked about what it's like to be a police officer and let us see his police car. That made a big impression on me and made me want to be a police officer someday. After high school, I joined the Marine Corps, which was the one of the best decisions I made. It was an experience I won't forget. I then joined the police force, finally able to accomplish one of my dreams. Fatherhood is next!

I work for the Los Angeles Police Department where I’ve worked as a police officer since 2002. I was recently promoted to a Detective. I enjoy helping people and meeting new people from all walks of life. I have made it a point to treat everyone fair and equally. I strive to make a good impression on kids as that one officer did for me. I have had the opportunity to visit a few classrooms to read to children which is one of my favorite parts of the job. In my spare time, I like working out. It allows me to stay fit for work and lead a healthy life. I especially like when Marissa and I go to the gym together. I have a Harley motorcycle that I enjoy riding whether for work or just for a ride. Marissa has even gone on a ride with me. I am excited to know I will be a father someday, hopefully soon, and to show my child unconditional love. I enjoyed playing outside as a kid so I can’t wait to get outside and play with my future child.

Antonio is my best friend. He is very kind and understanding. Antonio is the most authentic person I know. He never tries to be anyone but himself and encourages me to do the same. He remains calm in stressful times. Whether it’s at work or in regular daily situations. Being a police officer is the perfect job for him. He cares about everyone and is always ready to help. Antonio likes to go to schools and talk to kids about being a police officer in hopes of inspiring them just as he was. He is an attentive husband. He is always looking for ways to make me happy. He likes to bring me special little gifts to let me know he was thinking of me. He is very thoughtful. Watching him with our nieces and nephew gives me a glimpse on how he will be as a dad. He is definitely the fun uncle. When he is around them he has so much fun! He turns into a big kid himself. Antonio is always encouraging them to make good choices and to be adventurous. I believe having all of these qualities will make Antonio an excellent dad.

I grew up in Seattle, WA. I am really excited to become a mom. I worked in retail for 15 years and a nanny before that. My favorite job is what I do now, a stay at home dog mom. I look forward to being a stay at home mom with our future child, and will love that job even more. I take care of Oakley and all the house day to day things. I love baking, cookies in particular. I created my own chocolate chip cookie recipe which is requested by family and friends. I also make a pretty good carrot cake. I can’t wait to get in the kitchen and bake with my future child. What I really enjoy is making our home feel like our own vacation spot. I am always wanting to try out a new rug or sample a paint color. Creating a home that we love spending time in is important to me. I like having a space for people to come over and feel comfortable and welcome. I don't have the best green thumb but I do enjoy planting tropical plants and flowers in our backyard. My favorite flower to plant is plumeria. They remind me of Hawaii. Being able to take our child to Hawaii to show them the beautiful flowers and to see why we love it is what I am looking forward to!

Marissa is the love of my life. She is very supportive of me in my career. She is very caring and thoughtful. She makes sure I always have lunch to take to work. When we go to my parent’s house, she brings snacks for my nieces and nephew. She also brings things over for my mom and older sister, I love that about her. She loves to make the people around her feel special. For every birthday and Christmas, she is thoughtful in the gifts she gives, trying to make everyone feel special, exhausting for her but she enjoys it. I know she will make a great mother. We have been around our nieces and nephew since they were born. She enjoys spending time with them. She loves and cares for them as if they were our own. She has been told by their parents that she is like their second mother.

Marissa loves the beach. We try to visit the beach once a month no matter the season. We renamed the beach we go to as "Our beach". We like to take chairs and just sit and watch the waves come in and out.
We enjoy just spending time at home, being together, and playing with our dog, Oakley. We take her out for walks around our neighborhood and to the park behind our house, which also has a dog park. We go to the gym together about four to five times a week. We enjoy going together because we can push and motivate each other. We also go visit Antonio’s parents once a week. We either BBQ or bring food over to all eat together. His two sisters, our two nieces and nephew, are also there. It can get pretty loud when we are all in the house talking and having a good time. During the summer, we invite his family over on the weekends for BBQ and swimming in our pool. We usually play some island music and hang out till the sun goes down. We also like to travel. Since we got married in Maui, Hawaii, we like to visit the island every year on our anniversary. Recently we have wanted to visit other parts of the world. We have traveled to Paris, Venice, Dublin, London and Mexico. We have also been on a few cruises. We love taking adventures together! We would love to show our future child all of our favorite places and make new memories with them.

We live in Eastvale, California. We’ve lived in our house for 10 years now. We added a pool in our backyard about 6 years ago. We have really enjoyed using the pool during the warm summer months. We want to teach our child to swim, have fun and be safe around the pool at a very early age. Marissa likes to plant tropical flowers in our yard so it feels like we are on vacation all the time. There are a lot of schools in our neighborhood. It’s a family friendly community. Our backyard faces a park that has baseball fields, skate park, dog park and a large play structure. They hold several community events there as well. Concerts in the park is one they have during the summer. We are about an hour from the beach and a little over an hour to the mountains. There is so much to see and do all over our city and near by. Disneyland is always a favorite as well and is not too far away.

Meet Oakley, our 7-year-old, long haired German Shepard. We got her as an 8-week-old puppy. She is such a smart dog. We have taught her the names of her toys and she can retrieve them when asked. She also loves to go on walks with us. In the summer she also gets to swim in the pool. She sheds hair so she does wear a suit. She even waits for permission to jump in. Oakley is a very loyal dog and always has us laughing. She's great with our nieces and nephew. When they come to visit she gets very excited. We love spending our days with her and she will be a great companion to your child.

I have two sisters and one brother. My brother has three kids, two girls and one boy. Both of my sisters live with my parents and my brother rents a house from my parents. Marissa and I go visit my parents at least once a week. We spend all holidays together and we celebrate everyone’s birthday at my parent’s house. They live 20 minutes away from us. We spend a lot of time with our nieces and nephew. We even put up a new swing set at my parent’s house for our nephew to play with. I have a big extended family that lives here in California. We get together about once a year. One of my cousins adopted five kids, not all at once. Another cousin is adopting a boy and girl from another country. An uncle of mine fostered two boys and ended up adopting them. We as an extended family have welcomed them to the family. Both of my parents were excited to hear that we are adopting and already plan on babysitting and helping raise our child.

Marissa’s mom, Lorie, and her grandmother live in Washington state. Lorie comes to visit once or twice a year, or we go visit her. Lorie has gone on family vacations to Hawaii with us and Marissa and her have gone on trips of their own. Marissa had the opportunity to give Lorie the exciting news of us adopting during a recent visit. She was very excited and couldn’t wait to tell grandma.

We are so thankful that you took the time to read about us. We hope we were able to share the essence of who we are and how we will be as parents to your child. We realize this is the most important decision you will have to make in your life and we are here for any questions you might have. Please let us know if there is anything you need more information on. Our commitment to you is to raise your child with so much love and joy. We are excited to start this part of our journey.

Thank you for considering us!
- Marissa and Antonio