American Adoptions -- America's Adoption Agency
 The greatest gift in life is to love and be loved. As you explore adoption, there is no doubt that you are considering this out of sincere love for your child. Adoption requires incredible strength and selfless courage. We are very excited to add another member to our family through adoption and we have more than enough love to give. Our hearts are open to you and your baby, and we can't thank you enough for considering us!  |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Our leisure time is full of a variety of fun activities with family. You can usually find us at one of our local parks playing on the playground or enjoying one of the many local festivals. We love to chase our son through the park and climb on the playground equipment because it gives an excuse to be kids again. Tina is a sucker for fair food while Matt and Tyson live for the amusement rides. We especially enjoy the 4th of July fair - funnel cakes, amusement rides and fireworks. It doesn't get any better!
We are diehard baseball fans and love to cheer our local team on! You can count on us being at the stadium for Opening Day with a pretzel and hotdog in hand. In fact, Tyson hasn't missed an Opening Day yet. We especially enjoy attending Family Day at the Ballpark because our son is thrilled to take part in the pre-game festivities, especially hugging the mascot. We were there during the last game in our old stadium, at the first game in our new stadium and when our team won the World Series!
We also enjoy down time around the house just hanging out, or during the warmer months, spending time around our pool. Tina especially enjoys taking naps with Tyson and our dogs snuggled up to her while Matt enjoys teaching Tyson to play baseball in the front yard. We have found great joy in spending time with our family and friends and look forward to being able to make new memories with another child as part of our family!
Our holidays are rich with tradition, but Christmastime is especially unique. We begin the holiday season with our celebration of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." For each of the twelve days leading up to Christmas, we all open a small gift - from candy to small toys every gift is a surprise! There is one gift that remains the same every year - chocolate Turtles - something Matt received as a child every year at Christmas.
Each passing year our Christmas tree gets a few new additions. Tina has collected blown glass ornaments since she was a child and continues to add each year to her collection. Her favorite is a Christopher Radko grand piano. We also started collecting the Hallmark fire brigade ornaments in recognition of Matt's service to our community as a firefighter. This will be the first year that Tyson picks out his own ornament and we are anxious to see what he chooses!
On Christmas Eve, our family travels with Tina's large extended family to a local Italian neighborhood to purchase fresh delicacies for the evening's dinner. The bakery opens at seven in the morning and people are lined up around the corner, snuggling together in the blustery Midwest winter, waiting to get their cannoli, cream puffs and macaroons. We barely manage to get out the door before digging into the sweets! The next stop is the corner deli to buy fresh meats and cheeses, including salamini. This is an acquired taste for some individuals, but Matt was a fan from the first bite!
The Hispanic culture has been part of Tina's life since she was a small child. While in elementary school, her family hosted high school foreign exchange students from Spain and Brazil. Susanna and Helen made such an impact that, during her junior year of high school, Tina jumped at the opportunity to study abroad in Spain. The greatest moment was when she realized she was no longer dreaming in English – it was all vividly taking place in Spanish! Tina and her exchange "sister" Estrella are still in contact on a regular basis, despite being separated by over 4000 miles. In addition, we are able to share this same heritage with our niece, Chelsea, whose father immigrated to the United States from Guatemala.
Our city is a melting pot of religions, cultures and ethnicities. There are a variety of cultural festivals and we even have our own cultural arts center devoted to the promotion of cultural awareness. We savor the opportunity to explore other cultural beliefs, practices and cuisine during these events. We love children's heritage camps and plan on sending our children to learn about celebrating cultural diversity. We also plan on taking our children on "birthland" tours to explore the countries of their heritage. We have already blended our Irish and Italian cultures and look forward to adding another to our family!
