Dear Birth Parent(s),

This letter marks the beginning of a crossroads where our lives might merge with yours and your child's. We want you to know that your child will be as safe and as loved as we can possibly make him or her.

That knowledge can't come simply from a promise now, but perhaps from the photos and letters and e-mails we'll share every couple of months if you desire, so that you can be part of your child's life later, just as you are now. Because we believe a child needs knowledge of its roots, we may be open to other communication with you if you want it.

We want your child to know about the great sacrifice you are making and how much love you will always have for him or her. We can't imagine the love, strength and trust it will take for you to make the decision to place your child into someone else's home, but we hope that we are lucky enough that you will allow us to love your child too.

We believe that every child should know as much about his or her past as possible. We want your child to understand that living with us means he has more people to love him, that being part of our family doesn't stop him or her from being part of the one he was born to. We want this child to understand that adoption is common, and he isn't strange because our family is blended from a variety of DNA. We plan to have children's books related to adoption that are a part of our bed-time ritual to promote the child's understanding and discussion of our blended family. We will also assist and encourage him to seek out others who were adopted and share experiences with them.

We live in a kid-friendly neighborhood with a park, trails, and a creek to explore or fish in. We both enjoy outdoor activities and can't wait to take your child skiing and scuba diving at the lake, boat riding and canoeing at the river, hiking, and camping.

Of course, there is never a loss of indoor experiences at our house either…we have guitars to play, shelves full of books to read, and the internet and video games for entertainment when it's too cold to be outside. We know the importance of each person in a family finding some hobby he or she enjoys and making that activity his own, so we hope to give your child a wide variety of experiences to help him find his or her own interests and hobbies and encourage him to pursue them.

We have been married for 9 years, and our relationship is …amazing. Each day we share what happened at work and discuss interests and plans. We are comfortable with each other and trust the other enough that we can each spend occasional weekends doing our own activities and following our own pursuits. We are truly individuals in a partnership of love and we can't wait to have another individual join us.

Though we each have different interests, we realize that a family has to have common ground. We have found common ground not only in our hobbies, but also in our work. Wayne produces and edits television commercials and his enjoyment of his career sparked Carolyn's interest in television production.

Carolyn is a high school teacher who started out teaching English, but soon found that teaching journalism was much more creative and rewarding. She now teaches journalism and broadcast (TV) journalism and learns more about the field every day from Wayne's professional experience. We believe this atmosphere of creativity and life-time learning will be valuable for your child.

So if you choose us, if our roads really do cross here, you can be assured that your child will know that he is an individual with a rich and loving past and a great future.

With much respect,

Wayne & Carolyn