Dear Birth Parent(s),

Thank you for looking at our pictures. You've already been through a lot-just reaching the decision to make an adoption plan requires more strength than we can imagine-and now to have to work your way through album after album, deciding which couple will adopt and raise your child. We are in awe of you.

Let us tell you a little bit about what brought us here. We are Teresa and Don and we have been together for sixteen years. We met the first day of graduate school, when all the new students gathered in a local deli for lunch. Teresa sat quietly at the booth, politely introducing herself to the other students when Don blew in like a small tornado, wearing a tie-dyed shirt, and immediately began collecting everyone's phone numbers. We knew instantly that we liked each other and soon thereafter realized that we'd found our lifelong partners. We dated for eight years, then married in 1999.

Our partnership is like two puzzle pieces that fit together just right. We are different in many ways, but together we do things that enrich each of our lives. Don is very active and social, while Teresa is quieter and likes to relax. Don loves music - listening to it and playing it - while Teresa enjoys art and photography. But these differences mean we complement each other and our marriage is more than just the sum of its parts. We are so lucky to have found each other and are thankful every day for the marriage we have built.

We are so ready to raise a child. We tried for seven years to have a biological child but were unsuccessful. This has been the great pain in our lives. Teresa comes from a family that is "baby crazy" and each of her three sisters has two children of their own. She had every reason to believe that having a child would happen as easily for her as it had for every other woman we'd known. It didn't happen, even after multiple medical interventions, and it was the deepest sadness and disappointment we had ever known.

Then finally we realized that we didn't have to be so sad anymore. We have turned to adoption as the way we can create the family we so dearly wish to have, with such hope and optimism for the future.

We want you to know that we will love your child profoundly and will devote our lives to his or her happiness. You will always have a place in your child's life, and you will always be spoken of with love and respect. You will know that your child is happy and healthy from the letters and photographs we will send you. Your child will always hear about his or her adoption as a story of love and devotion on your part as much as ours. He or she will grow up in a stable, secure, loving home with parents who have a happy, healthy marriage.

So while we come together with you as a result of grief, it is our shared optimism and hope in adoption that will carry all of us through. We cannot truly know what you are going through, but we believe so deeply that our shared pain can result in something so beautiful - a new life, filled with love. We hope that knowing that we are a devoted, loving couple who has so much to offer a child may ease your burden. If you choose us as your adoptive family, know that you are giving us the greatest gift.

We wish you peace and happiness.

With love,

Don & Teresa