A little about us....

We are excited to introduce ourselves. We were approved for adoption through LDS Family Services in January 2008 and are now anxiously engaged in searching out and finding our little baby! We feel like the time has definitely come for us to add a new member to our family.

Let us tell you a little bit about ourselves.

Cindy was born and raised in southern California. She went to BYU for her Bachelor's Degree in English, but after graduation came back to California and hasn't left since. She later earned a Master's Degree in English from Chapman University and now teaches college English, the best job in the world! Cindy loves all things beautiful: waterfalls, mountains, blue skies, rain, oceans, classical architecture, classical music, and most of all, books. Cindy will mostly be maintaining this blog, so when you read the "I" voice, it will usually be hers.

Kevin was also born and raised in southern California, and also graduated from BYU -- with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. He served an LDS (Mormon) mission in Brazil and now speaks Portuguese and Spanish. Kevin loves to analyze things, has a great eye for detail, and can get totally caught up in a project, but he also knows how to relax and have fun. He also enjoys taking in the occasional ballgame -- particularly if it involves the Dodgers, Angels, or Lakers.

Pictures of the two of us...

A little more about us....

Kevin and I dated for almost two and a half years before we got married, so we were very good friends and knew each other pretty well by our wedding day. I was really excited to be getting married, because all I ever really wanted out of life was to have a family, to be a wife and mother, and to create a home. Our wedding day was the happiest day of my life. The picture above is the picture we used in our wedding invitations.




Here is a picture of Kevin from our first Christmas together. Don't you love the tiny tree?






The pictures in the slideshow above this post are mostly from vacations we have taken. I really love traveling and have had some unique opportunities to get out and see the world. I have an adventurous spirit and always feel like there is more out there that I need to discover and explore.

Kevin, however, has taught me that some vacations dedicated primarily to rest and relaxation can be just as enjoyable. Together, we like taking weekend trips to nearby getaways such as San Diego, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, etc. At local venues such as these, a typical day might consist of sleeping in (just a little), venturing out to some of the local shops and restaurants, and otherwise hanging out at the motel playing Scrabble, watching TV, dining in, or going to the pool.




This picture is from a Scrabble match when we were staying in Palm Springs.

Here is a picture of us "packing in" a night out on the town in Chicago, vacationing Cindy-style.

Kevin is self-employed as a real estate broker and spends part of his time working with clients in the traditional sense of helping people buy and sell homes. At Kevin's encouragement, I got my real estate license so I could periodically help him take clients around to go house-shopping -- something I frankly confess I enjoy doing. Kevin devotes the balance of his work time to developing relatively high-end, high-tech marketing systems for other real estate professionals who then become business partners or "clients" in a different, less traditional sense. While Kevin is good at both aspects of real estate, he probably enjoys the marketing side a little more. My "real" job is as an English teacher. When we have a baby, I plan on retiring from work and becoming a full-time mom and homemaker.





Here I am whipping up some dinner in our lovely teal kitchen.







Some of our favorite pastimes include playing with our cats; watching Survivor and those good ol' cable-TV classics Man Vs. Wild and Seconds from Disaster; getting together with friends for dinner and games; going to Angels baseball games with various groups of friends and family; getting together with Kevin's parents and grandpa for dinner and a Boggle match (nobody has ever beat Kevin); and getting together with my family at my mom's house to swim, eat, and play cards.


Here is a picture of Kevin blowing bubbles for my nieces and nephews at a party at my mom's house. The grandkids get lots of love and laughs at grandma's house!


Well, I think this should give you a good feel for our family. I think we live a fairly simple life, focusing on work, church, and home. While we like to travel and enjoy the world around us, we mostly enjoy spending time together and with our families. We have a good life and a good home, and we just want a baby to share it with.

Our brief foray into parenthood...

We thought it was time to update our blog to reflect an experience we had in September. On September 25, 2008, we received a phone call from a doctor who had delivered a baby that morning. She told us his parents had made the decision to place him for adoption. We went to the hospital that day, met the birthparents, and were able to hold the baby -- such a beautiful little boy. After meeting with them, his parents decided they would place him in our home for which we were so very grateful. The next day, when he and his birthmother were released from the hospital, we went and picked up our first son.

