Hello, we are Joe and Natasha from Woodland, a small town near Sacramento, California. We have been married for over 13 years, and since the beginning we always talked about adopting a child. Joe was adopted by his dad as a toddler, and we watched our friends raise 2 amazing adopted daughters. This remarkable personal experience reaffirmed that open adoption is our way to become first time parents and start our family. We both have flexible schedules and will be able to work from home, so we can spend all our time loving and nurturing a baby.

Thank you so much for looking through these pages and for considering us to be parents of your baby. We cannot express in words, how humbled we are with the steps you are currently taking to make one of the biggest decisions of your life. We hope that our story and pictures will bring you closer to knowing us. In turn, we can’t wait to meet you and get to know you!

From Applebee’s to Adoption

We met in Applebee’s on a date we won’t forget – Natasha’s aunt’s birthday! Our friends decided to set us up, and both of us got a phone call that night telling us separately that one likes the other. At about midnight Natasha’s friend accidentally called her uncle instead of her, and woke him up to get a message to Natasha. Her uncle wasn’t very happy that night, but he passed the message along anyway. And just after 6 months of dating we got married in the backyard of the same aunt and uncle’s home. Even though it was fairly short time, it felt right. Now, after 13 years of being together, we are ready to start our family through open adoption.Joe is all-American boy from Northern California and Natasha came from Ukraine when she was 17. We are a multicultural and bilingual home where you will hear Russian and English music playing; even our dogs know English as well as Russian commands. It is Natasha’s hopes to teach our baby 2 languages starting from birth.

10 Things We Love to Do Together

1. Walk dogs in the park next to our house.

2.Prepare food together, especially make Salsa, Tacos or homemade pizza.

3. Vacationing on a beach of Tulum, Mexico.

4.Camping in woods with friends and family.

5. Watch TV shows and movies, especially comedy!

6. Travel to new places, from other countries to nearby lakes and countryside.

7. Visit with friends over weekends to BBQ and catch up.

8.Practice archery and play crocket.

9. Pick plums, peaches and apricots from our trees in a summer.

10. Ski (Natasha) and snowboard (Joe) at Sierra-at-Tahoe in a winter.

Our Home

We live in a tight community on a quiet street. There are always kids playing outside and biking to the park, which is in walking distance from our home. In our home, we already have a room ready for a baby. Because of our friends, who visit us often with their kids, we have a crib and a toddler bed, as well as toys, Russian and English books,and of course a magnetic dart board, which provides hours of entertainment for our friends’ children. We live in close proximity (about 15 miles) to Davis, which has some of the best schools for children and adults in California.

Joe loves to barbeque on weekends and makes the most amazing burgers; Natasha experiments canning, making jams, and baking various desserts, from apple-caramel cheesecake to Russian egg pie. We can be found in the backyard sharing stories and food with our neighbors quite often. On weekdays, we try to cook together to make it more fun and to spend quality time with one another.

We also celebrate many holidays, and twice! Traditional Christmas with stockings over our fireplace continues into traditional Russian New Years with more gifts under the tree, which lights up our home until end of January. Russian bread is always baked for Russian Easter, and we have egg hunts with our friends’ kids for American Easter.

Fur, Scales and Tails

You probably already noticed that there is a tail or dog head in a lot of our pictures. We love animals! We have 3 dogs: Diva (a Lab mix), Loki (a Scottish terrier) and Sobaka (a Chihuahua mix). Diva came to us from a shelter. Our Scottish terrier was a childhood wish come true for Natasha, and he is just a puppy that is still learning what he can get away with. Sobaka one day showed up on our door steps. We tried to find her original owner or find someone to rescue her. Because Natasha didn’t want to get attached to her, she named her Sobaka, which means “DOG” in Russian. But it was too late. 2 weeks into our search, Sobaka’s sweetness melted our hearts and now she sleeps under her own blanket in our home. Our cat Skitz keeps company to new kitten Chumi-Changa and they often hang out with dogs outside in our backyard.

We also love reptiles. We have a leopard tortoise, Rankle. He is the size of a baseball now, but will grow to a football size. Our water turtles are Biggie, Stabbie, Timmy and Pancake, and they live in a huge aquarium with a fish named Dinner. We also have leopard gecko,named Manunia (means Little One) that likes to bask under the heat lamp. We go yearly to Sacramento reptile show to stock up on supplies and check out reptiles.

