American Adoptions -- America's Adoption Agency

Growing up, Henry's parents encouraged his achievement and set great examples of the importance of education, family, and faith. Dedicated high school teachers stoked his interests in science and technology. In college, he joined the rowing team and learned that the discipline of early mornings and hard workouts with teammates were a small price to pay for the reward of watching the sun rise from the middle of the river. Henry's well developed spirit of adventure led him to hike the entire Appalachian Trail after college -- a 2,000 mile footpath from northern Georgia to Maine. On the trail, he endured and enjoyed every kind of weather, thumbed rides from strangers, made wonderful new friends, and cemented an enduring love of the outdoors.

While Mary grew up in Ireland where family and community were strong, she too yearned to see and experience more. Having studied German in high school, she spent a year in Austria experiencing the culture and studying the language further -- eventually becoming fluent in German. Upon her return to Ireland, the economic climate had not improved. She moved to the US and stayed with her Aunt for a short while before finding a job and moving into an apartment with room-mates. While all these experiences were wonderful and exciting, it was her solid upbringing that kept her grounded and instilled an attitude that if you really want something, go after it with desire and hard work and eventually you'll get there -- and don't forget to have fun along the way.

Halloween Fun!

The wonderful thing about starting a new family is that you also get to create your own/new family traditions. Every Christmas, Mary helps her niece write her letter to Santa and every Halloween, they both dress up and act silly together.

As mentioned earlier, we always do Thanksgiving with Henry's family and so we have the traditional Thanksgiving morning Turkey Trot run, where Mary, Henry, and his sister Susan go running bright and early to work up an appetite for the big dinner. Picking out the Christmas tree is also another tradition we do together each year and hopefully by next Christmas, we'll have one extra family member to bring along! Since we both grew up with wood burning fireplaces in our family homes, we look forward to the colder months when we can enjoy our own fireplace on weekends and holidays with family and friends.

Our wedding anniversary falls in June and no matter what's going on, we always make a point to go away somewhere special for the weekend. Our marriage is not something we take for granted, so we make a point of doing fun things as a couple.

While we are excited about becoming new parents, we are also somewhat anxious as we’re sure all new parents must be. However, having both been raised in loving and stable families, we feel fortunate to have received good examples of what parenting can involve.

Having a child in our lives will bring enormous joy, but we also know it entails lots of responsibility. We wish to teach basic values such as honesty, integrity, always doing your best, sharing and caring for others, and having fun with life. We believe these basic values, along with manners, begin at home - which is why setting a good example is so important.

Having spent lots of time with our niece and other children, we know it’s the simple things that children love best. Baking cookies, planting flowers, or digging a snow cave are moments where memories have been created both for us and our niece. While the time we spend with her is always wonderful, we sometimes see in each other a view of similar days ahead with a child of our own. Our niece is very excited to have a new cousin and is patiently waiting to meet him/her!