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Dear Expectant Parents:

As we sat down and outlined this letter to write to you, the first thoughts that occurred to us were about empathy and respect.  We have come to learn, understand, and developed deep empathy for the incredible decision you are making to consider us as adoptive parents. From the bottom of our hearts, we have a tremendous level of respect for the process you are going through as you search for an adoptive family.

Our Values: Our Journey as Individuals and Now as a Couple

Most of our friends and family considered us both as quite independent people, busy with education and our careers before we met. Little did many know, we both had a set of instilled values that we were carrying around, just waiting to share with “the one.”

Lisa was born in California and lived amongst her first, second, and third generation Italian family until age 4 and has vivid memories of these early childhood days.  She lived a few of her elementary school years in Wyoming when her stepfather moved the family after he bought a gas station business. She spent her remaining school years in Oregon. After graduation she worked one year as a nurse's aide and then moved to Alaska to spend a summer working with friends, eventually deciding to stay and pursue nursing school, leading to many Alaskan adventures along the way.  After 3 ½ years of Alaskan winters, Hawaii sounded like a great place to start her nursing career.  She's been here ever since and enjoyed challenging work in the emergency department and as a flight nurse. This allowed many opportunities to travel worldwide and certainly prepared her for nursing all the scraped knees and fevers that go hand-in-hand with raising children.

Being committed to lifelong learning as a core value, Lisa returned to school 10 years later and obtained her doctorate in clinical psychology.  She now enjoys working in private practice and at a family practice clinic. The main reason for pursuing her doctorate was to eventually get married, start a family, all to eventually be a Mom.  Along came Chuck a few years later and we married just over one year after meeting.  It was the best day ever!

It has been wonderful to strike a balance between home life and work.  We enjoy spending time together, restoring our historic home together, our “Friday night date night,” spending time with friends, taking our two furry kids for walks or to the beach, and shopping (imagine, a husband who loves to shop!).  Spirituality is an important part in Lisa's life and she believes it is most important for children and adults to learn what their spirituality means in the context of their world around them.  Many describe Lisa as a truly resilient, strong woman, who is also more than willing to lean on others in times of need.  She is the first to be grateful for blessings in her life as well as showing humility when things do not always go as planned, as has been with trying to have a child.

Chuck was born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and lived there until almost 1 years old, when his family moved back to Hawaii where his Portuguese mother's family is from.  He was raised in Hawaii along with his three older sisters (they taught him to enjoy shopping).  He grew up with a large, extended family in Hawaii, and as a matter of fact became an uncle at the age of 4 when his eldest sister had her first child.  He currently has 6 nieces and nephews, 8 grand nieces and nephews, and 2 great grand nieces.  When he was 18 years old, Chuck opened his own hobby shop, selling records, comics, and baseball cards. A couple years of years later while still running the hobby shop, he started a photography company, specializing in sports photography, taking photos of youth baseball, football, gymnastics, canoe clubs and many other activities.

Chuck is an excellent photographer and is looking forward to taking lots of pictures of a child of our own.  Chuck eventually returned to college and changed careers.  He currently works as a Circulation Director for nationally distributed magazines.  He still takes on a few photography jobs here and there.  Chuck waited a long time until he was ready to meet the woman he wanted to spend his life with and build a family.  He considers his relationship with Lisa as the best thing that has happened to him. He felt we always “clicked,” have the same goals, same energy, and we are deeply in love.

We feel our strengths are communication, compromise, and having fun together.  Chuck describes his lifestyle as causal and low key. He likes spending his free time with Lisa, our dogs, and dreaming of how our life together will be with a child.  He has been a collector of Beatles items for 30+ years, although he's not too active these days with different life goals.  He LOVES music, has an expansive music collection, and plays a pretty good guitar.  Everyone that meets Chuck loves his enthusiasm for life, friendliness, humor and intelligence. Chuck is one of those guys who knows A LOT about a lot of subjects.

Family Value and Adoption Journey

From the day we met, we knew family to us included children.  We both are known as “Aunty & Uncle” to many children in our lives.  We never anticipated our journey to having children of our own would be one of such struggles, mentally, physically, and spiritually.  But the great thing about life is it continues to give you choices. We feel becoming adoptive parents for your child would be a blessing for your child and us and bring you a sense of peace with your choice

A Day in the Life Of…

Your child raised in our home will experience individuality, stability, fun, relaxation yet structure, and learning through various venues.  We live on the island of Oahu, in a quiet neighborhood that is only 10 minutes from the cosmopolitan city of Honolulu and the fun, ever-famous Waikiki.  Two of the state's top ten public schools and one of the nation's best private schools are in our district.  There is a true sense of community and cultural diversity in the islands and especially in our neighborhood. Our neighbor-friends of mixed Okinawan-Palauan ethnicity, visit frequently to “check in” on the daily happenings.  You can find their 8, 6, and 3 year old children weekly at their house beating us on Nintendo Wii.   We live in a dog-friendly community with daily greeting from furry pals.

Our days usually involve taking our furry kids out at the end of the day for a joyous ride and walk, cooking together, and relaxing. Weekends are usually filled with a variety of activities that can range from birthday parties, barbeques at the beach, date night, or the most recent show or concert in town.  On Sundays, we are committed as much as possible to winding-down in preparation for the next week.

If you want to know more about the options for you and your child, and families waiting to adopt, then leave a confidential message and let us know how to reach you.  Please click here.

For complete contact information Please click here.