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Dear Expectant Parents,
We respect your courage and strength
to choose this road. It is our hope that we can make
this journey easier for you. To start, we’d like
to tell you a little about ourselves and our life.
Mark and Meg
We have known each other for 20 years
this summer. It does not seem that long as we both
still feel so lucky to have each other. We were
married in 1994 in
Raleigh,
North Carolina before our family
and friends from all parts of the country. We met
in North Carolina while
Meg was a senior at North
Carolina State University,
and Mark had just graduated from
Clemson
University in South Carolina.
The City Life
After graduation, we moved to
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, so that Meg could attend Law
School and be near the majority of her family. We
will always feel at home in the south, but fell in love
with the diversity of people and wealth of culture in
Philadelphia. We
lived in a great neighborhood in center city near the
Art Museum and river for over 5 years, where Meg played
softball in a women’s city league, and Mark coached.
We also played intramural tag football and made so many
good friends, even though our team was not the best!
The river gave us a perfect spot to
watch the rowing races, walk, bike and rollerblade.
Though Mark was always much more adventurous with
rollerblading, and Meg stuck to her leisurely pace with
the bike. This rings true in our relationship, as Mark
is outgoing, fun and daring, and Meg is more quiet and
relaxed. You can often catch her curled up in a
corner with a book, even with 20 family members around,
or sneaking off to a Yoga class.
The city also allowed us to take
advantage of the eclectic music scene which Mark
continues to enjoy as his tastes range from his roots
with the Grateful Dead, to jazz, blues, folk, rock,
reggae, and fusion. We have a number of musical
instruments at our home, but are still at the toying
stage with all of them. There are family members
and good friends who play instruments, are in local
bands, and bring them to the house. When we
travel, we seek spots where we can enjoy live music. New Orleans was one of those trips where Mark
found incredible bands every day. In Key West, the steel drum
music found us as we celebrated Mark’s birthday.
Travel and Work
Traveling remains a large part of our
life with family and friends. We enjoy skiing,
snowmobiling, horseback riding in the snow, as well as
swimming, water skiing, sailing and playing on the
beaches of New Jersey,
North Carolina, Florida
and Maine.
We are lucky to have family in all of those places.
During the years together, we were fortunate to travel
overseas, as well as to over half the states in our
country.
Mark’s job is also diverse as it
wraps advertising, marketing, technology and publishing
all into one, with a focus on agriculture. He is
the “techy” in the family, as well as the cook.
His Mom used to joke us in the early years that on a
Sunday morning we could find Mark in the kitchen, and
Meg reading the newspaper.
Mark has been with his company for
over 15 years. His work base relocated for a time,
and so we finally moved to the suburbs to a single
family home with a great yard. Mark inherited the
gardens and you can often catch him outside taking care
of everything.
Max
In 2003, Max was born into our lives
after two ectopic pregnancies. We feel so blessed
to have him and enjoy every minute of his little life.
He is now 6 and just started first grade. All
three of us love to travel, be with family, friends,
enjoy music, sports, movies, game night, puzzle night,
books, yoga, gardening, building stuff and creating art.
Mark just built a fort in the back yard which is a huge
hit with Max and all his friends, as well as Mark and
all his friends.
We both work, but have flexible
schedules where we can work from home. As an
attorney, Meg can often bring files home and work her
schedule around the important events in our life.
Mark also has the luxury of working remote and so we can
be involved in the children’s lives. Mark coaches
Max’s baseball team and Meg is a “lunch Mom” and helps
out with his school. We have a lot of family that live
within 5 to 15 minutes of us, and are always around to
help, hang out and are built in friends.
Our families
Meg comes from a large family and is
the youngest of 5. Her dad was one of 6 and
her mom was one of 5. So that resulted in many,
many cousins. Mark has one brother and three
cousins who are all very close. Both of our parents
divorced when we were young, but have been remarried for
a long time. So the positive out of all of that is
that there are now 8 grandparents and more step-siblings
that are a part of our life. We are very close to
our families, consider them our best friends, and see
them often. Holidays and birthdays are celebrated
with abandon, and steeped in tradition. There is
always a reason for a party and to come together as a
family.
Adoption in our lives
Even with all of this family, we know
that we want to share our lives with another family
member in our home. We have talked about adoption
for many years, even before Max. We have always
considered adoption as my niece, Alexandra, was adopted
11 years ago this summer, 4 of my cousins were adopted
and so many of our close friends have adopted children.
It is such an extraordinary gift that you, the birth
parents, give to another family and to that life inside
of you. All we know is that you must be such a
special person to be so generous of spirit.
Max must ask us every day when we can
have a brother or sister for him. We live in a
great neighborhood where there are lots of children and
friends. We are fortunate that we can give him,
and any brother or sister, the opportunity to go to a
wonderful school, attend a fantastic summer day camp
with lots of swimming, take music lessons, and play the
local sports. We have talked about adoption to Max
often, but the first time was the best, as he said
“Yeesssss, can we do it next Saturday?” That
is how we all feel.
And our home
There is so much we would like to
tell you about ourselves to help you in your decision,
but most of all we want you to know that we have more
than enough love for your baby. Our home is a
safe, nurturing, and fun place where all the kids like
to play. We strive to have our house be the one where
the kids want to hang out, and feel comfortable from the
young years through the teenage years. As we write
this, we can hear Max and his friends from school.
We take turns playing with them, doing crafts, and
hanging out in the yard and driveway with them.
Throughout the day, we have heard the basketball
bouncing, baseball bat hitting the ball, yelling, and
laughing, with the occasional request for snacks. It is
the best music to both of us.
We also want you to know that words
cannot quite express how very grateful we are that you
are even considering our family. This time in
your life must be difficult and we can only imagine the
rollercoaster of emotions that you are experiencing.
We hope that we can provide you with a sense of security
that your child will have everything it needs, and more.
As adoption is prevalent in our lives with family and
friends, we have had the opportunity to watch our
cousins successfully reunite with birth families, and
our friends’ young adopted children enjoy a relationship
with birth family members. Each situation is
different, but being open is the key. We will
embrace the situation that works best for you, and
always celebrate you and your child’s heritage, with our
own. We wish you peace and light in your decision
and in your life.
Mark and Meg
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