Hello! We are Raissa & Jeffrey from Santa Rosa, California. Thank you for taking the time to read our profile. We are privileged that you may consider us as adoptive parents to your child and we are eternally grateful for that. We are choosing adoption because it has been our lifelong dream to become parents. We have been hoping and praying for this moment to come.

In 2014, we lost our son, Justin, at 18 months old to Peroxisomal Biogenesis Disorder and after fostering 2 beautiful boys, we have decided to choose adoption to grow our family.

Fourteen years ago we made the best decision ever — We got married after four years of dating. We met through friends and after a couple of years of knowing each other, we fell in love. Ours is not a “love at first sight” love story but one that has developed and has been tested through time. We are very proud of how we have withstood tragedies and coped with loss in our lives together. In our spare time we love to race triathlons, try new restaurants and discover different places and cultures around the world. We also love volunteering for the Global Foundation for Peroxisomal Disorders, which is an organization that is very near and dear to our hearts.

I am the fourth child amongst 5 kids. I have 1 sister and 3 brothers. I was brought up to be very responsible, do well in school and to be very organized. Although most of my family are doctors, I chose to be a Clinical Laboratory Scientist. I love it because although I work behind the scenes, I still save lives everyday. I love to read books, hang out at the beach ,watch movies and try out new restaurants. I love to race triathlons (swim, bike and run) with Jeffrey because it brings out the best in us. I am very excited to become a mother and am determined to do it to the best of my ability.

I work as a Lab Scientist only 3 days a week. And we now have 3 rental houses to support our income so we can have more time to bond with our future child.

Raissa is my other half. She has been a solid rock in our relationship and is always there when I need her. I love how she would rather splurge on vacations than shop for material things. She is a very kind-hearted person, always thinking of others before herself, and I believe that would make her a very good mother someday.

I am the youngest of 4 boys. Although I am the baby in the family, I was mature and very responsible. I work as a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant and truly love my job because I love to socialize with other people. My patients actually look forward to working with me!

When I am not swimming, cycling or running, I love to watch car shows because I am a car fanatic. I look forward to parenting and bringing our future child to parks, car shows, to learn about new cuisines and go on vacations.

Jeffrey is not only my best friend, he is also a very good friend to others. He is very compassionate, thoughtful, and loves to hang out with our friends’ kids. He is the life of the party and our friends’ kids always look forward to hanging out with him. When I first met him, I noticed that he handles people well and I could already see that he will truly be a great father someday.

We both come from very large families. Most of our family is back home in the Philippines but we make it a point to visit each other every couple of months and we are in touch with them almost every day. We look forward to spending our holidays and holiday traditions with them and we hope to share that tradition with our future child. We also have a lot of friends who live close to us — some of them are literally next door! We hang out with them almost every weekend. They are truly the best definition of “friends are chosen family”. Through our friends and family, we are very fortunate to have a very good support system. Everyone in our circle has been eagerly waiting for us to become parents.

We are very lucky to live in a neighborhood in Santa Rosa, California that is within walking distance to parks, schools, grocery, restaurants, and even a hospital. Our school district is exceptional and our community is very environmentally friendly. We chose to build our home in this beautiful community because we felt that this community is very safe and is very conducive to raising kids. We love going on vacations around the world but we always look forward to coming home to our beloved community.

With our future child, we hope to introduce him/her to our local children’s museum, zoo, aquarium and library. We also look forward to beach outings and family hikes in our community.

We are very grateful that you spent the time to read our profile. We look forward to being parents and we are very honored to be chosen by you. We promise to raise our future child with the same values our parents taught us — to live life with compassion, to always have courage, to never lose hope and most of all, to love to the fullest.