The Story of Us
Our marriage is one built on love, trust, honesty, friendship, and respect for who we are as individuals, as well as who we have become as a couple. We first met in January 2010 when Mary was lecturing in one of my forensics classes. The class ended and we never spoke that day but did run into each other again about six months later when I interviewed for a position at the Chief Medical Examiner's Office where Mary works. By the end of the interview Mary didn't want to hire me but the person who would be my direct supervisor did. Needless to say I was offered the position and accepted.
It was almost 7 months months after I started working at the office that Mary actually spoke to me, but something clicked. We would rarely see each other since I worked midnight shift and Mary days but when we did we would chat and something was growing between us. Before you knew it we were talking about grabbing dinner. We officially started dating in March of 2011 and we quickly knew that we had found our respective soul mate. We were engaged in September 2011 and began planning our wedding for summer of 2012.
It was almost 7 months months after I started working at the office that Mary actually spoke to me, but something clicked. We would rarely see each other since I worked midnight shift and Mary days but when we did we would chat and something was growing between us. Before you knew it we were talking about grabbing dinner. We officially started dating in March of 2011 and we quickly knew that we had found our respective soul mate. We were engaged in September 2011 and began planning our wedding for summer of 2012.
We married on a hot and I mean hot summer day in July 2012 in front of all of our loving and supportive friends and family. While Mary walked down the aisle to a traditional slow song I danced down the aisle to the Bruno Mars song "Marry You." It was a day that I know neither of us will ever forget. To this day, we continue to enjoy regular date nights and we rediscover our love every day. We know that our love will make a strong foundation for our family. We both grew up in loving, supportive homes where the most valuable thing in life was family. We want to offer that same enduring love to your child.
Lisa has one sister and one brother. Her sister Jenny has five kids ranging in age from 7 to 22. We are closest with Jenny and her family. Her brother Jamie is divorced and has two girls, but unfortunately we don't get to spend much time with girls. Lisa's dad passed away 6 years ago; her mom lives about 40 miles away and we see her fairly often. Mary's parents are both deceased and she she two older sisters. She has two nieces who have their own families; one lives in Virginia and the other in Illinois. Due to distance we don't get to see them very often but we try to get together at least once a year. Last year, her niece Jenny and her family came to visit us for a few days. We took them to Hersheypark where we did a tour of the chocolate factory and made our own candy bars! During the summer her sister Ellen came to visit and we visited a beautiful garden and butterfly arboretum.
Lisa has one sister and one brother. Her sister Jenny has five kids ranging in age from 7 to 22. We are closest with Jenny and her family. Her brother Jamie is divorced and has two girls, but unfortunately we don't get to spend much time with girls. Lisa's dad passed away 6 years ago; her mom lives about 40 miles away and we see her fairly often. Mary's parents are both deceased and she she two older sisters. She has two nieces who have their own families; one lives in Virginia and the other in Illinois. Due to distance we don't get to see them very often but we try to get together at least once a year. Last year, her niece Jenny and her family came to visit us for a few days. We took them to Hersheypark where we did a tour of the chocolate factory and made our own candy bars! During the summer her sister Ellen came to visit and we visited a beautiful garden and butterfly arboretum.
Being from fairly big families with lots of children Mary and I were both eager to grow our family and become parents and our first thought was adoption but we ultimately decided to give fertility treatments a try first. After battling through over two years of infertility, with several failed attempts and a miscarriage we decided to take a deep breath, rise above our sorrow, and reassess what was important and that was to have a family, so we decided why not go back to the very start...adoption! We shared our plans with our closest friends and family and were met with sincere unbridled enthusiasm.
We absolutely adore children and thoroughly enjoy spending time with and taking care of them. In 2013, we invited Lisa's sister, Jenny, and her four children to Disney World for a once in a lifetime vacation. Eight of us and our luggage jammed into an SUV and drove 14 hours and we were all still happy when we got there!
