We are Mike & Ray and we are so appreciative of being considered for the amazing responsibility of becoming adoptive parents. We are a loving, silly, and hard-working couple and we’re excited to offer your child the best life possible through open adoption! We cannot wait to share our existing traditions, from boisterous holiday gatherings to slow Sunday mornings working in the garden, and to find out what new traditions will begin with a new member of the family. Thank you for taking the time to get to know us!

We have both always dreamed of being fathers and discussed our family plans very early on in our relationship. Ray’s mom and her siblings grew up in the foster care system and her experiences have always motivated him to choose adoption someday. We are lucky to be surrounded by a beautiful, growing family. Mike’s brother and cousins on both sides have young children whom we frequently spend time with. We also share an adopted nephew/godson who has the best laugh in the world! We love to visit and FaceTime with our nephews and godson often and put a smile on their little faces.  We knew adoption was the right choice for us for many reasons, and now we’re even more excited to expand our family through adoption.

We are blessed to both come from large, loving and diverse families. We always had a cousin to play with and aunts and uncles frequently babysat a few of us at a time.  As a result, many of our best memories are of long summer days being spent riding bikes to the beach or playing large-scale games of hide n’ seek.  With so many of our now adult cousins and their own children still local, we can’t wait to provide a child with similar core experiences.

Our Italian, Irish & Puerto Rican families are boisterous, loud, and full of love! Family holidays are chaotic events with homemade dinners and competitive games, and we can't wait to share all that with a new family member. In 2018 we established a tradition of hosting Father's Day, and we recently started hosting Christmas Day complete with over-the-top decorations.

Other annual events include Ray's family's Three Kings Day celebration and Mike's family's trip to Lake George where his brother and sister-in-law live. No year would be complete without the infamously fun Pig Roast, where the Puerto Rican pernil is cooked to perfection over an open flame while the kids play on a waterslide---at least until the DJ gets going!

We are so lucky to have a blend of unique family stories surrounding us.  Ray’s mother’s experience as a foster child that has always motivated him to adopt and someday foster.  We are both godfathers to an adoptee in the family, who came into our lives through Ray’s cousin and his husband.  We are so lucky to know that our future child will have cousins who are also adoptees.

We are so appreciative of being considered as adoptive parents and are excited to offer a child the best life possible. We have learned so much during this process and recognize our responsibility to educate ourselves about the unique challenges of adoption and possibly transracial adoption. We know we’re equipped to provide a loving environment where they feel empowered to explore and celebrate their identity.

We're so ready to make our house a home for one more! We hope to instill the same values that brought us together as a couple in our future child – empathy, curiosity, dedication, and compassion. Our goal is to create the healthiest and most supportive open adoption environment, centered around the love we will share as adoptive parents and birth parents. We look forward to updating you on milestones and experiences with photos, emails, and visits if you're willing.

Thank you for taking the time to read our book and for considering an adoption plan for this baby. We hope to raise a loving and happy child and we can promise to be an example of kindness and compassion in how we treat each other. We cannot wait to read to this child, play with them, and encourage them to discover their own interests.

We hope you can see how much love and stability we have to offer and can be confident that a child will thrive in a nurturing, supportive home with us as adoptive parents. We wish you all the love and luck as you decide what is right for you and your baby.

We met in the Fall of 2016 and fell in love by Christmas. A trip to visit Ray's cousin for New Year's Eve became a snowy, romantic place for Mike to say "I love you" for the first time, and we haven't looked back since! We connected right away over our similar upbringings, both coming from large families and shared memories of growing up with cousins who were more like best friends.  And holiday gatherings that tended to be loud, chaotic and filled with lots of laughs! Once we were emotionally and financially prepared, we began researching adoption shortly after we were married in 2021.

Our Favorite Activities:

- Exploring local parks and beaches

- Trying new restaurants (preferably with live music!)

- Walking the nearby downtowns with our adorable dog, Archer

Mike is one of the smartest, kindest, goofiest people I know. He has the biggest heart and is passionately loyal to his friends and family, constantly going out of his way to make sure that those he loves are happy and comfortable. He is thoughtful, considerate, and the true definition of a partner. I love watching how he always gravitates to the children in our lives and enthusiastically jumps in to play and engage on their level. I can't wait to watch Mike become a father!

