Waiting Families
Phil, Sarah & Evan
Hi! We’re Phil, Sarah, and Evan. We know right now those names mean very little to you, but hopefully by the end of this letter, you’ll feel you know us a lot better. First and foremost, we want you to know how much we admire your strength and courage in considering this path, and hope you find peace in knowing your child will be in a loving home, no matter what direction you decide to go.
To tell you a little about us, we’ll start with how we met. Some mutual friends from work decided it would be a good idea to play matchmaker and invite us both out for a night with the gang. We hit it off right away, and realized quickly we had a lot in common. After dating, and getting to know each other better, we married in the spring of 2002. We had hoped to start our family right away, but problems with infertility put our family plans on hold. After trying, unsuccessfully, for several years we knew adoption was the right choice for us. With the help of Children’s Home Society, we were able to realize our dream of starting a family with the adoption of our son, Evan. To thoroughly describe Evan would take pages, but in short he’s a really great kid, loves to laugh and play, and gets along great with other children. He loves cats, has a great imagination, and loves to know how things work. His interests mainly focus on tools, racing, swimming, music, trucks, and tractors.
If you were to ask Sarah to describe Phil, she would say he is an honest and hard working person, who motivates her to do her best and keeps her laughing every day. He is a very patient, and supportive husband and father, and sees the positive in everything. He has a great sense of humor, and always seems to have a witty response. He is a Systems Engineer for a Department of Defense contractor and works hard at his job. Nothing is more important than his family. He enjoys spending time with Evan, playing golf, reading, and doing home improvement projects including finishing our basement. He also likes getting new gadgets to make quite useful around the house. Then again, he is the only one who can properly work all the remote controls (Sarah thinks he did that on purpose).
If you were to ask Phil about Sarah, he’d say she is a beautiful, loving, and thoughtful person, but more than anything he’d tell you she was born to be a mom. From time spent with Evan, our nieces and other relative’s and friend’s children, it’s obvious to everyone that Sarah is a natural with children. She has been a Big Sister in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and even got a Big Sister of the Year award a few years back. She loves to play sports, and be outside, and enjoys taking on new hobbies like crocheting. Sarah currently is a stay-at-home mom, and spends her free time playing volleyball and doing some part-time accounting from home for her former employer and also a local non-profit agency. Her priority in life is family, and she never lets work interfere with being a mother. We’re fortunate enough financially to have Sarah stay at home, and we feel that it will be best for our children.
Just before we got married we stumbled across a wooded 4 ½ acre lot and decided to buy it. We cleared a little more than an acre and built our dream home. We have a lot of space and woods to explore. We have a couple of paths through the woods, and Evan enjoys hiking to see the cows in the nearby pasture. Evan and our dog, Sadie, thoroughly enjoy the fenced-in backyard and space to run. Elsa, our princess of a cat, also likes the amenities her home has to provide, although we mainly find her lounging around enjoying her extended cat naps. Our neighbors are great, and we all look out for one another. We live in an area with a highly rated school district, so we know our children will receive a great education.
Moving on to our daily lives, we spend most of our time together, with friends, and especially with family. We enjoy taking Evan to the park, to the library, to the pool, on nature walks, camping, and playing outside. We live near both sides of our family, so we get to visit often, and spend all of our holidays and special occasions together. Every year we go to the beach with Sarah’s family, which has proven to be a great time to play with our three nieces, and to spend quality time with her family. We also get to vacation with Phil’s family, in particular, traveling to Florida where they have a timeshare in Orlando. We look forward to reliving memories of childhood trips to the Magic Kingdom through the eyes of our children.
We know that adoption is the right path for us, and are very much looking forward to raising our children together. We have grown and changed together during our marriage and parenthood, and we are excited in anticipation of expanding our family. Sarah has three brothers and Phil has a sister, and we both value those relationships a great deal. We look forward to watching our children develop those same bonds as they grow up together.
Hopefully now you feel you know us a little better, and we look forward to getting to know you as well. We know it takes a lot of courage to consider all the options before deciding what is best for your child, and no matter which path you choose from here, know that you have our deepest respect and admiration for the love you have for your child.
We wish you all the best.
Sincerely,
Phil, Sarah & Evan