Dear Birth Mother,

Dear Birth Mother,

We are so excited to be writing you this letter and hope that you will consider us to adopt your child. We respect and honor the huge sacrifice that you are making to entrust another couple to raise your child. We know that adoption is the most selfless and difficult act a birth mother could do for her child. Thank you for taking the time to get to know us and for considering placing your child with us.

Let us introduce ourselves: We are Andrew and Courtney from Southern California. We have been married for 4½ years but have known each other for more than 17. For as long as Courtney can remember, her dream has been to adopt a child. After getting together, we realized that adoption was a dream of both of ours. We always thought we would start a family and then adopt a child into it. God had a different plan. After two years of not getting pregnant, we did fertility testing to see if there was a "problem." We were told we had a less than 1% chance of achieving a pregnancy without fertility treatments. After much prayer we realized that God was leading us to adoption. We are so excited to be in the process of adopting and becoming parents!

We are Christians and our priority is to love and serve Jesus Christ with our whole lives. We love our local church and spend lots of time with our church family. We serve in the High School ministry where Drew writes devotions for students so they have some direction in growing in their faith. Drew is also involved in our church Training Center, which focuses on growing men into leaders both at home and in the church. In addition, Courtney is involved in a weekly discipleship group with other women leaders in the High School group, who help each other to grow in the Lord.

Andrew grew up in Southern California. His father was an engineer and his mother stayed home and ran a house with four children. While growing up, Andrew found that his talents and passions lie in learning. He loves learning, which translates into his teaching. He truly is never satisfied and can usually be found watching TV to learn or having a book in hand. If he can't learn what he needs to know from a book or TV, the Internet provides plenty of resources. At each turn of his learning process Andrew is always trying to teach somebody about what he learned. Courtney often gets the privilege of listening. Andrew also loves to work with wood. He has built furniture, custom built-ins, and molding around the house. New projects are always lurking around the corner, from fixing something to building things with his tools. Each new project presents a new opportunity to learn. With each new adventure Andrew loves visiting the local hardware store to buy necessary tools and supplies. Regardless of if it is changing a car's oil or building a media center, Andrew loves to involve those around him as he learns. Be sure that any addition to the family will grow up learning plenty about history, science, books and how to fix things around the house.

Courtney grew up in Southern California as well; in fact, just a few miles from Andrew. She grew up with a sister and her parents, and she has a love for life. Her sister is her best friend and she loves staying connected even though she is halfway across the country. Her sister's passion for being creative spills over into Courtney's life and they feed off each other. Courtney is also passionate for new experiences and demonstrates that while her husband may know an answer in the book, she knows how to use that answer in real life. She loves photography, scrapbooking, cooking, baking, and even baseball. These passions keep her shopping with her mother and looking for new avenues to express her creativity. When Courtney gets involved in creating, she also brings people into the experience. When she gets going, her passion spills into other peoples lives, and it's contagious. Her friends have joined her in scrapbooking, cooking and even attending baseball games. When Courtney isn't enjoying her hobbies, she works as a nurse, coordinating organ transplants for people who need new kidneys. Her job allows her to work from home one to two days a week. Not only is the job a great experience, but the ability to work with people who are getting a new lease on life adds fuel to her fire. It truly is a blessing.

Another love of ours is our family. Courtney's parents, grandparent, aunts and uncles live less than an hour away. Due to the short distance, we spend many days a month with them. Courtney's dad loves to take us sailing on his boat, and she and her mom go shopping and out to lunch any chance they get. Courtney's sister/best friend lives in Ohio with her husband, Paul, and new daughter, Eleanor. Although we wish they lived next door, we see them many times a year. We Skype daily so baby Eleanor can talk to her Aunty Sissy (as Courtney is called) and Uncle Courageous, Uncle Drewbie (Andrew's nicknames). When she smiles at us on the computer it just melts our hearts! Drew's parents and brother moved away a few years ago to Northern California, but we get to see them many times a year. Their move has created lots of new traditions for us to do as a family. We go every summer and spend a few days with Andrew's parents enjoying time on a local lake, wine tasting and spending lots of time playing games. We hope to add a trip in the fall to enjoy the fall apple and pumpkin picking. Drew's sisters and their families live in Southern California and we see them often as well. We love to be at events for our niece, Gillian and our nephew, Nicholas. Family is truly important for us as we enjoy being a part of their lives.

In addition to our family we also have two dogs: Lucy and Rex. They are one-year old Havanese siblings. They adore people and children. They get very excited when our friends and family come over to play with them. We take them almost everywhere we go. They can't wait to be a big brother and sister!

We live in a great community. There are plenty of kids in our neighborhood, beautiful parks with sports fields, and a community center with a children's splash park and pool. The community center constantly puts on events for families, which provides excellent opportunities for adults to connect with neighbors and children to make new friends. In addition to these amenities we have plenty of walking trails, a small lake to fish on and hiking trails nearby. We truly are blessed.

Between our work, hobbies and faith, we have a very connected life with others around us. Connectedness is very important to the two of us. We love community, friends, family and fun. We like to mix them together so we make the most of our time and opportunities. We celebrate life with each other and with those around us. One of our favorite things to do together is eat. We love to sit down at the table and enjoy a meal, together and with friends. Nothing truly slows down the pace of life than when you enjoy something tasty mixed with good conversation. While everybody is running to and fro in life, we like to make sure we are balanced and connected to each other and God. Our Christian faith isn't just found on Sundays, but in our relationship, passions, and hobbies. Since God is the most important part of our life His principles for how we treat each other as spouses and friends is evident. We love making sure our friends feel the warmth of His presence and His grace in our lives.

We believe that we were adopted by Jesus into God's family. Our perspective is that God loved us and welcomed us into his family - we want to do the same for others. We embrace open adoptions and truly want to serve God by loving his children to our utmost.

If you would like more information about us or would like to meet us, please contact our attorney, Timothy Blied of the law offices of Schmiesing Blied Stoddart & Mackey at 1-800-678-6811.

Sincerely,

Andrew & Courtney

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