Lewis and Lisa

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From Us to You

Thank you for choosing life and for considering making an adoption plan for your precious baby. Thank you also for taking the time to get to know a little about us and what we can offer you both. Please know that we think you are a very brave woman to be considering the best options for yourself and your baby. We hope that you feel supported and loved no matter where you are in your journey. The courage, thought, research, and energy that you are putting into this decision already makes you a good mother. We are grateful that you love your child so much that you are willing to consider an adoption plan for him or her. If you decide to make an adoption plan, we promise you the utmost respect and regard as you navigate your journey. Please know that we will cherish and love your child with all of our hearts and souls, while providing a safe, happy, and experience-filled life for that sweet child.

We are Lewis and Lisa, a hopeful adoptive couple who is very excited to meet you. We met each other about ten years ago as colleagues at work, where our acquaintance grew into friendship, and our friendship eventually grew into love and marriage. We have been married for six years, we are fairly active and we love making memories. On the weekends, we love to spend time in our yard and garden, grill and smoke meats, work on small projects around the house, and spend time with our three dogs. On the less busy days, we both love to snuggle in at home with a good book, board game, or a TV binge session together. We cook almost all our meals at home, sometimes together, and this includes cooking for our dogs. For our time off and vacations, we love antiquing, seeing shows and operas, camping (we especially love camping in the mountains and desert areas), road trips, hiking, and we almost always take our three dogs (Elvis, Ginger, and Bonnie). We hope that soon we will include your child in our adventures.

Thank you for considering us to raise your baby. If you choose us as part of your adoption plan, please rest assured that your sweet baby will be well taken care of. We have a strong network of family and friends who are eager to support us as parents as well as your sweet baby. We will also speak with your child about you and the love you have for them as we share this process with them. We will tell them as little or as much as you would like for them to know about you. They will know about their adoption, and while theirs is a different story than those of most children, it is also most certainly normal and surrounded with love. We strive to provide everything in the best interests of your child.

At the end of the day, becoming a family is the dream that makes everything worthwhile. Thank you for reading our letter and considering our family for your baby!

With Much Love and Respect,
Lewis and Lisa

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Why We're Choosing to Adopt

We created a family the day we got married, and ever since, we have been eager to expand it further with children. There is so much love in our home, and we are patiently awaiting a child to give it to. There is a medical condition in our family line, so we made the decision to not have biological children, thus preventing the risk of our child inheriting it. So, we made the decision to adopt. At the end of the day, becoming a family is really the dream that makes everything worthwhile, and a bloodline is not the only way to create a family. With us, your sweet child will have a bright future filled with love and happiness.

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About Lewis, by Lisa

Lewis is certainly my best friend, and his most endearing quality is his generosity: one of the many things that I love about him. He is very generous with his loved ones, and this makes him a good son, brother, uncle, friend, and, of course, husband. His generosity is evidenced in many ways; he takes his father to his doctor’s appointments and shops for his necessities. He also a very hard worker both at work and at home; he consistently and constantly strives to support his family not only financially, but also emotionally. He loves to show me his love, always finding time to tell me he loves me, serenading me with the guitar while I cook dinner, and he even steals a dance in the kitchen every once in a while. I can easily see him doing the same with our son or daughter. He is a beautiful man with a big heart, and together, with open arms, we can’t wait to welcome your baby into our family.

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About Lisa, by Lewis

Lisa is one of the kindest and most caring people I have ever met. She is charitable and always on the lookout for an opportunity to help others in need. She is always ready to support organizations that care for the less fortunate with her time and money. She is also kind and caring with our families, friends, and neighbors. She is always ready to help with a kind word, a helping hand or just listening to the cares and concerns of the people we love and care for. She is also considerate and compassionate. As an example, many times I have seen her go above and beyond what is expected to help her students in the classes she teaches. She will spend extra time with the students and devise multiple ways to approach a difficult subject. She doesn’t give up on her students, ever.

Another aspect of Lisa is her intelligence, inquisitiveness and drive. She has a determination to achieve academically that is intense to behold. She graduated at the top of her class to get her B.S in microbiology and then went on to get a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology. She deeply appreciates education and would pass that respect and passion to a child if we are fortunate enough to adopt.

