Michael and Maria

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From Us to You

Please know that you will have our support and your baby will grow up knowing that you loved him/her and that your greatest hope was to give him/her the life you dreamed of for them.

We met a bit later in life than most couples and tried to have biological children but were not able to; God had another family plan for us and that adoption was the way forward for us. We are excited, as is our family, to welcome a son or daughter and are already dreaming of Christmases, Easters, summer vacations, birthday parties, school events, and so much more.

Your baby will have a safe and secure home filled with love, faith in God, and family.  He/She will have the opportunity to experience music, sports, travel, nature (especially time at our cabin), learning Spanish, involvement with the community, and anything they want to pursue to lead a happy life.

We leave you with our hopes and dreams of becoming parents and want you to know that we will take our role as parents seriously. Being chosen by you will be our greatest blessing and responsibility.

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Why We Are Choosing to Adopt

We have a wonderful life together, but the missing piece is having a child of our own. We were not able to have a child naturally, but we know God has a plan for our family.  Michael’s father was adopted and had a wonderful childhood and Maria’s mother was raised by her stepmother. We have seen firsthand the strong and true love adoption brings to a family.  We know our lives will be fulfilled, and that the blessings we have will be magnified.

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Our Relationship with You

Our heartfelt hope is to have open communication with you as you navigate through such an important decision. We will be there alongside you to support you as you figure out what the best thing is for you and your baby. We want you to be comfortable with being open when you want to be, while still having privacy when you need it. We don’t only care about your physical well-being, we also care about your emotional health. We will provide you with letters and photos of your baby as he or she grows into their own person and we will always respect your boundaries.

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About Maria, by Michael

Maria is a perfect life partner for me. She complements and balances my personality. Maria is caring, empathic, and outgoing. Her intelligence and can-do attitude make tackling life’s many challenges possible and enjoyable. She comes up with the funniest things, she keeps me laughing and smiling. Maria is loving, strong, loyal, and honest. I can talk to her about anything and gives me her full attention with an open heart. I always understand where she stands on any given topic; I love this strength in her. She keeps our lives on track and keeps our home an enjoyable place to be.

Maria loves children and is very good with them. She is confident and happy with a baby in her arms. I love to watch her as she holds children; she lights up when she interacts with them. She is great at reading their cues and keeps them calm. Kids are attracted to Maria. I think they love her beautiful eyes and smile as much as I do. I’m excited to see Maria with a child of our own because she has the makings of a wonderful mother and has so much love and experience to share.

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About Michael, by Maria

Michael is such a warm and caring person, always there to help anyone in need; he can pretty much build or fix anything.  From the minute you meet him, you are put at ease and feel immediate trust (I experienced this from our first date and have been told this from several friends and family).

No one makes me laugh more than Michael; he can make the most obvious observation funny, or he uses something I call his “little voice” to point something out and make it hilarious.  He’s empathetic and listens to what I’m saying and tries to put himself in my shoes.  He makes situations that could be dangerous (driving in heavy snow) feel ok and safe; he conveys strength and calm. I know that he will be a wonderful and loving father and that our son/daughter will feel safe and loved. Michael is also so talented (playing the guitar, woodworking, photography) and I’m so looking forward to seeing him impart this knowledge to our child.

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How We Met

We met online and instantly liked each other’s profiles. We had our first phone call that same time day. For about a week, we continued to have many more long phone conversations, night after night. These chats created an attraction and anticipation that made our first date an event that was a self-fulfilling success. We were ready to get to know each other and had an amazing evening together. As they say, the rest was history and we were inseparable after that.

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Lifestyle

Our motto is, “Life is meant to be lived!”

One of our favorite things to do is visit our cabin:

• Exploring the woods with a nice hiking or swimming.

In our city, we like to take our time to explore:

• Hunt for treasures at estate sales or antique stores
• Going to live music concerts and looking for our new favorite record
• Finding yummy ingredients at Farmers’ markets, to use in new recipes
• Explore different neighborhoods – anything that gets us out of the house and moving.

We often think about how our life will change when a baby joins our family. We cannot wait to share all our favorite places and explore new and different activities. Our child will play with the Tonka truck from 1920 that we found and learn how to build a birdhouse with Michael’s grandfather’s tools. Cooking a family dinner, bedtime stories (we have Michael’s and Michael’s father’s bedtime storybooks) and so much more.

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Home & Neighborhood

We love our home, it’s a beautiful old house with a large garden. It’s our oasis in the middle of a big city.  The garden has so many flowers and trees and we get to enjoy the changing foliage with each season. We added our personal touch to the garden by planting ferns and morning glories from our cabin.

Our house is large with two bedrooms (one is used as an office, but will become a baby’s nursery), another office, two living rooms, a sunroom, kitchen, and a basement that we use as our entertainment area.  We live in a family-centered neighborhood within a block of a huge green park; we both call it our very own Midwest Central Park. The park has tennis courts, a large playground, and an artificial pond with swan pedal boats and is always busy with families; especially on the weekends – the hotdog and ice cream carts are at the ready.  Within a ten-minute walk, there are many local shops, restaurants, and fun neighborhood food and art festivals.

