Eric and Meagan

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From Us to You

Dear Expectant Parent(s),

Words cannot express our gratitude to you for considering us as adoptive parents for your child. We cannot imagine the gravity of your decision or the range of emotions you may be feeling at this moment. Our hearts burst with love for you, knowing that you are making such a personal sacrifice for your baby. We are truly honored and humbled that you would consider us as loving parents. You will forever be in our hearts and a part of our family story.

The two of us were married in June of 2014 and have always known that we wanted children. We tried for several years to have biological children. This was a very heartbreaking and difficult time for us as we experienced endless cycles of hope and heartbreak, including the loss of one baby early in the pregnancy. Ultimately, we decided that we were being called to adopt. We already love our future child more than they could ever know.  We understand that you, as their first mother, share that love and we vow to make sure your child knows this.

It’s difficult to convey through a brief letter all that we want to teach our child. First and foremost, we want to show them how to love— family, friends and those he/she may not agree with. Children learn by what they see, so we vow to lead by example. We also want to foster confidence and courage in your child. Whether it is a boy or girl, we want them to know that their value comes from doing their best, acting with integrity and treating others with respect. We want to nurture happiness in our home and make time to laugh and have fun as a family.

We would like you to know how important a warm, loving home as well as living close to like-hearted family is to us. We have an extensive family network all around the area. Your child will grow up with grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and numerous other family members within about a 30-minute radius from our home. We regularly get together for barbecues, birthday parties, University of Wyoming football games, hiking, fishing, or activities at our family’s ranch. We also try to travel to Idaho, Georgia and Alabama to visit additional family members as often as we can.

Again, we cannot thank you enough for considering us as parents for your child. We want you to know that we will always speak of you with great love and respect. Your child will know that you were the first to love him or her. Regardless of whether you choose us as parents, we wish you many blessings on your journey.

Love,
Meagan and Eric

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Why We Are Choosing to Adopt

After years of struggling with infertility, we found ourselves completely burned out, broken hearted and ultimately forsaken.  We decided that it was time to take a break from our efforts to conceive.  We were at a crossroads where we would have to decide if we wanted to continue or if God was calling us down another path.   We spent time in personal contemplation and prayer.  Several months later, on Valentine’s Day, out of the blue, we again began discussing our thoughts for starting a family.  It was at that time that we discovered each of us had come to a personal resolve that adoption would be the best way forward.  It was a point in our lives when we realized that God was leading us down a different path than we had expected.  We felt a strong desire to provide a loving home to a child not born to us, but born by the love and longing in our hearts.  The moment we made that decision was the happiest and most hopeful we had felt in years.

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About Meagan, by Eric

Meagan chose speech and language pathology as a career–which requires a Master’s degree to practice—not solely on interest but also the flexibility it would allow her to be home with children. Having quality time with our children, to love and lead during the formative years, has always been a passion of hers.  During family gatherings, Meagan enjoys spending time and playing with all the children. Meagan loves to babysit nieces and nephews—not because a babysitter cannot be found but because of the joy it brings her to spend time with children. It brings a smile to my face seeing the joy in my wife when she is with children. Ever-patient, faithful, loving, selfless and optimistic are the first five words that come to mind when I think of my wife. Meagan’s love is infectious and has forever changed many aspects of my life. I can only imagine her influence as a mother to your child.

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About Eric, by Meagan

Eric is the most amazing man. He continues to show me over and over again his dedication to our relationship and his love for me.  He is incredibly sensitive and thoughtful. He can sense when I’m having a difficult time and goes the extra mile to spend a little extra time with me, buy me a bouquet of flowers, or fix dinner for the two of us. Chivalry is not dead! Another thing I love about Eric is his drive. He went back to school for his degree in Chemical Engineering at the age of 30—a time when it would have been much easier to maintain status quo in a career without room for financial opportunity. But he had a vision in mind of the kind of life that he wanted to provide for our family, and began pursuing that dream. We have worked together over the last 6 years to help him achieve his goal, and he is now working as a chemical engineer. That’s just the kind of guy he is. I am extremely proud of him. Eric is also incredibly generous towards others. He will go out of his way to help out a friend in need. He is kind and compassionate. At the same time, he will not tolerate injustices of any kind. He will be one to speak out. I know Eric will be an excellent role model, father and friend to our children. I watch him play with our nieces and nephews, joking and making them laugh, and I get a little glimpse into his future as a father. And I smile in anticipation!

