Hi! We are Lauren and Jason from Martinez, CA. We are so excited to become first time parents and expand our family through open adoption. We are honored to be considered as an adoptive family for your child and we hope that this letter will give you a small glimpse into our life and the chance to get to know us a little bit.

We have been together since 2011 and married since 2013. We met on an online dating site and from the start we knew that we had met the perfect match because we had so many similar interests.  To this day, we both love any activity that involves exercise. We like hiking best and feel fortunate that where we live has many beautiful hiking trails to explore on the weekend and that the United States is filled with National Parks to hike through on vacation.  There is nothing more satisfying to us than talking a long hike that ends with the reward of a sandwich or a giant burrito. We can’t wait until we have a child and get to share these experiences with him or her.

Our Home

Four years ago, we purchased a house located on a small court in a quiet residential neighborhood.  Less than a mile away, there is an elementary school along with a large park that has a huge grassy area and play structures.

Over the years, we have made this house our home.  Our kitchen gets a lot of use!  Lauren has mastered her Dad’s pasta sauce recipe and on the weekends she will make a giant batch of pasta sauce with enough left over to fill up the freezer.  Jason is the baker and is usually in charge of making a dessert for family gatherings. In the evenings, we can be found relaxing on the couch watching a TV show or a basketball game – go Warriors!  Because we enjoy hiking and going on outdoors adventures, our house is decorated with scenic photos that remind of us of our favorite trips. We can’t wait to fill up the rest of our walls with more pictures of trips and adventures we take with our child.

We aim to make our home comfortable and welcoming to friends/family.  We have very close friends (cousins to Lauren) that have two young children, and we often hang out with them – in our home, on a hike, at our nearby park picnicking.  A couple times we have hosted a ‘Friend Thanksgiving’, where friends (and their kids and their dogs) from all over spend the weekend in our home and we have a giant slumber party and an early Thanksgiving feast.  We can’t wait for our child to experience this tradition in our home.

About Lauren, In Lauren's Words

I work for a software company in San Ramon, CA as a Clinical Data Manager. I am involved in working with Clinical Research Trials (creating databases to collect data, programming reports, reviewing data). I have always been interested in science and one of the things I like about my job is that I am always working with different kinds of medical research and learning new things. I have been at my current job for the past 5 years and feel very lucky to have a job that I enjoy going to every day.

I have always had a love of sports and I enjoy watching basketball, specifically the Warriors. We try to go to 1 or 2 games per year if we can. I grew up very athletic and sports were always a big part of my life, especially soccer. Although I can no longer play soccer because of soccer related injuries, I hope to pass down my love of sports and physical activity to our child. I can’t wait to watch them participate in whichever activities they show an interest in and are passionate about.

Quote From Jason About Lauren

Lauren has many great attributes, but the one that stands out is her loving and caring nature. My entire family and all my friends loved Lauren instantly upon meeting her. Children seem to be drawn to Lauren. One of my best friends has a little boy who called Lauren his girlfriend since the first time he met her and still adores her to this day. My two nieces love when we come visit so Auntie Lauren can play games and read books to them, or go swimming in my parent’s pool. I can’t wait until we have a child so Lauren can teach him or her how to kick a soccer ball, ride a bicycle, and read books to him or her. Lauren is going to be an amazing mother and I long for the day when she can share all of her amazing gifts with our child.

About Jason, In Jason's Words

For the past 11 years I have worked as a Cardiac Rehab Exercise Specialist for John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek and Brentwood. The job is very rewarding since I get to help patients with their exercise rehab programs after life changing heart events. I get to work with amazing coworkers and the patients we help all have great stories and life experiences to share.

As a child I always went on lots of camping vacations with my family in Yosemite and McCloud. The first trip that Lauren and I went on when we started dating was a camping trip in McCloud up near Shasta. I was so excited to share this with her since it was a place that brings me so many happy memories from my childhood. I can’t wait to take our child on camping trips and outdoor adventures like I went on with my parents when I was young.

Quote From Lauren About Jason

One of my favorite things about Jason is how great he is with children. He was born to be a dad, that’s for sure.  He loves spending time with his nieces and they all adore their Uncle Jason. Whenever we are hanging out with my cousin’s kids or our friends’ kids, the kids all glom onto Jason, especially at the park where he likes to play the role of ‘chaser’ in any game of tag. Seeing the kids giggle and try to outrun Jason makes me smile and is so fun to watch.  Jason loves to bake, and one of my fondest memories was watching him bake his famous Snickerdoodles with his nieces, them standing on little stools next to him and helping measure and pour ingredients.  He will be such a great dad and will be so active with our child. I know he can’t wait to teach him or her to ride a bike, shoot a basketball and teach them to swim in grandma’s and grandpa’s pool.

Our Extended Family/Holiday Traditions

We are so happy to live near both of our families. Jason’s family is all in Livermore, CA and Lauren’s family is in Novato, CA. Because of this, we are able to spend time with both families around the holidays.

Jason’s mom has a tradition at Christmas where Christmas dinner has a different theme each year. She will pick a theme and research the foods of that area and the meal will include different dishes from that area. This tradition has been going on for over a decade and different themes have included French, Italian, German, Cuban, Greek, Swedish, Czech, and Cajun.

Every year regardless of the theme, his mom always makes tons of Christmas cookies. We have started making Jason’s family’s traditional cookies when we get together with Lauren’s family, and Lauren’s parents and relatives now request “Jason’s cookies” each year.

We so look forward to our child being able to play with their cousins and experience all of the holiday traditions with family!

Thank You

We imagine that this is likely a very difficult decision you are making, and we thank you for taking the time to read our letter. We are excited to become first time parents and start our family through open adoption. We are committed to open adoption and promise that your child will always know the story of where they came from and will always feel how many people love and care about them. If you would like to learn more about us, please contact our adoption agency Adoption Connection at [email protected] or text/phone 415-355-4636. 

Warmly,

Lauren and Jason