Last week we submitted our letter and our picture collages and our family picture to the adoption agency. The pictures that are below are our collages. They wanted about 15 copies of each in a 8x10 size. So I went to Wal-Mart and they have a great little instant gratification machine that prints them out as you wait. Problem for me was, for their trouble they wanted $4.74 each. Well if my math is correct - I have a calculator - that comes to about $140+. We were going to print some extra to have on hand and thought that 25 of each was a good round number, which would have upped the price to almost $240. I printed one of each.
I shopped around and found a great copy shop called AccuColor that ran the same prints for the same quality for $0.62 each. So with tax it was like $32. And I still had the instant gratification of seeing the pictures as they printed off.
We're hoping that our summary along with our new pictures will be submitted this week and then we'll be approved and officially eligible to be an adoptive couple!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Letter to the Birth Parents
Our last few things on our personal checklist of to do's was to write a letter and create a couple of collages of pictures that will introduce ourselves to prospective birth parents. If a 'hard' copy is given to the birth parents they will essentially receive these two things to base their placement decision on. After much toil and several drafts we came up with our letter. We were given a couple of pages of guidelines and suggestions but basically we are trying to describe ourselves, our lives, and our dreams. We feel like we've been able to formalize that a bit. It's hard to put a life's worth of experiences and feelings in writing.
I don't know that this is our final draft of either our letter or our picture collages, but this is what we've come up with so far.
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Dear Birth Parents,
Although we have not met, we think about and pray for you often. We don’t fully understand the struggles and challenges that you may be facing, but we do know that you have love, strength, and courage. You are part of a miracle for us and we pray for your happiness and well being.
We’d like to share a little about ourselves in order for you to get to know us. We met in January of 2001 in a Japanese literature class at Weber State University. We both served an LDS Mission in the Japan Sendai mission. Although we never formally met in Japan, we did cross paths a couple of times. When we actually met, in collage, we recognized each other from Japan. Our first few dates were pretty unique, but we had a lot in common and hit it off right from the start. We both love to camp and after we had been dating for a couple of months Mike invited Colette to go with him and is family on a Jeeping trip to the Moab, Utah area. Mike proposed to Colette on one of the nights of the camping trip. Even though she accepted, we didn’t announce our engagement because Mike wanted to formally ask permission from Colette’s father. We were married a few months later in June of 2001 in the Salt Lake Temple.
Mike is the fourth of seven children; three older sisters, two younger brothers and a younger sister. He grew up in West Point, UT. While he was growing up, his family was constantly involved in a remodeling project. They enjoyed working on these together. From the time that he was very young he has learned many things about home and vehicle repair. With these talents he was able to finish our basement and build a deck. During high school Mike played the drums in the band. He is still very good at them and enjoys playing them when the occasion arises. After his mission he attended Weber State University and graduated with a degree in Computer Science and now works as a computer developer. Mike has a close relationship with his family and is in constant contact with them. Mike is a very friendly, humorous and affectionate person. He is always striving to be the favorite uncle of all of our nieces and nephews. Mike is a big kid as well. He loves to pick out a toy when we go to the store. In his spare time he enjoys movies, video games, golf, and shooting. He usually has a camera with him and loves to capture the moment of anything worth remembering. He maintains a family blog and loves technology.
Colette is the second of four children; one older brother, and two younger sisters. She grew up in South Ogden, UT. Colette was taught to appreciate hard work and responsibility at a very young age and became a self-motivator. During high school Colette took pottery classes for two years. She enjoyed it so much that she still takes classes when she can and hopes to be able to do more from home. Colette started college right after high school. Then she took a break from school long enough to serve a mission. Following her mission she returned to school, and continued on to get a degree. She is now a Dental Hygienist. Colette enjoys her job and the people that she works with. She is currently working three days a week and as soon as we are able to adopt a child, she plans to cut back her hours to spend her time as a mother. Colette enjoys reading just about any type of book. She adores her variety of shoes and always loves to go shoe shopping. She enjoys mind challenging games that stimulate the brain like Sudoku and Brain Age games on her Nintendo DS.
As a couple we have enjoyed doing a variety of different activities together. We are both certified scuba divers and have had many enjoyable dive trips to places like Mexico and the Caribbean. We love water activities such as boating and waterskiing. We love being outdoors doing things like 4-wheeling, Jeeping, hiking, camping, snowshoeing, and traveling. One of our favorite places to go is to Moab. We usually go there at least once a year. We enjoy our families and spend a lot of time with those who live close. We love the summer time, but manage to find fun things to do all year long.
We have a couple of favorite holidays. The first is Halloween. Mike loves to get into the season by decorating and getting all dressed up and he has passed this passion onto Colette. We have a couple of parties that we attend every year. We spend a lot of time preparing our costumes to add to the authenticity and fun. Our other favorite holiday is Christmas. Colette adores Christmas music and loves to have it playing as soon as the season starts. Mike adores his lights. He worked for a professional Christmas Light company and loves hanging them every year so our house always looks great. We also love the smell of a real Christmas tree and have enjoyed having one in our home. Colette is a gift person so she is very good at finding the right gifts for people. We savor these holidays and are anxious to share traditions and memories with our children.
