[about us]

my name is melissa-ann but everyone calls me lian. (pronounced lee-ann) my wonderful husband's name is mark. we're a 30-something couple trying our best to build a little family of our own in the suburbs of rockville, maryland.

us in houston, texas for new year's 2012

mark was born and raised in washington, dc. he started his career working in IT but now works as a property manager for his father.

i was born in the philippines and was raised mostly in houston, texas. i started my career as a corporate paralegal but now own my own wedding planning business.

in the spring of 2005, i moved to herndon, virginia to finish my education to become a paralegal. i was only supposed to stay for a couple of years to finish out my program and then head back to texas to accept my promotion at a maritime firm i had been working for right before i left for virginia. but in the summer of 2005, i met mark.

we met through a mutual friend at a poker game. our courting started slow at first - i was really apprehensive getting into a relationship because my plan was to leave in a couple of years. but one night, it just hit me, he was the one and i finally just let the fates take over and let our relationship move on.

3 years later, mark surprised me with a trip to san francisco for my birthday. the day before we left to go back to dc, mark proposed to me on bended knee at the palace of fine arts. i told him "i love you" about a billion times. i was so happy and so surprised that i forgot to say "yes" until he reminded me the next morning as we were getting up to pack.

palace of fine arts, san francisco, california

on november 21, 2009, we had the wedding of our dreams. our family flew from all over the world to witness our union and melding of cultures - chinese and filipino. it was like a fairytale.

our wedding day, november 21, 2009

and on november 22, 2009, we set forth on our journey to start our family. we wanted to do things the natural way... but God had other plans for us.

this blog is a moment by moment account of our journey towards parenthood. our heartaches, our triumphs, our obstacles and how God told us that not every family forms at the snap of His fingers.