Anthony’s Extended Family

Anthony comes from a great family! He is the oldest of three boys and has a lot of extended family. His middle brother has a daughter age 11 and two boys ages 8 and 5 who can't wait to have a little cousin. Anthony's parents live minutes away, as do 2 sets of aunts and uncles, and his brothers are not far either. Our family is a close knit group and we often gather for Sunday dinners, holidays, vacations and other special occasions. Just recently the entire gang went to Disney World for a week. It was our niece and nephews first trip and they are already planning their next!

Shannon’s Extended Family at a Wedding

Shannon also has a wonderful family. She has no biological siblings, but has a step-sister as well as a step-brother that we share many commons interests with. We all go pumpkin picking in the fall up in the mountains and the summertime brings lots of baseball games and beach days. Shannon's parents divorced when she was a child, but have long since remarried and all four grandparents, six including Tony's parents, are very excited about our adoption plans. Your child will never be short on love in this family!

We also have a great network of close friends that we consider more family than friends. Our friends all know of our difficulties in having a child and they are super excited about our adoption plans and cannot wait until we get the chance to give a baby a loving, caring and fun-filled home. We spend a great deal of time with our friends. We do numerous mini-vacations throughout the year with them. We love going to find new things to do and try and have made habits of some of our favorites such as New York City, Pennsylvania Dutch country and numerous shopping areas. And if you're wondering how we'll fair with a baby in tow, never fear, all of our friends have children ranging in age from newborn to teens, and they have gone with us just about everywhere!! Your child will have great exposure to many different things whether it's the newest musical on Broadway, a traveling historical exhibit in Philadelphia or plain ol' fun in Walt Disney World.

Our Home

We live in a terrific community in NJ in an area that was marketed as the country by the shore, and it really is! There are farms not more that 30 minutes west of us where we can pick our own fruits and veggies and 5 minutes in the other direction is the bay where we have a public beach and community dock for recreational activities. If we want to go to the ocean beach, well that's about 10-15 minutes away. We are close to everything; farms, camping, beaches, boardwalks and more!!

Our town has numerous activities throughout the year, not only for children, but for parents and children also. We have little league and cheerleading, but we also have things like the mother/son carnival, the father/daughter Valentine's dance, fishing and crabbing contests, drive-in movies, cardboard boat races, the Halloween parade and so much more.

Amusement Pier at the Nearby Boardwalk

Our home is a three bedroom ranch on a cul de sac with a large backyard. We have a small dog named Buddy that I'm pretty sure could get lost back there, but then again, at 9 ½ lbs., he could get lost in a large box! We have an above ground pool with a self locking gate as well as a hot tub, again under lock and key. We have a small garden on one side of the house and a horseshoe pit on the other. Even with all of that, there is still a lot of room to run around and plenty of room for a great big swing set someday! Our neighborhood is continually growing and there are many children here. Your child will have many friends to play with including Anthony who is a perpetual child at heart. Even now he goes outside to play with the neighborhood kids. Since we live on a cul de sac, the kids in the neighborhood have a nice quiet street to play some basketball or whiffle ball on. We couldn't be happier with our neighborhood.