We believe that honoring a child's cultural background is essential to helping them feel seen, valued, and whole. Our home will be a place where your child's identity is not only embraced, but actively celebrated. We know that culture isn't just about heritage, it's about connection, belonging, and the stories we carry.

We are committed to building a family life that reflects and uplifts your child's unique background. This includes surrounding ourselves with friends, mentors, schools, and community groups that reflect the diversity of the world, and of your child's identity. We will make sure they see people who look like them and share their story in books, media, and leadership. We will seek out cultural events, holidays, food, language, and art that affirm where they come from, and adapt them into our everyday life.

We are committed to learning, listening, and growing continuously. We will have open conversations about race, identity, and difference. We will never shy away from the hard questions, and we will never let your child face them alone.

We are ready to do the work, with humility and heart, to ensure your child feels proud of who they are and where they come from. Our greatest hope is to raise a child who feels not only safe and loved, but deeply rooted and empowered.

We love to travel, and have been to many places together, including Las Vegas, New York, Rhode Island, Chicago, California, Florida, St. Lucia, Antigua, South Carolina and Ireland to name a few. Our favorite vacation spots are Newport, Rhode Island in the summer and Burlington, Vermont in the fall/winter.

Newport is a beautiful and charming seaside town with a lot to offer. We especially love taking classes from local artists (we took a glass blowing class last year and made Christmas ornaments), going out on the water or to the beaches, dining out and just walking around and shopping. They have amazing fudge and popcorn shops and we always take a bunch of goodies home to share and enjoy.

We love going to Vermont in the fall to see the foliage and the winter when there is always a lot of snow. We've been going since 2011. The last 6 years we've always stayed at the same place, the Essex Inn, which is a culinary school as well as hotel. We take cooking classes and always dress up one night to dine in their nice restaurant. We also go to downtown Burlington, which is an eclectic city that always has a lot happening.

Our favorite all-time vacation spot is probably St. Lucia where we spent our honeymoon. Neither of us had ever visited such a nice resort in such an incredible location (and the reason for the trip made it incomparably special).

We understand the importance of having open and honest conversations about adoption. We genuinely want our child to know that they are loved and cherished, and that the adoption was a beautiful and intentional decision that we made as a family. When discussing this, we would explain to our child that adoption means that they were chosen by us to be a part of our family. While we may not share the same biological genes, our love and bond are just as strong as any other family. We would explain that their birthmother made the difficult decision to place them for adoption because they wanted the best life possible for them.

During our first conversation about adoption and the others that follow, we would make sure that our child knows that their birthmother loves them very much. We would make sure that their adoption story is a part of their identity, and that they can be proud of it. We will celebrate their adoption day every year and make sure that they know how special and loved they are. We would let our child know that it's okay to have questions or feelings about their adoption, and that we are always here to listen and support them. We would love to stay connected with their birthmother, so they know all about her. We will encourage them to learn more about their birth family and their culture and we will support any decisions they make to connect with them.

It would also be a priority to let our child know that they are loved unconditionally and that we will always be there for them.

We love living in Connecticut. We live on the water, near a beach with a playground, water park and mini-golf course within walking distance. There are lots of low-traffic streets where children are always out playing and we can't wait for the day that our child will join in the fun! We have access to a swimming pool near our home, and since Kelly was a swim instructor, she can't wait to teach her child to swim here.

Our home is open-concept, with our kitchen, dining room and living room all connected and open. Just outside our kitchen, we grow flowers as well as vegetables and herbs in a cute little garden. Upstairs we have two large bedrooms, as well as a porch off of the main bedroom. Our dog, Murphy, used to love to sit out there and watch the world go by and it is now our favorite spot as well. We love that our backyard is the ocean, with boats docked in a tiny little harbor. We can even kayak over to our favorite little cafe on the beach.

We live in an area of Connecticut that is diverse and we genuinely love that. Being inclusive and accepting of everyone is at the core of how we always envisioned raising a child. Our town has a lot of great programs for children, including summer camps, schools, community group and sports teams, that we think a child would love and would greatly benefit from.

