Family Life

We both grew up with different cultural backgrounds. Deb’s entire family is from Cuba, and she and her twin sister are the first in their family to be born in the United States. Deb grew up in New York City, and the family moved to New Jersey when she was in elementary school. Deb’s household primarily spoke Spanish, and Deb is bilingual.

Christine’s family is Italian, and she grew up in New Jersey with her parents and older brother.

We both grew up with a large emphasis on the closeness of family. We both had large family holidays with lots of relatives and cousins. We continue that tradition today with our families which have grown over the years to include our nieces and nephews, cousins’ children, and close friends and their children who we now call our family.

Both of our parents, Christine’s grandmother, brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew, and Deb’s twin sister live in New Jersey and are not far from us. We see them very often and they are all very supportive. We enjoy spending time with them having dinners, BBQ’s, pool days, and many other activities throughout the year.

Last year we decided to grow our family and our dog Jasper joined our household. Jasper is a two-year-old labradoodle and loves to play with our niece and nephew and other children we see around our community during his walks. He also loves to spend time with our families and we often bring him with us on visits.

In our household we value communication, kindness, and empathy. We try to live sustainably and waste very little where possible. We are part of a local farm’s community supported agriculture program where we pick up fresh vegetables weekly during growing season.

We enjoy celebrating the holidays and like to decorate our house for each season. Christmas is our favorite time of the year, and we love spending the season with our family and friends the most. We are both spiritual and like to learn about many different cultures and religions. We plan to educate and explore different religions in our household and support and encourage them if they choose any religion that fits for them.

Lifestyle

We have many shared hobbies including hiking, camping, skiing, cycling, rock climbing, cooking, kayaking, photography, trying new restaurants, seeing plays at the theater, and crocheting. We also both love going to the beach, and Christine enjoys surfing.

Traveling is also very important to us. Deb has traveled to 21 countries over the years, and we have both been to Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, Portugal and the Azores, and many National Parks together. Our wedding was even National Parks themed!

Two of our favorite things to do are going on camping and ski trips with Deb’s twin sister and rock climbing with our friends and their children. We also spend time hosting board game nights with our friends and family, including the kids.

We live in a spacious home in a diverse, close-knit, suburban community. Our community has lots of families with young children. We have two parks and a large swimming pool within walking distance. We’ve gotten to know our neighbors and their families from walking the dog each day.

We share a special bond with each other and have always considered each other best friends and partners. We value that we both have grown to share so many wonderful hobbies and places together and can’t wait to share that with a child.

Adoption

We knew from early on in our relationship that we wanted to adopt. We also both have strong connections to adoption in our lives.

Christine’s father was adopted at the age of 5 from Canada, and Christine’s cousin was also adopted as well. Hearing stories from Christine’s father and his experiences has brought us even closer to the process and reinforces the importance of ensuring the child understands their identity and culture.

Deb has worked in the field of adoption and has experience finding forever families for children. She has seen first-hand how important it is for children to have connections to their birth families.

Due to our experiences we plan to have open dialogue with your child about being adopted, about your family, and anything else you are willing to share with us that you would like them to know including any family history, stories, or traditions.

We would love to have open contact where we are able to share letters, photos/videos, updates and milestones, and also attend the annual picnic. If your are comfortable, we would love to work together to create a plan that works for all of us.

Diversity has always been very important to us. Deb’s family immigrated to the United States as Cuban refugees. We also have a very diverse group of friends from multiple countries, cultures, and races.

We both believe in equity and strive to create an inclusive environment that is respectful and acknowledges different cultures, backgrounds, and religions. It’s important to us to provide a child of any race, especially if different than our own, with a loving environment and connection to their cultural roots.

As members of the LGBTQ+ community, we understand how important it is to be around people whom you feel safe with, feel a connection with, and make you feel like you belong, and you matter.

We plan to incorporate the child’s ethnicity, race, and culture into our family and their environment through research, awareness, continuing to live in a diverse area, going to meetups and support groups, expanding our social network, and exposing them to language, food, books, or any other resources we can find.