Lisa is all this and more. I have only touched the surface of what a wonderful person she is. She will make a great mother. That she would marry and share a life together with me makes me one of the luckiest men in the world.

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Our Home

We are blessed to have a home filled with love. We bought a cute little vintage, ranch-style home about five years ago. We just love all of its ‘50s charm. It also comes with spacious front and back yards ready for children to run and play with our three dogs in the grass, amongst nine mature and producing fruit trees (several citrus trees as well as a peach, fig, apple, and two avocadoes).

We (Lewis) built three above ground planters a few years ago where we grow various food-producing plants throughout the year. We have been successful with tomatoes, jalapeños, dragon fruit, sweet potatoes, kale, Swiss chard, and basil. Grilling and smoking have recently become important interests of ours. Lewis smokes amazing chicken wings and beef ribs! After a busy day of activities outside, we have an open floor plan in our home that allows the family to stay together while one of us cooks in the kitchen. While our home is not huge, your child will have their own private bedroom with plenty of space for play, study, and rest.

We live in a quiet neighborhood with very kind neighbors. Our next-door neighbors are our good friends, as we have doggy play dates and group walks often (we have three dogs and they have four!). We are within walking distance of just about everything we need: schools, a strip mall with shops including a grocery store and restaurants, schools, and even Disneyland! Yes, we have passes. Down the street is our local library and a big park with a playground with sports courts and a dog park. Around the holidays, we love decorating our house and yard for Halloween and passing out candy to the many neighborhood kids, as well as keeping up with the neighborhood with Christmas lights and other decorations. Independence Day is an especially fun time to celebrate our country with a neighborhood full of fireworks.

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Our Sweet Pets

We have three very loving dogs: Elvis (a blond, long-haired, dachshund mama’s boy), Ginger (a very energetic brown Chihuahua who loves to run and play), and Bonnie (a very sweet, one-eyed, white and grey-spotted Cairn terrier who just loves her belly rubs). All three were rescue pups, and throughout the pandemic, they were all excellent coworkers!

Elvis originally came from a home with too many dogs per local laws, and they were no longer allowed to keep him. We met him through a dachshund rescue website. Long story short, his story is very endearing- Lisa always wanted a dog named Elvis, and wouldn’t you know it, he was already named Elvis by his previous family! We think it was because his upper lip easily gets caught in his teeth, which gives him a snarl similar to that of the rock & roll legend. It was totally meant to be that Lisa Marie had her Elvis.

Ginger is, simply put, a ball of energy. As soon as the closet door opens (that is where we keep the leashes), Ginger starts hopping on her hind legs and twirling in a sort of “dance.” She absolutely loves people. Additionally, there has never been an empty lap in our home that she has not occupied. Child or adult, she is an equal opportunity lover.

Last but not least, we have Bonnie. We rescued Bonnie when she was about eight years old. She was in pretty poor health when we rescued her, even though we were told that her health was a lot worse before we met her. With a lot of love, and Lisa’s homemade doggie meals, Bonnie has become the apple of our eye. We say ‘eye’- singular, because the poor girl only has one. She is simply a sweetheart. We have also had several cats over the course of our marriage. Sadly, our last cats, Lucy and Boy, both passed of natural causes. We bring them up only to point out how we are such big animal lovers. As a matter of fact, Lisa would have chickens if our city allowed it!

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Our Families

If you choose us for your sweet baby, they will be part of a small, but tightly knit family who can’t wait to welcome them. Almost all of our family members live within 15 miles of our home, and we see each other often. Our families are very supportive of our adoption journey and are also ready to be involved. Our niece is especially excited, as a matter of fact!

Lewis’ side of the family consists of his father, brother, uncle, uncle’s family, and several close friends. Lewis’ dad is another hopeful grandparent, as he is patiently awaiting the arrival his first grandchild. Lewis is part of a garage band (Lisa thinks they are quite good!), and they often jam in our garage. We host the band about once per month, which includes a guitarist, drummer, and lead singer, with Lewis playing bass. We vacation from time to time with a couple of couples in our life. One couple has been friends with our family for over twenty years.

We spend a lot of time with Lisa’s side of the family, which almost always includes her mother. This grandmother (the kids call her “Wawee,” which has evolved over several years from “Lala”) is very excited to become a grandmother again. She already has two grandchildren: our niece and nephew. Family dinners happen often, and holidays are always spent over dinner at a family member’s house.

