C.J. and Lauren

We are C.J. and Lauren!

Hello and thank you!

We are C.J. and Lauren from southeastern Massachusetts, and we are hoping to become parents through the gift of adoption. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to introduce ourselves to you. We have been married for over seven years and have yet to conceive a child, the cause of which is unknown. As the years have gone by, through much prayer and discernment, it has become very evident to us that we are being called to adoption. We believe that this is something that the Lord was preparing us for well before we entered this season of our life or even before we were married. Lauren has had the desire to adopt since high school and C.J., a proud pro-lifer, has had a bumper sticker on his car that reads “adoption saves lives” for nearly a decade. During Mass on Christmas Eve 2022, God made it abundantly clear to us that adoption was part of the future He had in store for us. The journey has been long, but we know that becoming parents will be a blessing beyond measure.

We know, however, that our greatest joy comes at the cost of your immeasurable sacrifice. Please know that this is not something we take lightly and we will always be grateful for your selfless act of love. We trust in the Lord’s plans for you and your child’s life, as we are trusting in His plans for us. Whatever you decide, we pray that you will know a “peace that surpasses all understanding” (Phil 4:7).

If you choose us to raise your child, we promise that he or she will grow up in a home filled with faith and fun. While we know we will not be perfect parents, we promise to always nurture, protect, and care for your precious little one.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We hope our profile gives you a sense of who we are and what type of family we hope to be. We thank you for choosing life and for blessing others with the opportunity to be parents. Whatever you decide, please know that you are so loved and God has great plans for your life. You have been and will continue to be in our daily prayers.

God bless,

C.J. and Lauren

C.J. and Lauren’s Profile Book

Learn more about us by watching our video below!

About Us

Tag Team Champs!

We met in January 2014 when Lauren led a Confirmation retreat at C.J.’s parish. At the end of the Mass, the priest thanked Lauren by name and this got the attention of the handsome 23-year-old altar server C.J. That night C.J. went to his buddy’s house and found Lauren on social media. With a new year’s resolution of “going for it,” he sent Lauren a message asking if she would be up for talking sometime. After a few weeks of messaging, they had their first date at UNO’s Pizzeria. It was not love at first sight. Due to first date nerves, Lauren barely said anything and C.J. did not shut up. Plus, C.J. took one of Lauren’s French fries! Lauren’s grad school roommate convinced Lauren to give C.J. another chance, so we went to monster mini-golf and to lunch. C.J. began to steal Lauren’s heart when he said he wanted his significant other to be his best friend.

One night while on the phone, Lauren asked C.J. what he was up to and he shyly said he was watching WWE wrestling. To his utter surprise, Lauren revealed that she had been a huge wrestling fan when she was younger and soon was sucked back into the world of professional wrestling. We spent much of our dating years going to live events, watching WWE programming, and even meeting some wrestlers in person. As we continued our relationship, we became our very own tag team.

We have a shared worldview rooted in our faith and we enjoy many of the same activities, such as watching sports, spending time with family and friends, and rooting for our beloved Bruins, but we have very different personalities. C.J. is more extroverted, while Lauren is more introverted (even though her job as a teacher requires her to function as an extrovert). C.J., a graphic designer, is definitely the creative dreamer, whereas Lauren is the pragmatic realist. Lauren is the planner and C.J. likes to sit back and enjoy the ride. Like any good tag team, we complement each other well.

After two and a half years of dating, we got engaged on November 24, 2016, Thanksgiving Day, at the church where we met. We were married at this same church on July 14, 2018 in front of 180 loved ones. The celebration continued at the reception a few towns over and we were announced as the new tag team champions–belts, theme song, and all!

A good tag team keeps their eye on the prize and strives toward their goal together. Our shared goal is to get one another to Heaven–and we certainly have a lot of fun making memories on the journey!

Our Life Together

Our life together is truly full of love–love of God, one another, family, and friends.

Our shared Catholic Faith is the foundation of our marriage. We believe that building our life on Jesus Christ will enable us to endure any trial that comes our way. Going to Mass every Sunday at our local parish, praying together daily, and having many people in our life who share our faith helps us grow in love for both God and each other.

As we are professional wrestling fans, we like to think of ourselves as a tag team, and we were even introduced as the new tag team champions at our wedding reception! Whether we are working on a 1000 piece puzzle, deciding what to do about a problem, or dividing household chores, we complement each other very well. We know that keeping a marriage strong requires communication and spending uninterrupted one-on-one time together, so we try to have a date day/night often. Whether we go to church followed by sushi or go on a spontaneous adventure trying out a new place, we love making memories together!

