Our journey to build a family has been unexpected, challenging, and beautiful. We both always wanted a large family, but infertility led us through miscarriage, IVF, and finally donor IVF, which blessed us with our daughter.

Nora is curious, reflective, and a bright ray of sunshine in everyone's lives. She has varied interests, including arts and crafts, princesses, Spiderman, and butterflies. Nora is intuitively kind and thoughtful, such as when she stopped our elderly neighbor to ask if their dog was feeling better because she remembered that she was sick. She teaches us to stop and smell the roses by quite literally stopping to smell every flower that she passes. Any time she catches us giving each other a hug, she stops whatever she is doing and runs to join us, yelling, "family hug!" We hope it never ends, no matter how old she gets, and we hope to add one more family member to our family hugs. We know that Nora will happily make room!

As grateful as we are, we feel deeply that our family is not yet complete. After a few more years of fertility treatment, we discovered that Nicole is unable to carry another pregnancy. While Nora shares genetics with only one of us, we could not love her more. Our experience has shown us that family is so much more than DNA, and that's why we have decided to pursue adoption. We are incredibly excited to welcome a new child into our family, making it even more special and filling our hearts with even more love.

Our favorite family traditions revolve around the Christmas season. We enjoy seeing Santa at the local Christmas parade, picking out our tree together, sprinkling reindeer dust on the front yard, and reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. Every year, we choose a new holiday album on vinyl to add to our holiday collection. We love listening to the record player while we decorate cookies with Nicole's mom and open presents on Christmas morning. Having a child in our home during Christmas makes everything feel magical again.

In winter, we eagerly await snow to go sledding with friends in the park. When spring comes, the Easter Bunny brings flower seeds and potting soil for us to start our garden. Summertime is for beach visits, pool days, and staying up late to catch fireflies in the backyard. In late August, we walk down our street to the bus stop and wave to the neighborhood children on their first day of school. Come fall, we watch football games, choose pumpkins at a local farm, and sew our own Halloween costumes. We cook homemade wedding soup and make pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and then begin writing our letters to Santa again. Our traditions are simple, full of fun and laughter, and truly treasured.

Adoption has been an important part of our lives in different ways. Nicole grew up with three adopted cousins and has several friends who have recently adopted children. Mike, meanwhile, has two siblings who were adopted by his father and with whom he is very close. Through our personal experiences, we have seen just how much adoption can be an incredible blessing. We take it very seriously that we are responsible for helping our child understand who they are and where they came from. We plan to tell our child about their adoption story from the very beginning, answering their questions honestly and thoughtfully. Our hope is that our child will feel safe to express whatever feelings they may have about their adoption and that we can be there to help foster a continued relationship between them and their birth family.

We live in a picturesque, family-friendly suburban town in Pennsylvania. Our 4-bedroom house sits at the end of a small cul-de-sac in a safe, walkable neighborhood. We have a playset in the backyard and a tree swing in the front, where our daughter and her friends draw with chalk and ride their bikes and scooters. All we have to do is step outside our front door and head down the sidewalk to the neighborhood playground to find other kids to play with.

Our town has several beautiful parks and playgrounds, as well as libraries where we attend weekly storytimes. We also have a fun water park that we love to visit on summer afternoons. The local schools are safe and among the highest-ranked in the state. We live right up the road from our brand-new elementary school that was creatively designed to mimic a children's museum. We also enjoy community festivals, concerts in the park, holiday parades, as well as gymnastics and swim lessons. Trick-or-Treating feels like a scene from a movie; families know each other, older kids run through the neighborhood with their friends, and adults collectively look out for one another's children.

Our favorite part of our home is the family room. When we first toured the house, it was decorated for Christmas. We immediately fell in love, envisioning our future Christmas mornings there with our children. Our home is warm and inviting, providing ample space for us to enjoy hosting our families and friends.

We are fortunate to have large extended families on both sides, and many of our family members live just a few minutes away. All of our siblings are married with their own families. We have 14 nieces and nephews, ranging in age from newborn to young adult, so there are many playmates and older cousins who are wonderful role models. Both sets of grandparents live nearby and are very involved in our lives. Our daughter even enjoys spending time with her great-grandmother and listening to her stories.

We eagerly anticipate our summer trips to the beach with Mike's siblings, nieces, and nephews. This annual family reunion is very special to us, and the excitement for it starts building as early as Thanksgiving. Nicole's family, on the other hand, loves to visit national parks and take in the beauty of the mountains across the country. Her parents also have a nearby lake house where their grandchildren can swim, skip rocks, and learn the art of fishing from Grandpa.

Each new addition to our family is a precious blessing. We are thrilled to embark on our adoption journey, knowing that our extended family offers an abundance of love and support.

Hello! We are Mike and Nicole, and we are so grateful that you are taking the time to read our letter. We may not know you yet, but please know how much we already admire you for your bravery and strength in contemplating adoption. We feel honored that you are considering us as possible adoptive parents for your child.

We live in a lovely home tucked away at the end of a cul-de-sac in a Pennsylvania suburb. Our family consists of us, our sparkly daughter Nora, and our gentle goldendoodle Hank. Mike is a marketing executive who works from home and travels occasionally while Nicole is a former teacher, but now a stay-at-home mom. We love our community because it is filled with parks, friendly people, and excellent schools.

We have been happily together for eleven years and married for seven. In this time, we have built a strong and loving partnership, and through everything, we remain committed to and respectful of one another. Mike shows his love through his thoughtful actions and commitment to providing for our family, while Nicole's nurturing instincts ensure that the emotional needs of our family are always met. Nicole's playful wit and Mike's sense of humor add a sense of lightheartedness to our lives; we are always looking on the bright side and never taking ourselves too seriously. If you walked into our home right now, you would find that it is decorated with toys on the floor, books on the shelves, fruit and coffee on the counter, and sunflowers on the deck. We value the simple joys in life and are profoundly grateful for all of the blessings we have.

Our journey to adoption has been guided by a deep desire to grow our family and firsthand experience with raising a child who is not fully genetically related to us. After several difficult years of miscarriage and failed IVF cycles, we ultimately conceived our daughter with the help of a donor. Simply put, DNA is the least important thing that makes us a family.

We feel uniquely prepared to provide a loving home for your child because we have already embraced a nontraditional family structure and we have a lot of practice in helping a child understand their unique origin story. We prioritize honesty and openness, and we will always answer your child's questions with sensitivity and careful thought. We feel like all of our life experiences have been leading us here, to adoption, and we can say with certainty that we will love your child with our whole hearts.

We believe in raising a child with love, patience, a sense of curiosity, and open-mindedness. We want to nurture their interests, support their dreams, and help them grow into a kind and confident individual. More than anything, your child will always know that home is a safe place to come back to, no matter the challenges they may face.

We are dedicated to honoring and celebrating your child's heritage. We plan to incorporate cultural traditions, stories, and celebrations into our family life so that your child feels proud of their background and identity. We would also love to create a relationship with you that respects your wishes and allows your child to know their story. If you are willing, we look forward to staying in touch with you via letters, photos, texts, phone calls, and visits. We believe that the more people who are in our child's life and love them, the better.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for considering us. We feel that there is a very special place in our home and in our hearts that is not filled quite yet, and we are overwhelmed with hope and excitement about the possibility of welcoming your child into our lives. We are also thinking of you and your baby and wishing you peace and comfort as you make your decision. We know that it is one that you are making out of the deepest love.

Sincerely,

Mike & Nicole