Hello! We are Leilani and Chris from Danville, California. We want to begin by expressing how much we admire your courage as you consider adoption for your child. Having friends that have adopted, has helped us to understand and embrace the important role you will have in your child's life, and we are honored you are considering us as adoptive parents to your child. We have a wonderful son Kai, and we pray that our lives will be enriched with another child to whom we can give our love and affection. After reading our letter, we hope you feel our deep commitment to raising our children in a loving, safe, fun, and happy home. And that the picture of what life would be like for your child eases your worries for him or her. Our life has been a great journey thus far, and we welcome you to walk alongside us as we imagine the best is yet to come for all of us.

About Us

We like to joke that we met on a blind date...that neither of us knew was a blind date.  Our common friend who just knew "we'd be perfect for on another" had tried for months to fix us up, finally succeeded one day.  But we think the true success to our instant connection was that we both weren't really looking.  Playing recreational volleyball helped us get to know one another better.  By the time we had our "first official date," we knew it would be our last date and we haven't been apart since!

Over the years, we are grateful to have experienced more ups (welcoming furry pets into our home including Leilani's first dog ever, getting married, traveling, spending time doing what we love and with whom we love) than downs (struggles with trying to conceive and the heartbreaking miscarriages on our road to starting our family) in life.  The ultimate high thus far has been giving birth to our son Kai - our miracle child - in 2008.  We know the best is to come, and can't wait to expand our family through open adoption!

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About Chris (According to Leilani)

Chris is the type of person that has learned to follow his dream.  Raised by a single mom and older sister, Chris learned to listen to his sensitive emotions and truly do what he loves.  He followed his dream and became successful doing what he loves as a Director of Animation for a popular video game company.  

He is a great husband and father.  He encourages Kai and I to do what makes us happy and effortlessly supports our decisions.  He's athletic and loves being Kai's basketball coach, Kai loves it too.  He's funny, only serious when he has to be, and loves living life as a big kid.  I can't wait to have three (not just two) kids running around the home!

Five things I love about Chris:

He gets along with everybody.

He's a great cook.

He's easy going.

He volunteers with kids at our church.

He's athletic.

About Leilani (From Chris' Perspective)

I feel blessed every day to call Leilani my wife and mother to my son.  She is smart and quick thinking (probably her nursing background) and an instant later she can be a total goofball.  As a wife she's always there for me.  She's loving, caring, and the person whom I love to love.  I love that we can ALWAYS share laughter.  We do everything together from building stages and sets at our church, to playing board games or just relaxing at home watching movies.  

Did I mention she loves to cook too?  And she's great at it!  She loves to travel, camp and play on the beach, as much as I do.  To add to that, she is an avid horseback rider, on a weekly basis taking rides and expands her horseback skills at a ranch down the road from our house.  In addition to being a great mom and wife, riding horses is her third true passion in life.  

As a mother she defines the word "selfless."  Not a day goes by that she isn't giving all of herself.  Whether she's bringing Kai to one of his many activities, or just at home helping him with his homework she is truly a mom that wants nothing more than to be the best mom she can be.  I am confident she will be the best mom that she can be to two children!

Five things I love about Leilani:

Her sense of humor.

Her endless sensitivity for others.

Her ability to love with all her heart.

Her sense of adventure.

She's selfless.

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Our Home & Community

You will hear a lot of laughter in our home.  Our family believes in having fun, laughing a lot, loving even more, saying our prayers at night and always remembering how lucky we are to have each other.  

Our home in Danville is in a quiet suburban neighborhood with lots of families that have kids.  Kai's school is walking distance and he loves any chance he has to ride his bike to school.  Neighbors are diverse and there are plenty of parks in walking distance.  We live close to ranches and farmland and love that our hills are sprinkled with cows, horses, deer, wild turkeys, and sometimes cute little rabbits.  

Our town, neighborhood, and surrounding cities are super family friendly and safe.  Picture parks that are always occupied, people walking their dogs, and every sports gym and field being taken up with some kind of event.  Kai's elementary school is public and we love how it feels like it's private with the amount of effort parents put into maintaining the school.

A few of our favorites in our community:

Church - love that we can be ourselves and have great friends there.

Blackhawk Plaza - love to feed the ducks.

Geocaching - love exploring the community and looking for treasure.

The neighborhood pool - great swimming and they have fun family activities.

 

Meet Kai - Future Big Brother

Favorite TV Show or Movie:  Karate Kid

Favorite Food:  Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Favorite School Subject:  Art

Favorite Hobby or Activity:  Basketball

Favorite Animal:  Megladon Shark

In Kai's words:  "As a big brother, I'm most looking forward to playing with my new brother or sister."

Family Time

We consider our family life very active and fun with lots of vacations and staycations throughout the year.  We love, love, love anything Disney and take frequent vacations to both Disneyland and Disney World.  Camping is a big part of our lives, as well as, visiting Hawaii.  Geocaching, visiting garage sales, movies, fishing, skiing, playing with our two dogs and two cats, hosting family and friend BBQ's, keep our "Family Saturdays" fun and interesting.

Most of Leilani's family lives in California, for the exception of a few aunts and cousins.  Leilani's Filipino family is huge and we love going to family gatherings.  Chris' sister, her husband and two daughters live in Atlanta, Georgia.  We plan vacations to see each other at least once a year and love visiting Georgia, especially during the holidays.

We attend a nondenominational church every Sunday and we love how liberal it is.  It has a fun kids program, great family events, and every service has fantastic music and a funny drama or video.  The best part is that it doesn't feel like going to church, but every time we go we leave feeling great.

Our best family traditions:

Cutting down our Christmas tree at Santa's Tree Farm.

Dressing up for Halloween

Yearly trips to Disney

Riding the Holiday Train of Lights with hot chocolate and homemade cookies.

Cooking a St. Patrick's Day Irish Dinner

Baking annual themed birthday iced sugar cookies.

Our Future (Hoping It Includes You!)

We've always wanted to raise children, and parenting Kai has reinforced this for us even more.  We want nothing more than to add another beautiful member to our family, and Kai wants nothing more than to be the best big brother possible.  Despite years of struggling to have another child, considering we've been committed to raising children together since we first began dating, making the choice to adopt was not a difficult one for us.  We know that your choice isn't as easy.  But please know that, should you honor us with raising your child, we will love him or her with all we have.  If you'd like to learn more about our dreams for expanding our family, and we certainly would love to learn more about you too, then please feel free to contact us.

With gratitude,

Chris & Leilani Stone

 

Visit Our Website

Visit us again through our personal website!:  www.stonesfamilyoffour.com