Craig and Mark
Location: Massachusetts
Ages: 37 and 31
Religion: Catholic
Professions: COO, Retail Chain/8th Grade Teacher
Other Kids: 1 daughter
Preferences: Caucasian/Hispanic/Bi-Racial/Asian, Either Gender, Newborn up to 2 years of age
How We Met: We met on a blind date, set up by a mutual friend of ours. We ended up at a local restaurant for our first date, and it was perfect! We ended up talking for over 4 hours about everything from where we grew up, our families, our jobs and our desire to build our families eventually someday through adoption. Over the next few months as we discovered how much we had in common, our love for each other grew. We both enjoyed how easy going we both were. We spent a few years traveling, enjoying our friends and family and solidifying our relationship. Craig proposed on opening day at Fenway Park behind home plate!
Qualities We Love, Admire and Respect in Each Other: Craig is the most compassionate, hardworking and selfless person I know. Craig is an amazing dad, very hands on with our daughter. He has a warm personality, great sense of humor and is amazingly kind. Mark has a smile that can light up any room. Mark is kind, generous and has a passion for animals including our two dogs Luna and Austin. Mark is always giving back including his countless hours supporting his students. Mark’s love of learning and education continues in our home with our daughter. He is always reading, playing and completing craft projects together with her.
Our Hobbies and Interests: We are a very active family. We spend as much time as we can with our families and friends. We are fortunate they all live very close! We both enjoy being active, being active outside and playing with our dogs, going to the playground, boating, and spending as much time together as we can outside as a family. Craig enjoys yard work, gardening and home improvement projects. Marks enjoys training for marathons, reading and supporting his students even with extra circular activities including the LGBT club. We attend weekly swim lessons and dance lessons at our local YMCA with our daughter. Together we share a passion for traveling and spending time at our Lake house in New Hampshire.
Why We Want to Adopt: We have always known that we wanted to have children. It’s been a guiding principle of our relationship. We were so blessed to have adopted our daughter in May of 2021. We have also been fortunate to be blessed with a beautiful extended family and we are excited for our daughter to have a sibling and to share in the joy that we can provide. We both grew up surrounded by a great deal of love and support. As parents we hope to do the same thing with our children and apply the same core values that we were raised with including, compassion, love, sense of family and a mutual respect for all. It has always been important to us to have children and we can’t wait to continue to grow our family through adoption.