Introduction

Dear Expectant Parent(s),

We are Lauren and Chris and immediately after meeting each other eight years ago, we knew we had found our soul mates in one another. Five years ago we got married and began our lives as husband and wife. We spent our first few years as a couple traveling and trying to have a child, only to learn that was not an option for us. Though this was a difficult time for us, we now realize our struggle with infertility was simply an obstacle that lead us to our current path. We live in a beautiful Cape-style home in a suburb of Boston with our dog, Ruby, and we can think of no better way of continuing our journey together than adopting a child, hopefully your child. We have both always wanted children and, after seeing how wonderful each other is with our nieces and nephew, we both know the other will make an incredible mom and dad to our future child. Additionally, both of us have worked very hard in our current jobs over the past few years, which has made us financially ready to raise a child and allowed us to create incredibly flexible schedules so we can be there for all of the important moments of our child’s life. Ultimately, through all our challenges, we have emerged stronger, more in love, and more committed to adopting and creating a family together.

Our Story

Our first date eight years ago was dinner at a cozy Italian restaurant in Boston and we totally hit it off. That very night, we knew that we had something special and over the course of the next several months we fell in love and started to picture our future together. There were many long talks about our hopes, dreams, goals, and the kind of relationship we wanted. Throughout the three years we dated, we had fun, grew a lot, and developed a strong bond that is based on love, respect, and a true sense of partnership. For us, this means we are committed to building a life together and supporting each other to be the best versions of ourselves we can be. Additionally, we are both committed to making each other and family our greatest priorities.

In 2012, we got engaged in a coastal town in Maine where we love to go for vacations. We had just come back from a schooner sail on the harbor and were getting ready for dinner. So, when Lauren was in the shower, I (Chris) slipped the engagement ring box into my pocket. We ended up getting a drink before dinner, and there, on the deck overlooking the harbor with the sunset fading behind us, I got down on one knee. I was pretty sure Lauren knew what was about to happen, but she acted surprised anyway. Honestly, I cannot tell you what I said – it was all such a blur; the most important thing was that she said “Yes!” In 2013, we were married on Cape Cod surrounded by our family and friends and went on an amazing honeymoon to Central America.

Our marriage is sweet and romantic, but also a real friendship and partnership. We make a great team, we have a lot of fun together, and we enjoy a lot of the same things. We can talk about anything with one another and ultimately we love each other so much that we are committed to working through any disagreement that may come along. Through our challenges, we have learned to not argue about the little things and instead, we choose to love and support each other in all we do– including hopefully parenting our child one day.

Chris About Lauren

What can I say about Lauren, except that she’s amazing? I’m sure you’ll read this and think “Yes, but you’re her husband…” and you would be right – I may be a little biased. But it’s true! Lauren gives of herself without asking for anything in return and does so with compassion and empathy.

A couple of years ago my brother was diagnosed with a serious medical issue. Lauren, out of love and concern for my family, stepped in and assisted my brother’s family. She had my brother transferred to the hospital where she works so that he could get the best care possible, connected him with the right doctors, and checked on him every day to make sure that he had everything he needed. She was incredible!

One of the other amazing qualities I love about Lauren is how she interacts with children. Whether it is our nieces and nephew, our friends’ children, or her four godchildren, she knows just how to make them feel comfortable. When my nephew first met her he was very shy, but she just clicked with him and within a couple of minutes he was a chatterbox and was showing her his Legos and dinosaurs. Now whenever we visit, he runs to her and gives her the biggest hug! Lauren also has a way with babies. She can often get a crying baby to sleep just by snuggling them in her arms.

In short, I don’t know what I’d do without Lauren and I can’t wait to adopt a child with her. When I’m having a tough day she knows how to cheer me up. She knows when something is eating at me and is able to help me work through it. She is a true partner, a wonderful wife, and I know from the bottom of my heart that she will make an excellent mother.

Lauren About Chris

Chris has all of the qualities I could have ever asked for in a husband. He is kind and thoughtful. He is funny and can be really silly at times. He has already mastered “dad jokes” and will do just about anything to get a laugh from a kiddo or me. He is gentle and sweet. He adores our nieces, nephew, and our friend’s kids adore him too. He loves animals and we joke that our dog likes him more than me. He is smart and curious about so many things, always googling things to learn more about them. There is so much that I love about Chris, but I especially love the way he makes me feel so loved and how he does the same for everyone he cares about. These are all incredible qualities in a husband and reasons I know that he will be an incredible father.

