Though we don't know you personally yet, we thank you. Thank you for the gift that you are going to bless someone with, parenthood. Adoption for us was an exciting choice. We were blessed two years ago, when we adopted our son Martonio. Being parents is even better than we dreamed it would be! Now, we are thrilled at the prospect of a new bundle of joy joining us!!

Mark Michelle Job Description Owns His Own Internet Marketing Company, Works out of Home Office Stay-at-Home Mom (Former Elementary School Teacher) Education College Graduate, Family Studies College Graduate, Elementary Education with English as a Second Language & Spanish Specializations Favorites Hobby Entertainment & Sports Hobby Singing, Traveling & Watching Movies Cartoon Bugs Bunny Cartoon Little Bill Day of Week Saturdays Day of Week Rainy Days Dessert Chocolate Ice Cream Dessert Yes, Please!! Sport to Play Basketball Sport to Play Basketball Children Martonio-3 years old

We firmly believe that the absolute most important purpose in our life is to demonstrate God's love to others. This motivates us in all areas of our life, but especially in how we love our children through parenting. We love to watch children blossom into the unique, loving individuals they each are. We help and guide them through life with lots of praise, encouragement, acceptance, kisses and hugs.

We also believe that one of the greatest gifts we can give children is for them to truly see our love and commitment to each other and to God, through anything that happens. They know that their secure world will not change when problems arise. Enjoying 16 beautiful years of marriage, we are so thankful for our close, joyful family and feel that it is a privilege to share that happiness with children.

Sometimes, thinking about how happy we are, we smile and say that it almost feels like Disneyland- corny...but we are so blessed. We thank God constantly. There's a Scripture that says, "To whom much has been given, much is required." So we delight in each cherished moment of our lives as parents and do our best to appreciate everything. We see how secure, happy, smiley, confident and loving our son is and it makes us feel so blessed. One of our biggest compliments is when he smiles and actually laughs in his sleep. The joy of making a child happy in unlike any other!

YES!! We adopted our son. We prayed that God would send us the child He intended for us and did He ever deliver!! We were able to be at the hospital when Martonio was born, two years ago. The celebration we had…and still have every time we look at him makes us thank God for answering our prayers even more than we dreamed. And now we pray for that next child who will bless our lives.

We also have quite a few friends and relatives who are adopted, so for us, it's such a natural way to have a family. We actually rejoice that this is the parenting path for us-to know that God has handpicked our children…who may not look like us but who will be showered with our love so much that any challenges they face just won't seem to matter. They'll know that we prayed for them before we knew them, prayed for their birthmother as she made some difficult decisions and that they came to our family because they were meant to.

A Beautiful Summer Day in Arizona

The truth!! That his/her birthmother loved her baby so much that she decided adoption was the best way to show that love to him/her. We don't know if you will feel comfortable sharing details or reasons why you made an adoption plan-that is completely your choice. But after getting to know our son's birthparents, we know it was the hardest thing his birthmother ever did. However, she expressed that she knew it was the right thing for her and her baby. We saw firsthand how much she loved him and it gives us joy to be able to explain to him, that selfless kind of love. She chose to take a difficult situation and make it victorious, a thing of beauty.

So after leaving the hospital, we immediately began telling him what a wonderful person she is. We tell him how she loved him so much and that she always will. We explain to him what she'd told us; that she wasn't able to give him the things she believed he needed, so she chose adoption because she cherished him.

If you would like, we can discuss what things you would like us to share with your child.