Another Letter

Sometimes you need a nudge in the right direction. Other times you need a cattle prod. I got my swift kick in the butt this morning. So, I sat down to write this- another letter.

Dear Birth mommy/daddy,

We pride ourselves on being honest, so I honestly have to tell you that this is one of the hardest letters we've ever written. What we really want to say is, “pick us!” “pick us!” “pick us!” I don't see that going over very well, though. The beauty of the situation is that no matter what we say, we truly believe that there is a force and a love greater than we can begin to comprehend when it comes to adoption. We know that the decisions you face are gigantic and hold long lasting consequences. There are also tremendous blessings that come through the same process. We can vouch that it has blessed our lives. Hands down probably the greatest blessing we've ever been given has been the blessing of raising our daughter, Kensley. We are excited at the thought of parenting another little boy or girl. We feel like our kids are the lucky ones. Because of adoption, they get even more people to love them. It is important for us to raise our children with the knowledge that they were adopted because they were loved. We love them, but also that the decision to place is a choice made in love and that is something to admire and feel special about.

We would like to tell you about our family. There's John, Yannette, our sixteen-month old daughter Kensley, our dog Jedi, our dog Ani, and cat Chevy. We have been married for almost six years. The first year we brought home the cat, the third our first puppy, the fourth our second puppy, and then not quite two years ago we brought home our daughter Kensley. She might have been the most recent addition, but all our worlds revolve around her. If giving our children a safe loving home where they are doted upon, showered with hugs and kisses, given love and attention is spoiled, then yes- our daughter is spoiled. And it will remain our goal to spoil all our children! Our home is pretty casual in nature and we like to think “the more the merrier”. Our best times are just hanging out with family and friends around good food and maybe a movie, but mainly just good food.

We are both the oldest of three sisters. John was raised in Utah with his sister by his mom and then when he was nine she married Tom, his dad, and had two more little girls. They then moved to California to build a new life! Yannette was raised in Mexico until the age of six with three little sisters all very close in age and then at 12 her parents divorced. When her mom married her Dad, they also moved to California to build a new life! We have decided to make California our home and look forward to raising our family here.

Yannette has a hard time sitting still so she is always working on some knitting, crocheting, or quilting project. She has even been spotted knitting in the car and in the movie theater. John loves to read and fly RC helicopters. He is into learning as much as he can about everything. His job as an electrical engineer is a perfect fit. Yannette is a mom and a nurse. And in that order. Being parents is our number one priority, but we are also blessed to have the opportunity and the flexibility in both our schedules that allows for Yannette to work part time. She works one day a week and John works four. We take the tag-team approach to parenting. It is important to us both that John be as actively involved as possible. We love nothing more than just hanging out together doing just about anything.

Kensley is an active little girl with a lot of energy and lots of words. Her most recent phrase is, “I know.” It sounds weird to describe a fifteen-month old as having a sense of humor, but this kid does. She crack us both up. Not to mention she's just plain adorable. “Outside!” is another favorite word. This is good because we spend a lot of time out there. Going for bike rides, the park, hiking, camping, kayaking, a barbecue- you name it. If it's outside, we're there. Being able to be outside almost year round is one of our favorite things about California. With Kensley talking so much now and constantly picking up new phrases, our ability to speak Spanish may come in handy sooner than we thought. Yannette was raised bilingually and John learned while serving an LDS mission in Mexico. This is just one of the things about each other that just seemed to click when we met.

Should we get to meet you, we would give you a hug and tell you how grateful we are for you. Thank you for your example of love and sacrifice. If we don' get that chance, just know that we still think those things! If you have any questions for us, or would like to get to know us better we are never more than a phone call or e-mail away. We sign all of our letters to our daughter's birth mom with the phrase, “thanks for being you!” and want you to know the same thing.

Thanks for being you!

John, Yannette, and Kensley