We named him Blake Charles. Blake was the name his birthparents had been calling him, and we felt it suited him nicely. Charles was Cindy's late father's name. On the night he was born, we went on a wild shopping spree, buying a carseat, stroller, crib, changing table, clothes, diapers, bottles, bathing supplies, and everything else a baby might need in his first week or so of life. On the first day Blake was at home with us, we put together his furniture and stroller, and took turns holding him with all our family members who came over to welcome him into our family.

Blake was an absolute doll. Not only was he beautiful to look at (as you can see in the pictures below), but he had the sweetest temperament. As long as he was being held, he was content. He didn't particularly like being put in bed, but he would sleep for hours as long as we were holding him. We, of course, didn't mind at all -- as proud new parents who had waited so long for a child, we were only too happy to oblige his every wish. He also seemed very alert and intelligent when he was awake. I could make eye contact with him from the very first day, and he also smiled from the very beginning. Mostly he would just look around with his big brown eyes, looking like a little scientist investigating a new world. The "Beautiful Baby Blake" picture in the slideshow below captures his little scientist look.

My favorite time with Blake was in the middle of the night. Although I was tired, that was the time when I really bonded with him. It was like Blake and I were the only two people in the world. His smell, his sweet baby breath, his soft skin. It was an enchanting time for me. After he ate, I would sing to him and he would smile at me -- such a sweet angel baby.

Unfortunately for us, Blake's birthparents missed him too much. After a few days of heaven with Blake, we received a call from his birthfather telling us that they wanted to raise Blake themselves. You can imagine how heartbroken we were to have to give our little miracle baby away. The only consolation is knowing that he is with people who love him as much as we do. Blake will always be, in our hearts, our first baby.

Baby Blake

Catching up on 2008...

It's been a while since we updated our blog, so here's some recapping for 2008...

Kevin's two nieces both got married in Utah this summer -- Melynda in June and Lara in August. We decided to turn each trip to Utah into a different vacation.

At the beginning of the first trip, we spent three days at Bryce Canyon (see picture above). During the days at Bryce, we went on different hikes along the canyon rim and down into the canyon. One day we got up early to see the sunrise over the canyon; it was cloudy so the sunrise was a bit disappointing, but we ended up hiking all day down in the canyon, and it probably became my most memorable hiking experience. Kevin reserved our second night at Bryce for NBA Finals Game 3 between the Lakers and Celtics on the tele, and on our last night we went to a stargazing party -- hosted by a special breed of park rangers dubbed "dark rangers" -- and saw some pretty cool things on some powerful telescopes (like Saturn and all its rings).

Up in northern Utah for the wedding, we stayed with some of our good friends from our singles days, Mike and Shelby, and their two kids, pictured with us here. We miss those guys!

Here is Melynda, the beautiful June bride, with her new husband, Mike.

In August we headed back to Utah for Lara's wedding. Here is a picture of Lara and her new husband, Lyon. Pretty picture, isn't it? Uncle Kevin caught this nice shot.

On the way home from Utah we spent a few days at Zion National Park. Here is a picture of us on the Emerald Pools Trail in Zion. This was a nice hike, but the real highlight of the trip to Zion was when we "hiked the Narrows," or hiked up the Virgin River as it carves through Zion Canyon (pictured below). This was a spectacular hike with absolutely breathtaking vistas around every bend, and the accompanying picture doesn't really even do it justice. Kevin says we should do this hike again in the near future -- only this time the entire 16 miles from top to bottom -- and risk taking a digital camera rather than a disposable to capture better pictures. (I say risk because if you trip and fall down in the river -- which sometimes gets 4 feet deep or more in places -- your camera is obviously going to take a bath!) I'm not sure if I'm up for the marathon trek, but we'll see! Did I mention the flash flood warnings!

2008 was also the year of Blake, to which I already dedicated a post. We miss you, Blake.

At the end of 2008 we were both in our church's production of "Savior of the World," a musical about the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the eternal significance that has for each one of us. This was a huge part of our year and will be an experience we will cherish for the rest of our lives. These pictures capture both of us in our costumes -- Kevin arrayed in robes and yarmulke (you can sort of see it on the back of his head) and Cindy in the garb of a townsperson.

All in all, we'd have to say 2008 was a pretty good year.