Thank you for stopping by to read about us!

We live on a 15-acre ranch in beautiful Central Oregon, and our property is very peaceful. Chris is from Appalachia and Maritza is from the Southwest. Her parents are from Mexico, and she is fully bilingual with Spanish being her first language. We love our multicultural family, and cook each other's family recipes, listen to regional music, and consider ourselves very lucky to be loved by our family and friends. We're very grateful to be considered as the family for your child.

¡Gracias por visitarnos a leer sobre nosotros!

Vivimos en un rancho de 15 acres en el hermoso centro de Oregón, y nuestra propiedad es muy tranquila. Chris es de los Apalaches y Maritza es del suroeste. Sus padres son de México y ella es completamente bilingüe, siendo el español su primer idioma. Amamos a nuestra familia multicultural y cocinamos las recetas familiares de los demás, escuchamos música regional y nos consideramos muy afortunados de ser amados por nuestra familia y amigos. Estamos muy agradecidos de ser considerados como la familia de su hijo.

About Our Life

Our life is a busy one filled with a ranch lifestyle & hobbies. We have been married for 17 years, and together for 20. Our love story is a great one as we met on a large horse ranch in Arizona, surrounded by sunsets and Saguaro cacti in the Rincon Mountains. Chris was there for a season as the wild horse trainer and Maritza as a dude wrangler, and we fell in love very quickly. Chris never took that return flight home back to Virginia and all these years later, here we are. When we spoke about having children, we planned to have our own and adopt a child. We did not anticipate we would not be able to have our own children, but adoption was always part of our plan. We love living on our ranch where Chris is a horse trainer and teaches riding lessons and Maritza works as a therapist. Besides being on the ranch, which is our favorite thing, we enjoy kayaking, paddle boarding, yoga, hiking, and having dinner with friends. We have a blessed life, and we remain very grateful.

About Maritza (written by Chris)

Maritza is a very hardworking, intelligent, and loyal person. She has a quality that makes people in need of strength melt into her, and she's the best person I've ever known. We own a mental health private practice in town where she does in-person sessions, and she works from home seeing sessions on video conference. She believes in treating the whole person. She loves her horses, and all animals, and is very proud of being Mexican and that her parents are immigrants from Mexico. Spanish is her first language and traditions are important to her.

She really enjoys traveling, meeting different people, and learning about other cultures and traditions. She also makes amazing Mexican rice, tortillas, and enchiladas, as well as other recipes she learned from her mother, who is known by everyone to be an amazing cook. Her hobbies include yoga, reading, having lunch with friends, and she loves to go to the movies and have date nights once a week. She also loves fashion and makeup, but she is not afraid to get dirty. She is a strong, successful, and big-hearted person, and children love being around her.

She will be a wonderful mother, and people trust her with their children to keep them safe, and well cared for. She is really looking forward to becoming a parent and looks forward to joining other families for shared activities, friendship and events and plans to teach our child Spanish and immerse them in the traditions of both of our cultures.

About Chris (written by Maritza)

Chris is a loyal, very intelligent, loving and kind person. Everyone who meets him loves him, including his riding students and their families. He has a way of making you feel important and seen. He is very funny! Chris is also brave having skydived, learning to white water kayak, and training and riding wild horses. He once trained a colt that went on to win in the Scottsdale Arabian Expo and has also trained zebras. He is such a truly unique person.

Kids flock to Chris because he's like a superhero and is a great male role model. What I love so much about Chris is his zest to meet people from all over the world. He enjoys traveling, like I do, and is never afraid to drive or fly somewhere new. I love that he is adventurous. He's a pretty good cook also! Some of his other hobbies include kayaking, paddleboarding, and he loves to read. He also plays acoustic guitar and bass guitar.

I know Chris will be such a wonderful father, no doubt about it. He is looking forward to teaching our child about animals, how to swim and paddle, reading, and being curious about new places and people to encourage a sense of curiosity and adventure.