Mike grew up on Long Island nearby his large family and considers his close-knit group of cousins to be his best friends. He is an attorney for our local government and works to conserve green space in the county's communities.

He is an avid reader, Yogi, and cyclist. Mike enjoys performing in musicals and exercising his mind, body, and soul. We share a passion for music, which provides a perfect background for our dance parties with Archer!

I am an adventurous, dramatic, bookworm who loves a day at the beach. I love to find a unique experience wherever Ray & I go, from a tour of the New York Botanical Garden to a mac & cheese crawl in Philadelphia. I’ve always been confident in my decisions, whether it’s moving to Minneapolis for law school or asking Ray to meet my family after only a few weeks. I commit to my decisions and am fiercely loyal to my loved ones. I am a government attorney, which is an intellectually challenging job, so I make the most of my time with my friends and family! My primary love language is quality time, which is definitely something I learned from my parents. We spent summers with my siblings taking memorable road trips to major league baseball stadiums and beautiful sites across the country. One of my most cherished memories is of my family playing cards on a rainy vacation day and I can’t wait until Ray & I get to make our own family memories taking road trips and having sing-a-longs! I also really hope future child likes puzzles and board games as much as I do.

Ray is the funniest person I know and a dedicated husband, brother, son, cousin, and friend. He has always treasured his familial relationships, and one of the earliest things we bonded over was our love of cooking and sharing meals with our loved ones.

When Ray is not working as a Vice President at his marketing consulting firm, he might be making a fresh batch of sofrito with his abuela's recipe or enjoying a new book or video game. Ray also loves to be physically active by running, weightlifting, and hiking with me and our dog, Archer.

Ray is a caregiver, and he makes sure that the people he cares about know he loves them, whether it's through laughter, food, or showing up for a birthday party that's hours away from home. He always shows up for me, and I can't wait to see how he shows up for the child as our family grows.

I would describe myself as an introverted extrovert.  I’m quick with a joke, comfortable in any social situation, and down to try almost anything once.  But my other side is a home body playing the latest PlayStation RPG or crocheting.  I find it to be really relaxing after a long day and I’m working on a baby blanket for our nursery!

I have always had a drive to succeed, and that passion most certainly comes from my mother who passed away when I was in High School.  I always admired how hard she worked for her family and how she never gave up despite the challenges life threw her way.  Her upbringing in the foster system molded her into a determined and independent person.  She inspired me to want to adopt and someday foster.  I can’t wait to pass her legacy on to our child.

We live on a quiet double dead-end street in a walkable, friendly, and diverse neighborhood, less than ten minutes from the beach. We are close to a few quintessential main streets filled with shops, restaurants, street fairs, two state parks, and the elementary school.

Our home sits on one acre of mostly wooded property, and our favorite part is the three-season room where we can maximize our time outside, hosting game nights, barbecues, and holidays.

We love exploring all the amenities the island has to offer - outdoor spaces, history, art, and culture. One of our favorite things to do is drive off-road to one of Long Island's outer beaches, park on the dunes and spend the entire day enjoying the surf and sand. With NYC close by, it's also easy to visit a friend in Brooklyn or see a concert or Broadway show.

When it's warm out, we like working in the garden or hiking in one of the beautiful nearby parks.  We spend a lot of time maintaining our rose garden of over 50 different rose bushes which fill the yard with color, beauty and sweet fragrance all summer long! If the weather isn’t cooperating, you'll often find us enjoying a cozy night in playing board games with friends, watching a funny movie with homemade popcorn, or reading by the fireplace.

Long Island is filled with great walkable main streets that we love to explore. Our local communities host family-friendly festivals and we even just discovered a new farmer’s market nearby that we hope to bring a child to one day.

We love to travel and experience new cultures, particularly through delicious food! One of our favorite trips together was spent in Portugal taking in the rich history and enjoying the scenery! We love the peace that comes with being near the water, which we’re lucky to have very close to home.