Waiting Parents: CJ and Justin
Hello! We are CJ and Justin. We have an energetic two-year-old daughter named Toni and a mischievous Australian Shepherd named Dolly. First, we want to say thank you so much for taking the time to look through our profile and consider our family as part of your adoption plan. We know this is incredibly difficult and we are in awe of your strength and courage to walk through the adoption process. Please know that we are praying for you and baby on this journey. We hope that you will enjoy looking through our profile and seeing a glimpse into our family life
We met at church in 2015. After a year of being casual acquaintances and passing in the halls at church, we got to know each other by being in the same small group. After a summer of talking about music, good steak, sermons, family, etc, Justin asked CJ to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball in October 2016 and the rest was history! We were married in December 2017.
We love to learn, cook, try new restaurants, go on walks, travel when we can, listen to books on Audible, serve together at church, enjoy a good TV show or movie, bake sourdough bread, spend time with our daughter and take/share endless photos of her and our dog. CJ loves that Justin is so patient, kind, forgiving and smart and that he allows her to be completely herself. He challenges her and enriches her life! Justin loves that CJ keeps him grounded, makes him laugh and supports him in ministry and his life’s goals.
Justin’s career has been interesting and varied! He spent 8 years in the Marine Corps as a musician before earning his teaching credential in history. He taught middle school and high school history and Bible while he transitioned to the Army Reserves as a Chaplain. When the opportunity arose for him to take an active duty contract in San Antonio in March 2022, we took it. He is currently fulfilling that contract and working as a part time youth pastor in New Braunfels while earning his PhD in Old Testament. He loves to preach, teach, and counsel and hopes to continue these things for the rest of his career.
CJ taught high school choir for ten years in California before Toni was born in October 2021. After moving to Texas on Army orders, she became a stay at home mom. She teaches private voice and piano one day a week from their home and directs a small youth chorus in New Braunfels on Tuesday afternoons.
We have one two year old daughter whose name is Antoinette – Toni for short. She is so energetic and literally never stops moving. She is also turning out to be quite the joker. She loves to sing her ABCs and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. Her favorite things to do right now are pretend to order chocolate ice cream from her playhouse window, go outside, and go to her gymnastics class.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our family. We are excited to be on this journey!
We got our Australian Shepherd, Dolly, in October 2020. Yes… she was a COVID dog. She is quite mischievous and an avid counter surfer. She will literally eat anything including charcoal at the vet. Even though she is an energetic breed, her favorite activity is lounging and snuggling. She also loves to greet Toni every morning and kiss her goodnight.
One of the things we talked about on our first dates was adoption. Our timeline for pursuing this was accelerated when our daughter Toni was born and CJ lost her womb to undiagnosed placenta accreta. We are eager to grow our family and for Toni to have a sibling.
We own a five bedroom, four bathroom home in San Antonio. We purchased our home in July 2022 and have enjoyed making it our own. We love to entertain and host people here and hope to fill one of the bedrooms with another child. Our backyard has astro turf, a gazebo and a deck and a tree swing. Our bonus room upstairs is now a playroom full of play items gifted to us from friends and family. Our community has a pool and a playground.
CJ’s parents live in Southern California. Her dad owns his own construction company and is quite skilled at all things home repair and remodel. Her mom worked in healthcare for 35 years and is now retired. Her sister lives in Dallas where she’s going to graduate school. Justin’s parents live in Washington State where his dad works as the facilities manager at church and his mom works as a kindergarten teacher. He has two brothers. One lives a few miles out of San Antonio and the other lives in Japan. We enjoy great relationships with our family and everyone dotes on Toni since she’s the only grandkid!