1Introduction

Dear Expectant Parent(s),

We are Kelly and Mike, and after being together for nearly 25 years, we’re hoping to continue growing our family through the beautiful journey of adoption!

We met in high school, long-distance dated through college, and got married after graduating. After getting married, we moved from our hometown in Canada to the US and started creating a life for ourselves . Now, we’ve been happily married for almost 14 years and we live in a suburb of Boston in a Cape Cod-style home with our 2-year-old son, and our sweet dog, Millie.

After a few years of marriage, we felt it was the right time to start a family. Unfortunately, after several great losses, we learned that we are unable to bear children. Luckily, through the beauty of adoption, we became parents in 2019, and our son is one of the greatest joys of our life. Now, he’s two, and ready for a sibling!

Kelly is a full-time stay-at-home parent to our two-year-old, while Mike is a professor and scientist. We are lucky that Mike’s job is incredibly flexible, so he has and will continue to be there for all of the important moments in our child’s life.

Please know that we support you in your search to find the right family for your baby; we also believe that whatever choice you make, you will be making the right choice. We don’t know how you came to this huge decision, but we do know that it likely wasn’t easy. Thank you for your bravery and for the love you are showing for your child in considering placing them for adoption.

Our Story

The first thing you should know about us is that we have been friends for nearly 25 years, a couple for 20 years (we even went to senior prom together), and married for 14 years in 2021, and parents for 2 years!

Our brains work very differently (Kelly is the artist and Mike is the scientist), so our thought processes and reactions are very different, too. Though some couples would struggle with having such different viewpoints, we’ve found that it really helps us consider things from all angles and it makes us an amazing team. We are able to let each other’s strengths shine and pick up the slack for the other when something is one of our weaknesses.

As we mentioned earlier in our letter, Kelly loves being a stay-at-home mom. She has dreamed of making cut-out sandwiches, face painting, and reading bedtime stories to her kids her whole life. Mike’s unique career, as a scientist and professor at a Massachusetts university, is flexible enough that he can work from home one or two days a week (even when there isn’t a pandemic!), allowing him to also take part in childcare.

The road to creating our family has been a bumpy one. We had always considered adopting to grow our family, but after multiple early miscarriages, and then the devastating loss of our daught01er, Lucy, who was stillborn at 6 months, we knew for certain adoption was our path.

Throughout our first adoption journey, we learned that adoption has touched our lives more than we originally realized when we began our family building journey. We discovered that half of the members of our close friend group were either adopted themselves or have siblings that were adopted. Because of this, we’ve been able to talk to people who were adopted, as well as parents of children who were adopted, to learn about their experiences. We are also grateful to have an open and positive relationship with our child’s birthparents.

Adoption is one of the greatest expressions of love –both for adoptive parents and birthparents. While our journey to creating a family has had its challenges, it has also shaped us into the people that we are today. It has taught us that nothing is guaranteed and to enjoy the blessings that we do have. We are grateful every day that we are parents We hope that these blessings will continue to grow, and that our story continues to be a page-turner.

Kelly (According to Mike)

Kelly has a very Mary Poppins-like array of talents and personality traits. She is a master baker, a warm host, and a selfless friend. She has music in her soul, often spending evenings plucking away on the ukulele and filling our home with song. Her creative eye, superb taste, welcoming personality, and loving touch are what make our house a home. These traits have been constantly on display for the past two years, as she has provided a steady stream of stimulation, education, and attention to our son.

As a result of experiencing a great deal of personal tragedy in the past decade, Kelly has emerged as a stronger and more empathetic person. She understands grief like few other people, and has been enormously helpful to other friends and family going through various problems, big and small. This has translated into her becoming an exceptionally caring and comforting mother, able to provide a soothing, understanding touch and gentle tone with our son whether he is genuinely hurt or irrationally upset that he has to put pants on to go outside.

Kelly has approached motherhood with a ferociousness that would be hard to match. She works diligently to make sure that our son is exposed to a variety of cultures, religions, cuisines, and education styles. She plans art, baking, music, and play activities for him almost every day. Sometimes she will spend an hour working on something that he decides within seconds he isn’t interested in – a reality of parenting that she responds to with patience and grace. When it comes to parenting, her energy and creativity seem to be limitless. I feel extremely lucky to have a partner on this journey with the instincts, patience, and enthusiasm that Kelly shows on a daily basis.

Mike (According to Kelly)

When I think about Mike, I think about laughter. Mike has a joy for life that bubbles over through his infectious laugh, his bright smile, and his cheerful spirit. He always knows what to say when I’m feeling sad or stressed, whether it’s telling a joke to lighten the mood, or being the steady, calm voice of reason. When it’s time to focus, Mike is a perfect balance to my wacky creativity. He is also my safety, my comfort, and the love of my life.

I love watching Mike with our son more than I ever thought I would. I’ve always known how family-oriented he is, having grown up in a tight-knit family himself, but watching his love of family grow through the lens of fatherhood warms my heart daily. He’s the best playground and loves to encourage rough-and-tumble, but he’s also ready for a tea party or a quiet cuddle whenever it’s needed. Mike loves being silly and he’ll always do something “just one more time.”

Mike is always loving, unwaveringly supportive, silly, and fun. I feel so lucky to have found my true partner in life in him. Mike shows his love for me every day, with a touch or a look, or even just by doing a chore that he knows I don’t like doing. I could not have designed a better man with whom to share my life if I tried. He is my best friend.

