Tuesday, December 11, 2012
December Beach Trip
Who goes to the Oregon Coast in December? We do! Sam and I passed our adoption homestudy and immediately left town for some R&R. We were so fortunate to be invited to the annual Gray Haven beach house retreat in Oregon at Rockaway Beach. It was great to get away from the city and relax with good friends, good food, and beautiful views of the ocean. Take a look-
Monday, October 1, 2012
Birthparent Letter
The following is a letter that we wrote to potential birthparents, so that they could have a no-pressure way of getting to know us.
Hello!
Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit about us. We are grateful that you are considering adoption. The decisions that you are facing right now take a lot of courage.
We look forward to an opportunity to get to know you and your story, but for now, here’s what you should know about us.
ABOUT US
The story of us begins in Portland, Oregon. Though we were both raised on the east side of Portland, competing in track meets, singing in choir performances, and even going to a common friend’s party, our timing in meeting one another was always off. Our lives seemed to always be in parallel with our paths never crossing. For example: while Sam was serving a church mission in Georgia, Gayle was earning a degree at BYU in Utah. When Gayle moved back to Portland to start her career, Sam was studying at Ricks College in Idaho. When Sam returned to Portland to help care for his brother, Gayle had already moved outside of Portland to be closer to work and friends. However, the unexpected happened when we were in our late twenties when Gayle needed to borrow a truck to move some things. Her roommate suggested that she call a friend of hers on the other side of town who had a truck, and his name was Sam. The timing could not have been better. We felt an instant connection and friendship that even now is hard to put into words.
Though we would have loved to have met and fallen in love years earlier, we feel extremely thankful to have crossed paths when we did. We were fortunate to have had the time to focus on our education, travel the world, and meet wonderful people throughout our single years.
Having been married for six years, and four years of countless doctors’ visits and
medical treatments, we’ve come to the realization that adoption is the choice that will bring our family great happiness. Although our inability to have children has been difficult, we feel at peace and know that things will work out for the best. We both strongly believe that there are special spirits that the Lord will place in our loving arms. There is an empty space in our hearts that aches for children. We have a lot of love to give. So far our life has taken us to unexpected places, and we are excited for what the future holds in our adoption journey.
ABOUT SAM FROM GAYLE
“Sam might be one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.” I heard this from my roommate the day before I met Sam and rolled my eyes at the comment, but soon realized that she wasn’t just saying that because she liked him. Sam is an extremely friendly, loving, and sensitive person who puts everyone’s needs before his own. Sam is very close to his family, especially his younger brother Danny, who was born with severe mental and physical disabilities. Sam has always had a special connection with his brother, and when I saw the two of them together for the first time I learned of Sam’s patience, kindness, and devotion to others. That was when I realized that I wanted to marry him.
Sam is a Residential Contractor who specializes in home energy efficiency. He has worked on a construction site since he was twelve years old, and loves to build homes. Someday he will build our family’s home. In the meantime, he’s the go-to-guy for our friends and neighbors home repair needs. He’s often found in his shop building something for someone. Sam is a man of many talents. In college, he was a DJ at a local radio station, award-winning debater, and even won a city-wide leg wrestling competition. Sam loves U.S. history, politics, camping, fishing, boating, and everything
outdoors. Sam is an excellent cook and prepares most of our evening meals. He loves his family, and even though they all live in different states, he speaks with most of them on a daily basis. No matter where I am, when I’m with Sam, I feel at home.
ABOUT GAYLE FROM SAM
From the moment that I met Gayle I knew that there was something special about her. She has the bluest eyes that I have ever seen and when you look into them you know that she has a beautiful soul. She is a strong, confident and independent woman, but is also fun and exciting to be around. She is kind and selfless. At work she is the one that everyone depends on. She spends most of the day helping everyone else and then stays late to do her own work. She is fun and adventurous. Before we were married she tried out to be on “The Amazing Race”, and has even been skydiving twice. Gayle is a hard worker. She paid her own way through college, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in English from BYU, and graduated without any debt. She’s built a successful career over the past eleven years working as an administrator with the Veterans Hospital, but looks forward to the day that she can leave that life behind to be a full-time mother. Besides her work with our nation’s Veterans, she has served as a volunteer Wish Granter with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for many years, spending time with medically-fragile children to make their wishes come true.
