Eric and Michelle

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From Us to You

Dear Expectant Mother –

We are looking forward to meeting you.  We can only imagine how difficult this decision is for you, trying to find the perfect match to raise your baby.  We would love to share with you why we hope to be your perfect fit.

Early on in our dating journey, we would enjoy long walks where we would share our goals and values for the future.  We knew we wanted to have kids and had always talked about two.  Unfortunately, life had other plans for us.  We tried to get pregnant for about 6 years, even working with doctors, but it was not in the cards for us.  We made the decision to ask for help and we met an amazing woman who agreed to be part of our surrogacy journey.  In February 2020, our son was born.  Logan is the light of our life.  We love being parents.  Parenting during a pandemic has not been what we had expected, but it has allowed us to spend so much extra time with our son and helped us to readjust our priorities.

As we previously mentioned, we have always talked about having two kids.  However, we do not have the option to do another surrogacy journey because we have no more healthy embryos.  We both grew up with siblings and after watching our son play with his cousins, we knew we wanted to figure out another way to give him a sibling.  We know he would be an amazing big brother!

We live close to both of our families and spend a lot of time with our parents and siblings, so our son frequently spends time with his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Family is an important part of our lives.  We are looking forward to the day when the pandemic is under control and we can introduce our son and your future child to travel and organized sports.  We both have fond memories from our childhood of trips with our parents. We will allow them to be themselves and explore passions but also provide them with guidance from parents who have life experience.

Although our son is just 2 years old, we have already started to talk with him about our surrogacy journey.  We want him to know about the lengths we went to have him and we would do the same with your baby.  We believe it’s important for the children to know where they came from.  We want your baby to know your story.  We are not sure what the future will hold, but we do want your baby to know their birth parents.

Should we be fortunate enough to have you select us to raise your baby, we want to express our commitment to providing the best home we possibly can.  We promise to love your child unconditionally and provide them with everything to become the best person they possibly can be.

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How We Met

We met online.  At the time, we both had recently gotten out of previous relationships and were looking for something new.  Eric’s friends convinced him to try online dating. He wasn’t sure it was for him, but he had just moved to a new area.  Michelle was the one and only girl he wrote to and went out with.  When we met, we were instantly drawn to each other.  Our first date lasted over three hours.  We just sat and talked.  We were so excited to see each other again, but Eric was going away that weekend, so we had to wait an entire week to see each other. Within about 4 months, we were inseparable.

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Why We are Choosing to Adopt

We are choosing to adopt because, after six years of trying to conceive on our own, we were unable to get pregnant.  We were fortunate enough to have one healthy embryo that we transferred to our surrogate in 2019.  Logan was born in February 2020 (the first two pictures above were taken at his time of birth!).  We love being parents and are excited to grow our family.   Watching our son interact with his cousins made us feel even more strongly about giving him a sibling.  Since we are unable to complete another surrogacy journey, we decided to explore other options.

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About Michelle, by Eric

Michelle has a number of wonderful qualities that make her an amazing partner and an even better mom.  She is strong, compassionate, brilliant, supportive, fun, the list goes on and on.  Over the 10 years we have been together I have watched her grow her business while becoming one of the most respected professionals in her field.  As a therapist, I see the genuine compassion she has for others and that she truly wants to help people improve their lives and be happy.  All the while, she has supported me and my career aspirations, always wanting me to be happy above all else.  She is powerful and strong too.  Over the past several years, we have endured a number of obstacles, including the loss of her mother and our fertility struggles.  Throughout all of this, she has always kept her head up, focusing on the good and remaining positive.  I know that her strength and support always pick me up whenever I start to feel down.  Above all, the most amazing thing has been to be by her side and see her become a mom.  Watching the amazing mother she is with our son is captivating. The love in his eyes when he looks at her shows me he knows it. I know Michelle will be that same loving and amazing mother to your child, too.

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About Eric, by Michelle

The first night Eric and I met, we sat and talked for over three hours.  He is such an easy person to talk to.  He is smart and witty and someone you would want on your trivia team.  I won’t admit it to him, but when we watch “Jeopardy” and have a little friendly competition, he often beats me.   He is passionate and caring.  When our relationship became more serious, Eric shared with me how important it was that we get involved with some charity work.  He wanted to make a difference.  He shows up for his friends and family when they need him.

Eric is the most amazing husband and father, always making sure that our son and I are taken care of.  I love watching him play with our son, but most of all, I love catching them in their little shared moments when they are reading together.  Eric and I have been together 10 years, and 8 of those years have been filled with some difficult times.  From the beginning, I have always said that I feel so lucky to have him by my side.  It has been so much easier going through the tough times with him.  I could always count on him and lean on him.  He just has this way about him to make me, and others around him, feel secure.  When his mom got sick, he was her steady rock and helped her to keep her feet on the ground, even on the most difficult days.  I admire his dedication.  When he puts his mind to something, he puts his whole self into it; there is no half doing anything.  I could seriously go on and on about what a wonderful husband, dad, brother, and friend Eric is, but we would be here all day.

