Hello!  We are Erin and Martin (pronounced "Marteen") from San Mateo, California.  We appreciate the thoughtfulness you are putting into your child's future.  During a time of so much change in your life, we can only imagine that this process of finding an adoptive family for yourself and your child must be overwhelming.  We hope together we can make this experience a little bit easier as we would love the opportunity to be parents.  This is our story...

The Story of Us

We met 11 years ago at a Christmas party, when Erin first noticed Martin's undeniable dance skills.  Not being one to shy away from a dance floor, Erin joined him and the rest is history.  In addition to the need to groove, we bonded over a love of travel, trying new restaurants and the importance of family and heritage in our lives.  Now eight years married, the dancing happens less often (although we are often the first ones on the dance floor when given the opportunity), but traveling, eating and family time still keeps us smiling.  We will continue these traditions as well as welcome new ones when our child joins our family.

The Story of Our Home

We live in our home 20 minutes south of San Francisco.  Our home is incredibly special to us since it's been in Erin's family for many years and holds so many fun and dear memories already.  Erin can often be found outside in the yard attempting to keep the flowers blooming while Martin relaxes in his office connecting with friends and family on social media.  As godparents to eight nieces, nephews and friends' children, our home is well suited to having kids scampering around.  During frequent sleepovers and family gatherings, kids help themselves to the toy closet, build tents or play ball in the yard and know to clean it all up at the end of the visit.  While Erin prides herself on crafting the perfect holiday scavenger hunt or family game night for all to enjoy, Martin spends countless hours figuring out personalized gag gifts that will get the most laughs.  We are excited to have our child fill our home with even more laughter and silliness while teaching him or her values of family, culture and community that are so important to us.

The Story of Martin (as told by Martin)

I work as a Senior Project Manager for a Commercial Real Estate Group.  Growing up on a dairy farm in Southern California was definitely different that the life I lead now.  Cows have been replaced with spreadsheets and budgets.  As much as I am looking forward to experiencing our community through the eyes of our child, I am also excited to take her/him to visit the dairy and experience childhood as I knew it.

I look forward to our child participating in the Basque community which is an important part of my heritage.  I'm sure you're asking "What's that?"  French Basque is my ethnicity and singing, dancing and community gatherings are how we preserve our culture.  Our child will hopefully participate in the functions and activities that center around our Basque Cultural Center which includes sports, language, music and dance classes as well as large holiday luncheons with Santa and the Easter Bunny as special guests!  I am looking forward to sharing my interests with our child...traveling, photography, bowling and watching just about any sport (I've been known to watch tractor pulling when no other sport is on.)  Hopefully, all that sideline watching will eventually come in handy during our child's little league or soccer practices.

The Story of Erin (as told by Erin)

I am the youngest of four siblings and run a preschool in the same community in which I was born and raised.  I feel lucky to be in such close proximity with my family.  I spend most of my free time with my Mom and sister's family.  I value the relationship that has developed with each one of my nieces and nephews.  In addition to regular sleepovers, I love planning outings with each of them and exposing them to things that I love to do...visiting theatres and museums and having picnics in unusual places (our favorite being the shoreline alongside San Francisco Airport to watch the planes land.)

I can't wait to watch our child interact and bond with his or her cousins.  We've been such a big part of their lives and I know our child will be welcomed with open arms (although I expect a few younger ones may be surprised to no longer have my undivided attention!)  Because of my role in the childcare industry, I've been able to help with my nieces' and nephew's care and schooling.  Now my family is ready to return the favor, when needed, until our child is old enough to join me at my school.

As much as I love being "Auntie" and "Teacher Erin," I am super excited to be "Mom."  Although I'm considered an expert of 3-5 year olds, I look forward to the challenges of infancy and toddlerhood...sleepless nights, our child's cries and the process of figuring out what each of them means.  My goal is to raise our child to be a confident, secure and kind human being.

The Story of When Basque Meet Irish

We both come from big extended families and our cultures play a big role in our lives, Irish on Erin's side and Basque on Martin's.  Erin's extended Irish family includes many cousins who live both nearby as well as all over the world.  We recently attended a family reunion in New York where many family members from all over the world celebrated Aunt Peggy's 80th birthday.

Growing up with a blended family, Martin's extended family tree has many branches both here in the United States as well as in the Basque Country.  "Otto Marty" (uncle in Basque) is how he's known and he holds a reputation for supplying donuts for any family gatherings.  Our child will have no shortage of cousins to play with or laps to sit on.  We plan on traveling with our child, as we both did in our youth, to visit our beloved families.

The Story of Erin's School

I have always gravitated towards young children and spent the majority of my adult life around them.  I am often asked, "How do you stay sane in a classroom all day with preschoolers?"  My answer is always the same, "It's fun and I love it."  I opened the Preschool twelve years ago in order to have a direct impact on young children in my hometown community.  I make it a priority to know each child, parent, grandparent and extended family personally.  I've been privileged to teach many students who are adoptees and through character education help them and other children understand the value in everyone's unique family story.  When students graduate, many tears are shed because it feels as if a family member is leaving.  Luckily, we've laid groundwork for alumni students to return to the school in various capacities for community service and so have maintained relationships with families and students who are now well into high school.  Over the years, I've invested much time, thought and energy into helping families lay a foundation of kindness, respect and discipline in their own children.  I am ready to invest all of this into a family of my own now.  I hope that our child will feel as warm and comfortable at the school as I do...as I feel it is an extension of our home.

The Next Chapter...

We are both excited to make our family complete.  After a few years of unsuccessfully trying to have a child biologically, we reached out to friends and colleagues who had experiences within the adoption triad (adoptees, birth mothers and adoptive families) to help us understand each of their individual experiences and perspectives.  A common theme seems to be that everyone's story is unique to themselves.  Yours and ours will be unique as well.  There may be challenges but with those will come great joys.  Our learning process has not stopped and we hope that along with you, we can navigate this journey of adoption with open communication, a sense of humor and a whole lot of love.