Hello! We are Melisa & John from California. Let’s start here: Our home is full of tenderness, expression, laughter, honesty, music, creativity, and adventure. We enjoy spontaneous road trips as much as spending a quiet evening at home watching a movie with our cat Cali and our puppy Gigio. The child we welcome into our home will feel fully supported by family members who have personally experienced adoption. Our child will be given every opportunity to flourish and we can’t wait to share all of our love! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for getting to know us and we can’t wait to learn more about you!

We are whole-heartedly excited to grow our family through adoption. Given the chance, we would welcome your child as a precious gift who deserves all the love we have to give.

When we met, it was East Coast meets West Coast! John is a California native and Melisa was born and raised in New Jersey. There was just enough spunk in John and just enough laid-back in Melisa for the sparks to fly! By our third date, we knew we found our true love in one another. John’s sense of humor, open heart, and easy smile reeled Melisa in. Melisa’s passion for helping others, her patience, and sincerity won over John’s heart.

We have created a balanced, loving relationship where we truly admire the individual traits we hold as well as the values we share that guide us as partners for life. When we couldn’t biologically have a child of our own, our very first choice was adoption. We are so excited to expand our family and welcome a child to our loving home!

Melisa always felt drawn and open to the idea of adoption as a result of her mother’s adoption into a loving family. For John, he grew up hearing stories about how his adoptive great-grandfather was raised by a generous family that allowed for his great-grandfather’s success and the success of future generations.

Both of us are aware of how adoption played a significant part in our family’s past and our current lives. If others hadn’t opened their homes and hearts to our family members, our own paths would have developed very differently. We are grateful for the important role the gift of adoption played in both our lives and history.

Melisa is extremely compassionate, warm, sensitive, and sees the bright side of any situation. She appreciates the simple things in life and spends time reflecting on everything she’s been blessed with. She is deeply committed to family and friends. She shows her love for her community through her volunteer work leading art workshops for kids with cancer. She also laughs at all my jokes and understands my quirky sense of humor!

Growing up, Melisa’s family didn’t have much financially but she never knew it because there was so much love. By family example, she learned lessons of responsibility and hard work. She put herself through school on a full scholarship by playing competitive tennis and maintaining good grades. She was successful in the corporate world in the field of Human Resources but recently switched careers to nonprofit leadership to serve her local community. She is so grateful to feel inspired by her work every day.

John is caring, grounded, intelligent, honest, and really funny! His impersonations are incredibly realistic and are guaranteed to make me belly-laugh! I can depend on him to follow through when I need him the most. He is loyal, devoted, and a hard worker who greatly values friends and family. We may sometimes see an issue differently but our values and motivations are always the same and solidly bind us. I love to watch him tenderly care for our sweet pets and I can’t wait to grow our family together.

John came from a kind and encouraging family that instilled confidence in him to overcome any challenge. Up until the 8th grade, he attended a Christian private school that impressed upon him faith and a solid work-ethic. In the late 1990’s, he had a series of fortunate personal encounters that got him into the booming tech industry. He was able to buy a fixer-upper home early in his 20s, which he completely renovated. He feels lucky to have had loving support from his family, friends, and mentors along the way and gives back often through charity work.

We live in a quiet, safe little town in northern California called Moraga. Our town is full of young families with lots of kids. We are within walking distance to the Moraga Commons town park which has two playground areas, volleyball courts, a skate park and often hosts kid-friendly events throughout the year. The school district is one of the best in the country.

We are just 30 minutes away from San Francisco. Being so close to San Francisco, there is never a shortage of things to do like the aquarium, zoo, and exploratorium. The child we welcome into our lives will have the best of what a small town and a big city have to offer!

We love local road trips and often jump in our Jeep and drive to the mountains, the beach, or Disneyland! Some of our favorite travel destinations outside of California include New York City, New Orleans, Hawaii, Santa Fe, and Spain.

We both love animals and we can be found at the local zoo quite often. In the past, we have both volunteered together as therapeutic horse walkers for children with disabilities.

Quiet times at home cooking good meals, lounging in our backyard, playing music, and spending time with our pets are where our hearts truly are.

John enjoys the outdoors, plays guitar, collects vinyl records, restores vintage electronics, and works on various house projects when he’s not driving around his 1955 Chevy Bel Air Coupe. Melisa enjoys crafting, hiking, reading, gardening, and yoga.

We can’t wait to share all our passions with our child and explore theirs as they grow!

Our parents are all so excited to welcome a new grandchild and our nephew can’t wait to have a new cousin!

John’s parents are retired and live nearby. John’s dad was a NASA photographer and now enjoys painting and bowling. John’s mom loves to take neighborhood walks, and is always line-dancing to a new pop song with her local community center!

We make frequent trips to the New Jersey to visit Melisa’s family and friends. Her mom and dad enjoy cooking large homemade family meals, gardening, hiking, and tennis. Melisa’s sister, brother-in-law, and nephew live close to her mom and dad. They both work in the Arts and are fun-loving, and down-right hilarious!

The child we welcome into our home will be surrounded by an abundance of love and support, creating wonderful memories and traditions together along the way. Most of our best friends have been in our lives since childhood. They are all extremely supportive of our adoption and can’t wait for our children to grow and play together.

Our home is one of love, open communication, and understanding. We believe each child is a miracle who should be nurtured to express their passions and individual personality. We hope to encourage their natural curiosity in a safe and stable environment. We will provide a quality education and instill empathy and gratitude as guiding values so that they can define their own success while always being kind to others. Our dream for our child is to enjoy a peaceful, loving, and well-balanced life full of family, friends, and community. We hope that our child will always keep their faith, carry their family in their heart, and respect others along their life journey.

Our hearts are genuine with love for you and the child we will welcome into our home. We can appreciate that this was probably a very difficult process for you and we are so grateful that you are considering us. As parents, we promise to provide a home full of love, faith, and solid values. Your child will be exposed to a great education, sports, road trips, art, and music flowing from room to room! If you choose us, we would gladly send photos and updates along the way to give you as much opportunity for connection as you feel comfortable with. We believe in nurturing a child with tenderness and supporting their dreams to create any future they want. Our promise to you is that if you choose us, you will always be spoken of in our home with absolute love and deep appreciation.