We are Sakshi & Jerome. Thank you so much for taking the time to consider us as future parents for your child. We are so excited and grateful for the opportunity to provide your child with a loving, safe (and fun!) home and to share our joy for life. We live in Southern California, we love to travel, are self-confessed foodies, and enjoy a wide variety of books/podcasts/movies/you-name-it. We can often be found exploring and connecting via long walks with deep talks. Our general approach to life is to never take anything for granted and that very much applies to this opportunity. Whether you select us or not, please accept our gratitude and admiration for your amazing strength, bravery, and dedication to finding the best home for your child.

The shared desire to grow our family has been a priority since before we were married. Knowing that we both wanted to share our home and love with a child, we had open discussions about fertility and the possibility of adoption early on in our relationship. After we got married, we immediately began trying to have a biological child, but were unsuccessful. While disappointing, that has in no way deterred us, as we already saw adoption as a beautiful path to achieve the same goal...sharing our home and love with a child. We believe families are built from love, respect, and the hard work reflected by the day-to-day support, caring, and attention provided to one another. The opportunity to create a family through adoption is a privilege and we are so excited and grateful to be on this journey.

Our life journeys luckily led us to one another in the fall of 2019. Sakshi, a lifelong vegetarian, born in India and having immigrated to California with her family at age 7…and Jerome, a West Coast transplant, born and raised on crawfish and gumbo in Louisiana. Despite our differing backgrounds, our relationship has always felt like it was meant to be. Even the NFL cooperated by providing a convenient Saints-vs-Rams game to serve as our first date! The rest, as they say, was history and we were married at a joyous Indian-“New Orleans” fusion wedding in November 2021. In marriage and life we are truly best friends and partners, eagerly sharing both joys and burdens. We are fortunate to have a wonderful home close to Sakshi’s family, where we love to host our friends and relatives. We look forward to sharing this with our future child.

I was born in India and immigrated to the U.S. when I was seven years old. I grew up in a large household surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins! I attended UCLA for college, where I met my best friends who continue to be a big part of my life today. After college and graduate school, I moved to NYC and began a career in public education. After 8 years of life in the big apple, I moved back to California to be closer to my family. That is where I met Jerome and where we hope to raise our family surrounded by the same big and loving family that I grew up with!

Sakshi brightens every room she enters. Her smile is infectious, her charm is unrelenting, and she’s a natural comedian. Alongside great vibes and charisma, Sakshi also happens to be the most caring person that I’ve ever had the privilege to meet. The way she takes care of everyone in her life, inspires me to be a better friend, son, and overall human being. Falling in love with her was the easiest thing I’ve ever done and, in retrospect, seems inevitable. As a long-time educator, Sakshi is amazing with children. She complements her caring nature with a deep understanding of, and respect for, their feelings, wants, and needs. I constantly marvel at her ability to connect with kids of all ages. Sakshi is also an extremely proud aunt and the deep love she has for her nephew shines through at all times. I am extremely excited for Sakshi to be a mom. It’s truly and obviously meant to be in a way that needs no explanation to anyone who meets her.

I would describe myself as responsible, logical, and fun-loving. I am so excited to be a father and for the opportunity to raise a child. Having experienced financial instability as a child, I’ve always maintained a strong focus on creating and maintaining the type of security that I didn’t have growing up. I’m an engineer at heart and I always have a plan and usually also a backup plan (and sometimes a backup for the backup), hence the priority I place on understanding and managing responsibilities and logic. I also have a fun-loving side that often surprises people as they get to know me. For example, I love to dance (even when no one else is!). I enjoy all sorts of sports and am competitive by nature.

Jerome is truly the most incredible person I’ve ever met, and I feel grateful every day to have him as my partner on this journey of life. His kindness, compassion, discipline, and consistency make him not just an amazing spouse but will also make him an extraordinary father. He’s the kind of person who should be everyone’s emergency contact because he’s always there for you when you need him the most. But what I cherish most about Jerome is his playful spirit. Whether he’s bursting into a spontaneous dance while we’re cooking or sharing silly jokes, he fills my days with joy and laughter. I can’t help but smile whenever he’s around!

