The road to becoming parents was a bumpy one for us, but worth every tear. After struggling with infertility, we decided to pursue adoption when 2.5 years later we became miraculously pregnant with our miracle son, Mateo. Mateo, however, was born with a rare chromosomal abnormality, which greatly shortened his life to only 36 days. Mateo taught us the meaning of unconditional love and to see beauty in places we did not expect. By his life, we have learned how to embrace the joy of the moment and let go of fear of the future. Shortly after Mateo's passing, we started the adoption process again, and were blessed with our second son, Lucas. Mateo is our child who made us parents, but Lucas is our child who made our dream of raising a child come true. We thank Lucas's birth parents daily for their selfless gift, by giving us the honor of being this precious boy's parents. Since Lucas's adoption we became pregnant a second time only to lose that child in an early miscarriage. Being parents to our three children has been our biggest blessings. We can't wait to grow our family further and give Lucas the gift of being an older brother (again). We await to embrace even the hard times, because even in the suffering moments of being a parent, there is always joy to be found.

Vini is grateful to have a flexible work schedule that allows for telework options so we can have leisure time during the evenings and weekend.

When relaxing at home, we usually are outside in the backyard or on our patio or deck, playing with our 1-year-old son, Lucas, who brings such joy, laughter and light into our lives. There is never a dull moment with him around. Frequent scenes in our backyard include hearing Lucas's constant giggles from his swing, seeing him chase his favorite blue ball or "catch" the pets (we have a dog and three cats). Vini loves playing guitar and woodworking, Joy loves scrapbooking and photography. Indoors you will find us in the living room playing with Lucas in his playpen or in the library reading a book by the fire.

Our weekends are mostly spent either spending time with family, a frequent event for us, our friends, attending mass, going to a cultural or community event or traveling to nearby mountains. When we need to "get away" we most commonly will be found on some remote mountain trail either with a tent or by a nearby cabin enjoying the solitude of the mountains and each other's company. Another common place we will be found to "get away" is Joy's parents lake home about 1.5 hours from our home. Joy has many wonderful childhood memories at the lake. Vini enjoys paddleboarding, Joy enjoys water skiing and Lucas mostly enjoys splashing in the water and riding the boat.

Being an American and Guatemala family, we welcome and embrace cultural diversity. Vini grew up in Guatemala before moving to the United States when he was 12 years old. It is important to us to have diverse exposure for our child since we have differences in our own cultural upbringings within our own families. Over time, we have learned to embrace the difference of our backgrounds and to enjoy the similarities. For example, we are teaching our son Lucas, to speak the languages, English and Spanish. The D.C. area is a melting pot for different cultures and ethnicities. We have countless opportunities to attend some of the best cultural events, festivals, museums in the nation. These nationally recognized museums also provide a variety of programming for children to widen their horizons through education. Educations is a very important value we want to instill in our children, as is learning to accept and embrace different cultures and ethnicities.

We enjoy living in a single-family home in a suburb of Virginia near Washington, D.C. Our neighborhood is a quiet, diverse, and very family friendly. A frequent scene from our living room window is children riding their bikes.

We love living within walking distance of restaurants, parks, and our home parish. We have one of the top public-school districts in the nation. We especially enjoy the local parks where we take family walks with our dog Jackson. Behind our home is a stream that runs along a nature trail. Jackson loves exploring the woods and Lucas loves splashing in the stream on hot summer days.

Our favorite place to spend time in our home is the library listening to music or reading to each other by the fire. We also love spending time eating dinner on our deck or having refreshments on our patio. Jackson loves the big backyard and Lucas loves the swing set there.

We love the "small town" feel of where we live. There are a variety of events that occur in the "downtown" area. In summer, we love packing a picnic to listen to live music on Friday evenings. We love setting up our lawn chairs in front of our church on the fourth of July for fireworks and watching children have their faces painted. Our favorite community tradition is the carnival in June including games, rides and food for the community to enjoy. We especially love the funnel cakes and the caricature drawings.

We are both extremely fortunate to have Joy's parents, Vini's mother (his father is deceased) and our siblings in our lives. They all live nearby and we see each other often.

We relish having weekly family dinners with Joy's parents and older brother. In the fall we cheer for our local football team with Joy's father, who is an avid football fan. In the summertime, we love to spend time at Joy's parents' lake home, where Joy has many pleasant childhood memories.

Vini is the youngest of five children. He was born and raised in Guatemala and moved to the United States with his family when he was 12 years old. Among his four siblings, Vini has two nieces and three nephews. We enjoy spending time engaging with them in their hobbies and interests. We frequently get together to enjoy time as a family which can be a large event with thirteen people involved.

We are both very blessed to have been born into supportive families that have helped us pursue our passions and dreams. Our childhoods were peaceful times full of laughter and love. It was our parents who instilled in us the values that we want to instill in the children we hope to adopt.

We know it may be overwhelming to read so many profiles of individuals who all would make wonderful parent(s) to your child. We do not want to try and guess how you may be feeling at this point in time. We hope that our profile has shown you a glimpse of us as a family and our shared values. We want to take this last chance to paint a picture for you of what type of home your child would be raised in and make you aware of what you can be assured of by us, if we are chosen to adopt your child.

It took years of arduous searching for us to find each other, but our search was greatly rewarded. We meet in 2016 and were married in 2017. We bonded over our shared values and love of the Catholic faith. We are grateful for the gift we have found in each other and the life we have started to create together. Our life is one of trust, loyalty, and encouragement. According to Vini, Joy has a heart of gold. Her personality is very bubbly, and she exudes with happiness and well, JOY. Vini states, "Joy just bursts with love, and anyone lucky enough to experience it is truly blessed and lucky." According to Joy, Vini is a very loyal, wise and affectionate man. He had positive values instilled in him as a child which he has bestown upon our own child. Vini is very responsible, honest and has high integrity. These are some of the main reasons of why Joy chose to marry him.

In 2021, after a long arduous process, we were blessed to grow our family by adopting our son Lucas. The name Lucas means "bringer of light," which is perfect for him, because he is the light of our lives. Our lives are now richer and fuller because of him. Joy has realized that her purpose in life is to be a mother and Vini can no longer imagine his life not being a father. We daily thank Lucas's birth parents for allowing us to be this precious child's parents. And now we await and pray to be able to give Lucas the gift of a sibling.

We are open to whatever comfort level you have in terms of ongoing communication. This could include emails, letters, photos, phone calls and yearly visits. Our intent is to be very open and honest with our child about their adoption story and your courageous decision in that journey. If you are comfortable, we want to create an "adoption book" to include their birth story, pictures of you, your family, the city where your child will be born and anything else you want to us to share with your child. This is something we have already done for our adoptive son Lucas. We will explain the story of their adoption to them at an age-appropriate level as he or she grows and develops.

When we think about the character traits that a woman must have to consider adoption, the words strength and bravery are what come to mind. We can imagine that you may be scared and nervous about the unknown during this process. However, let us assure you that if you choose us as adoptive parents, we will be fully dedicated to supporting cherishing, loving, educating, and guiding your baby to become the individual that God means for him or her to be in this world. Your child would be surrounded by love, not only by us, but also by his or her aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents who live close by and are as excited for us to adopt as we are.

We greatly admire the selfless decision you are considering by placing your child with another loving family to raise and care for. We would be eternally grateful for considering us for this gift. We would make sure that your child is aware of the courageous woman you are and selfless decision you made.

Vini & Joy