Our nieces and nephews love to come visit and spend weekends at our home. In May 2015, we had five of them over for a Frozen themed sleepover. We watched Frozen, of course, but also other movies; camped out in the living room; ate popcorn and each of us made our own personal pizza. The kids ranged in age from 10 to 21. It's great that we all get along and always have fun when we are together. We look forward to introducing our precious little one to these fun times and more.
We love to travel and cannot wait to share those experiences with a child. Our first big trip was a cruise to Alaska. On our honeymoon to Hawaii, we left early because of an incoming hurricane that was headed our way; only to be awakened on our first night in our resort to the sound of the emergency siren. Little did we know that a tsunami was threatening the island and we had to be evacuated from our room and spend the first night of our honeymoon camped out on the floor of the lobby with hundreds of other people. Everything turned out fine and the rest of the trip was amazing!
We have taken several trips to Florida, visiting Disney World and Universal Studios and love having our picture taken with our favorite characters! ure as well as celebrating New Year's Eve in Las Vegas. And we love having our picture taken with our favorite characters too! We are looking forward to fun at Disney and Universal Studios, as well as day trips to the zoo, aquarium, sporting events, ice cream factories, Hersheypark, and many more adventures. We are lucky to have family and friends nearby so we will have many people who love our family and be ready to join us on our adventures.
In September, Mary and I took our first solo trip to Disney and had an amazing time. Even though it was hot and there were lots of people, the memories we made were worth it.
Our oldest niece and nephews visited for a weekend in October and we went to Philadelphia for the 1st Annual Cheesesteak Festival and carved pumpkins!
We love when they visit. What a blast!
In September, Mary and I took our first solo trip to Disney and had an amazing time. Even though it was hot and there were lots of people, the memories we made were worth it.
Our oldest niece and nephews visited for a weekend in October and we went to Philadelphia for the 1st Annual Cheesesteak Festival and carved pumpkins!
We love when they visit. What a blast!
In November we took a road trip to Niagara Falls, Canada. Neither of us had visited before and all we could say was "WOW". What an amazing display of natural beauty. We always knew that water was strong but never realized just how strong and powerful until we witnessed these falls ourselves. We went on two boat rides into the falls, one during the day and another at night. We also visited nearby Niagara on the Lake and that was stunning as well.
Our home
We live in a large 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, two story home with a finished basement. We have a fenced in backyard with an in-ground swimming pool. We plan to spend plenty of time playing and relaxing outdoors. Our lovely home is in a quiet, safe, and family friendly neighborhood that boasts green lawns on tree lined streets. Within walking distance is a community park with a playground, tennis courts, and basketball courts. We live near a lake that is great for beautiful kayaking adventures and a state park with lots of walking/biking trails. We can’t wait to take our child on after dinner walks through the neighborhood in the summertime. We hope our child will enjoy our neighborhood as much as we do.
Our Fur-babies
We love our precious Yorkshire puppies, Rizzoli and Gemma, with all of our hearts. They are both so full of personality and spunk. They love to play with the kids when they visit and are very protective of both of us. Since bringing Sophie home they have also become very protective of her as well.
About Lisa by Mary
Lisa is most often described as charming, witty, funny, and kind-hearted. She has a warm, welcoming spirit and an extremely quick witted sense of humor. Lisa seems to have a special connection with all children and has often been described as a "child whisperer". She enjoys completing little do-it-yourself projects around the house, reading, cooking, and going on road trips together with me. She enjoys learning new things and just recently built a gate to keep the dogs from getting off the deck. She looks forward to encouraging our child to push themselves to do better and to constantly learn new things and foster new passions. I'm proud to say that she will start volunteering at the local NICU as a cuddler in April.
Lisa is a part-time forensic death investigator as well as a part-time administrative assistant for a non-profit organization, but is looking forward to enjoying all of the "firsts" and special daily moments as a stay-at-home mommy.
