Our Family

Welcome.

We admire your courage to make this difficult decision and we are so grateful that you are taking the time to learn about our family. We pray that you will be led to a good adoptive family for your child and that you have the support network you need to carry you through this time in your life. Again, thank you for wanting to learn about us.  

Our Family:
Michael and Elena grew up a few hours away from each other. The first time we met Michael was 17 and Elena was 15.  We met at a youth camp. Elena saw Michael and thought he was handsome. She asked his friend to introduce her to him. When we were introduced, Michael thought Elena was pretty. We didn’t see much of each other until the last day of camp when Michael decided he wanted to have a picture with Elena. So he found her and we took a picture together. We lost track of each other after that.

Fast-forward 5 years – we met each other again at a church dance. Elena was with her boyfriend and she remembers thinking that Michael was very nice looking.

Fast-forward 1 month – we met again (third time’s a charm) at a comedy club where several mutual friends had invited us for the evening. We both felt strongly drawn to each other. There were sparks! After a few months (Elena had to break up with her boyfriend), we started dating. On our second date, we were at Elena’s looking through her photo albums and we found the picture we had taken together all of those years before. We knew it was meant to be! We were married during the following Christmas season. We have been  married for 10 years.  

We are fortunate to have a strong marriage. We are united in our purpose and goals. We work hard to have a happy relationship with each other. We serve each other, give affection to each other and spend quality time together. We like to snuggle and you can be sure that any child placed in our home will have tons of love from us. One thing we greatly appreciate about our parents is that their marriages have always been a good example of healthy marriage. We will do all that we can to give our children the same good example.

Julia is our vivacious, fun-loving, 2 year old daughter. We have a great love and respect for her birth family and we are so grateful for the experiences we had through her adoption. Julia loves to play outside, learn new things, snuggle with Mom and Dad and spend time with her cousins.

Where we live…
We live in a somewhat rural setting on about 5 acres of property in Florida. We have a swing, a slide and a kiddie pool for fun outside. Elena and Julia spend a lot of time outdoors. Michael enjoys taking Julia for rides around the area on the John Deere Gator. 

Education and Work…
We both graduated from the School of Business. Michael has a Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems and Elena has a Bachelor’s degree in Management with a specialization in Entrepreneurship.  

Michael is working to build our family business. Elena is a homemaker and employs her talents in managing our home to be clean and comfortable and teaching and caring for Julia and in supporting Michael’s efforts with our business. 

A day of rest…
We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We attend church every Sunday and are involved in different responsibilities there. Our Faith is a fundamental part of our lives and we hope to pass that on to our children.

The Good Life…
- Michael’s Hobbies and Interests
Michael enjoys fishing, watching sports, playing football, basketball, softball, tennis and video games. He also enjoys organizing, caring for domestic pets, reading and spending time with family. He likes to learn about computer programming, computers, world history, science and airplanes. He likes visiting new places, taking pictures, listening to music and camping. He also likes to collect patches for all of the places he has visited.

- Elena’s Hobbies and Interests
Elena enjoys cooking, baking, decorating, reading, sewing, making short movies on the computer, playing with Julia, spending time with family and crafting. She likes playing games like Pit, Settlers of Catan, Catch Phrase and Scattergories. She also enjoys organizing pictures into photo books, trying new foods and traveling. She also likes watching old movies and Disney classics with Julia.

- Julia’s Hobbies and Interests
Julia enjoys playing outside, running around with her cousins, spending time with her Grampy and Grammy and Papa and Grandma. She likes playing dress-up, helping Mommy bake and playing with her Daddy. She also enjoys it when we read books to her and “reading” them back to us. She loves to eat pizza!

- What we like to do together
We enjoy watching sports together, watching movies on netflix, playing, reading, cuddling on the couch, going on walks or bike rides, trying new restaurants, going on vacations and working on the house or yard.

- What we like to do with extended family
We enjoy playing board games, celebrating holidays, traveling, cooking out, eating out, going to the beach, going out on the boat, swimming and playing outside together.

Speaking of extended family…
Michael is number three in a family of five children. His parents have three sons and two daughters. Michael has learned excellent leadership, organizational and parenting skills from his dad. His mom taught him to serve and care for others and always find out both sides to every story.  

We are fortunate that everyone in Michael’s family lives nearby. We enjoy spending time with them. Fun things we have done in the past are pumpkin carving contests, vacations, going to the beach, fishing and camping.

Elena is number three in a family of five children. Her parents have four daughters and one son. Elena has learned organization, ingenuity and good work ethic from her father. Her mom taught her always to look at things in a positive way, to know when to laugh and how to be a supportive wife.  

We enjoy spending time with Elena’s family although we have to travel to be with some of them. We are fortunate that we live near her parents and one of her sisters. We enjoy going out to eat and to movies with them.  

Our families are very similar and we bring them together for fun as often as we can. We often go to the beach and celebrate holidays together. We have even been to New York City with both sets of parents!  

Both families are eager to welcome a new baby!

A new baby…
We are bursting with excitement to welcome a sweet baby into our home. We understand that a new baby will change our lives in a fundamental way. However, we have been preparing ourselves for this and we are ready. We have chosen the route of adoption to grow our family because we are unable to bear children.

Michael is a great dad. He is patient, a good listener, fun-loving and fair. Elena has so much love, patience and desire to serve her children. We both take great joy in teaching Julia new things. Julia is excited to welcome a baby "brodder or sister" to our family. She enjoys gently holding and talking to our friend’s babies.

Openness…
We want to do what is best for each little one who will be entrusted to us. We feel that the more people to love a child the happier the child will be. We would like to build a relationship with you and talk about what we both feel comfortable with as far as contact, letters, emails and pictures.

Thank you!
Again, thank you for taking the time to get to know our family a little bit. We feel so blessed and grateful to be a part of the adoption process. It has been such a miracle in our lives. Please know that any child placed in our home will be loved and cherished, that they will know how much his or her birth parents love them, and that they were an answer to our prayers. We look forward to meeting you and developing a relationship with you.

Lots of love,

Michael and Elena