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Lifestyle

WORK HARD PLAY HARD is our family motto!  During the warmer months, the day may start with a sunrise mountain bike ride at a local trail about five minutes from home or taking our dachshund, Laila, for a walk in the park next to our house.  Eric likes to cook breakfast before we start our workday.  We are blessed to be able to have lunch together during the work week.  After work, we sit at the dining room table and eat dinner together while we talk about our day’s highs and lows.  We strive to make sure all chores are complete before going to bed.  This is very important to us because we love to know that come Friday afternoon, we are free to play for the weekend.

Often, we will go fly-fishing, mountain biking, hiking or camping.  We also try to schedule a handful of family BBQ’s at the family pond where we will paddleboat, fish and play lawn games.  Meagan’s family has a guest ranch, where we often take part in the hayrides, live music and dancing that are offered as summer guest activities.  During the fall we make it to nearly every home college football game (GO POKES!) and when that season is over, we enjoy watching the university women’s basketball team play.  During the winter we love to go skiing at the local ski resort.  We also take advantage of the colder winter months to enjoy playing board games or watching a movie with the fireplace providing its warmth.

Meagan likes to do crafts, bake, and work on house projects when time allows.  Eric likes to spend time building arrows for his bow or pouring over maps to find new places to explore when the warm weather returns.  On Sunday mornings during the winter, we like to drink our coffee and read together before eating a late breakfast and getting on with our day.  We often go to church on Sundays but we don’t make it every week.  We like to think of our lives as a great combination of work and play.

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Our Parenting Plans

We imagine home time with our children involving playing outside, puzzles, games, crafts, helping us cook and baking and reading. We plan to limit time spent watching TV or playing computer games. On weekends we will involve our children in outdoor recreation such as hiking, camping, fishing, biking and sledding. Your child will be introduced to the beauty of nature at a young age. They will grow up in a way that teaches them to appreciate and embrace their surroundings. We will teach them how to navigate the world they live in and help to build their confidence as they grow.

Meagan will be able to work part-time once baby arrives. She also has a growing online boutique and if all goes as planned, this will allow Meagan to work primarily from home so that she can spend as much time as possible with your child. Eric will be working full time but looks forward to spending mornings cooking breakfast and playtime in the evenings as well as weekend family activities. Meagan’s mom is excited to spend time with the baby at least one day a week.

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Our Dog, Laila

We have a miniature dachshund named Laila. She is the SWEETEST dog you will ever meet! She loves people and is very patient with children.

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Home & Neighborhood

We live in a university town in Wyoming that has about 30,000 people, many of them students. Because it is a university town, there are often special events and cultural offerings that are not readily available in other towns of the same size—concerts, theatrical performances, multi-cultural festivals, sporting events and community education opportunities. Our home is a 15-minute walk from the university’s football stadium. Our neighborhood is quiet, peaceful, well-kept and very communal. We know most of the people on our street by first names. There are many families with children who often roam the neighborhood together and play in the adjoining city park. On the other side of the park is the middle school, and just another block away is a desirable elementary school.

Our home is two stories and has 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The kitchen is spacious (which is perfect, because Eric loves to cook!). There is ample living space including a TV room with a fireplace, visiting room, and bonus room. Our dining room is a designated room connected to the kitchen. In front of our house, there is an adjustable basketball hoop with an expansive paved driveway. We have a spacious fenced-in back yard and deck where we like to spend our summer evenings. On the other side of our back fence is an empty hillside where we often see deer grazing.

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Our Faith

It is important to us that our child has a Christian upbringing.  Our relationship with God provides us with inner peace and moral guidance when our path is unclear.  We do not pretend to be perfect; there have been times in our lives when our faith has been challenged.  But, ultimately, our faith is our rock that we return to again and again.  We make a conscious effort to live in a way that is pleasing to God and strive to keep Him at the center of our lives.

