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Dear Birthparent,We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for reading our letter. Our names are Dorothy (age 35) and Patrick (age 36), and we can only imagine how difficult a decision it is that you are making. We are incredibly grateful that you are considering us as adoptive parents, and we want to assure you that we would provide a loving family for your baby. How We Met We met at St. Louis College of Pharmacy at a fraternity party in St. Louis, Missouri on August 26, 1991. Patrick was 19 years old (2nd year college student) and Dorothy was 18 years old (1st year college student). We started dating exclusively on September 3, 1991. These were such important days for us that we always remember and celebrate! We dated throughout college (a 6-year program), our residencies (a 1-year program), and during our first real pharmacy jobs. Although we had a strong personal relationship, we were also very focused on our education and career. After eight years of dating, we were married on August 28, 1999. We are fortunate to have gotten to know each other so well before marrying, and we recently celebrated the 9th anniversary of our happy and supportive marriage. About Dorothy I grew up in a loving family in Chicago. My parents are Polish immigrants. My father worked as a mold maker and my mother was a housewife. I have one older brother. I was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school from kindergarten through high school. Education was very important to my family. My brother was the first person in my family to graduate from college, and I am the first person in my family to have earned a doctorate degree. I am musically inclined and took organ lessons for ten years. I entered many organ-playing contests and have collected several trophies over the years. I still play for fun today. I really enjoy listening to music whenever possible. I spent most of my free time with my family and friends. This is still true today. My house was the place that my friends normally hung out while growing up. All I have are good memories of my childhood and we are still very close today. My parents' house has an apartment upstairs, where my one remaining grandmother lives; and an apartment downstairs, where my brother lives. This baby will be the first grandchild for my parents! They live nearby and are eager to shower all their love and attention on our child. About Patrick I also grew up in a loving family in a small town in Southern Illinois (Ruma). I am the second of five children. My older brother was adopted. I was also raised as a Roman Catholic. I served as an altar boy and worked at our church for several years. Education was also very important to my family. I have a pretty large family, two brothers and two sisters. We did most things together as a family when I was growing up, and it has carried over to our adult lives. Even though my parents and siblings live a distance away, we still see each other many times through the year. We get together for holidays and big events, like my grandmother's recent 100th birthday. There are two nieces (Natasha – 4 years old, and Audrey – 9 months old) and one nephew (Ivan – 2 years old) in the family now, so our new addition will certainly have eager playmates! Having an adopted brother has made our decision to adopt that much easier and natural. He is two years older than me and was always a good influence in my life, along with all of my other siblings. He was also the best man at our wedding. My family is enthusiastic about adoption and is looking forward to welcoming a new member! About Us We are actually very similar as we are both planners, both pharmacists, and both Roman Catholic! We really enjoy being with one another and are truly best friends. However, we do have our separate interests. Dorothy enjoys cross-stitching, home decorating, and playing music. Patrick enjoys watching professional baseball (Go Cardinals!), reading, and home maintenance. We enjoy the simple pleasures of life. We like to socialize with family and friends. We also like staying at home, sitting in our yard, watching television, listening to music, and talking to one another. We do take occasional vacations and recently traveled to Mexico for a friend's wedding. Since most of Patrick's family lives further away, the majority of our vacation time is spent visiting with his family. We also have several good friends that live further away. We do get to see them, but not as often as we would like. About Our Home We live in a colonial-style home with an attached large deck on a cul-de-sac in a quiet neighborhood in Arlington Heights (northwest suburb of Chicago). We have four bedrooms, a full finished basement, a fenced quarter-acre yard with a lot of privacy and plenty of room for children to play! We are located within walking distance to Lake Arlington. Lake Arlington has walking trails, bicycle tracks, fishing, paddle boats, a small sandy beach, and more! Our home is also surrounded by three parks. We are close to tennis courts, basketball courts, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, and a pool. Patrick's Thoughts About Dorothy Dorothy is my best friend, my closest confidant, and truly an equal partner in life. She is caring, selfless, patient and supportive. She is intelligent, warm and funny, and brings great happiness to my life. Dorothy's love of children is obvious. I saw it when she would interact with my youngest brother while we were dating (my youngest brother is fourteen years younger than I am). I have also seen that she has great motherly instincts, especially when she is with our nieces and nephew. We have had a few opportunities to baby-sit recently. The children find her to be a fun playmate, but she still knows when discipline is needed. I think being a mother will come naturally to her. Dorothy is the type of person that no matter how good she is, she will always strive to be better. We will handle raising a child as a team, like we do most everything in our lives. And I can't think of a more ideal teammate than Dorothy. Dorothy's Thoughts About Patrick Patrick is a wonderful man. From the moment I met him, I felt very comfortable with him. He is genuine and does not pretend to be someone he is not. He is honest, trustworthy, loving, caring, well-mannered, intelligent, and very funny. His sense of humor is what attracted me to him initially. He will do and say almost anything to make me laugh. He will embarrass himself, and sometimes me, to make me laugh! He is usually quiet around people that he does not know well, but once he feels more comfortable and opens up, it is well worth it. He is very slow to anger. He is rational and patient and, also, an excellent teacher. Patrick is very good with children. He especially likes talking to young children because they can be so funny. He is fourteen years older than his youngest brother, so I saw their interactions while we were dating and through our marriage. I have also seen how he is with our nieces and nephew. He will make a wonderful father! Choosing Adoption As you already know, we are planners. We wanted to complete our education before getting married, which we did. We wanted to be more settled with our jobs before we bought our house, which we did. We wanted to buy a house before we started a family, which we did. We bought our house in 2003. Since then, we have been trying to have children ourselves, but have been unsuccessful. We feel that adoption is the way to go. Especially with our positive experience with Patrick's adopted brother, we always knew that adoption is a wonderful choice. Most of our dreams have come true. But, we are missing something. We deeply want to be parents. We have always dreamed of raising children together. We love our nieces and nephew, and yearn to provide them with another cousin! Once again, we thank you for considering us as adoptive parents. Words cannot express what an amazing gift adoption would be. We wish you all of the best in this difficult decision. We look forward to speaking with you and meeting you in the near future. Please feel free to contact us anytime at our toll-free phone number at 1-800-343-1866 or e-mail us at DorothyPatrick99@yahoo.com. If you prefer, you may contact our adoption counselor, Maggie Benz, at 1-800-869-1005. We truly wish you all of the best! About
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