We are excited to add to our family again through adoption. And, we know it is a wonderful way to have a family. Our two adoptions have been the most amazing experiences (and continues to be), and we feel incredibly blessed to be Shay and Ivy's parents. There are no words to describe how important they are to us. They are in every way our daughters, and we love them both so much. We feel privileged to be able to be part of adoption, and look forward to having this miracle happen to us again.
We know this must be a difficult time for you as you look for parents to take care and love your child. We cannot begin to express our gratitude for birth parents. We want you to know how courageous we think you are. Whatever your decision will be, whether you decide to parent or place your child for adoption, we know you have great love for your child. Shay and Ivy's birth families are very important to us, and we feel so grateful to have them be part of our lives.
Our greatest joy has been to provide a stable, loving, happy home for our kids. We hope, as you get to know us, that you will feel like your child would be well taken care of and would receive all the love and support he or she needs to have a happy life. We know that not all adoptions look exactly the same, so we'd like to tell you about our open adoption with Shayla and Ivy's birth parents. Shay's birth mother wanted a website to keep track of Shay's pictures, so we set up a private blog for her, which she has the password to and can decide who she'd like to give that to for access to the site. We regularly update the site with pictures and stories about Shay and how she is growing up. We also send printed pictures to her birth mother (we have more contact with her than her birth father at this time).
We email and text with her from time to time as well. We've had several visits with Shayla's birth mother, which have all been great experiences for us. We are so grateful that she chose us to be the parents of her little girl, for which we could never thank her enough. We feel like these moments that she can have with Shay are our way of showing how much she means to us. We know that these updates and visits mean the world to her, and it makes us happy to do them. And, she also just happens to be super fun to be around! She loves to laugh and have a good time, and it is the best thing to watch her love on Shay. We really enjoy being a part of her life.
Ivy's adoption is still quite new, but we have been fortunate to already have built a relationship with her birth mother. Ivy's birth mother chose us to adoption her daughter about three months before she was due to give birth. We got several months to text and talk on the phone and exchange pictures. We finally got to meet when Ivy was born, and it was a special time for us to be together. Because we don't live in the same state, we had to wait a couple weeks before we could fly home. This gave us the opportunity to visit several times with Ivy's birth mother and her family and friends. We're grateful that we have so many pictures and memories with Ivy's birth family. Ivy's birth mother wanted printed pictures instead of a website. We send her updates weekly right now, and will probably send pictures and letters more on a monthly basis in the future. Because we live far from each other, we won't be able to have visits as often, but we'll have to make the time count when we are able to get together. We text frequently with Ivy's birth mother and give her updates on how Ivy is doing, and we love hearing about how things are going in her life, too.
We also know that there are as many types of open adoptions as there are types of people, and so we are more than willing to discuss what sort of things would be important to you and to find what works best.
If you decide to choose adoption, we know how important it will be for you to know that your child is safe and loved. We are ready to welcome another child into our home, and to welcome that child’s birth parents into our lives as well. Through regular letters, photographs, emails, and occasional visits, we would do whatever we can to help you feel confident that your child is well cared for with us. We would be happy to send you updates as often as you would like, even on a weekly basis. We are open to your ideas and care about your concerns. We look forward to talking with you about a level of openness that we are both comfortable with and building a relationship with you.
These are a couple of examples of things Shayla's birth parents have liked. Please click on either of the pictures shown for a closer look.
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We took pictures of her with a teddy bear
from the day she was born. Shayla's birth
parents have a bear just like the one pictured,
so that they can see how much she's growing.
We have started the same thing with Ivy's
birth mother, with a little stuffed frog. =) |
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We keep up a website with pictures of Shayla. We updated it quite
frequently when she was first born, and now, we post pictures
every couple of months. This is an older screenshot of the
website, but will hopefully give you an idea of what it looks
like. We would be happy to put together something like this
for you and your family, or something else you might prefer.
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