Keith and Celia

Dear Expectant Parent(s),

Greetings from Japan. Thank you for taking the time to read our letter. We honor you for considering adoption.

We’d like to introduce ourselves by telling you about some of the things we love and which we would love to share with your child.

We love music and art. Keith plays piano and enjoys singing baritone in choirs. He is always looking for opportunities to make our home more comfortable and beautiful with a woodworking project. Celia is a professional cellist and has also studied the Japanese instrument, shamisen since moving to Japan. She frequently performs in concerts and enjoys collaborating with artists in a wide variety of disciplines. She also studies Japanese tea ceremony and knits original pieces which she designs herself.

We love to spend time outdoors: hiking in the mountains nearby, skiing and snow-shoeing in the winter, and caring for our garden. We love spending time with people—with each other, of course, and with family and friends, if possible over a meal. We love deep conversations about important things.

We love God, and our desire to serve him with our lives has led us to Japan, where we work in a church using our music gifts and training people for church leadership.

We love Japan, and we are fluent in Japanese. We spend most of our time in Japan while staying connected with family and friends in our home states of Washington and North Dakota. We believe that there are many blessings that come with living in Japan. Your child will have opportunities most American kids don’t have, such as growing up speaking both Japanese and English and making friends with kids from all over the world. We anticipate that by growing up between two cultures, your child will develop the precious ability to see life from more than one angle and to have compassion even towards people very different than he or she is.

Being far away from our families has taught us to see “family” in a different way: as people who are committed to one another, who love each other and share life together, whether or not they are related by blood. There are many who have become family to us here in Japan—both Japanese friends and our colleagues from all over the world.

We have also seen the beauty of adoptive relationships among our family and friends. Celia gained hope through seeing the special relationships her dad’s sister and cousin had with their adoptive moms; she has been loved, in turn, by each of them. Keith’s childhood best friend’s family included an adopted brother and a steady stream of foster children. Many of our coworkers in Japan have adopted, so we can count on lots of support.

Would you and your child like to be part of our family? Are you the ones we have been waiting for? If so, we look forward to meeting you. We don’t know you yet, but we love you already. We pray for a healthy pregnancy and a bright future for both you and your baby.

Love,
Keith and Celia