Chris also has diverse interests and still surprises me once in a while. He loves football and hockey, but he also loves classical music. He is an amazing partner for game night because he knows the most interesting facts. Chris is also my rock. I always know that I can lean on him. Through our challenges with infertility, Chris demonstrated this support repeatedly. He is an incredibly good sport and is up for just about anything. When I watch him playing with our nieces in their dollhouse or playing lacrosse in the yard with our nephew, I imagine him as a father and know that our child will be so lucky to have him as their dad.

Our Path to Adoption

Our journey with infertility was challenging, but we did not let it break us apart, in fact, the whole experience deepened our connection. We tried to create a family through infertility treatments for four years, but as we endured the various unsuccessful treatments we realized that the most important thing to us was becoming parents, not how we got there. After exploring our options and doing a lot of research, we knew that adoption was the way we wanted to move forward with building a family. We have some experience with adoption, both because Chris’ mother is adopted and because we have good friends who have adopted three children. Adoption has helped people close to us build beautiful families, so when we decided to stop fertility treatments and pursue adoption we truly felt a sense of peace – we finally felt we were on the right path.

Our Support System

Although we don’t have children yet, we are so happy that our life is full of family, friends, and many kids who are so special to us. Both of us have parents and siblings who live close by and we are blessed to have friends who have been in our lives for a very long time. Together we have a village of people who have loved and supported us throughout our lives. Lauren’s father passed away when she was 17, but her mother lives about a mile from us in the same town where we live. Since she lives so close to us, she will no doubt be an integral part of our adoptive child’s life and we know she can’t wait to be there with us for all their firsts. Chris’ parents live on Cape Cod, which is about an hour away from us, but we see them regularly and we love to visit them on the Cape in the summer, supporting them in all of their creative activities. They can’t wait to welcome a grandchild, with whom they can share their love of music, story writing, and art.

Chris’ extended family is small and loving, though distance is a challenge – his father’s brother lives in California and his mother’s family all live in Ireland. We are lucky though, as this distance has just meant we have more places to go visit family and explore. Lauren has a large extended family, many of whom live nearby or in New England. Her mother is one of six kids in a big Irish Catholic family, so Lauren has a lot of cousins. She grew up spending time with them in Maine, where her grandparents had a home. Now, her extended family all loves spending time together in Maine at the lake. Lauren’s father was one of four kids and she is particularly close with her younger cousins on this side of her family, as she grew up just down the street from them. Both of our extended families, both near and far, can’t wait to welcome our child into our family and their hearts.

Our hearts have a lot of love to give and our nieces and nephew can especially attest to that! Chris’ brother and sister-in-law live about an hour-and-a-half away, but we visit them and their three kids often. When we arrive, the kiddos always run up to us yelling our names as they give us big hugs. We love to play with Legos, read books, play outside, with them and recently we started a family game night. Lauren’s brother and his daughter live in Texas so we only see them about twice a year, but we Facetime with them so that our niece can show us her school projects or updates to the decorations in her room. Lauren’s sister, her husband, and their three daughters live near us, so we get to enjoy a lot of family traditions with them. The night before Thanksgiving, we make pies together and enjoy catching up with neighbors and friends. At Christmas, we go ice skating and make up routines to the music playing in the rink. For the 4^th of July, we host a cookout at our house and have the whole family together because the town parade goes right by our house. These traditions are so meaningful, but we also really love just hanging out with the kids in the yard, snuggling while watching a movie, or coloring at the kitchen table.

In addition to our family, most of our friends have small children, so we get to be special guests at the kids’ soccer games and have spent fun weekends away with them at the beach making sand castles or hunting for hermit crabs. All of our family and friends can’t wait to have another kiddo, our future adoptive child, join in on all the fun.

We have treasured our role in so many kids’ lives and we know the child we raise will be the best addition to all of these experiences. We look forward to seeing what interests our child has and creating memories with him or her. When we imagine the future we especially look forward to a bedtime routine, reading books, and tucking them into bed. We look forward to family dinners around our table every night and creating our own holiday traditions, with just us and with our whole extended family.

Our Interests

While we would have liked to already have children by now, we have made the most of these past few years together by exploring different countries. We’ve traveled to many new places and hope to continue traveling even after we adopt – giving our adoptive child the opportunity to see the world. Together, we have taken trips to Belize, Ireland, Greece, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and many places within the U.S. We really enjoy learning about different peoples’ cultural traditions, food, and music. We also love how seeing new places reminds us how big and diverse the world really is. We embrace what makes everyone different from one another and hope to raise a child who can also appreciate these differences and the world around them.

