Match Letter

Dear friend,

Thank you for your courageous consideration of adoption and for taking a few minutes to learn about our family in this letter. We know that you want a safe and loving home where your child can grow to live life to the fullest. We would love to add a child to our family through the precious gift of adoption and are thankful for people such as you that would bless our family with such an opportunity.

We’re Jon and Stacie. We met here in Arizona and have been married for over eleven years. We enjoy many activities together and we’re also best friends.

My name is Stacie and I’m a stay-at-home mom who used to teach kindergarten and third grade at a public school. I grew up in Massachusetts and moved here with my family when I was thirteen. I love reading, hanging out with friends, spending time with family and just being a Mom.

My name is Jon and I’m a manager in the computer industry. I grew up in a small town in Idaho surrounded by the great outdoors. I love hiking, skiing, and watching movies. I’m proud of our children and love to spend time teaching and mentoring them.

We have two girls. Abby is eight, reads avidly and loves to play video games. Sarah is our six year old girly girl who likes to play with dolls and always wants a hug. We also have an Australian Shepherd named Baxter who’s great with the kids. The girls are so excited about us adopting that they sometimes pretend their younger sibling is already here. We’re all looking forward to having another child join our family through adoption.

As a family we love to build special memories. In the summer we do a lot of camping up on the rim, go on road trips to the California beaches, and watch fireworks on the Fourth of July with our friends. When the weather is cooler we love to hike; Sedona is one of our favorite spots. At home we like to play games, watch movies and work together around the house. We go to a Christian church every week where our kids attend Sunday school. Our neighborhood in the west valley is a safe place and there are lots of children around, creating opportunities for our kids to make happy and lasting friendships.

We have lots of contact with a loving extended family who will love any additions to our family as much as we do. Jon’s parents live in Idaho but are retired and visit every winter. Stacie’s family is in the East valley and we see each other for holidays, birthdays and other occasions. Her dad and stepmom often babysit their grandchildren and are excited about us expanding our family. Her mom and stepdad are highly involved in the kids’ lives as are her brother and sister-in-law, who have a one year old boy.

There can never be too many people in a child’s life to love them. If you choose us to be your child’s adoptive parents we’ll give them a loving and safe home. We respect the difficult decision you face and we’ll raise your child with that same respect. It’s our heart’s desire that they‘re loved in as many ways and by as many people as possible.

Thank you so much for reading our letter. We pray that you’ll have the best in health and happiness.

Blessings,

Jon & Stacie

Same match letter but formatted in Word with pictures (it’s big, so it might be slow to open)

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Match Letter Almost Done

We are currently working on revision #6 of our match letter and it should be completed soon.

What’s a match letter? This is a description of our family and what we’re all about that goes into a letter which is browsed by birth parents. The match letter is used by an adoption agency to find a good match between birth parents and adoptive parents.

Our challenge is to convey some of our personality and feelings along with some important information in just one page of text. It’s hard to say anything in a single page but that’s all the room we have. The good news is that after five revisions I believe we’re very close to completing the letter.

I’ll post a copy of the letter here when it’s finalized; it might be later this week. We’ll actually have one version that has several pictures intermixed with the text to make the letter stretch to three pages total with text and pictures. The second version will have a single picture of Stacie and I and will be a total of one page for both text and pictures.

Next step: pick out some pictures and make final revisions.

JPM

Follow-up: Our Adoption Agency

Follow-up to previous post: I want to note something about the agency we’re working with and their heart for helping babies as well as birth mothers. We’ve taken considerable time to choose this organization, we believe in their mission and their methods. We also believe that they have the utmost integrity.

Adoption is only a small part of what they do. In fact their primary mission is to work with women in crisis pregnancies to help them keep and raise their own child. They provide counseling, services and assistance to these women and this is the largest part of their organization. For a Mom to keep her child is always preferred. However, it is not always practical. The first alternative when a Mom is unable or unwilling to raise her child is to find family members who are. When that avenue is also exhausted, adoption is considered. Adoption is really the last resort of sorts, but not always the end of the birth mother’s involvement (see post on open adoption).

The agency is a State licensed charitable organization with strong ties to a local Christian church denomination and has been highly regarded as a service to our community since 1960.

JPM

Private Adoption

After careful consideration and much prayer we’ve decided to pursue a private adoption.

What does this mean? Well, private adoption in our case means most likely the adoption of an infant or very small child.  Our adoption will be handled by a private adoption agency which we are working with. The birth Mom will likely be someone in a crisis pregnancy situation who has made the courageous decision to carry her baby to full term and place the child in a loving home to be raised.

We decided not to adopt a DES (Department of Economic Security) ward. That was a hard decision, but we got some very good information from an agency that does nothing but DES adoptions and foster care. In most cases a child that is taken from the home by CPS, placed with a foster family and later is available for adoption, is adopted by the foster family. Children on the list of DES wards who are available to be adopted and are currently in a foster home are in most all cases between the ages of 8-13. With two girls of our own at home, ages 8 and 6, we had to make a tough choice. We decided that our family is best to adopt a child under two, and not go through the ups and downs of foster care (God bless those angels that do).

The process for us now is waiting. Our agency works with birth mothers in crisis situations. Those that choose adoption will look through a book of adoptive families that will include a profile of our family. If she feels comfortable that our family would be a good place for her child to be placed, the agency will take steps to facilitate the adoption. There are obviously a lot of steps in between, but this is basically how it will work.

So we continue to wait.

JPM

About Time & Class Tonight

About time that I updated my blog. My apologies. Life’s busy schedule stepped up the fire a notch and at the same time there has been very little to report on our adoption. Well, I’ll make some updates and get you all caught up on the latest new here in coming posts.

Tonight we start our first adoption class. The agency we are working with has a series of classes that are for adopting parents. Pretty much every Tuesday for the next couple of months we’ll be attending (there are a few we are allowed to skip out on).

The topic tonight:

Losses and Gains:

The Need to Be a Loss Expert

We’ll let you know how it goes.

JPM

Certified!

Great news! Drum roll, please . . . we got word Tuesday through the mail that an honorable judge in Superior Court has found us “certified!”  As of March 19^th, we are officially legal to adopt! 

The amazing thing is that when our home visits finished on March 2, we were told two weeks for the social worker to write up our report and a month for the judge to declare us certified.  Thanks for your prayers for expediency; they definitely worked.  The whole process took 17 days instead of the projected 42.

JPM

NT054 - On Guard against Greed

Scriptures

• Luke 12:13-21

• Memorization: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Tim. 6:10 NKJ

Big Idea

Be rich towards God.

Download Lesson >> NT054 - On Guard against Greed

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NT053 - The Lord’s Prayer

Scriptures

• Matthew 6:1-13

• Memorization: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]” Matthew 6:9-13  NKJ

Big Idea

Jesus provided us the pattern for prayer.

Download Lesson >> NT053 - The Lord’s Prayer

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NT052 - Mary and Martha

Scriptures

·   Luke 10:38-42

·   Memorization: “Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” PSALM 29:2 NKJ

Big Idea

Jesus wanted His friends to listen to Him more than busy themselves trying to serve Him.

Download Lesson >> NT052 - Mary and Martha

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NT051 - Parable of the Good Samaritan

Scriptures

·   Luke 10:25-37

·   Memorization: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” MATTHEW 5:7-8 NKJ

Big Idea

We should treat others as though they are precious to God, because they really are.

Download Lesson >> NT051 - Parable of the Good Samaritan

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