Amber Morino, 34, almost missed out on meeting her now-husband after a friend recommended setting up the two. Upon finding out she was being hooked up with a TV writer and a creator of “Mixed-ish,” Ms. Morino turned down the gesture, prematurely deciding Peter Saji, 42, wouldn’t be her type.
“I was like, ‘No, he’s going to be ugly, and old, and fat.’ I had zero interest,” said Ms. Morino. But her friend, Al Shearer, an actor, insisted she give the guy a chance.
After six months of saying no to the blind date, Ms. Morino was visiting Mr. Shearer at one of the residential buildings she manages in Los Angeles and noticed a man checking his mail. She immediately asked Mr. Shearer to introduce them.
“He was like, ‘This is the dude I’ve been telling you about’ and then motioned for him to come over,” said Ms. Morino, noting that Mr. Saji was the complete opposite of the image she had in her head. Shortly after, the pair went for drinks. “It was love at first sight for me, and very quickly I knew I wanted to marry him,” Ms. Morino said.
Seven years later, on March 5, 2021, they did marry in the backyard of their Los Angeles home. With a few family members in attendance via FaceTime, and only Ms. Morino’s adoptive mother, the officiant, and the photographer on site, the couple celebrated their union in an intimate fashion. Will Young, a Universal Life minister, officiated 10 feet away from the couple, with a mask on.
The decision to marry came after raising Ms. Morino’s six children — two of whom are adopted and four fostered — together and supporting each other during the pandemic. Mr. Saji said it prepared him for marriage in more ways than one.
“Covid sort of forced me to slow down and be around Amber and the kids, and then sort of take stock in the fact that I’m missing out on who they are and everything about them, even though I’m providing for them every day,” said Mr. Saji, who worked 14-hour days before the pandemic.
Before his relationship with Ms. Morino, Mr. Saji had the freedom to work on his own timeline and think for himself. But after falling in love with a mother of six children, ages 6 to 16, fatherhood became an instant responsibility, one that Mr. Saji takes pride in. “I’m doing so many more activities with the kids and I’m planning my future, as far as working, so that I can spend more time with them and be more involved and hands-on.”
Ms. Morino, who spent the majority of her childhood in foster care, is very protective of her children and was immediately impressed by Mr. Saji’s caring nature when she brought him around her family. “He accepted the kids as his own. That’s a lot to ask of a man that has no children,” Ms. Morino said.
Having lost his mother and father, Mr. Saji related to his wife’s experience of being without biological parents, but it was losing his older sister, and witnessing his father’s decline from her death, that provoked Mr. Saji to set boundaries in order to avoid experiencing that kind of pain. “I think losing a kid is the worst thing that can happen to someone. Subconsciously, I didn’t want to put myself in a position to do that and I think that’s part of why it took so long for us to get married. I was dragging my feet because I didn’t want to actually truly bond with her kids,” he said.
During a family trip to Palm Springs, Calif., in July to relieve themselves from the stress of the pandemic, Mr. Saji realized marriage was on the horizon. “For me, having lost family, the trip made me realize we already created a family together,” Mr. Saji said. “Amber made the idea of family possible. I’ve found a giving and patience in myself that I wouldn’t have found had she not set that up for me.”