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Cabin Life!

We have a cabin in northern Wisconsin that was built by Michael’s grandfather.  We go out there to swim in the creek, hike by the falls, 4^th of July barbecues and so much more.  Michael has boxes of photos from birthdays, family gatherings, fishing, river trips, and so much family cooking.  We will continue to spend most of our summers there.  Our child will know how beautiful nature is and how much fun it is to be outside.

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Our Personalities

Maria is very outgoing from the start. Michael is a bit of an introvert but if you get him talking about one of his interests (music, traveling, and snowboarding), he can really get going. Maria is always in contact with her far-flung friends and family (she loves to send memes, text, and talk on the phone), but it takes Michael a bit more to find time for a long conversation. Maria is very thoughtful and can find the perfect gift for anyone. Michael is thoughtful in other ways, like in his giving to charities and being a generous tipper.

We love to laugh and tease one another. To entertain us, Maria bought a mobile disco ball that we break out every so often to have our very own dance parties in the sunroom. We enjoy many of the same kinds of movies and events and frequently like to have movie marathons and attend summer street festivals.

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What Kind of Parents We Will Be

From the first months of dating, we have had very open discussions about what kind of parents we wanted to be.  We have wonderful childhood memories, but also times when we learned many life lessons that served us well in adulthood.

We want to impart wisdom to your child. We won’t have a “this is how it is” or “do as I say” attitude. Instead, we will use kindness, understanding, open communication while setting boundaries, that give our child the feeling of being safe and loved.   We will give him/her the opportunity to explore all sports, play musical instruments, and take art classes; really anything that they take an interest in so that they are well-rounded and social.  We will be involved and present parents and look forward to going on family adventures, making sure we have dinner together and lively conversations about different topics or simply what we learned that given day.

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Our Families & Friends

We both come from large families that love to cook Midwestern, Mexican and Italian dishes, and have get-togethers with friends and family, with great music and dancing.

Michael’s family has lived in the same state for generations and having a family connection has always been an important part of his life.  His parents are no longer alive but we see his aunts, uncles, cousins, great-nephews, and nieces often. We are at our cabin or theirs whenever we have free weekends, during Summer, Christmas, Easter, Sunday football, and birthdays.

Maria has two brothers, a sister, her mom, two nieces, and a nephew. We see them during Christmas as well as graduations and birthdays.  Maria also has extended family, including 15 cousins, in Mexico – her home away from home. Her bond with her large extended family has always been obvious from the stacks of family albums. So much so that we were married in Mexico and had our reception at her uncle’s lake house. We both have been so blessed to have amazing and loyal lifelong friendships and that so many traveled to be with us at our Mexico wedding!

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Faith

We both grew up in religious households and were shown that God is ever present and loving; faith is important to us.  Michael is Lutheran and Maria is Catholic and having faith has helped us get through low points in our lives.  Our commitment to each other is supported by our faith and we will bring up your child with faith in God and Catholic. He or she will be taught to respect people from all backgrounds and cultures. We as a family will join volunteer groups that help the less fortunate in our community. We currently donate to several local and international causes and will guide your child in choosing causes that speak to him or her.  We feel it is important to help those in need and will lead by example; engaging in acts of kindness, and empathy and discussing important issues.

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Family Traditions

Michael’s earliest memories are of celebrating his birthday with his sister, cousins, and family at the cabin (with a Pinata to boot!).  He loved whacking that poor burro for candy!  His grandmother would make homemade donuts, put them up on a string and the kids would compete to see who could eat one the fastest with no hands.  We inherited Michaels mothers handwritten Holiday baking recipe book and we make many of the favorites every year.  Easter was a time for church, sharing gratitude, and big family meals; we still have the Easter Tree that has handcrafted eggs that are over 75 years old.

Maria traveled (and still does) to Mexico, every Christmas, summer vacation, wedding, you name it, she was there.  With Spanish being her first language (our child will also speak Spanish), she always felt like she was home and grounded. Her grandmother was the best cook in Mexico, and Maria often watched as she made traditional dishes; pozole, menudo, empanadas, mole, etc.  Maria makes these dishes at home for Michael and our friends to enjoy. We can’t wait to pass along our family traditions to our child, and also create ones of our own!

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Our Promise to You

It will be an honor to raise your baby and we promise you that he/she will never lack unconditional love, guidance, understanding, and a solid religious foundation.  They will have the opportunities that every parent wants to give their child so that they can lead a fulfilling and purposeful life.  We go into this new life adventure with our hearts open and ready to love your baby and want you to know we don’t take it lightly that you have chosen us to be his or her parents.  We promise you that we will always endeavor to do our very best and that your baby will be the center of our lives.