On the night I proposed, I had set up a big surprise at my apartment with flowers and a room full of candles. However, I almost burned the place down because Gayle wanted to run across town after dinner to pick up a little boy’s favorite ice cream cake who was having his wish granted the next morning. She has an amazing gift for making people feel special. She is the love of my life.
ABOUT OUR FAMILY
Family is important to us. Both of our parents have been married for over thirty-five years and are still going strong. Between the two of us we have five brothers, two sisters, eight nephews, and six nieces, with more on the way. Our families get together regularly and are both planning exciting reunions this summer. No matter what life throws at us, we can always count on the love and support of our families.
We promise to provide a warm and loving home for the children placed in our care. We look forward to starting family traditions, like Waffle Saturdays, summer campouts, and nightly bedtime stories. We would also provide every opportunity for our children to learn and grow, developing their individual talents. We will always have music in our home. Gayle is a talented pianist, and we both love to sing. We live in a family-friendly community with a lot of parks, community pools, bike paths, and even a lake. We chose this neighborhood because it is a great place to raise a family.
We believe that hard work is an important part of life. We both come from hardworking families where we were raised to do our part to contribute to the welfare of the family. We look forward to involving our children in daily chores, as we believe work teaches responsibility and respect. We also value education. We enjoy reading and learning new things every day and hope to pass the same passion for knowledge on to our children.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is an important part of our lives. We will teach our children that they are a child of a loving Heavenly Father. We will teach them right from wrong, to be kind, to show love for those around them, and that through their actions other people’s prayers can be answered. We will teach them that our own prayers were answered through the brave actions of their birthparents. We know that it important for our child’s birthparents to be a part of their life, as well as ours.
Thank you again for taking the time to get to know us. We appreciate it. We look forward to the blessing of being parents. We hope for it, long for it, and when it comes, we will not take it for granted.
With Love,
Sam and Gayle
Hello!
Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit about us. We are grateful that you are considering adoption. The decisions that you are facing right now take a lot of courage.
We look forward to an opportunity to get to know you and your story, but for now, here’s what you should know about us.
ABOUT US
The story of us begins in Portland, Oregon. Though we were both raised on the east side of Portland, competing in track meets, singing in choir performances, and even going to a common friend’s party, our timing in meeting one another was always off. Our lives seemed to always be in parallel with our paths never crossing. For example: while Sam was serving a church mission in Georgia, Gayle was earning a degree at BYU in Utah. When Gayle moved back to Portland to start her career, Sam was studying at Ricks College in Idaho. When Sam returned to Portland to help care for his brother, Gayle had already moved outside of Portland to be closer to work and friends. However, the unexpected happened when we were in our late twenties when Gayle needed to borrow a truck to move some things. Her roommate suggested that she call a friend of hers on the other side of town who had a truck, and his name was Sam. The timing could not have been better. We felt an instant connection and friendship that even now is hard to put into words.
Though we would have loved to have met and fallen in love years earlier, we feel extremely thankful to have crossed paths when we did. We were fortunate to have had the time to focus on our education, travel the world, and meet wonderful people throughout our single years.
Having been married for six years, and four years of countless doctors’ visits and
medical treatments, we’ve come to the realization that adoption is the choice that will bring our family great happiness. Although our inability to have children has been difficult, we feel at peace and know that things will work out for the best. We both strongly believe that there are special spirits that the Lord will place in our loving arms. There is an empty space in our hearts that aches for children. We have a lot of love to give. So far our life has taken us to unexpected places, and we are excited for what the future holds in our adoption journey.
ABOUT SAM FROM GAYLE
“Sam might be one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.” I heard this from my roommate the day before I met Sam and rolled my eyes at the comment, but soon realized that she wasn’t just saying that because she liked him. Sam is an extremely friendly, loving, and sensitive person who puts everyone’s needs before his own. Sam is very close to his family, especially his younger brother Danny, who was born with severe mental and physical disabilities. Sam has always had a special connection with his brother, and when I saw the two of them together for the first time I learned of Sam’s patience, kindness, and devotion to others. That was when I realized that I wanted to marry him.
