Dear Birth Parent(s),

This is only a small glimpse of the many hopes, dreams and plans that we have for the children in our family. We know that life will not always go as planned, but we will adapt and adjust as things happen. But, rest assured, no matter what, we will love and support the children in our family. Even though we may never know your particular situation and we can only imagine the difficult decision that you face, we appreciate your selflessness and the love that you have for your baby. We know that you are a kind and caring individual, one that puts the best interest of the baby first. We want to say thank-you, even though thank-you does not seem good enough for what you are doing. Thank-you for taking the time to read our letter. Thank-you for taking the time to consider us as potential parents. And most importantly, thank-you for caring about your baby enough to consider the best interests of the baby.

We want you to know how much we will love and care about your baby, even though the baby is only a dream for us at the present time. Even before we were married, we dreamed of the day when the two of us would become a family of three, or possibly more. We often talk about the children that will become part of our family. We talk about our hopes and our dreams, but mainly, just about our everyday life as a family. We cannot wait to share our life with children. We would like to share some of our hopes, plans and dreams with you.

While in law school and planning for a family, Kathy talked about opening her own law firm so that she could spend lots of quality time with the children. Even though she started her legal career at a large law firm, Kathy has since opened her own law firm. We plan to create a room for our children at Kathy's office. It will start out as a nursery and will change as the children grow. Between Sal's schedule as a history professor and Kathy's ability to control her schedule, we plan to raise the children ourselves, sort of a modified stay-at-home model.

We cannot wait to do so many things as a family. We have several hobbies that we enjoy and we also love to travel. Whenever we do something, whether it be a recreational activity such as swimming, boating, or skiing; traveling to places such as the Grand Canyon, the beach, or Walt Disney World; celebrating holidays or just performing everyday activities such as grocery shopping, going out to eat or cooking dinner; we always dream of the day that we can share it as a family. We cannot wait to share our lives with a child. We have so many things that we want to share, but most of all, we have lots of love to share.

We want to give the child every advantage that we can, but we do not want to overdo personal possessions. First and foremost, we want the child to know that he is loved and to develop a sense of self-worth and independence. Our family, including our extended family, has so much to love to give. We know that no matter what happens, we can always go to our family for love and support. Our child will know this from the moment that we bring him/her home.

We also plan to make sure that the child gets an excellent education. We will send the child to a private school for the best educational opportunities possible. Kathy attended a private school through the eighth grade which built the foundation for the rest of her education. We will encourage the child to participate in extracurricular activities which he/she finds interesting whether it be sports or clubs.

Religion is also an important part of our lives. Kathy was raised Baptist while Sal was raised as a Catholic. Since our marriage, we attended Baptist churches and Sal has now joined the Baptist Church. Currently, we do not have any positions in the church, but we most recently acted as the youth director for approximately a year while the church searched for and found a new youth pastor. We not only taught the Sunday school class, but we planned monthly activities for the youth including several trips/retreats such as a trip to the lake, snow skiing, and white water rafting. In order to pay for these activities, we also scheduled and planned several fund raising activities including church dinners and car washes.

We plan to tell the child that he/she is adopted. Adoption is a wonderful thing and we want the child to know that. We do not want the child to hear that he/she was adopted from some well-meaning neighbor or another child in school, etc. We want to tell the child how much we wanted him/her even before he/she was born and how much you love him/her. We will always be glad to share photos and letters with you if that is something you desire.

This is only a small glimpse of the many hopes, dreams and plans that we have for your child. We know that life will not always go as planned, but we will adapt and adjust as things happen. But, rest assured, no matter what, we will love and support your child. We had many plans, hopes and dreams for our lives that did not occur as planned; however, we believe that life has meaning and that everything happens for a reason. We could have never imagined happier lives for ourselves or that we could have possibly loved anyone as much as we love each other. Supposedly, there is no greater love than the love between a parent and a child, so we cannot imagine how deep our love will grow for the children in our family. We would do absolutely anything for our extended family, especially our nieces and nephews, and our love will be even deeper for the children in our family. We know that this letter may not address all of the questions that you may have. We have so many things that we want to tell you and have barely scratched the surface. Please know that we are happy to answer any questions that you may have that we have not addressed. You are in our thoughts.

Sal & Kathy