Ioana & Marius

We are both from Romania in Eastern Europe, and we met during college in 2001 at Marius’s best friend’s birthday party. We spent three straight days talking about ourselves and the world around us. At the end of that summer we knew we were going to spend our life together. We married in 2005, and over the years we have shared our love, supported each other and grown together. 

We grew up in a country where our chances of pursuing our dream careers were pretty remote. So, we moved to the United States to follow our dreams together. Those dreams came true and now we both have wonderful careers in public health and science in the Bay Area. 

We love spending time together, sharing experiences with family and friends, and traveling the world. We also have a passion for reading and learning new things. We are involved with our community and volunteer at our local food bank. We enjoy dancing, baking and playing games. We are excited to share these passions with our child. We look forward to creating an engaging, fun and warm environment for him or her to grow up in.

Ioana is one of the most generous, funny, and honest people I know. I have always admired the integrity she brings to all her interactions in life. She is very optimistic, while around her, one cannot help but become infected by her light-hearted spirit and love of life. 

Ioana is driven by two guiding principles: Love of people and passion for public health. That passion—and her work ethic—opened the opportunity for her to come to the Bay Area. She now provides medical coverage to tens of thousands of underserved individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area.   

Throughout our life together, I observed Ioana develop special bonds with our nieces and Godchildren. I know she will be a fantastic mother. Her empathy and desire to do good, as well as her resilience, are qualities that I know she will model for our child. 

Marius is the kindest person I know. He is smart, compassionate, honest and funny. I am the luckiest woman in the world to have found him. I also admire his courage: I watched him follow his passion to cross the Atlantic and pursue a new life and career here. He continues to use that passion and love for learning in his  career as a scientist in the quest to cure cancer and heart disease.

Marius spends his leisure time with family and friends, grilling, hiking and reading. He loves astronomy exploring planets, stars and distant galaxies, and volunteers at our local observatory. 

Whether he is helping them with Legos or puzzles, explaining the universe, or playing sports like soccer with them, Marius is a patient and fun uncle and Godfather. I know he will be a committed and loving father.

We both come from large families who taught us to persevere through good and bad times and instilled in us a strong work ethic and family values. Marius grew up with his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents in the capital city of Romania, Bucharest, and his family still lives there. His parents have always been caring and supportive—we very much miss his dad, who passed more than a decade ago. His mom is a retired nurse and she visits us often. Ioana grew up with her two sisters, parents and grandparents in a small town in south-east Romania. We love visiting them every year and traveling to new places together. 

We are grateful to have built a strong and loving community of friends in the Bay Area and U.S. We’ve known our closest friends here for more than a decade and we are Godparents to their wonderful twin boys. We love being part of their life, and they have filled our lives with joy and laughter. Our families and friends are excited to welcome a new child into this extended family and share everything that we were lucky enough to enjoy growing up.

Our home is a comfortable, four-bedroom home in the East San Francisco Bay Area in a family-friendly, safe and beautiful neighborhood with a great public library nearby. It is nestled in the hills around our local 5,000-acre Regional Park, an oasis for many outdoor activities like hiking, biking and walking. Our community has a pool, basketball court, baseball/football field and a children’s playground. We have a perfect yard for a growing child to explore and play.