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Roark & Jarrett are hopeful adoptive parents from Florida waiting to adopt a baby.

If you are pregnant and considering placing your child for adoption, please read the following Dear Birthmother Letter.

Introducing Ourselves How grateful we are that you are reading about us. We won’t pretend to know everything you are feeling and we don’t know about your life, questions you have, and how this letter will find you. But we do know we love you because like us, you are a child of God and you are facing your life as we have faced ours: by prayerfully and thoughtfully deciding what is best. We know that whatever your choice is, it will be the best choice for you to make.

Who are we? Well, we’re a family of four. There’s two parents. Roark, an environmental consultant, and Jarrett, his beautiful wife, who is a professor of history and anthropology—yes, she’s a cutie and a smarty. The kids, Benton (14) and Kelsey (12), are the reason the phone is always busy.

Jarrett and Roark met through friends and fell in love, had a whirlwind courtship, and were married. Our time together has always been about us together, not our separate selves. We think of our wedding anniversary as the time we became a family (since we were married in 1999, Benton and Kelsey, who were 7 and 5, were able to participate in our wedding). We love each other very much. Being parents is important to both of us. Jarrett always knew she wanted to be a mother, she says “when I was looking for the perfect husband my main priority was someone who would be a good father. It turned out that I married a great Dad.” The kids made up a special name for Jarrett, a combination of Mother and Jarrett “Maja” and she’s the glue that holds this ship together! Roark says that being a parent is the best thing he has ever gotten to do. We work hard to share our feelings about parenting our kids. We are also very much aware that we have separate strengths and we work to highlight and compliment those strengths. Keeping the spirit in our home is a priority to us. We work to keep our home filled with joy and love. Because Jarrett’s a teacher and Roark is back in school furthering his career with a masters degree, we think education is very important. But we also think regular family time is equally important and has to include some fun. Here’s a little personal note from each family member.

Roark I’m the dad. I’m also known around here as “Mr. Finder Guy.” If shoes, keys, a bag of chips, or an earring are missing, I get the call. I am the youngest of eight children, raised by an amazing mother and a wonderfully eccentric father. Our family get-togethers are often “trials by fire” for people dating a niece or nephew as the sheer size and diverse personalities can be overwhelming. But while it seems like pandemonium, it’s also fun and filled with love. Dad has passed on, but Mom and I and the kids are all staying close and planning vacations together regularly. I worked from an early age, I have always worked hard and been productive in life. Oh, I am also the chief cook here and my son and I love to work in the kitchen together and I take the kids shopping whenever I can to teach them how to buy wisely and how to put good things together. With me, family comes first so I have a career that lets me respond to family needs and wants. We all think we know what love is, but I can honestly say I knew nothing of love—and did not really know my parents—until the kids were born. It’s changed my life so, and I can say honestly that I would raise a hundred if I had but time and resources. I love to interact with kids of all ages, I believe the best parents are good, patient teachers who believe in making life fun.

Jarrett I grew up in a family of four. We are a very tight family. While we do have some issues (shocking I know), we also know they don't really matter. When I as a senior in high school, my mother was fighting breast cancer. This fight made us as a family truly understand how important we were to each other.
Both my sister and I have married now, but we still remain close as a family. We find lots of reasons to get together regularly. This understanding of the importance of family continues to be a driving force in my life.

Education very important to me, I personally love to learn. I try very hard to share that enthusiasm for learning. I learn every way I can; like reading or traveling. I've learned tons from being a stepmother and teacher, I know the best way to learn is to listen.
I teach history and cultural anthropology at a local college. Now, I know you might be thinking…History, BORING, but really we each have history is the story of our lives, and our lives aren’t boring. Teaching Cultural Anthropology has given me a much greater appreciation of diversity. I share that with my family by taking them to multicultural festivals. We always have a great time.

Benton My name is Benton. I'm 14 (nearly 15 Yay!). Well, to start, people (my parents, friends and family) tell me that I'm sensitive, optimistic, understanding, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful (usually), creative, steadfast, and many other things. I am known for my sense of humor. I've been told that I have a "natural ear" for languages, I'm a "natural mimic" (great for learning languages) and I'm naturally gifted when it comes to being musical. I play the guitar and piano (pretty good, huh?). I've played the guitar for five years now (started when I was 9 years old in August), and I know a few songs on the piano. I plan to write a book before 18. I am equipped (and gifted with) an enormous vocabulary. I'm not very shy. I love animals!!:) I guess I have an extremely rare personality. I have seven careers set for me: comedian, author, linguist, chef (I love to cook!), veterinarian, zoologist, and negotiator.

Kelsey Hi. My name’s Kelsey and I am in the 7th grade. I am pretty short for my age, at 4 foot, 11 inches I am the 3rd shortest in the 7th grade. I love music, and I play percussion in my school’s symphonic band, and guitar and piano at home. When I go to college, I want to major in music, and then go into criminal justice. After school, I want to become a detective just like Elliot Stabler and Detective Benson on Law & Order: SVU. I also love to talk. I am almost always talking, except during prayer (unless I am praying) FHE (unless it’s my turn to do the lesson), while I am sleeping (although I have been known to talk in my sleep once or twice) and about half of church. In church, I am the 2nd councilor in the Beehives presidency. I am quick to learn, I love debating, and I love technology. I also love traveling, goofing off, and reading. Academically speaking, I am in the Pre-International Baccalaureate program, have a great vocabulary, and I am taking 2 high school-credit classes-Algebra 1 and French 1.