Lisa is most often described as charming, witty, funny, and kind-hearted. She has a warm, welcoming spirit and an extremely quick witted sense of humor. Lisa seems to have a special connection with all children and has often been described as a "child whisperer". She enjoys completing little do-it-yourself projects around the house, reading, cooking, and going on road trips together with me. She enjoys learning new things and just recently built a gate to keep the dogs from getting off the deck. She looks forward to encouraging our child to push themselves to do better and to constantly learn new things and foster new passions. I'm proud to say that she will start volunteering at the local NICU as a cuddler in April.
Lisa is a part-time forensic death investigator as well as a part-time administrative assistant for a non-profit organization, but is looking forward to enjoying all of the "firsts" and special daily moments as a stay-at-home mommy.
About Mary by Lisa
Mary is most often described as funny, passionate, selfless and supportive. She puts the needs of others above those of herself. She grew up on a large farm in Western Maryland so she has always enjoyed gardening, bird watching, and just about anything outdoors. She looks forward to nurturing and raising a child in a warm, unconditionally loving, and supportive environment. She is extremely hard working and dedicated. Mary is also excited to include our child on our many family road trips and vacations we take frequently.
Mary is a forensic pathologist (medical examiner) and holds a supervisory position in Maryland. Thanks to Mary's hard work, we are very financially stable. And due to her position, she has flexibility in her schedule which will allow her to be very involved and hands on with our child!
Mary is most often described as funny, passionate, selfless and supportive. She puts the needs of others above those of herself. She grew up on a large farm in Western Maryland so she has always enjoyed gardening, bird watching, and just about anything outdoors. She looks forward to nurturing and raising a child in a warm, unconditionally loving, and supportive environment. She is extremely hard working and dedicated. Mary is also excited to include our child on our many family road trips and vacations we take frequently.
Mary is a forensic pathologist (medical examiner) and holds a supervisory position in Maryland. Thanks to Mary's hard work, we are very financially stable. And due to her position, she has flexibility in her schedule which will allow her to be very involved and hands on with our child!
A little more about us...
We both love food and trying new food. Lisa enjoys cooking and experimenting with new recipes and Mary enjoys all of Lisa's experiments! We both enjoy music and attending concerts, most recently we attended Bruno Mars, Melissa Etheridge, and Miranda Lambert. Our tastes in music is very broad as is our taste in movies. We love all Disney movies but also enjoy a good romantic or action movie. Lisa tries to get Mary to watch Hallmark and Lifetime movies but Mary laughs at her and usually falls asleep ten minutes into the movie!
The child we welcome into our lives through adoption will never go without constant love.
We along with all of our friends and family have already been praying for our future adopted child and that child's entire birth family.
We both love food and trying new food. Lisa enjoys cooking and experimenting with new recipes and Mary enjoys all of Lisa's experiments! We both enjoy music and attending concerts, most recently we attended Bruno Mars, Melissa Etheridge, and Miranda Lambert. Our tastes in music is very broad as is our taste in movies. We love all Disney movies but also enjoy a good romantic or action movie. Lisa tries to get Mary to watch Hallmark and Lifetime movies but Mary laughs at her and usually falls asleep ten minutes into the movie!
The child we welcome into our lives through adoption will never go without constant love.
We along with all of our friends and family have already been praying for our future adopted child and that child's entire birth family.
Our Baby Girl
After what seemed like an eternity, we met and matched with an amazing expectant mother on Facebook. Our first contact was in April and our amazing little Sophie was born in July! While we couldn't be happier we have always known that we would like to adopt two children who can grow up together and have an awesome life together. Both Mary and I have siblings and the fun time, love, and friendship that develops between siblings is like no other!
After what seemed like an eternity, we met and matched with an amazing expectant mother on Facebook. Our first contact was in April and our amazing little Sophie was born in July! While we couldn't be happier we have always known that we would like to adopt two children who can grow up together and have an awesome life together. Both Mary and I have siblings and the fun time, love, and friendship that develops between siblings is like no other!