Elena is the oldest of three children. Her parents, brother and sister all live in Baltimore, Maryland. Elena is lucky to come from a very large extended Italian family. She is one of 25 grandchildren on her Mom's side making get-together's fun, frequent, and big. The next generation is growing fast, your child will have many little cousins to play with. Family get-togethers include story-telling, Bingo, and Bocce ball! There is always something to celebrate! We visit Baltimore 4 to 5 times a year and spend a week or so in town over Christmas. Visits home always center around food: family dinners, barbecues, and steamed crabs are staples when we visit Baltimore.
Elena's parents just celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary, which speaks volumes about the importance of family and commitment. Your child will be the first grandchild for Elena's parents and Chris' parents, which means lots of love and attention!
Chris' parents, 2 younger sisters, and younger brother live in Chicago. His oldest sister is a school teacher and has a long term boyfriend. His youngest sister is a social worker and engaged to be married in 2008. His brother is a regional manager for a large retail electronic store.
Chris’ Family and Elena’s Mom on Vacation in Greece
Chris' parents have been married for 40 years and are a great example to us. His father is retired and his mother works part-time as an accountant. They spend free time exercising, visiting with friends, and performing home repairs. Chris' mother is Polish and Italian and the family grew up attending Catholic mass every Sunday. His father is Greek and their family also participated in activities with the Greek Orthodox church. In fact, we made a special trip to Chicago this year to attend "Greek Easter" and enjoy their ethnic traditions, especially the food.
It's great having Chris' immediate family all in one city so we get to see everyone on our visits. His family is very active, we're always doing fun things on our visits like fishing, dance lessons in the park, visiting museums, canoeing, and touring the sites.
Last year Chris' parents, siblings, along with Elena's Mom all traveled to Europe to visit where their families immigrated from. Chris' paternal grandparents were born in Greece and we visited the town they were from. We also visited a beautiful small town in the mountains of Italy where his maternal great-grandparents lived. Elena's mother was born in Italy and we explored her history in her home town with her relatives. It was a wonderful experience to witness things we had only heard about growing up.
Our families cannot wait to meet the newest addition to the family. They are very excited to be first time grandparents, aunts, and uncles!
Our House and Neighborhood
Our Home in the Spring
We live in the suburbs of our friendly city in Tennessee. Our happy home is a beautiful 2 story brick home in a new subdivision. We have three bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a formal dining and living room, a nice open kitchen and den and a huge bonus room. It's a wonderful neighborhood offering a paved biking/walking trail along side a river and a large aquatic center less than a block from our home. It includes a "baby pool" for children under 5 years of age and has a fun playground right on the premises. The neighborhood is filling fast with new families with young children. Our community has an excellent public school system, private schools, a YMCA, public parks, shopping malls, movie theaters, and lots of kids for your child to make friends with!
Neighborhood Pool
Our community association hosts fun family-friendly activities all year long such as: Easter egg hunts, summer luaus, Fall festivals, Halloween parties, and barbecues.
We chose this neighborhood because it is an ideal place to raise children. It is extremely safe and is tucked away in a small valley away from any busy streets. We are also 15 minutes away from a city where there are major universities, museums, professional sporting events and much more. We love it here and know your child will too!
American Adoptions, a private adoption agency founded on the belief that lives of children can be bettered through adoption, provides safe adoption services to children, birth parents and adoptive families by educating, supporting and coordinating necessary services for adoptions throughout the United States. For more information on American Adoptions please call 1-800-ADOPTION (236-7846).