How do we spend our time? What do we like to do? Traveling is never far from our minds. We love people and we have an open house that is filled with the comings and goings of friends and family. We’re big on spending quality family time together at all times, not just on a scheduled day, like when we make dinner together, play croquet, watch a movie, play a game online together, or taking turns trying to guess who the kids are in love with currently at school. Oh yes, they are teenagers and they are passionate about everything they do. They are actually rockers trapped in my kids’ bodies. They both play guitar, well they are both guitar instructors, and they dabble with keyboards, bass, music transcribing on computers, and songwriting. Benton is trying to get a band started, Kelsey is wondering what color her Ferrari will be.

Did someone say games? Benton and Dad spend some of their free time playing video games together for a couple reasons. One, they talk about life so much by having this in common, and two a parent gets to monitor what games Benton gets into that way. We also love board games together like Life, Monopoly, and Spy Alley, card games like Attack Uno, and trying to determine at what point one of Benton’s famous practical jokes will be sprung on an unsuspecting family member. Tell that little baby there to prepare to play and have fun.

And was food mentioned above? Roark loves to cook, so does Benton, while Jarrett and Kelsey love to bake. That’s a great reason to have people over: we have an excuse to cook! Any child coming into this family will learn to love all kinds of foods, different and ordinary, freshly baked and home made and shared with friends and family. We have a few main events where we open our house to anyone and everyone including a Christmas Eve open house (Roark wears his Kilt), Gumbo fest and Pumpkin Carving at Halloween, and special family times for the 4th of July, Easter, and of course birthdays. Other than that we have someone over for dinner just about every week. We love people.

Roark is taking courses for a masters degree, Jarrett is always taking new courses and of course teaches at college, and the kids love school which we are thankful for. When our new, beautiful baby joins us, they will learn to love education. We have a passion for reading—especially Kelsey and Jarrett who devour books weekly. We have pets, three cats, who are all friendly and we think that’s part of learning about life and the world for any wee child, so we pledge to always have a friendly animal for them to cuddle with and torment (oh the cats are excited!).

Travel is a big part of the family agenda. We save our bucks for a year or two then go on a nice trip and from time to time travel to Utah to see my Mom and family (Jarrett’s family is right here in town—boy do they want a grand baby!). Our family also has a cabin in North Carolina which we can visit for relaxing and fishing. Our last two trips were a cruise up the coast of Alaska which the kids had an absolute blast on two years back (went with about 40 family members—it was wonderful), and last year we went to Scotland for two weeks which was a dream vacation for us. We will probably be a tad more home bound for baby’s first couple years, but we plan on getting out to somewhere exotic and wonderful as soon as the new member of the family can say “Bon Voyage people”.

Our home and neighborhood We live right next to a park, we have a nice, big house with lots of play spaces, a big bed room to keep the baby next to us for a couple years, and lovely, safe yard. Our neighborhood is near down town so we’re close to everything. There is a hospital very close by, the police are close, and our neighborhood is safe. Lots of old trees, geese in the park (and fish in the pond for wee ones!), and a grey fox that lives just down the street. The house has a deck that is child friendly and safe so sunshine and fresh air will be a part of baby’s routine. We have an additional park just across the street (our city is full of parks, fortunately) that has tons of kids all the time. It has playground equipment, a big grassy field, tennis courts, and baseball diamonds. We live about 2 hours from some of the finest beaches in the entire world. There is a city pool complex a very short drive (really we could walk to it) that has a great area for little ones and another for pre-teens. When baby can have their own room, it will be right across the hall from us. Mainly our house is a place for family, we have some great common areas, one is a lovely play area for children (a room designed for that purpose, it has a mural and sky blue ceilings).

Final Thoughts I wish I could tell you everything about us, how hard we’ve worked in our lives, how much we are in love, how beautiful and smart our family is, and we wish we could place our thoughts and feelings right inside your heart and head so you’d say “these people are the family for my baby, they will love this one like I do.” We plan on being open to your concerns and comments. That sounds funny “plan on”, but we’ve never adopted and we don’t know what to expect so we think a lot of your feelings and concerns will dictate how much dialogue we have. We certainly want to share pictures and update you on a regular basis if you want that, we think it would be great to share with you.

So, if you think traveling, gaming, scholastically and musically inclined, home made food eating maniacs who want a child-sibling-grandbaby to love and to hold forever is a good fit, well, we can’t think of anything more amazing and wonderful than having that baby here, with us, now. I wrote songs for the kids when they were infants, I can’t wait to sing this beautiful child to sleep, to watch it grow and learn, and to love. We love that baby now, it’s weird, but we do, there is nothing more important than your baby and the decision you are making. We love and pray for you and we know you’ll do what is best for yourself and that amazing child.

You are in our thoughts and prayers,

Roark, Jarrett, Benton & Kelsey