Hello. As you imagine the future for your child, we hope you will consider us as a family your little one can be part of. We are Candace and Rob. As a couple, we’ve been together since our senior year in college and married for more than 19 years. After college, we moved to New York City and lived there more than 25 years. We adopted our daughter Violet five years ago and later moved from NYC to San Francisco for better quality of life and a great place to raise our child. We live in the heart of beautiful San Francisco on one of its soaring, scenic hillsides. Candace works in public service for City and County of San Francisco and Rob works from home for a major university. Our jobs are flexible, allowing us to live a comfortable life in the laid back, diverse and urban environment of San Francisco.
Candace is a loving, caring and hard working mother that would do anything for her family. Candace is Violet’s go to for hugs, loving, hair styling and all things mommy. Aside from having the best smile in the house, Candace is the primary earner in the household and yet she makes it home for dinner and bedtime stories. Candace loves to dream bigwith far reaching ideas that make our lives better. Candace has the largest personality of our house (maybe second to our daughter) and keeps our lives growing and expanding to new experiences.
Works at: SF Municipal Transportation Agency
Favorite Sport: Swim Running
Height: 5’4”
Favorite Vacation: New York
Worst Habit: Online shopping
Rob is kind, thoughtful and responsible. He is gentle with Violet and really good with kids. He is the person everyone trusts to entertain and look after their children. In our home, he is the primary caregiver in our household making meals and picking up our daughter after school. Rob is multi-talented in his ability to get things done. Recently, he led our family through the process of buying a new home and renovating its kitchen and bathroom. When people meet Rob in person, they always ask if he plays basketball because at 6’5” he’s taller than average.
Works at: Columbia University
Favorite Sport: Basketball
Height: 6’5”
Favorite Vacation: Martha’s Vineyard
Worst Habit: Falling asleep on the sofa
We met in college our senior year. Our relationship started out as friends and grew as we worked on school projects together. Our first official date was on March 18, 1991. We took a two-hour drive to Plymouth Rock because neither of us had been there. Upon arrival we discovered the famed Pilgram’s landing was just as it sounds, a plain rock at the water’s edge with a plaque announcing its significance. We took some pictures and found a nearby fried clam shack to have dinner. I fell asleep on the long ride back, but somehow our relationship flourished.
We were married six years later on May 17, 2007 in Larkspur, California. We’ve been together through good times and challenging times, including infertility. Through it all, our relationship has stood the test of time and we remain best friends.
After many years as a couple, one of the most precious gifts has been the opportunity to parent our daughter Violet. The joyful experience of parenthood is why we want to expand our family by welcoming a second child.
Six years ago, our daughter Violet came to us through the miracle of adoption. Violet’s birth mom wanted something more for her baby daughter.. She made the incredibly courageous decision to place her baby daughter into our care at birth. Today, Violet is a wonderful vibrant girl who loves music, dancing, playing with friends and, of course, eating ice cream. She attends and all-girls school in San Francisco and just finished Kindergarten. She is hoping for a little sister or brother to look out for.
Our family is the picture of diversity. Candace is biracial with an African American mother and a Chinese American father. She has a biological half-sister who is African American and an adopted sister from Thailand, who is Thai and African American. Rob is Caucasian and from a family with two deaf grandparents. He has a biological sister, an adopted sister who is deaf and an adopted sister who is Dominican and Caucasian. Our daughter Violet has African American birth parents. Adoption is a big part of our extended family. No matter what your child’s racial heritage, he orshe will feel at home in our multicultural family.
Because Candace hails from the San Francisco Bay Area, we made the decision to move closer to family so that Violet could get to know her maternal grandmother, who she calls ‘Nana Banana’ and Candace’s sister, who we call ‘Auntie KK’. Rob also has an older sister who lives in San Francisco. Rob’s mother flies from her home in Boston regularly to see her only granddaughter. We also make our way east to Massachusetts for the Christmas holidays and family summer visits to Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. Across two coasts and three thousand miles our extended family stays in close touch. Our clan is excited to welcome a second child into our family.
We are within walking distances of neighborhood parks, one of the city’s best schools, a weekly farmer’s market for fresh produce and one of the top public libraries in the city. We wanted to make sure our children could have lots of space to be themselves surrounded by fresh air, good climate and limitless opportunity. Now that we have settled into our new home, we hope to create a family of four.
We live in spacious apartment in a safe neighborhood within view of the Golden Gate Bridge, fog permitting. Our favorite room of the house is the kitchen which has lots of space for cooking, entertaining and even dancing with our daughter. We both enjoy cooking and Rob prepares most weekday meals so that we can sit down together for dinner each night, then Violet hops in the bath and we read bedtime stories as an end cap to the day.
Weekends are filled with activities. After Rob’s Saturday morning basketball game, our family gets out to San Francisco’s historic Fillmore district for Violet’s gymnastics classes and a visit to the farmer’s market. On Sundays, Violet takes ballet and tap close to our home. Afterwards we attend our neighborhood church or go to the YMCA, where we are members. Often when the weather is nice we take our pop-up tent to the Presidio for an outdoor picnic brunch with friends, or we go to the beach. For most of outings, our Wheaton Terrier dog, Zoe, comes along for the ride.
During the holidays, we travel every other year to Boston and New York to visit family and friends to celebrate the holidays. On the years we don’t travel, we spend Thanksgiving at my sister’s house across the Golden Gate Bridge in the home I grew up in, and we host Christmas at our home. We spend Easter with our dear friends who have two young boys, and enjoy an Easter egg hunt in their backyard.
If you choose us to parent your child, we will provide them with a loving, happy home, a great education and lots of enriching opportunities to help them grow into a healthy, well-rounded person. Your child will thrive in a stable environment with two parents who prioritize communication, learning and problem-solving as tools for a successful life. They will grow up in a wonderful city, supported by a diverse group of family and friends who will love them for who they are.
We know that this is one of the most important decisions you will ever make for yourself and your child. Thank you for taking the time to consider us as a family that could love and cherish your baby.