Dear Birth Parent(s),

We would like to first of all thank you from the bottom of our hearts for considering us as adoptive parents to your child. We cannot even imagine what you are going through right now, but just know that we admire you for your courage and strength through this difficult decision you are making.

In this letter we hope to show you the kind of people we are, but mostly the kind of parents we would be to your child.

We met 8 years ago and after just a few months we knew we had found our soul mate and were engaged shortly thereafter. We were married at Christmas time, our favorite holiday. We have been married for almost 7 years now and often remind each other how lucky and blessed we are to have found each other. We both exercise and try to eat a healthy, balanced diet. We have worked hard to have successful careers, a beautiful home, and a very strong and loving family. Our favorite time of the week is the weekend where we get complete family time to play! We love to be outside, go on walks and to the park to play. We love to spend time with family and friends, cooking out, having play dates for the kids, or just relaxing.

We both have happy childhood memories, including going to church on Sundays with family, attending summer camps, playing sports, going to school, family gatherings, and family vacations in the summer. We were both raised in Christian homes, with a lot of emphasis on religion, family, and education. We plan to have that same type of environment in our home. We also plan to start a college fund, so that your child will at least have that option if they so desire after high school.

We talked about having children well before getting married; we both wanted to be parents and knew we could offer so much love and opportunity to a child. We tried to get pregnant for about a year then started going to infertility specialists. Early on before we knew any answers from the specialists, we both agreed that adoption would be a right path to take. A few months later we were told that it was close to impossible that we could get pregnant on our own. There were a couple different roads we could have chosen to take to try to have our own biological child, or have the child at least be biologically connected to one of us. Both roads were filled with uncertainty and we had several signs along the way that kept telling us we are supposed to adopt. It was one of the easiest decisions we have made as a couple.

We were activated with American Adoptions mid 2005 and our sweet baby girl was born that December. Katelyn is almost two years old and we cannot imagine life without her. We feel truly blessed to have been chosen by her birthmother. We received a poem from the adoption agency when Katie was born titled "The Gift We Could Not Give Each Other", and we gave that to Katie's birthmom to help explain to her how grateful we were to her for the decision she made for Katie. She forever blessed our lives and we think about her and thank God for her every day.

We feel such passion about adoption, not only because of our daughter Katelyn, but we were touched by the miracle of adoption many years ago. Mauri's Mother and Uncle were both adopted. We feel that if Mauri's Mother hadn't been adopted, Mauri wouldn't be here today. Things happen for a reason, we truly believe that. There is a reason you are in your situation, just like there is a reason we are in ours. God steered us in the direction of adoption over the past few years and we thank God for special people like you that make dreams of childless couples come true. This is an unselfish act for your child and you will provide a family for couples like us. You can be confident that we will always be there for your child no matter what.

We want to let you know that if you choose us, you will forever hold a special place in our hearts. We will be open from the beginning with your child about the sacrifices that were made, so that we can be a family. We plan to keep a scrapbook of everything and also utilize books to help educate him or her on the adoption miracle. We will send you pictures and letters if you would like, for as many years as you desire.

Thank you for your time during this decision process you are making, we have enjoyed telling you about us. As you know, it is difficult to try to tell you everything about us in one letter; we just hope we have given you an idea of the kind of people we are. God bless you as you go through this process, and we again thank you for your kindness and unselfishness.

Sincerely,

Steve & Mauri