We are a multi-cultural family celebrating our Mexican and Filipino heritages. Sean is Filipino-American and Janella is Mexican-American. We both have large extended families and there is always a family birthday or celebration to attend. We both grew up in a culturally diverse area and have been immersed in many ethnic cultures. We have found that our Mexican and Filipino backgrounds have many things in common which has given us so much to celebrate together. We grew up similarly with strong family values of respect and honesty.

The way we celebrate our cultures is mainly through food. We share traditional foods such as albóndigas (meat ball and vegetable soup) and Adobo (a traditional filipino pork dish) but also blend our American culture by preparing a mean cowboy chili and grilling hot dogs and hamburgers for Fourth of July. We also celebrate our cultures by attending various local cultural events and dressing in traditional clothing for special occasions and family gatherings.

We have always enjoyed the outdoors the most. Ever since we met, the beach has been a place for us to relax and spend our time together. We enjoy being in the water and look forward to teaching our child to swim and be comfortable in the ocean water playing in the calm waves with us. Being under our umbrella making shapes or finding that sweet nap under the sun makes each beach day perfect. Near our home are a few great hiking trails that we enjoy regularly. There's one that has a waterfall in the spring after all the rain. Most mornings we try to go for an easy walk to start our day.

Sean grew up playing golf with his brother and dad, and Janella started playing a couple years ago and we've been enjoying the game together on a couple different vacations. Janella enjoys doing yoga regularly both at home and in a studio. On warm days we go on bike rides. There are several bike only paths in our community that make it pleasant to ride. We would introduce our child to these activities and encourage and provide opportunities for them to explore activities or hobbies they like.

We enjoy having movie nights at home with fresh popcorn and our favorite snacks. We usually have a book we are reading together and enjoy painting or drawing.

Both of us have been blessed with adoption in our extended families. Sean has an aunt that was adopted and Janella has a cousin and most recently a niece. In addition, Janella's best friend has recently adopted their children. We will lean on their experience for guidance and support. We see the joy and great love that is shared first hand through these relationships. We see how they bond, make special moments and work together as a family unit. We have immediate and direct representation of how beautiful adoption is. We see and feel our family's support of adoption and know that they will share in loving this child.

We hope to continue the example set for us and we see adoption as a great family building experience that is both giving the gift of parenthood and providing a safe and loving home for a child.

We live in California in a tight knit, culturally diverse community with restaurants, markets and a community center within walking distance from our home. There are monthly and annual events; some of the notable events are the semi-annual art studio walk, field day, Easter egg hunt, summer concerts, pancake breakfast fireman fundraiser, and a Christmas Parade. The community center has a nice playground, open grass area, asphalt basketball/tennis court and an outdoor stage. Nearby we have community parks, schools, libraries, churches, theaters, sporting venues, amusement parks and attractions, airports, hospitals, several shopping centers and the beach! Many of our neighbors are young families that will often have play dates at our community park. There is a local nature preschool and traditional preschool that our neighbor's children attend.

Our home is in a suburban-foresty area, surrounded by trees with many walking and hiking trails, a beautiful creek, and charming stores. Our home has three bedrooms and two baths, but it's the loft overlooking the living room that all the kids enjoy checking out or hanging out by the big stone fireplace in the living room. Our favorite place in our home is our living room because of the fireplace, the natural light that comes in from the sky lights and it's where we spend most of our time together. We have an enclosed backyard with a garden and plenty of space for a child to play and explore.

Janella's mother lives 15 minutes from us and will be a huge support to us. Sean's extended family all live 30-40 minutes away and we get together frequently. Nearby we have plenty of aunties, uncles, cousins and friends to support us. Our parents enjoy being grandparents and can't wait to welcome a beautiful grandchild into our family. We have cousins and a recent niece that are adopted and we feel our child would share a close kinship with them.

We have several nieces, nephews and a godson who frequently visit and love to spend time at our home. Most recently, we had our niece, who is adopted, over and we played games, read books and baked cookies with her. At night, we gathered around the fire pit outside told stories and reminisced while our niece slowly fell asleep in our arms. You could see the amusement on her face to hear us share funny stories of her parents.

This Easter weekend we spent it with our godson molding clay into small figurines, eating fresh baked bread and blood oranges from the tree. We had a great time being creative and catching up during our godson's spring break.

Our favorite tradition is Sunday Dinner, we make a big family meal and talk about our upcoming week.

Hello, we first want to say that we admire your strength and have been with you in prayer and thought. Rest assured your child will always know the difficult decision their birth mother made and how much she loves them. We have strong values of communicating with honest open minds, showing respect and kindness, and leading with love. We hope to share our lives with a child and provide them with every opportunity we can. We will provide an encouraging environment for a child to thrive. The area we live in is full of diversity and opportunity for a child to grow. We have access to great schools and top universities, art, and year round sports. We both grew up near our home and had great childhoods, filled with sports; such as soccer, cross-county, track and field, swimming and golf. We had access to art and educational camps such as writing camps and nature camps. We hope to provide a child with all of these opportunities and more.

We enjoy being outdoors, hiking and bicycling and being at the beach. We have active lifestyles but also enjoy our chill time to play games, watch movies and spend a whole day indoors. We are a fun loving and playful family that wants to give all we can by showering a child with love. People would describe us as a happy, youthful and imaginative couple. We can see the Opera one day and Saturday morning cartoons the next day.

We feel the love of the children around us. Our nieces, nephews and friend's kids are constantly asking to come over to our house and we can't wait for the day that our kids will get to play with them. When they visit we spend the day immersed in activities or on an adventure outside. The days go by fast as we get lost in what we are doing. We hope to share our attention, playfulness, imagination and love with a child.

We have been together since 2010 and married in 2018. We are committed to each other and have loved being able to grow so much in front of each other. We have been successful in our lives, building a beautiful home, thriving careers and a steady emotional support system of family and friends. We love each other deeply and our favorite thing to do is to spend time with each other.

We respect and welcome the amount of contact you desire. Whether it's exchanging emails or annual updates sharing letters and pictures, we promise to keep the communication open to you for as long as you wish. We know you have a tough decision to make and we have wanted to be parents for quite some time. We would be honored to be in contact with you and to carry on raising a beautiful child.

We share with you our deepest promise to care for your child with all of our being. Truly we feel immensely blessed to be considered. Thank you.

Sean & Janella