Making memories with our family and friends is also something very important to us. Our weekends are frequently filled with game nights with friends, family dinners, or time with our godchildren. We also have many close friends with young children who we consider our nieces and nephews and being their honorary aunt and uncle is one of our greatest joys.

At the end of the day, our favorite place to be is back home cuddling with our pup. Truly, we are blessed beyond measure.

What We Enjoy

Watching Boston sports, especially the Bruins
Game nights with friends
Praying together and going to church
Traveling, especially cruises to Bermuda with Lauren’s family
Attending MLB baseball games–Our goal is to go to every ballpark
Watching professional wrestling
Completing puzzles
Going for walks with our dog
Spending time with family
Trying new restaurants

Our Family

We look forward to involving our child in all our favorite traditions, such as decorating our Christmas trees, spending Christmas Eve with C.J.’s family and Christmas Day with Lauren’s, and recapping the past year on New Year’s Eve. Other favorite traditions include making wine with C.J.’s dad every fall, going to a yearly Bruins game with Lauren’s uncle, cruising to Bermuda each summer with Lauren’s family, and hosting a sleepover for our best friends and their kids each November.

It Takes A Village!

We are very blessed to truly have a village of people in our life who love and support us and will do the same for our child. C.J. comes from a traditional Portuguese family. His parents still live in the house he was raised in, about 30 minutes from our house. He has two older sisters (ages 46 and 43) that live about 45 minutes away. We see them, along with their spouses and our nine-year-old niece, at C.J.’s parents’ house at least once per month. We enjoy swimming in C.J.’s parents’ pool, playing yard games, or having a siblings’ night with takeout and board games. A special tradition on that side of the family is making homemade Portuguese wine with C.J.’s dad using his grandfather’s wine press. Lauren’s parents live about 15 minutes away and still reside in the house Lauren grew up in. They check on our dog Moxie twice per week and will be the primary caregivers of our child when we return to work after parental leave. Lauren is an only child but we are very close to her mom’s side of the family. We celebrate everyone’s birthday, often at a local Chinese restaurant, and have many cookouts and game nights playing Phase 10, Five Crowns, or Catchphrase. Lauren and C.J., along with Lauren’s parents, godmother, twin goddaughters, and cousin and her husband, go on a cruise from Boston to Bermuda every summer. Each year we make so many memories and share so many laughs! Our friends are a treasured part of our life and many of our friends are married couples with young children who we consider our nieces and nephews. Being Auntie Lauren and Uncle C.J. to these little ones, including our four godchildren, is one of our greatest joys. We refer to one of our friend groups as “the framily,” friends that became family, and we celebrate “Friendsgivingmaskah” (a mixture of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah) at our house every year. It is pure chaos with six children, two teenagers, five dogs, and 15 adults but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Other close friends have come into our life through Lauren’s work and college and from a retreat program we are both involved in. All of our friends have been so supportive of us in our adoption journey and can’t wait for a new little one to join the crew.

Things to Know About Us

1. We pray grace before every meal and even include our dog!
2. We keep our Christmas decorations up from the end of November to beginning of February because Christmas is our favorite season.
3. Some of our favorite dates are when Lauren makes all the plans and surprises C.J. along the way with new breweries, new restaurants, or an event.
4. We have a very active social calendar because we have so many friends from different parts of our life that we enjoy spending time with and often host gatherings at our house.

Our Home

There’s No Place Like Home

We bought our home at the end of 2020. It has 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms, a fenced-in backyard, and a nautically decorated sunroom. The basement includes a “fan cave” dedicated to our love of Boston sports and a large multi-purpose room that will eventually be converted to a playroom. We live in a quiet, suburban neighborhood on the south coast of Massachusetts. It’s a great place to go for walks as a family and is only a 15-minute drive from Lauren’s parents’ house in one direction and the ocean in the other. With both historical charm and multicultural vibrancy, our small city is a wonderful place to raise a family. There are always events going on down by the waterfront or at the museums and there are a lot of school options in the area. Our house has ample space for entertaining and we have hosted many gatherings, holidays, and birthday parties over the years. We look forward to hosting many more as our family grows.

Final Thoughts

Our Promise To You

We promise to choose to love even when it is difficult, honor you and your irreplaceable role in your child’s life, teach your child about his or her identity and culture, make known the goodness of God in our home, and provide a loving, stable family filled with faith and fun. Please be assured of our deep gratitude and constant prayer for you as you discern. It would be the honor and privilege of our lives to raise your child. Whatever you decide, we thank you for considering us and for your selfless act of love. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”-Romans 8:28

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