Our most memorable moment yet which we refer to as a “miracle moment” is the arrival of our son, Joel. We vividly remember as if it happened just a week ago when we missed our specialist’s call while at work. It was frustrating to miss such an important call, so we spent almost all night wondering. The next morning we got the information via a conference call with the adoption specialist that a birth mother had chosen us for her son. We immediately began our journey as if being on the reality show "Amazing Race" as we could not wait to get to the hospital! Then came the highlight--arriving and finally seeing our son. No words can contain and describe our feelings, it was more than LOVE at first sight! We saw through our son’s wide-opened eyes the expression, "Here I AM, Mom, Dad, your wait is FINALLY OVER!” Tears of JOY welled up and from that moment on we just held him for as long as we could, savored every passing moment, every sound and motion he made. The years of emotional ups and downs that we experienced trying to build a family was replaced by PURE LOVE. It was indeed WORTH the WAIT! And in a heartbeat, we are just as willing to do it all over again if given another chance--GOD-willing...

We enjoy simple things. We are fortunate that Ed’s work is not too far from home which allows us to spend lots of quality time together. We get to visit and enjoy close-by park district playground frequently. On weekends, we make sure we set aside adequate time for church, family and friends or just bonding by ourselves.

During the warmer season, we enjoy doing yard work together, playing outdoor sports like badminton, volleyball, tennis, swimming, cooking out, riding bicycles, walking, day trips to nearby amusement parks, car shows, and attending neighborhood and community events on special holidays.

In the cold weather months, we like to watch movies and sports at home, play indoor games like foosball, host dinner for family and friends and try new places to eat out. We especially like snow days as we enjoy playing a lot in the snow, Joel riding his toboggan and making snowman and snow angels.

Ed About Mannie: Mannie is a very loving, compassionate, unselfish and generous person. She is very pious who goes to daily mass, responsible and thoughtful as she never forgets special occasions of families and friends. She really has good moral values and God-fearing that make her loved by almost every person she encounters. Also, she has the patience of a saint and perseverance to work out things that do not go our way. I like that she is concerned about our health and makes sure that she serves healthy meals. I see that Joel appreciates such qualities.

Mannie About Ed: Ed is a very loyal and devoted husband and dad. He always makes sure Joel and I are given top priority. He is very patient, understanding, conscientious, generous, and sympathetic not just to us but other people as well. He has a great sense of humor, which both my son and I love so much about him. Ed is handy and smart who tries his best to learn new ideas and fix things. This influences Joel to be inquisitive as well. He is also a very accommodating person, which Joel picked up as he is quite an entertainer himself!

We live in a split ranch with five bedrooms and three bathrooms, and good size backyard that is located in a quiet subdivision. We are surrounded by families with younger children who are often out playing together. We live three blocks away from a park district with a baseball field, bike trail, basketball and tennis courts, and a huge playground adjacent to a public school. Our suburb is very diverse when it comes to residents’ ethnicity and heritage. It has been named by a magazine as the “Best Town to Raise Kids” (and remains in the top 100 list) because of its friendly neighborhoods. Neighbors look out for one another and we are fortunate to have a community with low crime rates. Our public school system is well known for being one of the best and we have two private schools that are Blue Ribbon award winners. We are proud of our community that has amenities/facilities such as: three-park district pools including a wave pool, a forest preserve, a toboggan hill, a shopping mall with a variety of ethnic restaurants, local churches of different faiths, nearby hospitals and local clinics and a wonderful library system.

We both come from large families who are close-knit. Whenever we get together, we usually gather around the table sharing and enjoying each other’s recipes, watch sports on TV, play board games and when outdoors, we play badminton, volleyball and bean bag toss. Whenever we visit family overseas (Mannie’s side), our family there plans various activities like out of town trips and small parties.

The importance of family plays a big part in the Filipino tradition, which we impart to Joel. We always spend quality time having meals together and attending church. Celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and holidays are significant for us. We have great respect for the elderly.

Our family maybe just like any other family in various ways only, we give a lot of emphasis on developing values, which center on God. We have discovered that parenting is not solely focused on nurturing and rearing our children but in the process, it’s also bringing out the best in us as parents. Since this is our second adoption, our families are very excited to welcome another child whom they will love and care for just like how they are devoted to Joel.

Thank you so much for taking the time to view our profile and hopefully get to know us more. We understand that you may be going through a difficult time and making a very important decision at this moment for yourselves and your child most especially. First of all, we want to emphasize how precious the value of LIFE is for us-- The greatest gift from GOD who is the author of life itself.

We are Mannie and Ed. We’ve know each other since first grade , even though we did not become the best of friends until our later teen years, we believe God always had a plan for us to end up marrying each other. We’ll be married nineteen years this year and all this time nourished our relationship with openness and consistently supporting each other through good and challenging times. We believe that we’ve developed a stable, strong and solid relationship especially through the difficulties we hurdled with perseverance and God’s guidance.

We both come from big families three of which were adopted as newborns so the concept of adoptions is not strange to us at all. The last four years have been our best yet. By Divine plan, we were graced with Joel’s presence that brought us much deeper love, joy and enthusiasm not just to our marriage but to our extended families as well. He is an absolute proof of God’s miracle working in our life far more than we ever imagined. At this point and once again, we seek God’s guidance should it be His plan for us to grow our family and be entrusted another gift of life. If you would find us suited to become your child’s adoptive parents, we believe that our calling as parents is to provide our children a healthy, balanced, free and happy life. We will make sure that each child gets adequate attention based on their individual needs, be it physical, emotional, psychological or spiritual. We also give more emphasis on creating happy and unforgettable memories for our child to treasure than just showering them with material things. We feel that even the most simple and ordinary things done in extraordinary and fun ways will matter a lot to our growing children. We also give importance in developing and practicing good values. We will provide a home environment of which LOVE is its basic foundation. We also believe that more than any verbal advice we can share with our children, it’s our every appropriate action that will serve as REAL example in order to learn and develop good character themselves. Joel already exhibits good traits and habits and expresses his eagerness to become a hands-on big brother. He is aware of what his younger sibling will need and looks forward to teaching him/her a lot of good things. We are certain Joel is so deserving to have a sibling he longs to love and care for.

We understand adoption is an on-going learning experience for everyone involved but our concern is centered on doing what’s best for our children. Since Joel was born, we have been in contact consistently with his birth parents twice a year providing them detailed updates regarding Joel’s growth and development along with tons of photos we send. We have also expressed openness to be in touch with them more frequently and in some other ways as well like emails and phone calls. We will welcome and reach out to you in the same manner as your child will bind us as extended families. We are aware that this is a life-long commitment we’re taking upon ourselves should you choose us but rest assured that the LOVE and AFFECTION we have for one another will be shared with your child. We would be very honored to become your extended family. We pray for your strength and courage during this time. If you have any questions, please let us know, we would love to hear from you.

Ed & Mannie