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Our Family Traditions

Our family loves games almost as much as we love getting together. Since her childhood, Lisa’s family has played card games (crazy eights, Uno, rummy, and even poker!) anywhere that waiting was necessary: for food at restaurants, or anywhere her parents needed her and her sister to mind their behavior. Even today, once a week is spent with Lisa’s mom playing scrabble or crazy eights with a little friendly competition. Lisa’s mom’s Scrabble skill often dominates the evening, but it is all in good fun. Family dinners also happen often, and in the warmer months we spend some time in her sister’s pool (and the pool is ready and waiting for a little cousin to join in the water fun!).

Every summer since our niece and nephew were old enough to do so, we have taken an annual family vacation. These have included the grandparents, Lisa’s sister’s family, and of course us. We have been to the Colorado river many times (Lisa’s uncle has a vacation house out there), Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, the Black Hills, and we even saw the total eclipse of the sun together in Idaho in 2017 (that was quite a memorable sight!). We always go out to a special dinner for birthdays to the birthday person’s choice of restaurant. For the last twelve years, Lisa and her mother have enjoyed quilting together. They also attend quilting classes, and participate in a quilters’ retreat every summer. We often visit Lewis’ dad for a meal or an afternoon shopping at Sam’s Club (his favorite store). He also lives very close to us, and we often bring one of our dogs to warm his lap. Holidays are always spent over dinner at a family member’s house. The experiences of spooky parties at Halloween, passing the turkey at Thanksgiving, opening presents at Christmas, and walking in an Independence Day parade are always spent with family.

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How We Met

They say that most people meet their significant other at school or work, and in a way, we met in both places in our roles at a local community college! It all started as a working relationship. Lewis’ role at work was to support Lisa in her role at work, and while doing so, we began small talk. We gradually became friends, and then started dating. Lisa asked Lewis out for the first time, which was planned as a cup of coffee which but transitioned into a walk around a local mall. Plans were made for dinner the following week, which was a great time. At the end of that date, a kiss was stolen, and we both think we were the one to steal it. God only knows what really happened!

We kept our dating a secret at work (not wanting colleagues to know) and took it slowly. The only reason our colleagues found out we had eloped over Christmas break was because Lisa accidentally let the news slip when asked if she had fun over the break. About six months later, everyone found out at the reception party we threw with all of our friends and family. One of our colleagues got up to make an impromptu toast to us at the reception. She told everyone that our association was in fact NOT a secret! To this day, we do not know how everyone found out! Everything is great at work these days; our little secret is no longer a secret, and our colleagues are so happy for us.

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Our Lifestyle

We make a point to have fun in our lives. Together, we love to spend time with our dogs by taking them for walks, or having a picnic at the dog park. We also love to work on updates around our home. We have both been working on painting our house, both inside and out, and also refinishing the original hardwood floors. Our yards are also a major focus: Lewis takes care of the big-ticket items like lawn mowing and tree trimming, while Lisa tends to the fruits, vegetables, and flowers. When we have long weekends, we have been known to attend concerts and shows, dine at local “mom and pop” restaurants, explore Disneyland, and sun ourselves at the river. We love live entertainment, from symphonies and operas to rock concerts and musicals. And we love getting away through camping and road trips. Our three dogs often participate in our activities. And when life simply gets busy, we appreciate resting on the couch with a fire in the fireplace in the cool months. There is sometimes nothing better than an evening at home binge watching our current favorite TV show (right now, it is The X Files and the beloved Golden Girls).

Even if he only has a few free minutes, Lewis loves to strum his guitar. He likes to play riffs for Lisa to guess, and she is almost always correct! He is quite good. If a guitar is not available, you can often find Lewis with his nose in a book; he loves to read. He is an equal opportunity reader, enjoying both fiction and non-fiction, comedy and horror. He is a good cook too, although Lisa usually wins time in the kitchen. Lewis can’t wait to one day soon take Lisa snow skiing, a hobby he used to pursue in his youth.

