Lea & William In Arizona

We both had pretty unstable childhoods growing up, which had each of us getting married to the wrong person way too young. We were both newly single when we met and neither of us wanted to have a serious relationship, but there were definitely other plans in place for us! William worked in placing accountants in jobs and Lea was an accountant looking for a job. What a great way to meet! William placed Lea in a position, made a nice, fat commission off the placement, and took Lea out to lunch to celebrate. And that was the beginning of us! William is now an accountant and Lea is a tax accountant and in our free time, you will find us doing anything BUT accounting, spending time with each other and with our family.

Our two favorite things are typically combined: we love to be outside and we love to travel! We usually take at least two vacations a year, plus we own a house in Italy that we go to every summer. We are not your sit on a chair type of vacationer. Our vacations always include a ton of exploring, which means we are out walking and getting to know the destination. Cheyenne will proudly say that she visited 20 countries by the time she graduated high school, and she is telling the truth!

When we are not getting our outside time on vacation, we make it a point to be outside for at least an hour every day. We believe it has so many benefits not including the Vitamin D: it makes you feel better mentally, you sleep better, fosters imaginative play, etc. We find it also helps to bring us closer as a family.

We live in a lovely neighborhood that is very child-friendly! We have two parks within walking distance and the elementary school that is for our neighborhood is also within walking distance. The association does multiple family oriented activities throughout the year such as Movies in the Park, a Turkey Trot, a Halloween Decorating Contest, etc. The neighborhood also has a community pool.

Our home is 4 bedrooms and we already have a nursery set up and waiting for our new bundle of joy. It is the room right next to ours; however, we plan on having the little one sleep in a bassinet in our room (which we already have) at least for the first several weeks because we believe that the closeness will help us form a better bond with the baby.

We have a nice backyard with a patio and play area as well as a pool that we have fenced in for safety.

Family is the most important thing to both William and Lea, which is why we want to grow our little family. Our first cohort live on the east coast and we see them at least twice a year. The rest of our extended family also live on the east coast and we see them when we go to visit our first cohort. We have Matthew who lives with us and we have Cheyenne who lives very close to us, so we are blessed for those connections.

We have two (what we fondly like to call) cohorts of children. Our first cohort is from both of our first marriages and they are up and grown, outside of my youngest son, Matthew, who is 29 years old and still lives with us because he insists that someone needs to take care of me and his step-father (who he thinks of as his father and calls dad). Matthew owns his own accounting business and runs it from home, so he and I are together a lot, since I also work from home. He is a family guy with a big heart, and if it wasn’t for him, we might have given up on adding to our family because we have had nothing but rejection and disappointment from the very start of this journey. He is so excited to add a brother or sister to the family!

Our youngest daughter from the first cohort, Cheyenne, is 23 years old. She is married and lives nearby and she is like Lea’s best friend. They share so many similar interests that they could be the same person! She was living at home when Owen first came to live with us at 3 ½ months old, so she has a special bond with him. She is currently working in a child care center and is going to school to work with children with special needs. Cheyenne was actually the one who suggested that we think about adopting, so she is looking forward to another sibling.

Owen is our youngest. He is 4 years old. He was abused by his father and neglected by his mother so we got him as a kinship placement and later adopted him. He is the light of our lives! He is so happy and constantly makes us laugh! And he has SUCH a great relationship with his Uncle (Matthew) and with Zia (Cheyenne) that it's beautiful to watch! He loves to sing and dance, build Legos, and swim in the pool. He has said very adamantly that he wants to be a big brother and then sweetly asked for us to make that happen. How can you say no to that?

Lea comes from a great, big Italian family so the holidays are a time that is especially meant to spend together! Our holiday season always starts with Halloween because Lea loves to have all the little trick or treaters come to the door in their costumes so she can give them candy! And Thanksgiving dinner always ends with watching the REAL “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” that starts the Christmas season.

Christmas isn’t Christmas in our house without a real evergreen tree so we do that on Black Friday, and then Lea plans a fun Christmas outing every weekend until Christmas Eve. On that day, we go to church and then come home for the Italian “Feast of the Seven Fishes” and light fireworks (which ARE legal in Arizona!). Christmas morning we wake up to the chaos of opening presents, William makes breakfast, and everyone has a nice relaxing day. Our holidays aren’t over because we have Owen’s birthday on New Year’s Eve, so it's party time as well as more fireworks to celebrate his birthday and New Year's Eve.

As a couple, adoption has been something we have been thinking about for quite a while, but we weren’t sure this was the path for us until we were blessed to go through a kinship adoption four years ago. Watching him grow up so happy and secure in our home, we knew then that we had so much to offer a child and it made us realize that we should pursue our desire to grow our family through the miracle of adoption.