Ryan and Sandra

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From Us to You

Dear Expectant Mother,

It takes a strong, selfless, and loving woman to make the decision to choose adoption and we want to thank you for considering us. We will love, cherish, and welcome your baby into our family with open arms and mounds of respect for you in making this difficult decision.

We are Ryan and Sandra. We have actually known each other since elementary school. Ryan’s sister (Margo) was in Sandra’s class. We used to go on family vacations together. As life happens, we went our separate ways, only to reconnect in 2008, and have been inseparable since. We were married in 2010 and have 2 beautiful girls. They are 8 and 6 and they are so excited to have a baby sibling to read stories to and love. During our struggles to have another child we discussed adoption and how beautiful it would be to have a baby join our family in a unique way. After our 3rd miscarriage, we took that as a sign that we were meant to adopt and started this journey. We have so much love to give and are very humbled that you would consider us.

We have a very big and loving family who are so excited to welcome a new addition to our family. We are together often to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or just because! Family is very important to us. Sandra works for her family business, which operates an ambulance company, and sees how precious the gift of life is on a daily basis. Ryan’s parents live on a farm, have animals, and grow organic vegetables. You can find the kids feeding goats or the miniature horse, gathering eggs from the hen house, or picking whatever vegetable is ripe for the picking. We are so fortunate that we have our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins that live so close to us and at any given time will be there for us and vice versa. We have gone on family vacations to different places like Disney, Japan, Italy, Hawaii, and learned so much on each trip. Sandra has family in Italy, and we were so blessed to visit them. Our youngest daughter was even blessed by Pope Frances on one of our trips to Rome.

Our children will learn to speak Italian so they can communicate with our Italian relatives. We also encourage them to learn about different cultures, to respect traditions, and learn any other language they want. The most important things we will teach our children is to love and be kind. Should you select us, your child will know the selfless act of love and bravery you showed in choosing life for them and hopefully us as their parents.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Sandra

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Why We Are Choosing to Adopt

We have so much love to give and would be honored to be able to share that love with your child. Adopting to us means completing our family and filling another life with love and laughs.

We always wanted three kids, it’s what we dreamed about when we first started talking about having a family. Sandy is one of three siblings and so is Ryan.  We had our two girls and couldn’t wait for a third.  After our youngest was born, Sandy got pregnant again, but we lost the pregnancy to miscarriage. After a year and a half of trying, Sandy got pregnant again, but that pregnancy also ended in a miscarriage.  After 2 more years of trying with no luck, we decided to try other fertility treatments, but that led to another miscarriage. Realizing that having another baby naturally wasn’t in the cards, we talked and decided we still wanted a family of 5, like we had always dreamed of. We decided adoption would be our best way forward, so here we are, hopeful for our family of 5.

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How We Met

We have actually known each other since elementary school. Sandy was in the same class as Ryan’s younger sister since 1st grade, and we even went on a family trip together to Santa Cruz in the 5th grade! Sandy and Ryan’s sister lost touch after elementary school, but became close again in college when they attended the same university.  When Ryan’s sister got married in 2009, Sandy was a bridesmaid and that is when we reconnected. From that point on, we have been inseparable. We are best friends and have such a deep love and faith in one another. We work so well together and are truly a team! We are so excited to bring another member into our family and add to our team.

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About Sandy, by Ryan

Sandy is an amazing woman, loving, kind, dedicated and so much fun.  Sandy works hard as one of the owners of her family business. She has long hours, but as soon as she is home, it’s all family, all the time.  She loves to play games, read or just hang out with our girls.  She loves to knit and is teaching our oldest how to do it.  Sandy and I are both big sports fans and love to go to games and bring the girls for family fun trips.  Sandy is smart, funny and the most loving person I know.  We love to travel. On one of our trips to visit Sandy’s family in Italy, our youngest was blessed by the pope during our stop at the Vatican. Sandy loves family most of all, she enjoys nothing more than being around family.

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About Ryan, by Sandy

Ryan is the most caring, gentle, and loving person I know. He will do anything for his family, especially his kids. He always makes sure his family has everything they need. He loves deeply and unconditionally. As a stay-at-home parent, Ryan spends a lot of time with our girls playing dolls, board games, and when school is in helping with homework. Ryan is very close with his family as well. He will often go out to his parents’ farm to help them do any work they need and spend as much time with them as we can. He loves the outdoors, he loves to cook, and he loves his sports!

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Our Lifestyle is...

Fun! We work and study hard when home, so we like to really relax and get out of the house when we can.  We love to travel and have been fortunate enough to visit Japan, Italy, the Caribbean, and Hawaii. We plan to continue our travels as our children grow up. When we aren’t going on big trips, we like to go on quick trips to the mountains or the coast. Our girls love Disneyland and Disney World, so we like to go there as well.  We also have a fifth wheel and like to go camping. We travel with Sandy’s family a lot and most of our big trips are done in family groups with cousins all around.

At home, we love being social. Our street has multiple families with kids around the same age as ours. The neighbors all meet at the end of the street and the kids play while the adults all hang out.  We love family movie night and cuddling on the couch while eating popcorn.  Ryan and the girls love taking our dog on walks or riding bikes to the park close to us and just playing for hours.  We love to get out and do things, but also enjoy time together just relaxing as a family.