When Lisa is not teaching or lesson-planning, you can probably find her being creative or crafty while listening to music or talk radio. Alexa is a good friend these days. Lisa absolutely loves to cook, and can’t wait for more mouths to feed and hands to teach about cooking! She has even been told that her Thanksgiving turkey is the best ever! Her favorite dishes to cook are tamales, sushi, pico de gallo, pad Thai, and enchiladas with homemade sauces. Lisa is currently learning fermentation and canning techniques, and she has been successful with making kombucha, pickled carrots and jalapeños, and ricotta cheese. She has yet to perfect the art of sauerkraut and kimchi. Evening hobbies include quilting, sewing, crocheting blankets, and creating Amish knot rugs. She has several of her quilts hanging in the house, and has probably made over 200 for our home as well as those of friends and family over the years!

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What We will Teach Your Child

We will teach your child about love, learning, kindness, respect, and responsibility. Our children will know they are loved. They will learn that they deserve to be loved. Also, they will learn how to love and be grateful to others. Lisa’s work provides the flexibility to potentially home-school our children and use minimal day care services, if any at all. In addition, she will demonstrate her love of science, art, and cooking that will hopefully instill a love for those things, too. Together, we will teach and demonstrate high educational expectations. Challenges make us stronger, hard work pays, never stop learning, and learning is fun! We will teach them how to be kind, put others first, and how to be compassionate and forgiving. Do not worry too much about failing: it is normal to make mistakes, and what matters is how and what we learn from them. Since respect is the root of all good things, we will teach them to respect themselves, others, and their relationships. And we will teach them responsibility for their bodies as well as their things.

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Our Education and Career Choices

Education is very important to us. It is so important, in fact, that we have both even dedicated our careers to it! Before we discuss our careers, we want to discuss how we got there.

Lisa attended Catholic schools from kindergarten through high school. While in high school, she focused on both science and art: participated in science fairs, won art contests, and even toured Western Europe and performed at Carnegie Hall with her high school choir! While performing at the Vatican, Lisa was able to met Pope John Paul II. At university, Lisa earned her Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology with a minor in chemistry. At this time, she held three jobs while going to school full-time: Starbucks, tutoring at her college, and a paid internship at the local sanitation district. The internship taught Lisa that microbiology was the field she dreamed of pursuing. Working with cleaning up the environment with bacteria inspired her. After working the internship and on a Master of Science degree in Microbial Ecology, Lisa transitioned to graduate school to go on to earn her Doctor of Philosophy in the Biological Sciences. Her educational and professional background of education and teaching brings a plethora of skills that she will use to support learning and growth as your child grows into a healthy, well-rounded adult.

Lewis enjoyed almost all the subjects he took in high school, but especially liked biology. After high school, he attended community college for a few years. After transferring, he then put himself through university to complete his Bachelor of Science degree (BS) in Biological Sciences.

We both work at local community colleges, and met as colleagues at one of them. Lisa is an adjunct college professor at two colleges and works part-time at each school. She teaches both General Biology and Microbiology courses to freshman and sophomore-level undergraduates. Having two part-time jobs instead of one full-time job provides a great work-life balance: work hours are spread between nearly all times of the day, which offers incredible flexibility to essentially work when she wants. Lisa gets to teach students about the subject she loves, and it is also intellectually challenging work. She is constantly learning right alongside her students. Lisa truly loves her job as an educator.

Lewis started out his career as a quality assurance technician for a company that was working to patent medical devices and therapeutics. He later transitioned into a role as a research associate at a small start-up biotechnology company where he studied potential cures for eye injuries. He is now currently a senior laboratory technician in the natural sciences department at a local community college. His role at work is to manage the laboratory that supports several biology courses. He enjoys preparing many different lab class exercises for the various classes taught in the biology program. He especially enjoys the microbiology labs though, because bacteria are so fundamental to the living world and thus are important to study for the health sciences and basic research.

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Our Promise to You

If you choose us to adopt your sweet baby, we promise to provide him or her with all of the love that they deserve. We promise to guide and encourage them in their lifetime journey to become what they want to be. We will be their biggest cheerleaders, and also their most loyal confidants when they navigate the wonderful rollercoaster of life. We will encourage them to be kind, to strive for their dreams, to fulfill their potential in life, and to do what makes them happy. Education is very important to us, and it will be encouraged. We also promise to protect and care for your child. And last, but certainly not least, we promise to be as open and honest with your child as we can about their story. They have a right to know who they are and where they come from, and we are prepared to let them know as much as you want them to know about their brave mother who chose such a selfless act of love.