Andrea In California

I was born and raised in Orange County, California. In college, I studied Health Information Management and ultimately found my path to medical coding. I love what I do because I feel like it constantly challenges me and I'm always learning. Having the job I do also allows me to be able to work from home and gives me a great deal of flexibility with the hours I work.

Family has always been everything to me. For the first 14 years of my life my family lived with my grandparents, so I shared an extra special bond with them. My grandpa's dying wish was for me to care for my grandma when he was gone. Outside of working my fulltime job, my sole focus was caring for my wheelchair-bound grandma until she passed in 2021. I don't regret for one minute making that choice, but I found myself at the age of 38 with no family of my own. After several failed rounds of IVF and losses, I was told it would be extremely difficult and highly unlikely I would carry a child of my own. Being a mother was just not something I was ready to give up on, so here I am, ready to take this journey with you.

When I'm not working, I like to relax just as often as I like to get out and find something fun to do. Movies are always at the top of my relaxing list and pulling out the arts and crafts material is a close second. Fun times for me come in the form of catching a game with the family, whether it's baseball, soccer or even something new. I like to go out for walks. Sometimes I'll just take walks around the nearby lake or neighborhood and other times I find it interesting to check out new or different spots.

I have two dogs, both very small and extremely sweet. Their names are Buttercup and Nugget. If I can make a little extra time on the weekends, I take Buttercup and Nugget and we meet up with my sister and her two dogs at a nearby dog park or dog friendly beach. It's so entertaining to watch them play and have fun with each other.

I live in a two story home with a fenced in porch/patio area. I love this feature of the house because it keeps my pups safe and my younger nephews safe when they visit and want to play out front. I also have a pretty large backyard and it's usually the place where all the family holidays happen.

I live on a quiet street surrounded by kind and friendly neighbors. The kind of neighbors who will water your plants when you go out of town or will loan you tools to complete a home project you might have.

My house is a three minute walk from a decent size park with a soccer field, a half basketball court and a playground with swings and a jungle-jim. The schools are less than a mile away and so is the community lake. The lake often has fun activities for every season.

My family didn't grow up with everything in hand, however, not having everything allowed us to appreciate everything that came along. We've always been very fortunate and blessed to have the people in our lives that we do.

I am the oldest of 4 children. My parents, who are the most fantastic role models and the ones who taught me to love as deeply as I do, have been married for 41 years. I don't know if my childhood would have been considered average, but I do know I have a lot of great memories and traditions I can't wait to share with a child of my own.

During the warmer months, my mom would take all of us on long bike rides throughout the city. We all loved being outside and it always felt like an exciting adventure. Every summer, we would take a road trip to South Dakota to visit extended family. Because my mom loved history, each day of the journey there she found a way to stop at a historical point and share the story of its importance with us. We always had a blast and I consider these some of my most cherished childhood memories. My family and I are still very close and we all live within 10 miles of each other. I currently have 4 nieces and nephews, the youngest being only 10 months old. Watching them grow and being such a big part of their lives has been so incredible. My whole family is so excited for there to be a new addition and they can't wait to welcome that precious gift.

With my parent's timeshare, we take an annual trip to Lake Tahoe. There is definitely time to recharge there, but each time we go, we try to find something fun to do that we haven't tried before. My hope is that we can eventually plan some bigger trips that maybe take us to another country. It's been a dream of mine to be able to take my own child on trips, maybe even further than my parents were able to take us growing up, where we can learn and experience new cultures together.

I’ve always dreamed of being a mom and after having fertility setbacks I wasn’t ready to give up on that dream.