Marla & Bobby

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Mom Dad
First Names Marla Bobby
Religion Jewish Catholic
Ethnic Background German, Italian Irish, Italian
Education/Degree Bachelors Bachelors, Juris Doctorate
Profession Stay at Home Parent Attorney
Ages/Names of Children James – 4 (biological), Parker – 2 (biological)

Our Story

Hi! We’re Marla, Bobby, James and Parker. Welcome to our page.

We met early in the summer of 2011, down the Jersey Shore (we know) when Bobby and his friend asked Marla and her friend if they wanted to play shuffleboard. We knew pretty soon that this was something special. By May of 2013, Marla had moved into Bobby’s apartment in Hoboken, and by September 2013 we were engaged. We were married in Asbury Park in August 2014.

We have two biological sons, James (4) and Parker (2).  We believe we have been blessed to have found our “forever home.”

Marla is the youngest of three, with two older brothers. Marla’s parents, grandmother, and both brothers and families also live in close by. Bobby fell in love with Marla because of her enthusiasm for life, kindness, and compassion for everyone she meets.

Bobby is the oldest of two, with a younger brother who lives in Califonia. Bobby’s parents live about an hour away, and we are lucky to be able to see them multiple times every month. Marla fell in love with Bobby because of his dedication, empathy, and patience.

James is a curious boy who loves to learn, especially about animals and dinosaurs. Parker is adventurous, usually trying to follow in his older brother’s footsteps, regardless of the task, and especially when it involves dinosaurs. The boys love to go to the farm, the zoo, the pool and the playground.

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Family Life

Love is the foundation of our family. We were both extremely lucky to grow up in families that not only stated their love for each other, but also showed it daily. We continue this today in our immediate family by making certain that James and Parker are encouraged to be who they are and supported in whatever they choose to do. This is how we intend to raise any child we are lucky enough to parent.

We also strongly believe in communication. While this may sound hard to believe, we hardly argue because we are open and honest with each other about our intentions and feelings. We have an open line of communication. When we disagree on something we discuss our feelings and work together to come to a resolution. We also communicate openly with the boys. We intend to always communicate with our children openly, and not just talk to them but listen and hear them.

Integrity is another important value in our family. We try to make all decisions based upon our principles, even if that is not the easiest decision. We try our best to do things the right way. In this regard, we stress equality, equity, diversity, and justice in our household.

We celebrate all holidays with our extended families, and host Christmas at our house. We are fortunate to have four of our grandparents still with us. During the holidays we use family recipes (including some of theirs) to cook and bake special dishes and treats. We try to do this with them when we can, but we always share the final products with them, making them taste extra special.

We celebrate the holidays of both the religions we were raised (Jewish and Catholic) by incorporating the traditions our families had (both religious and secular), while putting our own personal twists on them. While we do not practice either religion in an organized manner, we still impart the history and values of both to our boys and try to incorporate them into our daily lives. We would continue this with any future children.

We currently have a fish as a pet, and plan to eventually get a dog.

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Lifestyle

We live in a 5-bedroom house on a quiet cul-de-sac that borders an elementary school and a park. Our house is a part of a homeowner’s association, where almost all the streets are dead ends that end on a park. Everyone can walk to a park without having to cross a street, and the Association has two pools to which we have access. While our yard is not the largest, it is big enough to play in every day (which we do), and we are less than one minute away from the park.

The association holds many events for families and children in the park and at the community center. These include a day camp in the summer, an egg hunt in the spring, Halloween and other holiday parties, a Pride Celebration, and a weekend called “Family Day” just full of activities. Further, given the layout of our neighborhood, families from all over the area come on Halloween to trick-or-treat. We easily go through over 1000 pieces of candy every Halloween given all the trick-or-treaters!

We love to cook and bake as a family (although the boys enjoy tasting more than the actual baking), and Bobby loves to grill in the summer.

Family is very important to us. We have four nephews and a niece, who all live in town with us. We try to spend as much time with them as we can, both with the boys, and just the two of us. We try to go to as many of our nephews’ sporting events as we can, and Bobby and our sister-in-law have coached James and our niece in kickball for 3 seasons.

We love to travel, and while COIVD-19 has clearly impacted that, we plan on resuming our travel, with the boys, in the future. The beach is our happy place. Bobby’s side of the family has a house in Cape Cod, and he has been going there his whole life. We have continued this vacation tradition and spend part of that time with Bobby’s parents at the house. Marla’s side of the family rents a house in LBI for two weeks every summer. The entire extended family (at some points more than 20 people!) all come together for that time every summer, and it is something we really cherish.

We also love sports, especially basketball and football, being outdoors, watching TV and movies together, reading together, playing board games, and doing art projects.

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Adoption

We are interested in fostering a relationship that is comfortable for all involved in the situation. We want your child to know their entire family background, and are open to letters, pictures, annual visits, and as the child grows older, email and telephone contact. However, we do not want to force this upon you if you are not comfortable with this, and fully intend on working with you to come up with a plan that works for everyone.

Diversity is very important to us and our families. While we know that it is a life-long journey, we strive to be the best allies that we can. We both firmly believe that exposing our children to different ethnic backgrounds and people of different ethnic backgrounds will help them to develop into allies as well. We have several youth books aimed at this, such as “A is for Activist,” that we regularly read with them.

If we are lucky enough to adopt a child of a different ethnic background than ours, then we are committed to doing whatever we can to ensure that your child grows up with a well-developed sense of self. This involves incorporating your child’s ethnic background into our lives in any way we can, both daily and by adding new twists to our old family and holiday traditions.

Our community has become more diverse since we have moved here and continues to become more diverse as more young families move here. However, we recognize that to expose your child to as much of their cultural background as possible, we will have to potentially search outside of our local community. We are fortunate enough to reside very close to New York City, which offers a variety of cultural and ethnic heritage options for us to immerse ourselves and our children.

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Favorites

Mom Dad
Genre of Music Pop Hip Hop (especially ‘90s)
Childhood memory Camping Vacations with my family
Quote Life is short, eat dessert first. Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

TV show Parks and Rec The Wire
Hero My grandma My grandfather
Holiday Christmas Christmas
Dessert Ice Cream Chocolate
Sport to watch or play Basketball Basketball
Gadget Phone Blue tooth headphones
Eat in or Dine out? Dine out Dine out
Early Riser or Night Owl? Night owl Night owl

Best Wishes

Since the first conversation we had about starting a family, we have always planned on having three children. When we found out that having a third biological child was not an option for us, there was no hesitation in deciding that adoption was the best option for us to complete our family. For the last year we have discussed what adoption means and the concept of birth and adoptive families with James and Parker. While Parker is too young to fully understand, James does, and even explains to others how he will have a new brother or sister that “comes from another mommy’s belly.”

Thank you for taking the time to learn about us. We will never be able to fully express how grateful we are that you would choose us and allow us to complete our family. We know that this choice will link our families for the future, and we look forward to meeting you!

Ready to Contact Marla & Bobby

Drop us a line today!