Introduction
Dear Birthmother
When we look out of our window, where we live on Nantucket Island, we dream about the day when we will walk hand in hand with our son or daughter along the beaches nearby. We’re both trained in architecture, have our own business and work from home. We are lucky enough to be able to set our own hours so we can focus on caring for our child; we look forward to reading, playing and exploring together. Thank you for considering us.
We can’t wait to share with our child-to-be the beauty of our life here. We can easily imagine him or her playing with the neighborhood children in the rolling hills surrounding our home and enjoying the beach in the summer months. We cherish the dream of someday being parents.
About Us
We are familiar with adoption through the experiences of both friends and family. Luke’s brother Shane joined Luke’s family through adoption and this has been a wonderful experience for everyone.
During the past few years we have been trying to start a family. We have had six surgeries between us with no success. As we realized that we will not be able to bear a child together, we began to explore adoption as a way to have a family. We attended an adoption conference near Boston. It was incredibly inspiring. During a lunch break, we sat in the sun overlooking a garden, and, as we talked, we realized together that adoption was to be our path. We left that conference feeling a sense of hope and excitement for our future and all we have to share with a child. We particularly like the idea of having a chance to talk with you and meet you if you are open to this idea. We’d like the child to have a sense of all who love and care for him or her. We also want to assure you of our commitment to giving your child all our love and dedication. We feel so grateful to you for considering adoption and also us.
Because we work together from our home, we have the joy of getting to spend most of every day together. Your child will grow up knowing how much we love each other and especially how much we love him or her. We met while working together in the same architecture office. Luke invited me to lunch one day, which began the first four years of a beautiful relationship.
Luke on Carrie
Luke: I knew Carrie was the one for me within a week of meeting her when she walked in the architect’s office and sat at the desk next to me as the new employee. Carrie was striking to look at and this added to her bubbly personality. I knew I wanted to get to know her better. I first got the nerve to flirt with her that summer when I was teaching tennis across the street from her parents house (where she was staying). After the lesson, pretending no water was provided, I walked up to her door one early Saturday morning, surprised Carrie, still in her pajamas and asked for some water. How shy and goofy was that!? Anyway that was followed the next day by providing a surprise picnic on the beach for her where we shared our first kiss. We spent the rest of the summer getting to know each other better, having fun on the beach and going dancing at night.
Carrie on Luke
Carrie: I loved to watch Luke windsurf and enjoyed playing tennis with him. I was most attracted to Luke’s honesty, integrity and self confidence.
A few years into our relationship, during an ordinary Christmas vacation Luke surprised me. We stopped at a remote and romantic Inn in Montana. What I didn’t know is that he secretly set up (with the help of the Innkeepers) a cottage filled with flowers, candles and decorations where he popped the question. I jumped for joy! Several months later, we celebrated our wedding that lasted for two blissful weeks because our family and friends vacationed with us on the beautiful island where we are fortunate to live.
Our Home
We designed and built a house together where we live and plan to forever more. While I work in our architecture business as well, I am mostly in charge of the home and garden, while Luke is in charge of the office and organizing our work. We share all parts of our lives and are together most of every day. The one thing that is missing is the pitter patter of little feet and the calling out for a glass of water in the night. We long to become parents and to care for and nurture a child. From wordless infancy to the independence craving teenager we look forward to it and are ready for it all.
Our Families
We both come from very loving families who are very excited about our adoption plans. I, Luke, have a twin brother, younger sister and two younger brothers, one of whom was adopted as an infant. Born in England, I grew up for the most part in Louisville Kentucky. My family lived in a typical neighborhood full of kids about 8 miles from the city center. My father was an Episcopalian Minister and my mom, a full time mother. I have 6 nephews and nieces ranging in age from 2 to18 years old, also a ton of cousins in England who Carrie and I love to visit as much as we can. After graduating from College with a degree in Architecture I worked abroad for architects in England and Italy. Then, in 1991, moved to Nantucket Island where I worked in architectural design and construction. Here I met the love of my life Carrie.
About Carrie
Carrie: I am the youngest of three children. I have an older sister and brother and four nieces and nephews ranging in age from 4 to 16. Born in 1965, I grew up in Princeton New Jersey and spent family summer vacations on Nantucket. My father died when I was very young but my mother remarried and my stepfather became an important part of my life. I have always been very close with my family. In college I studied Art History and then began Architecture school. During this time I visited Nantucket regularly where, one fateful summer, I met Luke, fell in love with him and over the next two years, I finished school and moved to the island to be with him. My parents and sister and brother are also very excited about our plans to adopt. In fact my mother exclaimed, “you just tell me when to start knitting his or her Christmas stocking!” (She does this for all her grandchildren.) After the adoption confernce we attended, my sister Liza sent us a book called ‘Tell Me Again About the Night I was Born’ which is about a baby who comes to a family through adoption.
About Luke
Luke: I would say that I am the more reserved of the two of us. I’m probably a little more introspective about things, taking life more seriously, although I love to laugh around the right people. Having been the older brother to two little ones, Carrie tells me that I am a great storyteller with a truly adventurous imagination. I seem to be a magnet for our nieces and nephews who treat me as their human jungle gym. “Uncle Lukie, Uncle Lukie!” they cry gleefully.