Sam is a Residential Contractor who specializes in home energy efficiency. He has worked on a construction site since he was twelve years old, and loves to build homes. Someday he will build our family’s home. In the meantime, he’s the go-to-guy for our friends and neighbors home repair needs. He’s often found in his shop building something for someone. Sam is a man of many talents. In college, he was a DJ at a local radio station, award-winning debater, and even won a city-wide leg wrestling competition. Sam loves U.S. history, politics, camping, fishing, boating, and everything
outdoors. Sam is an excellent cook and prepares most of our evening meals. He loves his family, and even though they all live in different states, he speaks with most of them on a daily basis. No matter where I am, when I’m with Sam, I feel at home.
ABOUT GAYLE FROM SAM
From the moment that I met Gayle I knew that there was something special about her. She has the bluest eyes that I have ever seen and when you look into them you know that she has a beautiful soul. She is a strong, confident and independent woman, but is also fun and exciting to be around. She is kind and selfless. At work she is the one that everyone depends on. She spends most of the day helping everyone else and then stays late to do her own work. She is fun and adventurous. Before we were married she tried out to be on “The Amazing Race”, and has even been skydiving twice. Gayle is a hard worker. She paid her own way through college, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in English from BYU, and graduated without any debt. She’s built a successful career over the past eleven years working as an administrator with the Veterans Hospital, but looks forward to the day that she can leave that life behind to be a full-time mother. Besides her work with our nation’s Veterans, she has served as a volunteer Wish Granter with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for many years, spending time with medically-fragile children to make their wishes come true.
On the night I proposed, I had set up a big surprise at my apartment with flowers and a room full of candles. However, I almost burned the place down because Gayle wanted to run across town after dinner to pick up a little boy’s favorite ice cream cake who was having his wish granted the next morning. She has an amazing gift for making people feel special. She is the love of my life.
ABOUT OUR FAMILY
Family is important to us. Both of our parents have been married for over thirty-five years and are still going strong. Between the two of us we have five brothers, two sisters, eight nephews, and six nieces, with more on the way. Our families get together regularly and are both planning exciting reunions this summer. No matter what life throws at us, we can always count on the love and support of our families.
We promise to provide a warm and loving home for the children placed in our care. We look forward to starting family traditions, like Waffle Saturdays, summer campouts, and nightly bedtime stories. We would also provide every opportunity for our children to learn and grow, developing their individual talents. We will always have music in our home. Gayle is a talented pianist, and we both love to sing. We live in a family-friendly community with a lot of parks, community pools, bike paths, and even a lake. We chose this neighborhood because it is a great place to raise a family.
We believe that hard work is an important part of life. We both come from hardworking families where we were raised to do our part to contribute to the welfare of the family. We look forward to involving our children in daily chores, as we believe work teaches responsibility and respect. We also value education. We enjoy reading and learning new things every day and hope to pass the same passion for knowledge on to our children.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is an important part of our lives. We will teach our children that they are a child of a loving Heavenly Father. We will teach them right from wrong, to be kind, to show love for those around them, and that through their actions other people’s prayers can be answered. We will teach them that our own prayers were answered through the brave actions of their birthparents. We know that it important for our child’s birthparents to be a part of their life, as well as ours.
Thank you again for taking the time to get to know us. We appreciate it. We look forward to the blessing of being parents. We hope for it, long for it, and when it comes, we will not take it for granted.
With Love,
Sam and Gayle
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Pass-Along Cards
These are adoption pass-along cards. When we first heard about the idea of having what is basically a business card with our adoption contact information on it that we could hand out to people, we couldn't see ourselves doing it. We have only had them about a week now and we have already handed quite a few of them out. We may have to order more.*UPDATE- We recently moved up to Washington state in August 2012 and will be updating our pass-along-cards with new profile and caseworker information. The blog and email are still current.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Adoption
Welcome to our first blog post!
Sam and I are hoping to adopt. The adoption process has been an eye-opening one, including learning how to market ourselves in a very competitive field. We've put together a couple photo pages. Let us know what you think.
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