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Our Families & Friends

Most of Eric’s immediate family resides in Idaho, but he also has grandparents, an aunt and cousins in Georgia and Alabama. He has a brother and a sister and four nieces and nephews. We visit family in Idaho about 2-3 times per year. Nearly all of Meagan’s family is in Wyoming with the exception of a few cousins. Within 30 miles of our house are her parents, grandparents, sister, two brothers, aunt, uncle and two cousins. There are also five nieces and nephews. The kids range in age from 3 months to 10 years old. We often spend time together as a family for birthdays, sporting events, and at our family’s ranch.

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Traditions

One of the differences in our upbringings was our family traditions. Eric’s family did not have many and, looking back, this is something that he missed. Meagan’s family had many traditions such as an annual Christmas tree hunt, buying cream soda and a lottery ticket on our spring break trip, an annual hike to our family’s “secret” lake in the mountains—and so many more. These are some of Meagan’s best childhood memories, and the two of us want to carry on these traditions and make new ones as we grow our family.  We have continued Meagan’s childhood tradition of the annual Christmas tree hunt.  Brothers, sisters, moms, dads, dogs (and then more dogs) and children toting sleds make the trek through the woods in search of the perfect tree.  This is usually followed by a big pot of chili, homemade cornbread and silly stories told by the imaginative children.

We also make it a point to take a little vacation over Spring Break every year.  This began with Meagan’s family and is now part of our tradition. Last spring break we went to Steamboat, Colorado for a ski weekend with Meagan’s family—about 12 of us total. We had so much fun! We went skiing, listened to live music on the ski slopes, played card games, and took the kids to play bumper cars on ice (ok, so the adults probably enjoyed the bumper cars more than the kids!).

We are also forming some of our own traditions. Every August we go to Idaho for a country music festival with Eric’s family. It’s a 3-day weekend of camping, listening to music, playing in the river, fishing and catching up with old friends.  Another tradition that has formed over the last several years is spending a weekend in the fall visiting Meagan’s aunt and uncle at their ranch in northern Wyoming.  Eric spends this time deer hunting (and Meagan sometimes sneaks along with him, doing her best not to scare off the deer).  We get great enjoyment from the time spent in nature, never taking for granted the gift of the harvest that fills our freezer.  Our evenings there are spent catching up with family, playing card games, and enjoying the musical talents of our aunt and cousins (this part of the family is exceptionally musical).

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What We Will Teach

We want our home to be a positive place full of joy and laughter. We promise to nurture your child while still teaching them a sense of right from wrong. We want them to understand the value of working hard and doing their best. It is our hope that we are able to help our children find a sense of confidence in who they are.

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Cultural Diversity

We believe it is our purpose to seek what we have in common with our neighbors, not what makes us different.  We determine our friendships based on the goodness in people’s hearts, not what they look like or what religion they practice or how they vote.  Because of this, we have formed friendships with people of all different backgrounds.  We do not tolerate injustices and are not afraid to stand up against them.  Eric is very compassionate towards others and often finds himself speaking out against prejudices in conversation. Meagan, in her role as a speech-language pathologist, frequently finds herself advocating for people who are unable to advocate for themselves during a time of need.  Our goal as parents is to lead by example and raise a child to be able to spread light in this world; one who is not afraid to lead by honesty, integrity, compassion and empathy under any circumstance.

We focus on people’s goodness, who they are, and not what they look like. If you do this, you see more of what people have in common than what makes them different.  We base our friendships on finding good people, and naturally, we have come across people from different backgrounds who are in our lives and will also be there to support your child. “Children learn by what they see, so we vow to lead by example.”

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Our Promise to You

We promise that we will love your child with all our hearts and souls.  Words cannot express our love, gratitude and respect for you as our baby’s first mom.  Your child will know that you are so strong and brave, and that you love him or her so very much.  You will forever be a part of our family story and we promise to keep you in our thoughts and prayers always.  We will nurture in your child a sense of inner worth, confidence, kindness and generosity towards others.