I am 6’4” tall, I consider myself an artist and athlete. I love to draw or paint for relaxation. Most of my friends are from the tennis or paddle court; my best friend without a doubt is Carrie. Carrie on the other hand is a genuine extravert…everyone loves Carrie. A hug comes quickly and warmth and exuberance flow from her with no effort. If she sees a dog beware! She will bee-line straight for it singing its praises and giving up her face to it for a lick fest! (“kisses”, as she puts it). Everyone finds a friend in Carrie; some of her best friends on the island are even much older. We can’t wait for her enthusiasm to spill out to our child. Her nephew Robbie unabashedly tells his granny how much he adores Carrie.
Nantucket
While we have mentioned where we live, it might be helpful to tell you more about it. We live on beautiful Nantucket Island thirty miles from the Massachusetts shore. It takes about an hour to get here by fast ferry and 15 minutes by airplane. It is one of the fastest growing communities in Massachusetts and was recently described by a news source as one of the twelve best places to live in the United States. Miles and miles of beautiful beaches with sweeping dunes surround the Island.
There is a large harbor and a couple of small ones for boating and fishing and many miles of protected moorlands and public parks where people can walk, hike, bike and picnic. The Island is fairly flat with gentle rolling hills, a hidden forest, many small ponds and a golf course or two. With a population of 10,000 year round and 50,000 in the summer season, Nantucket is an idyllic place to live and raise children.
In the summer and early fall, Nantucket is a busy vacation and tourist destination. We have many festivals including a film festival, a daffodil weekend (celebrating spring) and even a town water fight with fire engines on Main Street on the fourth of July. A carnival comes every summer with a ferris-wheel, merry-go-round and all sorts of games. August brings the Boston Pops Symphony who play live music on the beach with a grand fireworks display. This is a very popular event and is also a fundraiser for our Hospital. At Thanksgiving we have the turkey Plunge when up to 2-3 hundred people run into the cold harbor water to raise money for our library. At Christmas, there is a Christmas stroll when the downtown streets are lined with hundreds of Christmas trees decorated by island children and shopkeepers. Santa arrives on a Coast Guard boat and sits at the top of Main Street to greet the children, there is even a talking Christmas tree. At our house on the lawn we like to make a landing pad of twinkling fairy lights so Santa can find us.
In the fall and winter, things slow down a bit as the summer people go back home. This is when the construction and preparations for the following season take place and is a busy time for all those like us who stay on the island year round. There is a public high school a few miles from our home as well as grade school, middle school and a couple of private schools… all surrounded by playing fields. We have a couple of movie theatres and a new skating rink which the kids love for skating year round. There is a boy’s and girl’s club where many island children play as well.
Our home is only a 15 minute walk from the old historic down town and harbor. Our home sits on a hill where we have views out over a beautiful valley. We are at the end of a dead end street (so very little traffic) safe for kids and just a 5 minute walk to a field where we walk our dog and imagine playing ball with our child. Our house has two bedrooms upstairs each with its own bathroom. The child’s bedroom looks over the valley and has three walls with windows so he or she can see the sunrise and sunset and watch the birds glide in circles for hours on end some days.
Our Childhoods
Luke: I grew up racing sailboats and playing soccer, basketball and tennis. I still race sailboats. Every Saturday I race my sailboat in Nantucket Harbor. Carrie is a fair weather sailor and chooses the calmer days to be my best mate. I also race my smaller Laser sailboat and have helped coach the school racing team.
Carrie: Luke and I both enjoy playing tennis and in the winter we play Platform tennis. I like to dig in my gardens, imagining a day when I might teach a child to grow vegetables and flowers. I also like to cook and have learned quite a bit from my sister Liza who was a professional chef before she became a mother.
Our Hobbies & Future Goals
We both love going to the beach, taking our dog Daisy for walks, hanging out with friends and family. In the summer we often have our families come and stay with us. We enjoy beach picnics, surfing, fishing and barbeques. A rowdy game of croquet with friends and family is a typical summer event.
Now that we are moving ahead with our adoption plans, we look out our window and dream about what we want to give a child;
A loving family,
A big extended family that reaches from Kentucky to Ohio to New Jersey to Massachusetts to England and includes about 25 children.
A beautiful place to live,
A safe place to live,
A magical island to explore,
A wonderful future,
Enthusiasm for life,
Compassion towards others,
A sense of ambition and accomplishment,
The self confidence and courage to fulfill his or her dreams.
The security that comes from the unconditional love and support of a family and lots of laughter.
We pledge to you to give your child the most love and best life possible. We will provide photo/letter updates to you directly or to the agency, for whenever you like, from the day your child is in our arms till he or she is grown. We want you to feel that you’ve made a good decision and that the care you took in choosing a family gave your child what you wanted them to have. You will always be in our hearts and a phone call away as well.
While this is a time of renewed hope and excitement for us, we expect it is an exceptionally difficult time for you. We want you to know how grateful we are that you may consider us as parents of your child. You are doing an extremely courageous thing and we admire your strength.
If you’d like to talk directly or learn more about us, please feel free to call Full Circle, toll free at 1-888-452-3678. We look forward to hopefully hearing from you. We wish you all the best in the months to come.
Sincerely,