Dear Birth Parent(s),

Hi, our names are Rachel and Josh. Before telling you about us, we would like to commend you for having the strength and courage to make this selfless decision. We hope to make you feel as comfortable as possible with this choice by sharing with you information about ourselves.

We met in 1994 in high school; however we were not the typical high school romance. We were teammates on the boys' rugby team! (Our school didn't have a girls' team). We have been teammates ever since. We continued dating throughout university and were married in a cozy ceremony in July of 2001. Always planning to have a family of our own, we were devastated to find out that what is so easy for many other couples appeared unlikely for us. As happy as we are together, we know that our family will not be complete until we have children to share our love with. We are extremely excited at the prospect of adopting a child!

Being a family doctor and an elementary teacher we both work with children every day and consider our interactions with them to be the brightest parts of our days. This also gives us an opportunity to see how great of an impact a wonderful home life can make. We will provide your child with the love, affection and opportunities to participate in a variety of activities. Growing up we were both fortunate to have families that supported us in a variety of endeavors including hockey, skiing, baseball, piano and many more. Our parents took a very active approach to our activities including coaching teams and volunteering to help in any way possible. We are looking forward to being actively involved in whatever activities a child who joins our family chooses to participate in.

We both believe in the importance of having at least one parent available and present in a child's daily life. Your child will have the luxury of having both parents at home much of the time. During the child's pre-school years we plan to each take a year off from our work outside the home to be present full-time to nurture a child. Rachel has a great deal of flexibility in determining her hours of work and plans to work part-time following the addition of a child to our family. As a teacher, Josh's work hours largely mirror the hours a child would be in school, allowing him to be home once a child came home from school.

We have both always had animals in our lives and we feel that they bring happiness to a home and can teach children important lessons about responsibility, love, and compassion. Growing up in a rural part of New Brunswick we were around many different animals from rabbits to horses to cats and dogs. Having settled in a more urban area we are not able to have quite so many animals but we do have two dogs and two cats. We enjoy taking our dogs for walks together at our neighborhood parks and trails, and we all enjoy swimming at a nearby lake or hanging out at the ocean on the beach.

Both of our families are very supportive and are excited about our decision to adopt a child. Neither of our sets of parents have any grandchildren yet and they are certainly ready and eager to be involved in a new young family member's life! We plan to be open and communicate early in your child's life that his/her birth mother is a strong and kind person who chose adoption because she felt it was the way in which she could best provide for her child. Your child will always know that your decision to choose adoption was made with love. We promise to provide you with regular picture and letter updates on your child's growth and development.

We wish you peace and love in your life as you make this difficult and selfless decision regarding your child's future. Please know that a child who joins our family will be the love of our lives and will have every opportunity to grow into a happy and successful individual. Thank-you for taking the time to consider us as adoptive parents for your child.

Josh & Rachel