Our names are Angelo and Carlos, and it would be our utmost pleasure to be considered as intended parents. We are a caring, energetic, and educated couple, who wish to grow our family. We are high school sweethearts, and have been together for 16 years, and are approaching our 10-year wedding anniversary. We are currently a family of three (four with a dog!), with our amazing daughter Larissa, who is two years old, and our puppy Paella. We went through the surrogacy process to have Larissa; we had an amazing experience with our surrogate, who unfortunately can no longer have safe pregnancies.
A bit about us...
Carlos: Carlos’ hobbies revolve around staying active. This is something I wish to pass on to my children as well. I work out in our home gym, run outdoors, and play tennis with Angelo whenever the weather cooperates. I also enjoy going to the lake house with Angelo and Larissa. I enjoy kayaking, playing tennis and swimming. I like to include Larissa in any activities I do, such as exercising, and she has come to copy me saying ‘exercise-io’. As an example, I go with her to soccer and sportball. I pride myself on being a social person, and I am usually the designated person in the group to organize our social functions. Sometimes it can be a board game night, a themed BBQ, or simply watching a movie. Luckily, Angelo always cooks amazing food for any event I plan!
Both Angelo and I are strong advocates for equity rights and try our best to support others. Recently, I was given two awards because of my contribution in teaching kids and supporting my colleagues on diverse and equitable learning. I try to make my school as inclusive as possible. I am also a strong advocate for the environment, and I believe in doing our part to reduce our ecological footprint, so I bike to work most of the year, which also helps me keep active.
Angelo: Angelo’s hobbies consist of cooking, reading, and spending time with Larissa. I consider myself a chef and love to cook. My type of cooking ranges a variety of styles, but mostly I cook Italian. I consider cooking an art-form. Luckily for me, my husband loves good food and always enjoys my cooking, which motivates me to cook even more. Larissa also loves to eat and is not a picky eater. This is important to me because part of the joy of cooking is being able to create something that others enjoy. I always say the main ingredient in any dish is love. I used to run a part-time catering company called Chez Angelo and Carlos and I occasionally catered events (one was for 125 people!), but I decided to close it during covid.
I love to read and usually read a few books a month. My favourite genre is fantasy and can read for hours with a nice cup of tea. Since Larissa was born, I also took up walking daily. While on my paternity leave, I went for an hour walk everyday with Larissa, and I have continued that practice. Now, we go on walks together with Paella. Another hobby of mine is to go to our family lake house and enjoy time together. I love to swim and at the cottage there is a community recreation centre with tennis courts, an indoor pool and an outdoor pool. I love swimming in the bay as I find the water so light and refreshing. While we spend most of our summer at the cottage, we are able to attend year round for weekend getaways since there is also an indoor pool, but also the Blue Mountains nearby to ski or snowboard.
Of course, we also both love to relax and unwind at the end of the day with a bowl of popcorn, a warm blanket, and a good show (lately we were watching Heartstopper on Netflix).