Dear Birthmother,

Thank you for taking time to learn about us and to consider us to be parents for your child. We know that this decision is not an easy one for you.

James was adopted at birth and has always respected the loving and unselfish choice made by his birthmother. Because James has had such a great experience with his adoptive parents and extended family, we have had adoption in our family plans from the start.

We will share that positive message with our child about how he or she joined our family. We are eager to become parents. We look forward to getting to know you and starting down this journey with you and your child.

About Us
We married in 1992 while we were in our early 20’s. The keys to our marriage are our shared Christian faith, similar values and goals, and especially a sense of humor about life. We love to laugh together. We often anticipate each other’s thoughts and can be caught finishing the other’s sentences. We grow closer and stronger as a couple as each year passes, despite very different personalities. James thrives on meeting new people, large groups and adventures; he is outgoing and talkative. Erin listens more and talks less, favors smaller groups, and cherishes time with close friends and at home. We complement each other.

We met during our college years at a summer rowing camp and hit it off right away. We’ve been a good match from the start. We are both quite tall—James is 6’5” and Erin is 5’10”—which is an advantage both for getting noticed in a crowd and for rowing. We both love being on the water. James still trains and competes in rowing, while Erin has retired to kayaks and canoes on quiet lakes. Some of the hobbies and pastimes we share are our pets, church friends and activities, cooking together, being active outdoors, skiing, gardening, and working on our house. James has a wood shop and has made several pieces of furniture. Erin quilts, knits, and sews.

About 8 years ago we made a big change by leaving our jobs and moving to a new city. It was a childhood dream come true for Erin to go to veterinary school, and James earned a master’s degree in business at the same time. We have since celebrated the milestones of graduating, starting new careers, settling in a comfortable home, and gathering an array of pets. During these years we also hoped, prayed, and tried hard to become parents. We learned that we won’t be able to have biological children as well as the adopted children we’d planned on. While we were saddened about this news, our enthusiasm about adopting has only grown. Our hearts and our home are ready for a new little one to join us. And our parents are ready to love and spoil some more grandchildren, too!
We love exploring and learning about the world and will share this enthusiasm with our children. We both have happy childhood memories of reading huge stacks of library books aloud with our parents at bedtime. We still read for work and for pleasure. We look forward to reading with our children and have started a collection of Dr Seuss, Pooh, and books about nature and animals.
We have both studied foreign languages and lived abroad during our college years (Erin in Ireland, James in France and Israel). We have traveled throughout most of the lower 48 states and visited Europe, Asia (James) and Africa (Erin). We look forward to traveling around the West to show our children our favorite parts of the Rockies, the beautiful Dakota plains, Texas hill country, and the variety of California. We’ll show them the Eastern US and share the history of our country. We’ll visit our families’ roots in the Midwest and Southeast. We’ll camp together and see the land up close. We’ll travel together abroad to meet new cultures and learn about other peoples’ lives.

Erin works as a small animal veterinarian, and we have accumulated several pets through her job over the years. Occasionally we have fostered groups of orphaned kittens until they were old enough to move to new homes. Currently we have two cats and two dogs of our own, with James insisting that this is maximum capacity! Our old-lady-dog, now 11 years old, is enjoying a second childhood since Puppy arrived in the fall of 2005. Erin rescued each of our cats after they were badly injured and abandoned. Our big cat, PJ, is fit and strong after a long recovery period. He now rules the roost and is a great playmate for the Pup.

Our home is located on a quiet wooded lake in a state park. It feels like a private vacation lodge, with high cedar wood ceilings and a stone fireplace. We have tall windows with a beautiful lake view. Our house has skylights and is light, airy and breezy in spring and summer. We have plenty of room for children and visiting grandparents. There are few enough man-made lights in our town that we can see stars at night. For outdoor fun we have two canoes, a kayak, and life-jackets of every size. We look forward to hiking the wooded trails and enjoying the lake with our children, swimming and boating in summer, skating and skiing in winter.
Every child is born with unique gifts and talents. We hope our children will try different sports, like we did, not only for their health and gaining confidence, but also for learning to cooperate and share team spirit. We’ll let them choose which activities and to what extent they participate. We will encourage our children to explore arts and music at school like we did. We both participated in school band, James joined debate and drama, and Erin sang in choirs for many years. We still sing, though mostly just in the car, but we have taken several sessions of ballroom dancing, swing, and country-western dancing since we have been married.

