Thank you for taking time to learn about us. Choosing adoption is an incredible act of love, and we’re grateful that you’re considering us. We know you face a huge decision, and we’d love to talk to you and support you in any way we can.

About Us

We met 8 years ago. Our first date was at a little Italian restaurant in Berkeley; we still go back every year to celebrate the anniversary. We got married two years ago. We have a very comfortable and stable relationship, and feel lucky to balance each other out well in so many ways. Devin tends to be the more business-y part of the couple, paying the bills and making the plans. Matthew is the heart of our relationship, keeping track of friends and family, finding just the right gifts, and taking the pictures. We love to joke with each other, keeping things light and silly even when life gets full and busy. We are very ready to welcome a baby into our lives and our family.

For work, Devin is a law professor and Matthew is a chef turned caterer. When we’re not working, we love spending quiet time at home. Our love of movies has grown into a ridiculous collection of DVDs. Our kid will have quite a selection of children’s movies to choose from, though Matthew will teach them to love Mary Poppins early on.

For fun, we get to travel occasionally. Last year some friends got married in Hawaii, so we made it a belated honeymoon. We made lasting memories swimming in the ocean with sea turtles, exploring the Island’s waterfalls, and eating lots of shaved ice! In a few years we hope to return to Maui to form new memories with our child, building sandcastles and enjoying island life.

We always look forward to play dates with the children of our friends, and can’t wait for our own child to join in the fun. We’ve already started a toy and book collection.  (Devin’s so looking forward to reading Dr. Seuss with our child.) We have fun together working on arts and crafts, so there will be lots of silly projects happening in our house – like finger paints and making playdough! Music and dancing will be just as important; Matthew will have our kid singing along to the Motown he grew up listening to, and we’ll all be dancing to Beyoncé’s next video as soon as our kid can walk. A couple years back we bought a Wii and know that we’ll be getting all the cool new video games as our kid grows-up.

Matthew talks about Devin

Devin is my rock. After a tough day, I can always count on coming home and feeling better, because I know he’ll be there for me. Our child will find the same comfort and stability in him, and he’ll always be there to walk them to school in the morning or put a Muppets Band Aid on their ouchies.

Devin grew up in Redding, California with wonderful parents in a working class family. His parents loved him incredibly and supported him in all things. They gave him the drive to attend UC Berkeley and on to graduate from law school at the University of San Francisco.

Now, he provides that same support to law students as a professor at Santa Clara University. Working with students who are struggling, he takes pride in helping them to succeed. It’s a role I know he’ll also play in our own child’s success in whatever passion they decide to pursue.

Devin’s knowledge – from politics to pop culture – seems to know no bounds. He loves being on the winning team at a yearly trivia-night fundraiser, and enjoys playing along with contestants while watching Jeopardy. He will teach our child to love learning new things and exploring the world. He loves reading The New York Times and lots of books (his bedside table is always piled high). Devin is the uncle in charge of story time with our nieces and nephews, and he has the perfect voice for each character!

When not at work you can find Devin on our balcony nurturing all sorts of potted plants. He has transformed this space into a beautiful blooming garden. Devin exercises each morning by walking around our neighborhood and has inspired me to jog each week too.

Devin on Matthew

Matthew is the most selfless person I’ve ever met. He always takes care of others and make sure that their lives are better – I know mine is better because of him.

Matthew is funny and creative; he often makes me awesome gifts that include the wonderful pictures he takes. I wish that I had even a little bit of his creativity. And he remembers all the small stuff, making our days together so special with memories, stories, and fun treats.

Matthew was born in Los Angeles, the oldest of four boys. His family moved to the Bay Area when he was 10 years old. While going to UC Santa Cruz he worked at a small, Japanese grocery store. This nurtured a passion for food and cooking, and ultimately led him back to school to become a chef. (Yes, he’s a great cook.) He’s spent time working abroad, teaching English in Japan and working at a resort in the Caribbean. And now he works at a gourmet foods company in Oakland as a caterer – he especially loves working on weddings where he plays a big role in making sure that the bride and groom’s special day goes off without a hitch.

Matthew excels at making our family and loved ones feel special using his gifts in the kitchen. Every year, he makes his best friend’s daughter a special birthday cake (last year was chocolate cake with coconut and coconut whipped cream.) I know that Matthew will be the kind of dad who makes the little moments matter; he’s already stocking up on bathtub toys!

In the day to day, Matthew’s favorite hobby is to take pictures. No doubt he will document our child’s first bath, first steps, first trip to the beach, and everything in between! He also enjoys watching his favorite shows (Housewives and True Blood), listening to music, and singing in the shower. Our kid will definitely learn to sing!

Matthew’s my favorite person to spend time with, and when he’s picking the movie for a quiet evening at home, it’s The Sound of Music or The Wizard of Oz with a giant bowl of popcorn. Those nights are the best, and I can’t wait until we get to do that with our kid sitting between us!

Being Parents

We’re very excited to be parents. We grew-up in families full of love and fun, and hope for the same for our own child. We want to be the dads who throw the great birthday parties. We hope to teach our child about how wonderful it is to explore and learn, and foresee lots of trips the Exploratorium, the hands-on science center in San Francisco. We want to inspire our child to be creative, and let their talents and interests shine through. And we want our kid to know about their family history and heritage – knowing about our families’ traditions, including the culture our child brings into our family.

Most importantly, we want to be present and available to our child. Our families were and continue to be such an important support system for us and we want our child to have that same foundation of unconditional support and love. Matthew will likely be taking a leave from work for the early months after the baby arrives. Devin has a very flexible job, so he’ll also be reducing his hours in the office so that he can be home. Devin’s mom, who is now retired, plans to move to the Bay Area when the baby arrives. She and Matthew’s mom are both super-excited to babysit! (They both had careers working with small kids, so we’re happy to tap into that expertise and support.)

Our Family

Probably the most important thing to know about us as a couple is that our family is the center of our life. Our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and close friends make up a social network that will be a central part of our child’s life. We have dinners, celebrations, and outings together. At Thanksgiving we constructed a giant table and packed the house with loved ones. We had enough to feed an army and spent the night reliving funny family stories:  it was awesome. Our table will continue to grow because, to us, there is always space for one more!

Where We Live

We live in a large apartment in San Leandro, California, a nice town in the San Francisco East Bay. We already have a bedroom picked-out for the nursery. We’re close to good schools and a modern public library. (Their children’s reading room is awesome!) We’re lucky to live near a lake and recreation area where kids chase the geese – Matthew’s dad is looking forward to giving our kid fishing lessons there. Our community is diverse in many ways, bringing together Asian, Latino, African American, and Caucasian families; and in our building you regularly hear Thai, Bosnian, Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, and Tagalog being spoken. We feel lucky to live here, and believe that our child will benefit from being around other people who do (and don’t) look like them.

Adoption and Our Family

Being from such large families, adoption is already a part of our lives. Two of Devin’s brother’s children are adopted, and Devin and Matthew both have cousins who were adopted from abroad. As a mixed-race couple, we’re comfortable welcoming a child of any race into our family. We feel that our families are stronger because of their diversity. We want our child to know that families are formed in lots of different ways. Overall, we want our kid to know that they are loved.

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