In our free time, it’s very likely that you’ll find us exercising, preparing or enjoying a great meal, or exploring a new city or country (or even just a new local neighborhood). We’re happiest when we can combine all of the above with a long walk on the way to lunch/dinner in a new place. In general, we both find joy in new experiences and the joy is maximized when those experiences are shared. We very much look forward to sharing these experiences and making wonderful memories with our future child. When not out and about, we like to stay physically active and both keep a regular schedule of jogging and working out. We believe that it's important to use and care for our bodies to maximize health and longevity. Setting and working towards goals is also something we both enjoy and spontaneously deciding to train for a random 10K is right up our alley. We also both enjoy feeding our brains and have a shared love of learning and literature. We consume a steady diet of books (mostly Sakshi) and podcasts (mostly Jerome) and enjoy sharing what we’ve read/heard with one another. We can’t wait to share the joys of learning with our future child and to support them in finding the books/comics/podcasts/whatever that inspires them.

We live in a quiet, sunny, family-friendly suburban community in Lakewood, California. We purchased our home in the fall of 2022 and we’ve loved every minute of our time here! We try to take full advantage of our indoor and outdoor entertaining spaces and we love to host family events...Xmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc...or just a spontaneous gathering of friends/family for no particular reason at all. Our home has become a hub for gatherings, large or small, and we love that. Nearby, we have many parks and recreation areas with ample space for kids to play, for picnics, and for walks. Our city also sponsors lots of activities, with many designed for kids. There’s always something going on... soccer, baseball, pickleball, archery, swimming, and more. We’re also adjacent to Long Beach and, within 20 minutes, we can be enjoying a stroll on the beach and gazing at the ocean. And, we’re also only 20 minutes from Disneyland and 15 minutes from Knott’s Berry Farm...and we very much look forward to sharing the joy of amusement parks with our future child.

We live less than 15 minutes away from Sakshi’s parents, one of her brothers, and most of her close extended family (aunts, uncles, and cousins). This allows us to enjoy lots of quality family time…including visits to have dinner with Sakshi’s parents and hosting them and other family members at our home. Sakshi’s family has always been extremely tight-knit. In particular, Sakshi and her cousins are very close and think of themselves as brothers and sisters. Jerome has been happily accepted into the crew and enjoys it immensely. Sakshi’s close family is very loud, very boisterous, and very warm...they love to have fun, but most importantly, they care for and take care of each other without fail. Sakshi also has a super-tight group of nearby friends from her college days who still remain very close and see each other frequently. Jerome's parents both live in Louisiana, so he and Sakshi travel there several times a year to visit and spend time with them, particularly with Jerome's mom who raised him. Jerome also maintains a group of friends from college (along with a few close friends from middle school) and, while none of them live nearby, they keep in touch and find ways to stay connected (e.g. trips, online gaming).

We invest in maintaining traditions with both family and friends. These can range from organizing a holiday gift exchange, to observing cultural traditions with family, to running a yearly fantasy football league with former coworkers, to hosting/attending a Friendsmas or Friendsgiving celebration. We believe that the familiarity of traditions helps create a comfortable space for renewing and strengthening connections. We look forward to sharing our traditions with our future child and we're eager to build new ones.

As parents, we will be extremely grateful for the opportunity to help our child grow, learn, and explore. We look forward to sharing our knowledge and experience, while still encouraging our child to develop the skills and confidence to choose their own path in life. We also want to teach our child compassion and empathy…as we believe that having consideration and care for others not only benefits those around you, but also provides perspective and helps to inspire a spirit of gratitude and appreciation for all life has to offer.

Thank you again for taking the time to consider us. We deeply appreciate this opportunity and we promise to do everything we can to care for, teach, guide, and delight any child that we have the privilege to parent. We believe that this is one of the greatest responsibilities that we could ever have...and also one of the greatest gifts that we could ever be given. Also, though expanding our family is something we want with full heart and soul, we also know that it won’t always be easy...and that’s okay. We look forward to the difficult, rewarding work of parenting and approach this privilege and duty with determination, open hearts, and full commitment. We’re ready to navigate all of the challenges in addition to cherishing all the joys. In fact, we can’t wait. :)