Our Home/Ranch in Oregon

We live in a log cabin on 15 wooded acres in beautiful Central Oregon. Our home is a 2-story log cabin with 3 bedrooms. We are close to grocery stores, schools, a fire station, parks, churches, an observatory, a museum, and surrounded by the Cascade Mountain range, a river, and many lakes. We have 13 horses, a donkey, and a mule, along with our dogs, chickens/turkeys and pet pig, Ghengis Khan. We're definitely a country ranch family, and we're so blessed to live here and have everything we could ever ask for. We don't take for granted how lucky we are to live the way we do and know it would be an amazing place for a child to grow up learning how to care for and connect with animals and people, and to appreciate country living.

 

 

Our Family Life

Our family members are in Arizona, Virginia, Mexico, Tennessee, and Texas. 

Chris has a brother who lives in Virginia and has 3 children; Chris's parents live next door to them. We try to fly to Virginia at least once a year and hope they can make it out to Oregon when they can. He has a close friend in Tennessee that is like family, as they group up together since they were very young.

Maritza's family is in Arizona where her parents live. Her younger brother lives in Texas with his wife. The rest of her family is located in the Sonoran state of Mexico. We all try to visit one another as much as we can.

Our traditions stretch from Mexican to Southern Appalachian cooking and practices, and we love our multicultural family. In the future, we plan to relocate to Southern Arizona where we lived before to be close to Maritza's family. Overall, our families are very loving, kind, and very excited to welcome a new child into the family. They're all very happy that we are in the adoption process and give us lots of encouragement and support.

Our Promise to You and Your Child/Nuestra promesa para usted y su hijo

We want to start by saying thank you from the bottom of our hearts for considering us to raise your child. We admire you for the journey you have embarked on. Your child will know where they came from and the blessing of adoption. We will always be open to hearing from you and updating you with photos, videos, and occasional visits, if you would like. We will give your child a multicultural home of Southern Appalachian and Mexican American parents; they will learn how to speak Spanish, learn faith values, and how important it is to acknowledge others. We offer a ranch lifestyle, and believe it teaches strengths and awareness of both people and animals. We're so grateful to be considered and thank you for taking a moment to learn about us. We promise to respect what you want; it's important to us to make sure that we honor your feelings and expectations.

Thank you so much,

Maritza and Chris

We’d love to talk or answer any of your questions. Please call or text Lifetime at 1.800.923.6784.

Queremos comenzar agradeciéndole desde el fondo de nuestros corazones por considerarnos para criar a su hijo. Te admiramos por el viaje desinteresado en el que te has embarcado. Su hijo sabrá de dónde viene y la bendición de la adopción. Siempre estaremos abiertos a escuchar su nombre y actualizarlo con fotos, videos y visitas si lo desea. Le daremos a su hijo un hogar combinado de padres del sur de los Apalaches y mexicoamericanos, aprenderán a hablar español, aprenderán los valores de la fe y lo importante que es reconocer a los demás. Ofrecemos un estilo de vida de rancho y creemos que enseña fortalezas y conciencia tanto de las personas como de los animales. Estamos muy agradecidos de ser considerados y gracias por tomarse un momento para aprender sobre nosotros. Prometemos respetar lo que usted quiera; Es importante para nosotros asegurarnos de cumplir con sus sentimientos y expectativas.

Muchas Gracias,

Maritza y Chris

Nos encantaría hablar o responder a cualquiera de sus preguntas. Llame o envíe un mensaje de texto a Lifetime al 1.800.923.6784.

In Closing

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our little horse and ranch family in Central Oregon. We can provide a child a wonderful home filled with love, faith, Mexican and Southern traditions, family, friends, good schools, and a country ranch lifestyle. We remain open to the contact that you would want to have from us, including photos, videos, and in-person visits. Your feelings are very important to us, and we want to honor them in every way that we can. Thank your considering us as a family to raise your child, it means the world to us.