We are Titus, Marissa, Avrie and Sebastian! Thank you for coming to “meet” our family. We would much rather sit and drink coffee together as we share our life stories, but this will have to do for now. Feel free to reach out with any questions! We are so excited to meet and get to know you, if you feel that you want to learn more about us!

We respect and appreciate you so much. We are humbled and so thankful that you would consider choosing us to love, parent, and raise your child. “Thank you” doesn’t feel like enough to say, but those are the words, 1,000 times over, that we’d like to express to you.

We have been talking about and praying to welcome another child as a family. We would love to extend our family to you, as well, sharing letters, photos, and in-person visits. We are praying for you specifically as you make decisions—that God will guide you and give you peace.

We met at the local hospital where we both worked as nurses. Titus had two boys from a previous marriage and we wanted to make sure that we would mix well as a family. We quickly learned that we were a good fit and we were married here in Florida in 2019. 

As nurses, we love helping our patients, but our home is our priority and our joy! Our home is one of financial and emotional stability, family time, many pets, and homemade meals for dinner! We prioritize family, education, and our faith in Jesus above all else. We also greatly enjoy traveling!

We have done a lot together in the last few years. We bought our home. We travel to Michigan twice each year for family reunions. We have planted several fruit trees, and we have acquired a number of family pets. We have established a whole lot of fun family traditions, and we continue to grow in love for each other more and more through daily living. 

Adoption is our family’s dream for our future. Our doctor has informed us that, unless there is a miracle, we won’t be able to have any biological children together. The verse that comes to mind when we think of our family’s infertility journey and our longing to adopt is: 

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 

Welcoming another child is our dream. It is surreal that we are this close to meeting the next member of our family, and we are thrilled! 

When I first met Titus, I thought he was caring, honest, good looking, and intelligent. I was right!! Our dating was intentional, because we both wanted to be sure that we were right for each other. We wanted to be able to support and love each other well! We knew quickly that we were right for each other, and as we’ve moved through life, our love has only grown!

Titus is an amazing dad to our boys, and a loving and supportive husband! He spends almost all of his time with us. He has high expectations of the boys and always believes in them. He is a natural teacher and makes every moment into a teaching moment. He is our provider and fearless leader, and we love him with all our hearts!

He enjoys his job and works hard. His patients love having him as their nurse. He is caring but also direct with them on what will help them heal. As he is with the boys, he is with his patients—a great teacher. All his coworkers love working with him as well.

He enjoys his motorcycle, video games with the boys, game nights with friends, and nature walks with me. He also enjoys our one-wheel and electric scooters and often will go on rides with the boys to talk and catch up. I feel beyond blessed to have married my best friend and to get to navigate work, life, and parenting with him! 

Favorite…

• Meal: Buffalo Chicken Pasta
• Color: Green
• Movie: Lord of the Rings

Marissa is the sweetest person you will ever meet. Her kind and gentle spirit are what I found attractive from the moment I met her. She strives for excellence in everything she does and I couldn’t ask for a better wife or mother to our children. 

Marissa works hard inside and outside the home. She shares my joys of family, nursing, the outdoors, and walks. She also enjoys reading, scrapbooking, journaling, sending annual Christmas cards, and visiting with family and friends (especially if it’s one on one).

We eat homemade dinners together at the table, and often this is where our best conversations happen! She also enjoys baking many different things (often with Sebastian) like cookies, donuts, fresh-fruit pies, and ice cream cakes. Birthdays are one of her favorites because she gets to bake (either a cake or pie depending on the child’s favorite) and decorate! 

She also enjoys being a part-time nurse at the local hospital where she gets to nurture, encourage, and educate patients. They often comment on how “sweet” she is and they are sad if she is not back the next day. She’s a natural at nursing and she can’t wait to apply the same nurturing, encouragement, and educating with any future children! Having children has always been her biggest dream. She plans to be a mostly stay-at-home mom. Any child will be well taken care of, with us both being loving parents and nurses! 

Favorite…

• Meal: Does coffee or ice cream count?
• Color: Aqua
• Movies: Pirates of the Caribbean, The Ultimate Gift, and The Princess Bride

The boys are such special blessings to us! Avrie is the responsible, caring, kind, and thoughtful older brother. He bought his own car, enjoys video games, and enjoys researching cryptocurrency. He is on track to graduate from his collegiate high school with his AA college degree in 2023. He is also working full time for a gentleman in our church, taking apart computers. We couldn’t be more proud of him and all his accomplishments at such a young age. 

Sebastian is a fun-loving, people-loving, thoughtful and kind brother. He loves being involved at his middle school. He is currently enjoying playing violin in orchestra, swimming in our community pool as often as he can, participating as the main character in his school play, growing plants, fencing, and baking/cooking anything he can! 

Both of the boys are looking forward to welcoming a new brother or sister into the family. They will be the best older brothers any kid could ask for, and they can’t wait to make many great new memories together!

