Welcome! Meet:

Marcus + Jessica

Instructional Coach in Education / Business Owner

Arizona

Caucasian

Christian

All About Marcus & Jessica
Video
Why Adoption?
Gallery
Family and Home
How We Met
Advice to Future Child
Perspectives on Open Adoption
Favorites

All About Marcus & Jessica

We are the Oakes Family. We are just so grateful you are here today and learning more about our family! I am Jess, married to Marcus and we have two little infertility miracles, Blake who is 6 and Nash who is 2. We live in Queen Creek Arizona, where we moved in June of 2021. We built our forever home and just recently moved into it in September. Jess owns two business and runs a blog, which she has done since 2011. Marcus is an instructional coach for a school district and before that was a teacher for many years! Like I mentioned, we recently moved into our forever home and are so excited to grow our family here. We live on almost an acre and a half where we have big plans to create the ultimate family centered home and outdoor area and spend lots of time outdoors with friends and family often! Blake is our oldest, she is 6 and loves all things dance and crafts. She tells anyone and everyone she meets that we "are getting a new baby soon" and is so excited for growing our family! Nash, is our second and he is 2 years old. He loves tractors, playing in the dirt and keeping us on our toes. 2021 was a pretty hard year for us, we faced a lot of trials, hardships and changes. Including the loss of Jess' Mom unexpectedly in October. But we know she's watching out for us from above and as hard as it is, we now have our own personal angel. We are excited to be able to grow our family and have a new little piece of heaven!

Why Adoption?

We actually have always wanted to adopt. Long before we knew we would struggle with infertility. We struggled conceiving our first two kiddos and were fortunate enough to be able to do infertility treatments and IVF to have them. Jess was advised to no longer carry kids of her own due to infertility complications so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to start our adoption journey since it was something we were passionate about anyways. Jess’ mom was adopted and it’s always been something close to our hearts.

Family & Home

We live on a little over an acre in a very family friendly community. We are literally in the backyard of our kiddo’s schools and are so excited to make this house a home. We moved in, in September and have been working hard to get a play area set up for the kids and recently just got chicks! We hope to one day have more animals and create a home our kids love being at and their friends can come play!

How others describe me

Marcus is the most patient, hands-on dad you’ll ever meet. He’s truly one of a kind. He works hard, supports me in all that I do with my businesses and always shows up to everything. My dad left when I was 9, so seeing him fill a role that wasn’t shown to me with our kids is truly incredible!

Jessica is an active mom who loves doing anything and everything with her babies. She runs multiple businesses but is grateful to do that from home so she can spend as much time with them as possible. She's very outgoing and loves meeting new people. She cares deeply for everyone and only wants what is best and will make them happy.

How We Met

Marcus and I were set up on a blind date by two of our closest friends! We dated long-distance and eventually got engaged and married, then moved to Utah to finish school. Now we are almost 10 years in and in Arizona!

Advice to Future Child

We want you to know how much we already love you. We want absolutely nothing but the best for you and your siblings. We will always be there, no matter what. We will support you in all that you do, love you through everything and be your number one cheerleader. We can’t wait to share stories of your birth Mom and be able to include your heritage in things that we do. Please know we will never judge you, change you or make you feel like you have to be anyone but your true self.

Perspectives on Open Adoption

We want to be able to share with our child anything and everything they want to know about their birth parents. If our birth parents are open to it we want to greet them with open arms and work together in a partnership and team effort.

Favorites

Marcus

Favorite Movie: Rudy
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: New Year Celebration
Hobbies/Interests: I love music, sports, and being with my family!
Dream Vacation: Mesoamerica Ancient Ruins
If I Could Choose a Superpower: time control

Jessica

Favorite Movie: A Walk to Remember or The Great Gatsby (the new one)
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Christmas - I love all things Christmas.
Hobbies/Interests: I love to be outside, play with my babies and trips to target and Starbucks!
Dream Vacation: Holland or somewhere tropical
If I Could Choose a Superpower: to go back in time and be able to see what happened with things like: where is Amelia Earhart?! Haha!