Hi! We are Margaret and Blake. We live in sunny San Diego, California. Our world revolves around our family, friends and our ever so different fur babies. We enjoy traveling (especially Hawaii where our story all started) and getting outdoors.

Both of us come from very loving and hard working families. We were extremely fortunate to grow up in the families we did and we both feel like the morals and kindness that surrounded us growing up is why we are the people we are today. We have been married for 5 years and have known each other for ten. It has been a journey of laughter, tears and love and we wouldn’t change it for anything.

We were married in 2017 on the beach at the beautiful Kona Kai resort. We tried to start a family right away. Unfortunately, sometimes life does not go the way you plan. There is a great quote that says, "We plan, God laughs." It's so true. We both are firm believers that everything in life happens for a reason. It's not for us to know but to accept and move forward. Through it all we have kept our faith that God had a plan for us. After years of unsuccessful infertility treatments we took it as we were being led in a different direction. Adoption is such a gift. We have so much respect for the individuals that are strong enough and selfless enough to put their child up for adoption.

We have so much love to give that we feel honored to be in a place to adopt.

We met April 18th, 2012 and married August 19, 2017. We grew a connection to each other right away and dated for years until it felt like the perfect time in our lives to get married. We were drawn to each other for many reasons and a big reason is our strong family backgrounds. Within a month of meeting each other we were best friends.

The infertility struggle wasn't easy but studies say that couples who go through such loss either move farther away or closer together. It definitely brought us closer. Through the process it made us stronger and unbreakable. Life is what you make of it. You can either stay stuck in the past or grow from it and find the positive. We both live by that concept. We both are very strong, understanding and compassionate individuals. Our usual day to day is that we both work hard and we do so in order for us to live in a home we are proud of enjoying life.

I’ve been told by many of the people close to me in life that I’m a dependable caring person with a good sense of humor. I strive to be the best version of myself through my career of owning my insurance business with how I treat my clients and by being a great husband, family member and friend to everyone in my life. I’m a well-rounded person with many hobbies and passions in life. I like to try to balance as many activities and passions in life as I can.

I love traveling and exploring the world in addition to being an avid snowboarder, surfer and passionate sports fan.

I have amazing parents that just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary two years ago and they have constantly set real life examples on how to approach life through the type of outgoing, hard-working and charismatic people they both are. I also have one sibling, my sister Brooke who is 3 years younger than me and that I’m very close with. In addition to my wife being my best friend in life, I have a large group of friends that I share a variety of different interests with.

Blake...or as my family calls him Blakeeeeee. He is amazing. My mom says when you are around him, "he just sparkles!" Blake is a guy's guy. He loves his sports, BBQ's, the beach, and just about everything outdoors. The unique thing about Blake is that he is the type of person that you can put him in a room and he can strike up a conversation with anyone. I think he gets that from both his parents. His parents are the kindest, warmest people you will meet. Blake has one sister and one niece Hattie. When he is around her his face just lights up. He is so gentle and engaging with her. She looks at him and always just smiles and giggles. Blake is someone that is true blue. What you see is what you get, no hidden agenda. He is the reason I have become so confident and outgoing in my pursuits in life. Blake is driven and hardworking. He does well in his career because of his attitude and demeanor with his clients. He has a laugh that is so contagious and he livens up any room he enters with his presence. I just adore him and love the person he is.

My parents always call me “their lucky #7.” I am the seventh of ten children. My parents have been married for over 52 years. Very Irish Catholic. I think that is where I get my faith and love for people. My dad told me once when I first started teaching, “treat the custodian the same way you treat the principal.” That is how I live life. My mom, talk about an amazing person and my role model. She is the reason I believe in second chances and miracles that happen in life. I was fortunate to grow up in a family of 6 brothers and 3 older sisters, seriously never a dull moment. Chaos and love all the time. I had an amazing childhood. I think that is why I pursued a career in teaching. I wanted to make a difference in the world one child at a time.

I studied hard in college, I have four degrees and now work as a Director of Childcare for two YMCAs in Southern California.

I try and be a good, kind, and understanding person. I never try and judge, because I am far from perfect. I have a best friend who always says, "Don't judge me...God isn't finished with me yet."

Margaret is the most loving and caring person I’ve ever met. Her compassionate attitude towards life makes her a unique and wonderful person. She will always put others first and strive to do whatever she can to make people feel better about themselves. As shes spent her professional career as a teacher and helping children I’ve heard countless stories years later from the parents of her students about how much of a lasting impact Margaret has made on their child’s life. When she enters any room her beautiful smile and warm personality radiate energy to everybody around and suddenly the mood of the room becomes more joyful and relaxed. My niece who is one and a half years old just adores Margaret and it’s hard to describe the special warm connection she is able to make with children. I’ve also always been drawn to her charisma, intelligence and athleticism as she is the definition of a well-rounded person with so many attractive qualities.