Our home is our happy place where we can just be us and relax! We bought our home together here in Florida and couldn’t love it more! We hope to live in this home forever or at least for many, many years. We especially enjoy our fenced-in backyard which is perfect for children. Our two small dogs also love running around outside. 

Our neighborhood is gated and we have the best neighbors we could ask for! We enjoy hosting game nights and building bonfires in the back. We also enjoy the neighborhood pool, tennis courts, and walking trails. We love to walk together or ride around on our electric scooters. We love our kitchen where we eat dinner together and catch up on each other’s days. And we also love our family room where we can play games or watch movies together! We were given a beautiful white crib and changing station, and we often dream about the day we get to use them. 

The location of our home is about 10 minutes from several parks, splash pads, nature centers, and our church. We are about 30 minutes from the beaches which we enjoy together frequently! The sunsets here are out-of-this-world beautiful! We love to go for walks together and enjoy Florida life. We are also a couple hours away from Disney World and Universal! We really feel we couldn’t live in any better location.

We have both been blessed with very involved and loving families. Titus’ family is large because he is one of seven brothers. There are currently 21 cousins (the oldest is 16 and the youngest is due November 2022) and they LOVE the family reunions we have twice a year. They all get to play together and have a BLAST! Titus’ parents love all their grandkids and are very involved in their lives. His dad is a doctor and his mom is a retired-nurse. They visit us in Florida every year in addition to us visiting in Michigan, and they invite the boys to spend part of the summer with them.

Marissa’s family is local here in Florida and is also very involved and loving! They are only 20 minutes away. Marissa’s parents have us over for “family night” every week and we all look forward to dinner, games and visiting. Her dad works with heart attack patients in the hospital and her mom is a retired teacher. Her mom has already volunteered to watch any future children if we ever need to work, so we can keep them out of daycare. We get to sit with them at church every week which is another blessing! Marissa’s one brother visits monthly from Georgia and he also has a very young son. 

We really love nature and being outdoors! We go on nature or beach walks a couple times a week. We also enjoy games and play a variety of board games or card games together. We love walking (or riding our scooters) down to the community pool together to swim! It’s nice and refreshing, especially on our warmer days. 

We go to church as a family every Sunday. We appreciate that our church is so child-oriented with a children’s choir and ministry for each age group (including infants and preschool as well). Marissa grew up in all these various ministries, and she can’t wait to see a child enjoy and thrive in them as well! 

As we mentioned before, one of the highlights of our week is going to family night (at Marissa’s parents’ house) and this has become a much-loved tradition! We are all disappointed if we ever have to miss it!

We also enjoy traveling! We have been on a couple different cruises in the last few years and got to enjoy Jamaica, Saint Martin, Haiti, and the Bahamas. We also travel to Michigan several times and love visiting Gatlinburg, Tennessee. And, of course, we’ve visited Disney several times. Animal Kingdom is our favorite park. We also enjoy staying on the beach for a couple nights a few times a year with family! 

We have several holiday traditions! For Christmas we all look forward to getting a Christmas tree and reading the Christmas story together from the Bible. The boys look forward to opening oversized stockings and presents (while sipping on hot cocoa and munching on homemade cookies, of course). We usually go over to Grandpa and Grandma’s house afterwards, to share presents with them! We also enjoy the candlelight service at our church on Christmas Eve and usually, everyone gets to pick their favorite finger food to eat afterwards.

On Easter, we all go to church, get new outfits, eat a feast together, paint/find Easter eggs, and praise Jesus! On Halloween, our whole neighborhood sets up tables at the end of our driveways and all the adorable kids come by. Marissa’s favorite Halloween memory was when the boys dressed up as hospital patients while we wore our nursing scrubs and we all got to walk around the neighborhood together! 

On Thanksgiving, Marissa’s entire family gathers together, bringing different food items. We enjoy just being together and catching up on one another’s lives and what we are all thankful for! Our family really enjoys holidays (and food)! 

Thank you for taking this time to get to know us. Again, our admiration of you is so strong. We know that you are the only person in the world who knows what is best for you. Your dedication to give your child the best life you can is amazing. 

If we are chosen as adoptive parents, we will provide a child a loving, emotionally and financially stable home. They will be surrounded by children their age, and we will bring them up going to church, and will personally teach them from God’s Word. We will do our best as parents—loving, guiding, supporting, and protecting them—laughing with them, crying with them, and just doing all we can to let them know they are loved.

When they are young, they will never be in daycare—they will spend time with grandparents if we are working, and they will be provided the best education opportunities as they grow. They will travel and we will invest in their interests. We will give them the best life we possibly can, full of adventure, friends, and family!

We will remind them often of your love for them and hope to keep in contact with you if you’re willing. We would love to share letters, photos, and in-person visits. 

Thank you, again, for taking the time to get to know us! We are praying for you and wish you peace and love on this journey.