Hello from Southern California! We are Adrianna & Shiva. Thank you for reading our profile. We want to give you a glimpse of us, our friends, families and the life your child will grow up with. We will not pretend to understand the difficulty of the decision you face, but we admire your strength.
Dear Birth Mother...
Why We Are Adopting
We are adopting because we have always wanted to adopt since college. We have waited to build a stable home first, and now we are excited to be on this new journey together.
Our Story
We are proud to say that we have built a comfortable and stable home supported by wonderful friends and family, where your child will love to grow. As a Chinese American growing up in Chicago and an Indian American starting out in Indiana, we always joked that it was a miracle to meet each other across the country in Southern California 10 years ago. When we first met each other, we were surprised that each of us had the desire to adopt. As we started our marriage journey, our decision to adopt was delayed as we took time to truly get to know each other, settle into our respective careers, enjoy married life, and build a stable and fun home together.
Our Hobbies
We enjoy sampling the various ethnic food scenes that Southern California has to offer, be it Persian, Mediterranean, Mexican, Korean, Japanese, English, or fusion; exploring new ice cream shops throughout the state; taking long walks by the beach with our doggie boys; relaxing at home with movie nights; or simply being silly by singing old Indian songs from the 80s while cooking or doing other house chores.
Shiva is an avid mountain and road biker and hits the trails over the weekends. He also organizes bike rides going out for a long ride along the coast. At present, Shiva is perfecting his “hand-made” ice creams and boasts that he will pass on his “secret recipe” to our child.
Adrianna loves to bake, currently perfecting croissants and panettone. She is also learning about lightings and exposure time in the world of photography, and dreams of taking a long trip to Norway to catch the perfect aurora borealis.
Meet Adrianna, by Adrianna
I was born in Beijing, and am an only child. Growing up, I have always wanted to adopt, and hoped that the person I marry would share this dream with me. In my professional life, I work on the intellectual property aspect of drug development to help bring treatment to patients suffering from rare diseases. I have the flexibility of working from home so that I can spend more time bonding with our child. I am excited to enter this new parenthood journey. Being a mom of fur babies has taught me to be infinitely patient, be sensitive to their needs, and be a creative problem solver. While I am sure there are so much more to learn, I am looking forward to the challenges ahead.
More About Adrianna, by Shiva
I waited for a long time before I decided to spend the rest of my life with the person I really wanted to be with, which I found in Adrianna. She is kind, tender, and generous, yet, courageous and strong. She always thinks about our family that is why I know she would be the most amazing mother who would do everything for her kid.
Adrianna's Interests
- Baking
- Running
- Listening to techno music and watching anime
- Making amazing cream of chicken and wild rice soup
- Collecting rocks and sea shells from the beach
- Landscape photography
Meet Shiva, by Shiva
I grew up in India amongst billions of people. My mom and dad have three kids and I am the middle child. My extended family is also big: with a total of 14 cousins on my mom’s side and 12 cousins on my dad’s side. Childhood was fun, filled with laughter and chaos in a family with kids of the same age. Growing up in a big family made me always want to have a family with kids. I always wanted to adopt and was waiting for the right person to start a family. In my professional life I am running a biotech company where I supervise the development of new drugs to treat cancer. I primarily work from home, where my doggie boys and I can spend more time bonding with our child. I love to spend time with my family. Weekends are the time where I hangout with my wife and my two doggie boys, TinTin and Sherlock, who mean the world to us.
More About Shiva, by Adrianna
I was initially drawn to Shiva because he has a presence and when he speaks, he commands the crowd. As I’ve grown to know him more, I discovered that he is also kind, incredibly goofy, attentive, and empathic. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, a strong moral compass, and I know he will be an amazing father.
Shiva's Interests
- Mountain biking
- Road biking
- Making ice cream
- Dream job - ice cream taster
- Loves to eat condensed milk
- Soccer
- Avid collector of old vintage toy cars
On Education
Education is important to us. While our education decisions have been to some degree influenced by our parents as well as by our environments growing up, we understand the importance of higher education. We also understand that a particular career choice does not define a person, nor can it be forced upon a person. Rather, it is the love of the subject itself that makes a person successful.
We want to pass on to our child that they can make their own choices and we will support them one hundred percent.
Our Home and Community
We live in a condominium community with multi-ethnic and multi-age neighbors in Southern California. Several of our neighbors have pre-school and elementary school aged children who love and often play with our dogs. The community has a heated pool, jacuzzi, tennis court, and racquetball court. Several nearby community parks are within driving distance. There are also hiking trails and horseback riding about 10-20 minutes away. And of course, the famous Southern California coastline is only about 25 minutes away.
We live in a 1,500 square-foot condo. The condo has three bedrooms and two baths and is single floor. The condo contains a large, cozy living room where we enjoy movie nights and generally being goofy; a comfy kitchen for cooking a variety of international foods (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indian, and a smattering of French); and a long hallway for playing indoor fetch.
Our Loved Ones
Shiva comes from a family of three kids, with an older brother and a younger sister. Adrianna is an only child. We have one niece and one nephew, both turning 10 this year. Since they do not live close to us, we video call weekly.
When we visit our parents, the visits often involve a lot of delicious traditional foods centered around different holidays.
• For example, Bengali New Year typically occurs during April and this is the time when a lot of yummy fried food are served, such as crispy fried fish head curry (a favorite of Shiva’s father), hilsa (a type of sweet freshwater fish) curry, prawn curry, and paired with a variety of vegetable curries and bread such as naans.
• Typically Chinese New Year occurs in February, and homemade dumplings are traditionally eaten on the morning of New Year’s day.
• September is usually when the Chinese Moon Festival occurs, and moon cakes are exchanged among family members and red envelopes filled with money are given to the children.
Our child will grow up surrounded with indulging grandparents, an aunt, uncle and loving cousins. Our extended family is very supportive of our adoption and they are looking forward to bonding with our future child in their life.
Our Thoughts on Parenting
- Family is essential
- It is the everyday moments that are precious
- Always keep an open mind
- We plan to share these life lessons with your child and we know that your child will have so much to teach us
In Closing
We look forward to sharing the many memorable milestones of your child with you through an open adoption. We plan to send you photos, emails, and letters; and have video chats and in-person hang-outs if desired to commemorate these exciting milestones. Thank you again for reading through our profile. We look forward to meeting and getting to know you, as well as sharing this exciting, sometimes unknown, but always loving journey together.
Adrianna & Shiva