Marissa & Dylan In West Virginia

We simply live small, simple lives. There is nothing fancy about the way we live or act. We work hard and enjoy having the nice things out of life. Living out our days as if they are our last. You never know what tomorrow is going to bring. We were two young dumb kids that just happened to fall in love. True love is possible because that is what we share as a couple. I like to think of our relationship like the movie “The Notebook.” We loved other people once but realized that wasn’t what God had planned for us.

We live in West Virginia where the trees are as old as the hills, and the country roads take us home to where we belong. West Virginia is a slowed-pace type of state. Where everyone knows everybody, and the tea is sweet, and the people are sweeter. Being from a rural state we don’t get in a hurry. However, what we did want to get in a hurry about was developing a family. We have picked out baby names and knew how many children we wanted way before we were married in September 2017. Marissa hadn’t graduated college yet with her Bachelor’s in Social Work and Dylan was still working a minimum wage job. We lived from paycheck to paycheck, but we always had each other, even if we had nothing else. The love from one another has always been enough, even to this day and time you’rereading this profile.

Dylan enjoys playing video games and hanging out with his friends. He also enjoys spending the majority of his time with his dear wife Marissa. Dylan is a forklift driver/laborer at a machine shop. Dylan is funny, loving, outgoing, charismatic, and adventurous. He enjoys fishing, riding ATV’s and travelling. The most important thing to him is his family and growing that family. Dylan grew up with a mother that had alcohol and substance abuse issues, so he has always wanted to keep that from happening to another family. Sometimes he had nothing to eat and wore clothes that were too small for him. Dylan is the oldest child and has a younger brother. Dylan is very close to his younger brother and his grandparents basically raised him. His biological father has nothing to do with him. So being a good father is a very high priority to Dylan.

Marissa enjoys shopping, dressing up, doing her makeup, line dancing, cooking and camping. Marissa also enjoys spending time with her pets and her friends/family. She enjoys learning about new cultures and about history. She likes to watch Food Network to learn new recipes and about different foods. Marissa likes making new friends and talking to different people. She has always had the dream of being a mother and raising a family with her husband Dylan. Marissa enjoys part of her church and helping people when help is needed. Marissa was raised as an only child and seemed to have the better qualities of life, compared to her husband. She considers herself very close to her mother.

As a family, we are nowhere perfect. In fact, we are just two imperfect people who want to raise a family and live the American dream just like anyone else.

We live on the outskirts of a city out in the country. We have a three bedroom and two half bath home. It is a single story with a front porch and a fenced backyard for the children to play and the pets to roam free. We live down the street from a gymnastics center and an elementary school. The local high school is not far, along with a gas station. The neighborhood is made up of families with children and older people.

Since we have been doing foster care, our two bedrooms are already made up for children. We also have stuff baby proofed and baby gates put up. We have no garage, just an outbuilding for storage and an attic. The house is about 1,500 square feet and very cozy. We do live on a somewhat busy main road but is mainly used for the residents that live in the neighborhood. We have lived in this house for the last two years. People are very friendly and willing to help you out if needed.

Not much is left of Marissa’s extended family. Marissa is an only child and lost her father in April 2023. Marissa’s father died suddenly of a massive heart attack. Both her mother’s parents are deceased and as well as her father’s parents. Marissa has two aunts that she has no relationship with, for a variety of reasons. Marissa has one 1st cousin whom she was raised with, like a sister and she has two children, ages three and nine years old. All Marissa has left is her mother.

When Marissa’s family was all living there were a lot of good and happy times. Big dinners on Sundays at her grandmother’s house and packed in the small living room, where only the walls could hear the conversations. Christmas trees were lined with presents and laughter, and hugs were welcomed. Marissa’s mother and father were married for 31 years until his passing. Easter was a happy time and church was a priority, morals were taught, and respect was a must. Marissa wants her unborn child to experience the happy memories she enjoyed and still longs for.

Dylan’s mother suffered from substance and alcohol abuse issues. He and his brother were raised mostly by his paternal grandmother. Dylan basically raised his little brother by himself because she had issues with seeing and hearing. Dylan didn’t always have a good relationship with his mother. His biological father has no relationship with him. Dylan remembers not having clothes that fit or proper food to eat. Sometimes bills went unpaid, and Dylan moved around a lot from apartment to grandmother’s house, back to another apartment. Dylan has a stepmother, whom he doesn’t speak to, along with a stepsister. Dylan still has living grandparents on his mother’s side of the family. Dylan gets along great with his stepfather and considers him his father. Dylan is also close to his mother in-law and was close to his father in-law, before he died. Dylan also has many cousins that he gets along with and aunts and uncles to match. When Dylan met Marissa, he found a reason and a sense of family and how a family should be. That’s what he wants to
continue to have with Marissa and his future children.

Family traditions consist of going camping multiple times throughout the summer, and going to the beach once or twice a year. We also enjoy reading the “The Night Before Christmas” on Christmas Eve. We enjoy attending New Years parties and going on red eye bus trips. We try to go to the park and watch our pets play. Another tradition is we eat cabbage on New Years, so we have plenty of money the entire year through. We also believe in letting the door open on New Years, to let the old out and welcome in the New Year.

Another family tradition, and old wives’ tale that we believe is, if you wrap a baby blanket up for a couple on Christmas Eve and open it Christmas Day, a new baby will happen the following year. We also enjoy watching the ball drop on New Years and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Family Vacation”, along with “Home Alone”. However, we also enjoy new traditions that other families may experience.

First, we started in foster care with no luck. Then we had issues with infertility, and we decided adoption was the best way to give love to the child we so desired.