We are so excited to share our joys with our children. When we got married we talked at length about our goals and dreams and one of the most important things to us was to be able to be parents and raise a loving family. After years without being able to have children, having a family is still a top priority and we feel that adoption is the best path for us. We have many desires for our children. We want them to appreciate the beauties of this great earth as we spend time outdoors. We want them to be confident in their talents and interests. We feel that it is important to let children have the opportunities to discover what they enjoy and support them in their discoveries.
We are so grateful to you for helping us accomplish our dream of having a family. We have a very supportive family and they are also excited to welcome and love a new baby. We want to thank you for the love that you have for your child. We pray for you that you will be blessed. We admire your courage and thank you for allowing us into your life.
Mike and Colette
I don't know that this is our final draft of either our letter or our picture collages, but this is what we've come up with so far.
---------------------
Dear Birth Parents,
Although we have not met, we think about and pray for you often. We don’t fully understand the struggles and challenges that you may be facing, but we do know that you have love, strength, and courage. You are part of a miracle for us and we pray for your happiness and well being.
We’d like to share a little about ourselves in order for you to get to know us. We met in January of 2001 in a Japanese literature class at Weber State University. We both served an LDS Mission in the Japan Sendai mission. Although we never formally met in Japan, we did cross paths a couple of times. When we actually met, in collage, we recognized each other from Japan. Our first few dates were pretty unique, but we had a lot in common and hit it off right from the start. We both love to camp and after we had been dating for a couple of months Mike invited Colette to go with him and is family on a Jeeping trip to the Moab, Utah area. Mike proposed to Colette on one of the nights of the camping trip. Even though she accepted, we didn’t announce our engagement because Mike wanted to formally ask permission from Colette’s father. We were married a few months later in June of 2001 in the Salt Lake Temple.
Mike is the fourth of seven children; three older sisters, two younger brothers and a younger sister. He grew up in West Point, UT. While he was growing up, his family was constantly involved in a remodeling project. They enjoyed working on these together. From the time that he was very young he has learned many things about home and vehicle repair. With these talents he was able to finish our basement and build a deck. During high school Mike played the drums in the band. He is still very good at them and enjoys playing them when the occasion arises. After his mission he attended Weber State University and graduated with a degree in Computer Science and now works as a computer developer. Mike has a close relationship with his family and is in constant contact with them. Mike is a very friendly, humorous and affectionate person. He is always striving to be the favorite uncle of all of our nieces and nephews. Mike is a big kid as well. He loves to pick out a toy when we go to the store. In his spare time he enjoys movies, video games, golf, and shooting. He usually has a camera with him and loves to capture the moment of anything worth remembering. He maintains a family blog and loves technology.
Colette is the second of four children; one older brother, and two younger sisters. She grew up in South Ogden, UT. Colette was taught to appreciate hard work and responsibility at a very young age and became a self-motivator. During high school Colette took pottery classes for two years. She enjoyed it so much that she still takes classes when she can and hopes to be able to do more from home. Colette started college right after high school. Then she took a break from school long enough to serve a mission. Following her mission she returned to school, and continued on to get a degree. She is now a Dental Hygienist. Colette enjoys her job and the people that she works with. She is currently working three days a week and as soon as we are able to adopt a child, she plans to cut back her hours to spend her time as a mother. Colette enjoys reading just about any type of book. She adores her variety of shoes and always loves to go shoe shopping. She enjoys mind challenging games that stimulate the brain like Sudoku and Brain Age games on her Nintendo DS.
As a couple we have enjoyed doing a variety of different activities together. We are both certified scuba divers and have had many enjoyable dive trips to places like Mexico and the Caribbean. We love water activities such as boating and waterskiing. We love being outdoors doing things like 4-wheeling, Jeeping, hiking, camping, snowshoeing, and traveling. One of our favorite places to go is to Moab. We usually go there at least once a year. We enjoy our families and spend a lot of time with those who live close. We love the summer time, but manage to find fun things to do all year long.
We have a couple of favorite holidays. The first is Halloween. Mike loves to get into the season by decorating and getting all dressed up and he has passed this passion onto Colette. We have a couple of parties that we attend every year. We spend a lot of time preparing our costumes to add to the authenticity and fun. Our other favorite holiday is Christmas. Colette adores Christmas music and loves to have it playing as soon as the season starts. Mike adores his lights. He worked for a professional Christmas Light company and loves hanging them every year so our house always looks great. We also love the smell of a real Christmas tree and have enjoyed having one in our home. Colette is a gift person so she is very good at finding the right gifts for people. We savor these holidays and are anxious to share traditions and memories with our children.
We are so excited to share our joys with our children. When we got married we talked at length about our goals and dreams and one of the most important things to us was to be able to be parents and raise a loving family. After years without being able to have children, having a family is still a top priority and we feel that adoption is the best path for us. We have many desires for our children. We want them to appreciate the beauties of this great earth as we spend time outdoors. We want them to be confident in their talents and interests. We feel that it is important to let children have the opportunities to discover what they enjoy and support them in their discoveries.
We are so grateful to you for helping us accomplish our dream of having a family. We have a very supportive family and they are also excited to welcome and love a new baby. We want to thank you for the love that you have for your child. We pray for you that you will be blessed. We admire your courage and thank you for allowing us into your life.
Mike and Colette
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