About James (by Erin)
When I met James, he was the new guy, the really tall one, who showed up weeks late for summer training, yet was helping coach the team in the blink of an eye. I was impressed by his way with people, how he led and organized us, focused us on reaching our goals. In the past several years James has built a good business, working with new technology companies, and now he manages a large organization. He has a lot of flexibility in his job, working from home one or two days each week. He is able to take a few weeks off at a time, with careful planning. I travel with him when he attends meetings around the US a few times each year.

James is very active outside the office, too. He is currently working with our church and the town to build an affordable housing project. He is on the prayer team at our church, where he is humbled and honored to care for people going through tough times. He is a popular speaker and mentor at his university, helping current students with projects and career choices.

James is one of the most honest, determined, and conscientious people I know. He’s not all business, though. James’ soft side has been coming along quite nicely over the years, under my influence J. He makes a great apple pie, grows vegetables in the summer, worries about his grandmother, and loves our pets. He puts up our Christmas tree. He takes care of me when I’m under the weather. He takes out splinters and puts on band-aids. He never runs out of sweetness or patience with me. After so many years together, I understand how he thinks and what he cherishes in life, and I know his heart’s desire. Although he finds toddler-speak baffling, James looks forward to mastering the language through daily practice. He’ll be a great teacher of bike-riding, shooting free throws, changing a tire, and rolling out the perfect flaky crust. He will wrestle on the living room floor, read the comics in funny voices, tickle and make us all laugh until our sides hurt. He will be at every game, concert and teacher conference. He will be protective and have high standards. Being Dad will be James’ #1 commitment.

About Erin (by James)
Erin works as a veterinarian, mostly on emergency shifts, and is constantly taking care of sick, vulnerable and scared pets. The patience and kindness that she shares with her patients and their owners also shows in how she relates to children. She is tender and caring, but also fair and firm if need be. Erin has a very flexible work schedule, and she will be practicing part-time when we have children at home. Taking care of our family is priority. Erin doesn’t want to miss any part of our children's’ growing up.

Having seen Erin manage chronic problems as well as sorting out urgent trauma cases at all hours, I am impressed by how calm, cool and collected she can be. She also takes time to reach out with compassion to upset owners. She finds that her work requires as much book-knowledge as people-skills.

Before going to veterinary school, Erin taught middle school for four years. She cared deeply for her kids and made special friendships with several of the families at the school. We’re still in touch with these folks. You didn’t get away with much mischief in her class, but you did get praise and encouragement. Erin always pushed them to do their best. As a result she had good relationships with her student’s parents.

Erin enjoys reading and hiking in the woods around the lake with our dogs. She and her mother both enjoy quilting and sewing. She coordinates her quilting guild’s Comfort Quilts project, sending hand-made kids’ quilts to overseas orphanages or giving them to children in foster care here at home. She has done quilt projects with her mom and other long-distance friends by sending patterns and fabric back and forth in the mail. She has taken on her own leadership role at church, organizing an annual weekend retreat for the whole congregation.

Erin especially loves caring for the children of our dearest friends. “Auntie Erin” dotes on these little ones as often as possible. She enjoys caring for infants and toddlers as much as spending time with big kids. She can’t wait for our young friends to know our children, to be their playmates and babysitters. Erin looks forward to baking cookies with our children, helping them make special gifts for grandparents, chaperoning field trips, hosting swimming parties, teaching the kids to throw a Frisbee and take care of pets. Erin can’t wait to be a Mom!

In closing
We want you to be comfortable with who we are. We have our strengths and weaknesses. We’ve experienced a lot of life, but we are new to parenting. We will be learning on-the-job with love and help from wise friends and relatives. We will be honored for you to trust us with your child’s upbringing. We are open to sharing letters, photos, and visits with you through the years. We want our child to know as much about you as you want to share. Mostly we want our child to feel safe, loved, and confident.

We are eager to welcome this new little person into our home and our circle of loved ones. If we seem like a good fit for you and your hopes for your child, we would like to talk with you and, if you wish, eventually meet.

You can get in touch with us through Cindy Simonson (anytime) at A Loving Alternative, (800) 556-5635.

We hope that this challenging time will also bring about blessings, and perhaps we can be part of them.

Peace to you,

James & Erin

If you would like to learn more about us or to arrange an initial phone call please call Cindy (anytime) at A Act of Caring (800) 556-5635.

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