We are very close to both sides of our family. We love having family dinners and going to the movies with Mike's sister, his mother and her husband. Kelly's parents and her brother's family (his wife and 3 children), live in the same town in MA about 3 hours away and Kelly's sister's family (her husband and 2 children) live in NY, also about 3 hours away. We see them all once a month and talk to them all the time. We are always FaceTiming with our nieces and nephews and staying connected daily via a big text group with everyone.

Kelly is her niece Harper's godmother and talks to her multiple times a week. When Kelly's nephew was born at 25 weeks, she moved up to live with her sister so she could take care of Harper, allowing her sister and husband to be at the hospital with the newborn Charlie. Mike joined her sometimes and they spent quality time with Harper, potty training her and doing crafts.

We live within 3 hours of all of our family members and also live in the same neighborhood as a few of Mike's cousins and aunt, and we see them all the time, going out on boats and having dinner.

Both of our families have been extremely supportive with us adopting a child. They would be happy for us if we were to be lucky enough to be blessed with a child and would make an incredible extended family.

It is hard to write to someone you don't know yet about a child that hasn't been born yet. But we now share a special bond with you, as we each take a step forward in this incredible process. We are writing to you through the bond of this unique experience, with open hearts and the deepest respect and admiration for the difficult decision that you are considering.

We wanted to thank you for taking the time to read about us. We are Kelly and Mike.

We met in 2006 as co-workers at a cultural exchange company. We became friends pretty quickly. We soon began dating, which led to us getting married 7 years later in 2013! We have built a nice life together , living in a cute coastal town. We are hardworking people with stable jobs and supportive family and friends. We have so much love for one another and a lot of love to share with our new family. As individuals, we love children and have always dreamt of becoming a mother and a father. As a couple, we have always dreamt of becoming parents. We have spent years preparing for this moment, both emotionally and practically - there is literally nothing else in our lives that we have spent longer preparing for. Anyone who knows us has always said we were meant to be parents. The first decade of our marriage has been full of wonderful times and very much full of challenging times and struggles. Family tragedy hit hard with the passing of Mike's father and brother, as well as his aunt and grandmother. We then began our long struggle with fertility. We tried to have a child for many years, working with doctors through multiple procedures, miscarriages and disappointments. Adoption was something we always discussed, knowing that our desire to love and raise a child was the only thing that mattered, not the means in which we had that child.

Through it all, we have persevered and have emerged as stronger people and a stronger couple. While caring for a child is obviously different, having our beloved, late dog, Murphy, for 13 years during this time, helped us continue to push to become parents, because we loved him and loved taking care of him so much.

We are so very excited to welcome a child into our home and community. We live in a family-friendly neighborhood with great schools and parks. We can't wait to take our child to the local aquarium, beaches, and playgrounds. We have a close-knit group of friends and family members who have been very supportive of our journey, who will love and cherish our child. Our nieces and nephews can't wait to meet their cousin and play with them. We will always do what is best for the child, providing them with the best possible education. We want to give them the tools and resources they need to succeed in life and achieve their dreams, no matter what those are. In addition to providing a loving and supportive home, we are also committed to raising the child to be proud of their heritage and to respect and appreciate the diversity of others. We believe that our differences are what make us unique and special, and we are excited to teach them about different cultures and traditions.

Starting a family is something we have wanted for a very long time. As an avid reader, Kelly is looking forward to reading all her favorite children's books to our child and Mike is excited to have someone to share his love of movies and sports with! We can't wait to share our favorite traditions, such as decorating a Christmas tree and watching our favorite teams play. But most of all, we are so incredibly excited to share our love with a child and provide them with the support and guidance they need to grow and be happy and healthy. Adoption is a lifelong journey, and we are prepared to walk it with you every step of the way. We intend to stay in touch with you and keep you updated with phone calls, emails, pictures, visits and letters as much as you would like. We promise to always honor your decision and to keep you informed about the child's progress and milestones. We sincerely appreciate you considering us. We hope that this has helped you see that we are committed to providing a child with the love, support, and opportunities they need to thrive.

Thank you,

Mike & Kelly