While we have had some great adventures, we also really love just walking our dog around our neighborhood, going on hikes in the woods, and relaxing at the beach. Lauren went to a college with a really good basketball team and Chris is a big New England Patriots fan, so we love watching NCAA basketball and football games. In terms of time together, we try to make Friday nights “date night,” where we go out to a new local restaurant and just talk to one another. We value experiences more than objects, so when it comes to gifts we try to buy each other tickets to different experiences. We really enjoy a range of activities, but our favorite thing to do is to head into the city for a sports game, the theater, or a concert. Though we enjoy doing these various things together, we can’t wait to take our adoptive child on their first hike, help them build sandcastles at the beach, take them to their first sports game or concert, and explore whatever new things they may find interesting.

Our Jobs

Lauren is a nurse in a large hospital in Boston, at which she has worked in various departments for over 17 years. Over the years, her work has transitioned from direct patient care to helping oversee the quality of care patients receive in her department. The patient care aspect of her job continues even when she is off the clock, as she is often called on for medical advice by family and friends.

Chris is a Senior Systems Engineer for a non-profit healthcare organization. He works as a member of the IT Department to maintain the critical systems the organization uses to help people. He has been in his current role for just over 4 years and truly enjoys his job, finding purpose in the important mission of the organization.

We are grateful that our employers have been very supportive of our plans to adopt and of our desire to be at home with our future child as much as possible. Lauren will take the first few months off from work to be with our child full-time. Additionally, we each have flexibility with our schedules so that after these first couple of months, one of us will be home with our child four days a week, with Lauren’s mom helping to watch our child the other days. Because we have each put in long hours at work over the years, we are now in the position to make a child our priority and enjoy time just getting to know our little one and becoming a family.

Our Home

We live in a Cape-style home in a quiet residential neighborhood in a suburb of Boston. We especially enjoy our big family room, which is perfect for hosting gatherings with family and friends. In the warmer weather, we spend a lot of time in our backyard having dinner outside or playing with our dog. We can’t wait to snuggle up by the fire and play out in the grass with our adoptive child, possibly your child, one day.

Our neighborhood is a mix of different types of families, some have younger kids, some have teenagers, and some are retirees, but we all have one thing in common – we all know how to have a good time. Every year, we all get together and close off the street for a neighborhood block party. The kids all play, while the adults enjoy great food and catch up on the neighborhood news. It’s a great way for all of us to bond and really create a sense of community. Additionally, our community is very family friendly and has embraced diversity in many ways. There are all types of families and all kinds of people in our community, so we feel comfortable that our family, no matter how we formed, and our adoptive child, no matter their heritage, will fit right in. Aside from great people, our town has a lot to offer – including parks, a farmer’s market, and great little shops. Just down the street from our house, there is a nice playground area with a couple of baseball fields and a soccer field.

Our Pet

As we’ve mentioned, it is not just the two of us, we also have a super sweet black Lab – Ruby. Ruby loves lying in the sunshine as she watches the comings and goings out the front door. She also loves going on walks, in any type of weather, but is content just snuggling up on the couch with us. When our friends come over with their kids, you can find Ruby where the kids are! She loves to play and be right in the heart of the action. We can’t wait for her to get to cuddle and play with our adoptive child, once they are old enough!

Closing

We want you to know just how much you are in our hearts as we prepare to welcome a child into our lives. We appreciate the difficult choices you are making in considering placing your child for adoption and by reviewing adoptive families’ profiles in order to select your child’s adoptive parents. We believe that the decision to make an adoption plan is one that is made with deep love for your child and out of true selflessness. It is important to us that you know that we also take this very seriously and would feel so honored to be chosen as the family with whom you would like to see your child raised. We would be thrilled to open our hearts to your child and can assure you that your child would always be treasured in our home. Our hope as parents is to raise a child to know that they are loved by us and we hope that you find it comforting to know that we would also want your child to know how much they are loved by you as well. Hopefully what you’ve read here will help you to understand who we are and get a sense of our life together and what kind of life your child would have. Our greatest wish has been to have a family and we believe that the more people who can love a child the better. So if you are open to it, we would love for your child to know you as well.

We appreciate you taking the time to get to know us and we would love to know more about you if you are comfortable with that. We also want to assure you that regardless of the level of contact you are interested in having with your child, if you pick us as your child’s adoptive parents, we will always honor your role in your child’s life. What we most want you to know though, are that if you choose us your child will be loved unconditionally and we will do everything possible to provide them with the type of life that you wish for them. We would be so honored to be chosen as adoptive parents to your child and, if you select us, we promise to do everything in our power to help them discover who they are, grow to be the very best they can be, and know how special and loved they are by both us and you.

Please call Full Circle Adoptions at 1-800-452-3678 if you would like to learn more about us or speak with us.

Warmest Regards,

Chris & Lauren