Living and loving pets will be a part of our child’s life, no matter what type of a creature they may be fond of.

About Wifey by Hubby

Natasha is outgoing and focused, which is one of the many reasons I love her. Before I met her I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, but she had her own plan, and I was more than happy to come along for the ride. Her drive and focus gave me the motivation and inspiration I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with my own life. This quality will help guide our son or daughter through the twists and turns of his or her life.

Natasha is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) for a local accounting firm. She loves her job and the people she works with. She is also only 5 minutes away from our house, which is very convenient, as she is always right around the corner. She also has flexible schedule from May to December, and is able to take a lot of time off to be with a baby.

She loves the outdoors and has a passion for gardening. Every year she grows a variety of tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, peppers and much more. What we do not eat during the time the garden is producing is either dried or canned for use later in the year. She also loves her fruit trees, as there really isn’t anything like getting fresh fruit right off the tree. She doesn’t like to have things go to waste, which is why we always give away a lot of produce to friends and family, and also have homemade jams, fruit rollups and tomato sauce that we eat throughout the year.

Natasha has such a big heart, but she is only missing one thing from it, a child to love. She loves spending time with our nieces and nephews, but to have a child of her own, would truly light up her life. She has so much to offer and can’t wait to hold our little one in her arms and share the many things she enjoys doing with such a precious gift.

About Hubby by Wifey

Joe is the sweetest, most reliable man I know. He is always the first one to help friends and family with chopping up a fallen tree, a house move, or simply letting people borrow his truck to hall firewood. One time he went to a quick trip to a grocery store, and wasn’t back for quite a while. Turned out that on the way back home from the store, he saw an elderly woman that appeared to be lost. He stopped and chatted with her, called her family and made sure that she got home safe and sound.

He also knows his way around tools. Joe and his dad practically remodeled our entire house from shower room to kitchen sink. He likes welding and woodworking (like building an enclosure for our tortoise), and he can’t wait to build forts or dollhouses for and with our child. Joe is also an in-house fix computer-tv-printer guy. Everyone calls him to help with all their electronic needs.

I love watching him with kids. Seeing him interact with babies (where he is gentle and protective) to teenagers (where he is funny, charismatic and yet firm), I know he is truly going to be an amazing dad.

Joe’s unspoken motto in life is FAMILY FIRST. Whether it is just me, our dogs or extended family and friends, he is always ready to protect and help with anything thrown at him. Joe always makes sure we attend all the family events, like Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays, family reunions and summer family camping/fishing trips.

Joe is a mechanical engineer at a start-up company. He is able to do part of work from home and is planning to do so when baby comes.

Meet Our Loved Ones

Joe has a big, happy and loud family, who are amazing people. His immediate family lives in Salem,Oregon. Although it is a little further away, we still get to see the family often. His mom and dad are retired, and are ready to travel here at a moment notice to meet and help with our new baby.

Our best friends live in Redding (which is 2 hours away from us). We spend majority of weekends with them and try to go on vacations together. They have 2 boys Sasha and Evan. We love seeing these kids grow, and are proud to be called “Apple Joey” and “Auntie Kasha” by little Sasha.

Natasha’s family lives in Ukraine. Natasha skypes with them weekly. Her mom is already knitting a blanket to keep our baby warm. We are planning on flying her to stay with us for 2-3 months every year to be hands-on babushka (“grandma” in Russian) to our baby.

Our families are very happy and supportive of our decision to adopt. Everyone is excited to meet our little munchkin and offer all their love, wisdom and joy!

Adoption Feels Right to Us

Just like our marriage, adoption feels right to us. When Joe was a toddler, he was adopted by his dad. He loves having a big family and stays in contact with his biological father and extended family. Joe’s mom has a best friend who adopted two girls. We had a privilege to see them grow and flourish, which contributed to our decision to start our family through open adoption.

We know that open adoption is a path for us to start our family, and we are ready to walk the walk!

Our Promise to You

Thank you for your time and considering our family with this precious gift and humbling honor! We promise to love your child more than anything in this world, and we promise that we will raise your baby to be caring, honest and upstanding. If you have any questions and think we fit into your dreams and plans, please contact us at any time.

We can’t wait to hear happy tiny feet every morning! And we will always be thankful that we hear those feet because of you.