Our Letter

Dear friend,
    We are very excited you are taking the time to read our letter and get to know our family a little better. We understand this is a challenging time for you and we admire you for your courage in making this choice. We hope this letter will help you understand a little about us, our values, our relationship and what goals we have for our family. We are looking forward to getting to know you and corresponding with you about all the questions you must have. We know Heavenly Father will help you choose the best family for your child.

Soon after we were married we wanted to start our family. We love children and looked forward a home with lots of little ones running around. We both have lots of brothers and sisters and always wanted a large family because we enjoyed the company of our siblings. We have been blessed with two beautiful daughters, one through adoption and one we gave birth to. Although there is a lot of running around, we still feel like there is another child out there that would be a wonderful addition our family.

Our Story: 
We met through our love of basketball. Kim was shooting hoops with a friend when Steve noticed her. He casually invited her to play with a group of friends and himself later in the week. After several weeks of playing basketball together, Steve finally asked Kim out. We found out that we enjoyed doing many other activities together like camping, biking, and swimming. Our favorite dates were just walking on the beach and getting to know one another. Several months later Steve invited Kim to a beach that his family camps at every year and asked her to marry him. We have enjoyed sharing Steve's family tradition with our girls. 

About Kim by Steve:
Kim graduated from college with a degree in Elementary Education. She has been a dedicated elementary school teacher for over twelve years and enjoys her little first graders. After our first daughter was born she was able to share a contract with another teacher. Both of them have the opportunity to stay at home for part of the week with their children, and also continue teaching a couple days a week. While Kim is teaching, Sienna is in school and Juliette attends a preschool right down the street. I love watching Kim with our girls. I am amazed at the patience and compassion that she has for them. She loves baking with them, doing arts and crafts and reading books to them. Kim has a passion for traveling and always has a camera in her hand. She loves taking pictures of our girls and making scrapbooks of our family.

About Steve by Kim:
Steve became a Firefighter two days after our wedding and after several years as a Paramedic, he has recently promoted to Engineer. That means he gets to drive the big fire trucks, something our girls think is really cool. He loves his job and loves helping people whenever he can. Steve is a very hard working and loving husband and father. He chose a career where he could have a lot of free time to be home with his family. When we have some free time Steve loves to surprise the girls and I with little weekend drives to the beach or the mountains. I love how he plays with our girls. He loves to build forts out of our blankets and furniture and will play Legos, have tea parties or just be there with them as they play. He loves our girls and they love their daddy.

Steve's adoption story:
Steve was blessed to be adopted by a family who loves him as if he were their own. His birth mother loved him enough to allow him to be raised by another family that could provide him a more stable home. Steve has always been grateful for the choice she made, and we both look forward to helping other children feel that same love. After we had been married for several years without being able to get pregnant adoption seemed like a natural fit for our family.

Our girls:
In 2007 we were blessed to adopt our daughter S. We can’t properly express all the emotions we felt as our daughter’s birth mother placed her in our arms. Her selflessness blessed us in a way we will never forget, and we enjoy our continued relationship with her and her family. Eighteen months later we put our paperwork in and were hoping to adopt again. We felt like there was another little child we were supposed to adopt.  It was soon after we were approved to adopt again when we found out we were pregnant. We were surprised, and excited to add to our family, but the feeling that we should adopt another child has never left us. Our daughter J was born later that year. Our girls bring us such joy. We love to watch them play together and we celebrate with them as they learn new things. S is such a good big sister, and J looks up to her in such an adorable way. They have both told us how much they want another little baby brother or sister. After J’s birth we were hopeful that we could get pregnant again and continue to add to our family. Unfortunately we have had several miscarriages, and the feelings that we should adopt have grown stronger. We feel like now is the right time to add to our family through adoption. 

We both believe in teaching our children the importance of hard work, honesty, and doing the best you can in everything you try. We are both grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. We hope to teach our children the values and the blessings that come through following the teachings of Jesus. Steve was able to see those blessings while serving as a missionary for our church in Brazil. We also have the benefit of Kim's teaching knowledge and hope our children will be enthusiastic about learning.

We were both blessed with wonderful families that we enjoy visiting as much as we can. Steve's family lives close by so we get to see them often. Kim is the oldest of six siblings. Although her family lives out of state, we try to visit them every year and talk with them often by phone. Both families are excited about the prospect of adding to our family. Our parents are excited to have more grandchildren to spoil and love.

Thank you so much for reading our letter and considering us as adoptive parents. If we are fortunate enough to have you as birth parents we would love to correspond with you. We are very open with our children about adoption. S and J both enjoy reading children’s stories about adoption and frequently ask to hear the story of their births. Sienna knows she was adopted, and has a good relationship with her birth family. We want our children to know how much we love them and how much their birth parents love them also.

With Much Love,
                           
Steve & Kim