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Lifestyle

Since having a baby, and being in a pandemic, our lifestyle has changed a little bit.  Before our son was born, we both worked hard, but also balanced out our life with social activities.  Eric enjoyed golfing with his friends and younger brother.  Michelle participated in book clubs and supper clubs.  We also loved to travel, sometimes just a weekend away skiing or hanging by the pool and other times exploring new places.  We don’t get out quite as often and we haven’t seen our friends quite as much as before the pandemic, however we have had the chance to spend a lot of time with our immediate family over the past two years.  We also try to spend as much time outdoors as we can, whether we are just hanging out in our backyard or taking a walk in our neighborhood. We hope to return to many of our pre-pandemic activities as soon as it is safe.

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Hobbies

We have a lot in common and enjoy many hobbies together, but also we each have our own favorite ways to unwind and relax.  We both love the outdoors and enjoy being active.  Eric loves to play golf; we love to hike and ski/snowboard.  Before the pandemic, we were taking tennis lessons together.  Michelle loves to read, knit, and bake.  In addition, we love spending time with friends and family.  Some of our favorite memories are just hanging out and playing board games with friends, watching sports or attending sporting events, and taking mini trips with them.

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Home & Neighborhood

Our home and neighborhood center around our family and children.  When we moved into our current house, our sole goal was to find a home that would provide for our future family and the children we wanted to have.  We made sure to find a place we could grow into with space for our kids to play, including a backyard with room for a playset…which we have!

Also important to us was to find a home that was close to our parents and siblings.  We are five minutes from Michelle’s dad, 40 minutes from her brother, and 20 minutes from Eric’s parents as well as his brother and children.  This allows us, and Logan, to spend as much time as we can with our family, including impromptu visits whenever we have a free moment.

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Our Families & Friends

We both grew up in large, tight-knit families.  Eric has four brothers and Michelle has one brother and we both have large extended families.  Between us, three of our siblings are married and two have kids.  We love spending time with our two nephews and three nieces.  In addition to our immediate family, we both grew up living close to our extended family, often spending holidays and vacations with them.   Living close to where we grew up and both attending college in Southern California, we also have a large group of friends, who before the pandemic, we saw on a regular basis.

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Faith & Traditions

We were both raised in Jewish homes.  Eric’s dad was raised Catholic and his mom was raised Jewish; so he grew up celebrating Christmas in addition to all of the Jewish holidays and attending Hebrew school.  Michelle grew up in a traditional Jewish household, celebrating all of the major Jewish holidays, attending Hebrew school, and going to temple on occasion.  We both have fond memories of holidays gathered around our family’s home with all of our aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.  When we moved in together, we started our own traditions for the holidays.

We would describe ourselves as more spiritual than religious.  We enjoy the traditions and the cultural aspects of the holidays.  We have a Christmas tree that we decorate with ornaments that we have bought while on vacations with each other.  In addition, we have a tradition of buying ornaments that we exchange with each other on Christmas Eve every year.  These ornaments tell the stories of our lives together.  We also celebrate the Jewish holidays with our families including Passover, Hanukkah, and Purim.  Seeing the world and the holidays through our son’s eyes gives us a different perspective and a renewed appreciation for our families’ traditions, as we are able to watch him celebrate with his grandparents and cousins the same way we both did as kids.

The traditions in our lives still center around our families.  We both have very large extended families and do our best to spend time with both, particularly around the holidays, whether that be Thanksgiving, Passover, Hanukkah, etc.  As life gets more and more complicated as they get older, we want our children to know how important family and friends are and to appreciate time with them above all else.  It has been so fun to experience these traditions through our son’s eyes these past two years.  We both grew up in families who ate dinner together most nights when we weren’t running to scouts or sports.  We have continued to maintain the tradition of home-cooked meals and love to try new recipes together.

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What We Will Teach

Our ultimate goal in life is just to help our children become the people they want to be.  We will provide them with guidance and advice, but ultimately want them to find their own path, whether that be in their careers, who they love or any other major decisions that may come their way.  We want them to be happy and will do whatever we can to make that happen.

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Our Promise to You

Love.  First and foremost we promise to love our children with everything we have.  Becoming parents is the greatest thing that has ever happened to us and we are so excited to have another member of our family that we can love with all our hearts.

Individuality.  While it is important to nurture a child and provide guidance as they get older, we also promise to let our children find themselves and become the people that makes them happy.  At the end of the day, our children will know that we will love them unconditionally, no matter what path they take in life.

We recognize what a tremendous sacrifice this is for you and we promise to never forget that.  Your child will get everything we have to give.