Hello! We are Therese & Adam. We are excited, hopeful, and to be honest, a little nervous. We are trying to find the perfect words to convey what a remarkable person you are and how your decision will positively affect so many people’s lives. Perhaps our modest but genuine and heartfelt greeting will help you feel our appreciation.

So...hi and welcome to our story! We are honored and grateful that you are taking the time to get to know us. Our goal with this book is to convey the openness, fun, support, and love that we have been blessed with in our own lives. And we look forward to sharing all of this with our future child.

We have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for the choice that you are making. If we are chosen, rest assured that your courageous act of love will only be the beginning of a lifetime of love that our future child can look forward to.

We know that there will be a lot of questions and we are happy to answer any that you may have. Thank you and please enjoy reading our story.

Therese and Adam

We “met” 8 years ago through a dating profile. The candid photos that we posted on our individual profiles drew us to each other. After a few back-and-forth emails, conversations on the phone, and a stomach flu later, we finally decided to meet at a Japanese restaurant for our first date. That nerve-racking but memorable first date paved the way towards the stable, committed and loving marriage we have today.

Over the years, we have experienced joy, happiness, loss and sorrow, and through it all, continue to be there for each other.

We have always wanted to have children since we started dating. Although we are unable to biologically have our own, we hope to grow our family via adoption. We can confidently say that our ability to weather through life’s challenges together has made us a stronger couple.

We strongly believe that there is a reason for everything in life, which has led us here to share our life story with you.

Adam has many qualities that makes him a great husband and will make him a terrific dad. He is supportive, humble, kind, honest, and loving. Adam loves deeply! I see this when I watch him be with our puppy. I feel this when he tells me and shows me how much he loves me on a regular basis. I admire his tenacity and curiosity in life, never afraid to ask questions. He constantly strives to learn something new. He is appreciative and grateful for the smaller things that often go unnoticed. He has and continues to cheer me on even when I doubt my own abilities.

I know with the utmost certainty that he will be a remarkable dad. He is thrilled to step into this new role. He is eager to teach our child all the things he knows, and he is so excited to learn and grow along-side him/her.

If you ask all the people in Therese’s life, I’m sure you wouldn’t get many identical answers to why she is great. That of course is because she is amazing in many ways to many people. She has this unique gift to give you exactly what you need, when you need it.

In my case, Therese is compassionate, kind-hearted, empathic, and genuine. She is my voice of reason when I may not see every angle. She always looks at how everyone and everything is affected in any situation. I am constantly learning from her and am in awe when I see her turn someone’s day around.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Therese play with a cousin’s fussy child. The weird faces and noises she made to get the child laughing was hilarious! That was the exact point that I knew I wanted to have a child with this woman. When she turned and looked at me in that moment, the pure joy and beauty that was radiating from her was breathtaking!

We live in Sunland, California, right at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains- just a couple of miles from the entrance to Angeles National Forest. It’s a place where we like to hike, bike and picnic. Being in southern California, it’s summer most of the year except those three or four rainy days that we like to call winter!

We live on a quiet little street. There is very little traffic which makes it safe and nice to walk our great dane, Neil. We like hanging out in the back yard, while Neil sniffs and explores every square inch of our lawn and plants. During the summer, we love grilling burgers and enjoy the warm evenings together. We love our kitchen! It’s the place where we congregate, talk, and joke while cooking and eating new and familiar American and Filipino food staples. Sometimes we walk with Neil to the local park where there is a playground. We look forward to the day that we can do all these things with our child!

The third member of our family is our great dane, Neil. His silliness and wacky personality fill our home with more laughter and joy. He is sweet, well trained and gentle with children. Just like Adam, he is protective of his tribe while also extremely affectionate, caring and loving.

One Big Happy Family- that’s what we like to call ourselves! We have a large and culturally diverse support system made up of close family and friends; our “village.”

As a Filipino-American, Therese grew up with and continues to have a close relationship with her immediate and extended family. There are many traditions and celebrations, and therefore many family gatherings. Therese’s family loves to entertain, cooking and sharing Filipino food alongside the more familiar burgers and pizza. And don’t forget the karaoke which becomes the focus of almost every family gathering!

Though Adam’s immediate and extended family live in Missouri, we visit and keep in close touch with his family. Adam is close to his father, talking to each other daily about anything and everything. He calls his grandmother on a regular basis, checking up on her, sharing family stories, and updating her on our adoption process.

We are lucky to have such amazing friends that are more like family. With some having their own children, they cannot wait to have play dates and watch the children learn and grow together.

Our “village” has been respectful, caring, supportive and loving throughout our adoption journey. Without a doubt, our baby will be welcomed with open arms, a big celebration, and lots of love.

We would like to applaud you for your bravery in making this very important choice. Words can’t describe the amount of respect we have for you no matter what your final decision is.

If given the opportunity to raise your child, we want you to know that your involvement will be entirely up to you. We both strongly believe in an open adoption and think it is very beneficial to a child on so many levels. Thankfully we are at the point in our lives now that we can give your child all things that maybe we didn’t have growing up. We also promise to give them all the amazing things that we did have as well!