Shannon and Ruturaj

Meet Shannon & Ruturaj

Matched

We are so glad to meet you from afar in this unique space where our paths have crossed. We are an interracial couple in our early 30s dreaming of the day that we can adopt a little one into our home and hearts! We hope that you find in us a home where you can imagine the same loving, adventurous, and hopeful life for your child that we do. And we’d love to tell you more! About our home, our playful adventures, and our love of stories.

About Us

Favorite Children's Book

Winnie the Pooh – a special journey of good friends and good hearts.

Favorite Holidays

Christmas! – We love our patching Christmas Day pajamas and watching The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Favorite Vacation Spot

Mendocino, CA – a magical coastal town surrounded by mysterious sea-caves.

Favorite Place to Take a Child

The Oakland Zoo – we particularly love listening to the monkeys chatter!

Favorite Hobbies

White water rafting, escape rooms, and outdoor adventures.

Our Life

In our family, we nurture a love of magic and story. If there was one lesson we’d like to pass on to a child, it would be that they are the author of their own story – so many it an adventure! We live in a small town in the San Francisco Bay area surrounded by rolling hills and a quirky charm. We are so deeply looking forward to welcome a child into our home and nourishing them with love, inspiration, and opportunities!

We would love to be as “open” in adoption as feels right to you, and we’re already well-practiced at extending the concept of family beyond the traditional models. We live as a family unit with our best friends and their son, and we have found that this is a fantastic way to open up additional love, support, and opportunity in a child’s life – while still maintaining independent lives as couples and parents.

We are also lucky to both be able to work from home to be fully present for a little one. Ruturaj – also known as Computer-raj around the house – is Head of Engineering at a small startup that offers on-demand math tutoring for students. Shannon is also home full-time, developing a home-based private school curriculum with Henry’s mother and is excited to welcome more students in the community.

About Shannon, by Ruturaj

I’m so excited to introduce you to my wife Shannon – intuitive, empathetic, caring, and full of imagination. She gives all of herself to her relationships and always puts others’ needs before her own while juggling a lot big dreams – really the ultimate Hufflepuff! I can tell you one of the things she’s most excited to give to a child is a love of reading and stories. Shannon is currently finishing a Masters in Tolkien Studies (yup – Hobbits and Elves!) while creating a playful yet rigorous, project and story-based homeschool curriculum that she can’t wait to share with your child. Shannon ensures our lives are filled with meaning, intention, and whimsy. I can’t wait to see her share these values with a little one!

About Ruturaj, by Shannon

As a child, Ruturaj’s biggest dream was to be Batman. That didn’t work out, so he became a motorcycle-riding engineer instead. He is the “unflappable” side of our partnership – always reliable, always present, and always kind. In the past few years, he has been re-exploring his Indian heritage by becoming a dedicated student of Yoga. He also has a bit of a wild side and will be the first to volunteer to bungee jump or hike Half Dome in Yosemite. I’m excited to see him bring this adventurous spirit to a child’s life! Watching him with the little ones in our life, I’ve always been amazed at his nurturing yet stable presence and the way kids bring out his inner child! I know that he can’t wait to nurture his child’s curiosity and witness their ever- changing self.

Our Home

Our home of Petaluma first won our hearts when we walked downtown and met the owner of the local ice cream shop, heard the chime of the historic clocktower, and found out that the biggest day of the year is called the “Butter & Eggs” festival! We found our home on a double cul-de-sac where kids of all ages play, and we loved that the house even had space for a home-school room. Even better for us, we’re only an hour away from sea caves on coast, redwoods in the mountains, and the many adventures of San Francisco!

We also love telling people that we share our home with a dragon – a bearded one, that is! Our bearded dragon Iroh is lazy and lovable, and our two love-birds Natasha and Pierre are colorful and full of personality.

Our Extended Family

Our village is beautiful to us, and we are so excited to see it grow. We have chosen to make home and family with our best friends Emily and Dallas and our Godson Henry. After years of feeling like family but living apart, we decided to forge a new path for ourselves and live out that truth. We keep boundaries as separate couples, but revel in our shared home, values, and family fun! Our family mascot is the Heron, and we think having live-in Godparents is a great way to expand the love, support, and silliness through good times and bad.

Our Wish for You

And that’s us! Our hope is that in sharing a bit of our lives, something in us has touched something in you. We hope also that we’ve been able to convey that for us, family is an open door. Any amount of “openness” in adoption that feels right to you, that’s a conversation we can’t wait to have – there is never a limit to the love in a child’s life! We promise that your child will be raised in a home full of love and possibility, adventure and curiosity, and a nurturing center from which to discover their own story.

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