We are Carolina and Mike, a married couple from Napa, California, and we are excited to become parents!  We feel fortunate to have found each other and are really looking forward to sharing our love and lives with a child.  We can't wait to sing (Carolina) and play guitar (Mike) for the baby, to take hikes carrying the baby on our favorite trails, and to spend time playing and pointing out the birds and butterflies in our backyard garden!  We both would be thrilled to meet you and honored to have this special role in your life of raising your birth child.  You would be giving us the greatest gift we can ever imagine receiving, and we would express our gratitude by giving that child a connected, loving, creative and fun family in which to grow and become the person they are truly meant to be.

Our Special Connection to Adoption

Carolina is the godparent of an adopted 14 year-old.  Carolina met this amazing young man when he was 4 years old and in foster care, and became a mother figure for him as he moved through a number of different foster placements.  When he was adopted by a single father, the father requested that Carolina remain a significant part of their lives.  A decade later, he is thriving with his adoptive father and five siblings, and we continue to be very important to each other.  He has met Mike and enjoys regular weekend visits at our house.  We look forward to a time when he can be a mentor to our child and share his own blended family experience.

Our Love Story

We met four years ago when we were introduced by a mutual friend.  When we met, Carolina had just begun preparing to adopt as a single mom.  Though she had been hoping to find true love, after years of waiting she had accepted that it just may not happen, and yet she knew that she could make her longtime dream of having a child a reality.  Meanwhile, Mike had been alone for some time after his divorce from his first wife, and had not expected to find love again.  We quickly recognized that we had found something special in each other!  We both work hard at being good people, and we are thoughtful and attentive with each other.  We spend much of our time simply talking and enjoying each other.  Carolina made it clear to Mike early on that she wanted to be a parent.  Mike didn't have any children from his first marriage and thought his chance to be a father had passed.  But as our love grew, Mike grew excited about the prospect of becoming a dad.  After Mike proposed (on a Hawaiian beach after writing and singing a love song) we went to our first adoption workshop to learn more about it together.  And now, married and settled into our home, we are excited to be moving forward with starting our family!

MIKE (from Carolina's point of view)

Mike is the most kind and generous person I know.  He makes a point of expressing his appreciation for me and our relationship, in conversation and in romantic gestures like leaving me notes and flowers, or in daily activities like cooking my favorite foods or doing the dishes even when it's my turn.  Mike is passionate about his work, and loves to teach others about the organic farming that takes place at his company's vineyard.  Before he worked in the wine industry, he owned a barbeque restaurant in Texas.  He is an amazing cook, and I love everything he makes, it is so delicious!  Lately, as we sit together at the kitchen table, we have been talking about what the baby's first foods will be.  Mike is excited to introduce our child to the world of great food and the world at large.  He is going to be such a loving and involved dad!  Mike loves music and plays guitar every day.  We often talk about how fun it will be for him to play songs for our child and teach him/her how to play guitar if there is an interest.  Mike is a major fan of blues music.  He is often deeply moved by music, and his eyes light up when he tells me stories about his favorite performers.  Mike teaches me things I wouldn't have otherwise known and in many ways, he makes me a better person--I am grateful to have the opportunity to love him and know him, and each day it just gets better!

CAROLINA (from Mike's point of view)

I love Carolina because she is a rare mixture of the creative and the analytical.  She is well educated and accomplished in her field of family therapy, but she also had a previous career in the arts.  She is an efficient manager at work, but she also has a quiet, introspective side and likes to do yoga and meditate.  She can speak eloquently about brain research and then laugh at my silliest jokes.  I love watching Carolina with children--she is warm and loving, and she always finds ways to make them laugh!  We have long conversations over weekend breakfasts about all sorts of things, and love spending time together outside.  Even when we are both busy, Carolina makes a point of taking the time tell me that she loves me.  She is careful to make time for the important things in life and I've learned to do the same.  I'm grateful every day that we are together.  I couldn't have a better partner and a child couldn't have a better mom.  Over the last two years, our conversations about being parents evolved from considering the possibility to planning for the reality.  Now, instead of talking about if we might have a child, we talk about what names we like, what kind of schools are best, and what color we should paint his or her room.  I don't regret that I didn't have children sooner. I'm glad that I waited.  I just didn't know that I was waiting to meet Carolina.

Home and Community

We live in a beautiful place!   While people travel from all over the world to enjoy Napa's fine wines, we most enjoy the quiet, rural lifestyle and natural beauty of the area.  We spend much of our time outdoors, hiking and exploring.  Our home is in one of Napa's central neighborhoods, across the street from an elementary school and within walking distance of the fairgrounds and downtown shops.  

Carolina is very involved in the local community through her work as the director of a children's counseling center right in downtown Napa.  It is important to her to help others and invest in making our community a healthier, happier place to be.  Mike works in neighboring Sonoma County in the wine business, so he too is connected to the community through his work.  He also volunteers locally, supporting Napa Wildlife Rescue, where he helps feed and care for injured birds, so that they can return to the wild.

Friends and Family

Both of us come from small families, so we have made a point of creating extended family through deep and long lasting friendships.  Our child will have the opportunity to be loved by these people of all ages!  We have had numerous offers from our friends to serve as this child's cousins, aunties, uncles, and even grandparents!  Our friends are thoughtful, caring, fun and creative.  Many are also spiritual and compassionate people who are intentional about giving back to their community and connecting with others.

Our Traditions

Having been married for just over a year, we are creating many rituals and traditions together.  Some of our favorite routines center around eating together, as we both love to cook.  Mike makes ham and eggs every Saturday morning, and Carolina makes pancakes every Sunday!  We also go for walks on weekday evenings after having dinner together, and go for big hikes on the weekends.  

Each year since we met we have gone to Hawaii on vacation, as well as visited Santa Barbara, where we both have friends and where we got married on Butterfly Beach!  On our first anniversary we returned to the beach and read our vows again.  We have blended our individual traditions on holidays, spending Christmas Eve at our house with Mike's friends and family, and Christmas day with Carolina's.  We are excited to share these traditions with our child, especially that first swim in the warm Hawaiian waters!

THANK YOU

We appreciate you taking some time to get to know a little bit about us.  You have great strength and courage to be entering this process, and we know you will make whatever you believe is the best decision for you and your birth child.  If you choose us as the adoptive parents, we will cherish and love your birth child with everything we have and everything we are.