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Home & Neighborhood

We love our neighborhood; it is a wonderful, kid friendly place. We are within walking distance to cousins and a wonderful park that we ride our bikes over to. There is a group of neighborhood kids that go back and forth between houses playing dolls, tag, jumping on a trampoline, riding scooters and bikes, or running through sprinklers. The streets are wide so there is enough room for them all to play. Our neighborhood is very safe, quiet, and welcoming to children. We are close to family fun centers and activities!

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Racial & Cultural Diversity

We value other cultures and think that diversity makes life enriched, meaningful, and interesting. Living in California, surrounded by so many cultures, we have an amazing opportunity to learn about and embrace other cultures. One of our favorite things to do is learn about other customs and cuisines.  When traveling to other countries, we like to get out and go to local spots to see what it’s really like in that country.  When we went to Japan, we were with someone who lived there, and they took us to see a lot of local cultures. We experienced so much more than if we had just stayed in the touristy areas.  If your child has a different heritage from ours, we all will look forward to learning about their culture. We would also incorporate your customs and cuisines into our day to day lives, as well as starting some new family traditions.

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Our Families

We both grew up in California. Sandy grew up with lots of cousins around all the time. Her father comes from a big Irish Catholic family (he was 1 of 8 boys!). Every year, that side of the family travels from Oklahoma and Kansas to Lake Tahoe for a family reunion. Her mother’s side is Italian, so there is never any shortage of food or love! Ryan has two sisters who both live in California. His younger sister has 3 girls about the age of ours and we love to get together for cousin time. His parents have an organic farm and host family get togethers often. We have a close network of friends as well who are so excited for us and this new adventure.

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Our Relationship with You

We would love to build a strong relationship with you. One in which we trust and know each other. We realize this is a massive life choice. We want you to be comfortable with your choice, we want to know what you want, and we will respect your feelings. Family is the most important thing to us, and you will be part of our family if you choose. We want to make sure you are comfortable with your choice in us.

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Family Traditions

Most of our family traditions are connected with holidays. Our Easter tradition takes place over several days and is spent with Sandy’s family at her parents’ (Nonno and Nonna) beach house.  All the cousins arrive on Thursday or Friday before Easter and play together all weekend. On Easter morning, there is an egg hunt for the kids in the backyard. While they are hunting outside, Sandy’s mom (Nonna) hides eggs in the house for the adults to find. The kids delight in watching the adults find the eggs. Mother’s Day morning is spent at the same park where Ryan’s family has had Mother’s Day picnic for over thirty years.  This family reunion morning is an opportunity to catch up with extended family.  Mother’s Day afternoon finds us at Nonna and Nonno’s house for a big BBQ with Sandy’s family. Father’s Day is another day that starts with a BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa’s organic farm (Ryan’s parents) and then finishes with swimming at Nonno and Nonna’s. Halloween is another several days event that starts with “Boo at the Zoo” with the cousins. On Halloween day, Sandy takes the girls trick or treating with her brother and his kids, who live a couple of blocks from us, while Ryan stays back and hands out candy to the kids in the neighborhood. Because of COVID, Halloween 2020, found us camping with Sandy’s family. It was so much fun that it may become a new tradition. For Thanksgiving, we wake up early and walk/run a charity 5k, then go to a midafternoon dinner at the farm with Ryan’s family. After that, we head to Nonno and Nonna’s beach house. The weekend is filled with the family cooking a big Thanksgiving meal together. Christmas Eve is spent with Sandy’s family. We go to Mass, have dinner, and open presents. On Christmas Day, we open presents at home as a family before heading out to the farm to spend the evening with Ryan’s family, singing carols and laughing all night long. We also have a tradition of a Cousins’ Christmas, with Sandy’s cousins and their families.

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Our Careers and Passions

Sandy has a career in the medical field. She is part owner of her family’s ambulance company. She has been involved in the company since she was 15 and started working in the billing department. She later moved to the dispatch center and is also an Emergency Medical Dispatcher. Sandy now runs the dispatch center and still helps with the billing department.  Sandy loves being part of a company that saves lives and gives back to the community. She also loves working with her family. Sandy’s other passion, besides her family, is giving back to the community. This is why she became a member of the Lion’s Club (she served one year as President of her chapter), which works with several local charities in the community and serves dinner to the elderly once a month.

Ryan’s passion is working with kids. Earlier in his life, he spent years working in group homes with kids who had experienced life trauma. He found it very rewarding – building bonds and helping kids overcome the obstacles they endured.  Today, Ryan is a stay-at-home dad and pours himself into giving our children a full life, he loves cooking with them and loves to help them with their studies.

Together, our main passion is definitely family. We do all we can to be around family, our kids are close with their cousins and we are around them as much as possible. We have an Italian family on Sandy’s side and an Irish and German family on Ryan’s side, so needless to say we have a lot of family to love and support us.

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Our Promise to You

Our promise to you is that we will love and cherish your child every day for the rest of our lives. We will do everything we can to make sure that they know every day that they are loved by you and us. They will know the selfless decision you made in choosing to make our dreams come true. Your child will have loving parents and sisters who will spoil them, and a support system second to none. As they grow up, we will continue to be open and loving and supportive through any obstacles they may encounter. We will love your child with every ounce of our beings and cherish them like the miracle they are.