Our Family

Mike’s family has two boys and two girls, Kelly, Dan, Mike, and Mallory (born in that order)! While they are all close, Mike’s brother is his best friend – we talk every day. His parents, Gordon and Shirley, are already incredible grandparents to our son and our two nephews, Nathan and Lachlan, but they are beyond excited to welcome another child into our family! The family still gets together nearly every for Sunday dinner and, though we no longer live in town, we try to call them weekly just to check in.

Kelly has two sisters, Lindsey and Jaimie – Kelly’s the middle child! Lindsey lives on the East coast of Canada with her partner, Todd, and Jaimie lives in Western Canada with her husband, David. We don’t get to see each other as often as we would like, but we chat on Facebook every day and video chat regularly!Though the family sadly lost Kelly’s father in 2014, her mom Wendy, visits us often for weeks at a time. There is only one grandchild on Kelly’s side of the family, so he’s very special! We all cannot wait for another little one to join our family! Wendy has found a new passion as a G-Ma, playing with trucks or animals over video chat almost every day. She truly treasures her time with our son.

Mike and Kelly’s Parenting (According to their parents)

From Mike’s Mom and Dad:

Michael was raised in a large family with lots of siblings, cousins and always many babies. I always knew that Mike would be a great parent, and s I watch him with his own son, these expectations have been confirmed. Mike loves to tease and laugh and is not afraid to act silly. Mike still has a lot of the “big kid” in him, which is evident when he tosses Henry into the air or plays games with him. Every game is an adventure, sometimes it is hard to decide who is having more fun – our grandson or his dad! The most rewarding about being a grandparent is watching my son doing a better job than I did. I am very proud of what my son has accomplished in his career, but I am prouder of the way he is helping to raise his son with so much love and kindness.

From Kelly’s Mom:

It has given me great pleasure to witness the development of Kelly’s parenting skills since Henry became part of all our lives. Kelly is a very creative parent, finding fun ways to spend the days with playtime learning. Kelly is doing all she can to make sure her son connects with his grandparents through video chats. She consistently arranges time for us to play together, read stories, share mealtimes, and we even “cook” together. One of the most noticeable things I see is that Kelly’s parenting almost NEVER involves saying “no,” while still setting appropriate boundaries. It takes patience and calm to raise a child with love, and Kelly is excelling. Together, Kelly and Mike have taught a very young boy to share easily, to be kind, and the priceless value of a hug. In my eyes, they are raising Henry with wonderful instincts and a lot of love.

Our Daily Adventures

We were so grateful to have Henry come into our lives through adoption in January 2019! Kelly loves being a stay-at-home parent, and is looking forward to sharing the fun she has teaching and playing with our son with another little soon!

We love reading stories, making art projects and crafting, and cooking together in the kitchen – even though it can get messy! We spend as much time outside as possible, exploring the woods and pond by our house, or visiting fields and the goats at the farm down the street. Our house is always full of music and dancing, and we even attend family music class once or twice week! We have lots of active toys and equipment that have helped our son him learn how to move himself around and grow strong. We love watching him explore the world, and are excited to watch him grow as a big brother!

Our little dog Millie is always gentle, kind, and nearby, patiently watching over her little human!

Our Home

We love entertaining friends and family visit and hosting all sorts of gatherings! We have a large, fenced-in backyard with big deck and swing set, and a winding path leading down to a small pond. We also live just down the road from a working farm where we can get fresh milk, eggs, and produce. We are fortunate to have lots of wildlife visit us daily, from songbirds and butterflies, to deer and bunnies! As for our community, our town is extremely family-friendly, with lots of family events happening all year long, and our surrounding neighbors are all very kind (we have neighborhood get-togethers several times a year).

Additionally, the school district in our area is among the top 10 best in the state. We feel very fortunate to live in such an amazing area and to be a part of such a warm community; we love raising our child here!

Celebrations!

We love a theme, and love celebrating in any way we can to make time with friends and family special! Birthdays, holidays, special events, we love celebrating them all, and we love passing on many long-standing family traditions!
Our newest tradition is what we call “Henry Day.” It celebrates the day that Henry’s adoption was finalized! We spend time as a family doing all of his favorite activities, eat his favorite foods and have a special cake!
Continuing special family traditions helps us feel close to our family when we aren’t able to celebrate with them, and it’s been fun to create our own!

Thank You

We hope that through this letter we’ve been able to show you the happiness, fun, and love we have to share with your child. We love being parents and, if you give us the honor of placing your child for adoption with us, we know we can provide a secure and loving home to them.

If you select us as your child’s adoptive parents and are open to it, we hope to maintain some level of contact with you, our adopted child’s birth family, whether through brief photo/letter updates or something more frequent. We are fortunate to enjoy a positive relationship with Henry’s birth family, and we hope our children can know who his or her birth relatives are and for them to have an understanding of their heritage. We also want them to know their birth story, including how the decisions you made helped bring them into our family. We believe that an open adoption can be a beautiful experience full of love for everyone involved.

Thank you for considering us as your child’s adoptive family. We appreciate you taking the time to learn about us, and we look forward to hopefully learning more about you! Know that if you choose us, your precious child will be loved and cherished more than words can express. If you have more questions or wish to contact us, please call Full Circle Adoptions at 1-800-452-3678.

Sincerely, 

Kelly & Mike