Hobbies: Both of us grew up playing competitive sports. Blake was always big on baseball, snowboarding and surfing. Margaret grew up in a tennis and basketball family. When we have down time we love to take walks on the beach or around our neighborhood, play a fun competitive game of ping-pong or hang out on our deck with our little fur babies.

Travel: We try to make a trip to Hawaii at least once a year if not every other year. Blake proposed to Margaret in Kauai and we had our honeymoon in Maui. We also try and plan at least a mini vacation every couple months along with the mountains in the winter so Blake can snowboard.

Family: We both are big on family. We are always celebrating someone’s birthday, anniversary, etc. We host Christmas and Thanksgiving at our house every year. We are big on Holidays especially the decorating part.

Religion: We are both Catholic. We would raise the child Catholic but let them choose their choice when they were old enough. I know that there are stigmas related to the Catholic Church, but we were both not raised in a strict Catholic home. We were taught that Jesus loves us and that he is there to always help us. He is forgiving and that is why we should always forgive others. It was instilled in us that you should always treat others how you would like to be treated..."The Golden Rule."

We originally had Zoe (13 years now); then we got Dexter (3 now) to have a companion. There was such an age gap that we wanted another friend for Dex which ended up being two more cats Benny (2) Ray (2). All of our cats have been rescues, but the last two are brothers that were abandoned in a box in Mexico and so we didn’t feel right separating them so we now have four wonderful cats. Blake used to be a dog lover and now he’s a cat lover (it is even shocking to his family) He loves his three boy cats along with Zoe like any dad would their own kids.

We live in a family oriented community. We bought our house in 2016. It’s a lovely 4 bedroom 3 bath two story home. We live on .5 of an acre on a canyon in a beautiful cul-de-sac. We have been so blessed to be surrounded by family-like neighbors. We have our neighbor Kelly watch our cats every time we go on vacation and we do the same when she is out of town. The fun part about owning a house is doing the landscape. We both enjoy bringing color to our front yard, so we are constantly adding plants and new flowers. The neighborhood is great and has a friendly, family oriented community feel. There are little ones that are constantly riding around on their bikes. The holidays are a blast. This past Halloween we took our nephew Maddox around our neighborhood because the entire neighborhood was decorated and in full spirit. He said it was the best Halloween he has ever had. There is a preschool and many parks that are walking distance to our house.

We are also only 4 miles from the beach so we spend a lot of time on the beautiful San Diego beaches all year long.

As discussed earlier, family is so important to us. We are always hanging out with family on the weekends and especially around the holidays. Both of us have very large extended family that are all across the country. Margaret has seventeen nieces and nephews. Blake has the one sister, a bunch of cousins and just one niece, Hattie.

Margaret's wild family story: two sisters married two brothers and each had ten children. My mom and her sister went on a double date with my dad and his brother. They dated for 3 months and then my dad and his brother were getting shipped off for the Navy. They ended up having a double wedding and each having ten children (ironically 6 boys and 4 girls.) They said my mom having all ten healthy babies is one in five million chances. I am so grateful to be here today :)

Blake’s parents have been married forty two years and he has one sister, Brooke, who is three years younger. Blake’s mom has five brothers so his side of the family is full of many cousins and the family parties Blake has experienced since being a kid have been some of his best memories. His grandparents had a house right on Huntington Harbor and also a mountain cabin on the lake in Big Bear and would spend all of the holidays with his fifteen cousins at either of these locations. Blake has abundance of great memories growing up in his large family.

Going to Hawaii every year as a family tradition, usually its Kauai or Maui. Margaret and I got engaged in Kauai in September 2016 and we enjoyed our honeymoon on Maui in August 2017. Our family owns timeshares there so we plan on keeping the travel to Hawaii a tradition and bringing our child there for years to come to create memories. Blake was 10 when he first visited Hawaii with his mom, dad and sister. He went back three years later and at age 13, surfed all over Maui and was hooked.

We were taught by the best. We were shown love and understanding but we were also taught how to be hardworking and successful members of society. Both of our fathers came from humble beginnings and both worked hard to be self made men. Both of our mothers come from loving and hardworking backgrounds as well, they were great mothers who shaped us into great people. Our loving parents were the glue to both our families growing up. With regard to our own parenting style we would try and instill what we were taught as children. Teach them that we are there to be their biggest support system and help and guide them in right and wrong. We would instill in them confidence and a love for life. We would always be there for them and guide and love them always.

Both of us were given such a strong and loving support system and that is all that we know and would be what we would teach our child(ren).

We just want to say thank you for what you do. We know that this may have not been an easy decision but it is one that we are so incredibly thankful and grateful that you did. We both have the utmost respect and admiration for individuals who are able to exhibit such selflessness. It truly is a gift and a blessing with what you are doing. We never thought that it would be such a challenge to have children of our own, it was never something that we even thought we would have to struggle with. But looking back all is as it should be. We both have so much love to give that we would feel so honored to share it with someone else’s child. We heard a great quote when going through this process on what to tell a child when they asked if they were born in my tummy, “you were not born in my tummy, you were born in my heart.”