You decide whether you would like to let them adopt your baby.

We are here for you to help make the decision that best suits your needs.

Hello from Rachel and Raffaele!

We thank you for reading our letter.

We are a warm and fun-loving family who are looking forward to expanding our family through open adoption and we know that we have room in our hearts for another child. We appreciate your consideration as you are making your decision and honor the thoughtful choice you are making. Family comes first when making decisions and we want to assure you that a baby placed into our loving arms will be loved unconditionally.

About Us

Before we met six years ago, we each were very independent, spending time developing our careers, hobbies, and friendships. Now that we have been married for five years and gave birth to our son Antonio, it is hard to believe that we were ever apart. Family is very important to both of us and we love focusing our lives around building and enjoying our family. Our children will grow up with a loving and large extended family throughout the world. All of our family is supportive of our plans to adopt and welcome a new family member!

Even before we had our son, we began thinking about adoption. We are fortunate to have close family connections to adoption, as one of Rachel's brothers has adopted two daughters through open adoption, and we have been able to witness first hand the joys that their family has experienced. We are also excited that a child will have close cousins and three friends to share in their experiences. Our close friends are like family to us, which contributes to our belief that families come together in many ways, and the important thing is the love that we all have for each other.

As a family we take interest in all cultures and we welcome a child from another ethnicity and culture. We have a bilingual household (Raffaele speaks Italian to Antonio, and Rachel is learning it too); and as a teen exchange student, Rachel learned to speak Flemish. We have Italian books and videos and look forward to expanding our collection to include another culture or language. We all love the water and whenever possible we enjoy playing on the beach or taking a sailboat out with friends and let the kids play “captain”.  Our relatives live far away (San Diego, East Coast and Italy) but we make sure we alternate traveling to visit them for our vacations and while in the area, we like to explore surrounding places and visit historical sites.

Our Values

As a couple, we consider ourselves to be relaxed and easy going. We are active, responsible and organized parents, yet we take time to appreciate the little things like watching a bug when our child asks us to stop.  Family, education, spirituality, and having fun are important to us. We feel fortunate to have been able to create a lifestyle that allows us to enjoy our family life. Rachel works part-time so that she can be with the family during the day and help out at the preschool when needed.  Raffaele’s flexible work hours allows us to have a leisurely, homemade, family breakfast every morning. Our family evening activities involve cuddling up and reading bedtime stories.  We also go to the library for story hour and to check out books and videos to help instill the importance of reading.  Prayer and helping those in need with food and clothing is another way we convey our concern for others in the world.  We attend a non-denominational Christian church two to three times a month.

About Raffaele by Rachel

Raffaele was born and raised in Ivrea, a small city in Northern Italy. He is the oldest of three children. He came to the United States over ten years ago on a temporary assignment from his Italian employer and decided to stay. He works as a software programmer for a large computer company in the Silicon Valley and loves his dynamic work environment. A jack-of-all-trades, Raffaele likes to paint and fiddle with various musical instruments. He is an avid sailor and every May he participates in a large boat race in the San Francisco Bay and we all go to cheer him up at the finish line.

Raffaele is a great husband and super dad because he is so funny and loving. He loves being a father and looks forward to parenting another child. He is awesome with Kid-nex and Legos.

Although Raffaele's parents live in Italy they call often and through our web cam, they can see and talk to our family and their grandson. We look forward to their visiting when we have a new baby and plan to stay for a while to help out.

About Rachel by Raffaele

Rachel is a joyful and loving mother and wife. She is originally from Connecticut and is the oldest of four children. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Education and came to California to finish her graduate degree in Counseling. Rachel loved California and decided to stay. She now works part time, so she can spend a lot of time being a mom. As teacher in a local community college, she helps disabled students, and as a therapist, she counsels couples, families, and children.  Sewing, hiking, reading, and yoga are some of her passions and she looks forward to the winters to go skiing and ice skating.

Rachel is a very thoughtful and caring person. As an aunt to six nieces, she always sends them small gifts for Halloween and Valentine's Day. She also makes meals for the mothers in her baby group who have just given birth and she takes excellent care of Antonio and me. She is very involved with Antonio, loves taking him to the park, kid classes and play groups. Rachel is a natural mother and is looking forward to loving another child.

Antonio, Our Son

Antonio is a funny, talkative, and social four year old. He really enjoys running and climbing in the park and most recently, riding his new bicycle. He likes to help with whatever mom and dad are doing and enjoys gardening right along side us. He is very happy when family comes to visit and even talks to his cousins and grandparents on the web cam. Recently he has been inviting the neighborhood children to dinner. He just seems like he would be a natural big brother and is already feeding the younger babies in our weekly play group. Antonio is excited about being a big brother and often tells us how he will take care of a baby sister or brother.

Our Home and Neighborhood

Our home is in a quiet neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area, just north of San Jose.  We have a three-bedroom house with a nice large backyard and we are very close to good schools. Our house is very comfortable and often has a “lived in” look with lots of books, toys and puzzles around.  We have trees for climbing, a sandbox for digging, and a garden for picking fruit and vegetables, if the squirrels do not get to the plants first. In the past two years a few couples with young families have moved into the neighborhood so now there are many children of similar ages that can play together. Our neighbors are from all around the world and speak many different languages.

Contact Us

We wish you well in your decision and hope that you want to learn more about us.   We can assure you, that as parents, we will provide a secure and loving home to a child.

Please contact us through our friendly lawyer Susan Romer at 1.800.823.6788 or email at adamsromer@aol.com, or contact us directly at 1.888.737.1522 or e-mail at contact@rachelraffantonio.us.

Sincerely,
Raffaele and Rachel

Back to "Families"