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Michael & Gina are hopeful adoptive parents from Maryland waiting to adopt a baby.

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

Glad to Meet You Thank you for considering an adoption plan for your child. We would love to hear your hopes for your child and share more about our family. Please send us a message or call us toll-free at 1-877-827-3671. Meanwhile, this letter and our photo album will give you an idea of the type of family we are and can help you consider your options. We believe a biracial or mixed race child will feel right at home with our racially and culturally diverse family, friends and community.

We have been a couple for nine years, including six years of marriage. We are unable to have biological children and know first-hand that adoption is a wonderful way to build a family. We are blessed to have adopted a beautiful daughter, Francesca, born December 2008. She means the world to us and will make a terrific sister! At eleven months, she began walking to, as they say, 'make room for' the next one! Our relatives and friends – many of whom have young children, including some who are adopted – share our excitement about bringing another child into our lives through adoption.

We have fond memories of growing up with siblings close in age, and have a close relationship with them to this day. That's largely why we are eager to complete our family with a second child. Our dream is to love and nurture our children in a manner that helps each child develop interests, talents and abilities that lead to fulfillment of his or her own dreams. In the process of raising children, we plan to have plenty of family fun!

Who We Are Our Extended Family

Gina is the middle child from a close-knit family. She grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has a brother, two sisters, nieces, and nephews. Her mom still lives in the house Gina grew up in, while her siblings and their families live about an hour’s drive away from mom. Gina's dad passed away five years ago. Her parents were married over 40 years. Other relatives live in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California. Gina's family is one of multi-cultures, including African-American, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic.

Mike is the oldest child of a military family that moved around the U.S.A. many times when he was growing up. He has a brother and two sisters, nieces and nephews. Most of his siblings, their families and his parents ended up settling in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, where his relatives are originally from. One sister recently relocated to Florida with her family. Mike's family is primarily Caucasian of Italian heritage.

Education is Important to Us

As first-generation Bachelor’s and Master’s degree graduates, we value education. A good education has, among other benefits, given us a solid foundation for career success.

In the early part of our careers, Gina worked in banking and international development, including two years as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya, and Mike served in the military. The bulk of our careers have been spent in the environmental field, where we work now. We work in nearby Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia.

We want to provide the best education possible for our children. Much will depend on each child’s unique strengths and special interests – such as academics, the arts, trades, and athletics – and whether a private or public school would be a good fit. In any case, we will do our best to ensure that each child receives an outstanding education, both inside and outside the classroom.

In addition, our children will have plenty of role models among relatives and friends, regardless of the type of education, training and career each child gravitates toward. The people in our lives work in a wide variety of fields including government, academia, business and real estate, as well as the arts and entertainment fields, the trades, law enforcement, and the military.

We Love to Travel

We have many family vacation and weekend trips in mind, but will gladly postpone them until our children are old enough to appreciate them. We look forward to someday getting our children involved in planning family trips. For now, we are happy to share stories and show pictures of our many travels.

Among our most memorable family vacations are two cross-country road trips. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and saw many sites including: Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park, California; Death Valley National Park, Nevada; Mesa Verde National Park and Hoover Dam, Colorado; Grand Canyon, Arizona; and Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. In addition, we have enjoyed our trips to Aspen and Estes Park, Colorado; Savannah, Georgia; and Provincetown, Massachusetts.

During Gina’s service as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, and through other work and personal travel, she has visited over two dozen countries in Africa. She also visited many U.S. cities including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Miami, Jacksonville, Ft. Lauderdale, Dallas, and San Antonio. Other trips included the Bahamas, Aruba and Puerto Rico. Around the time of Mike’s military tour of duty in Korea, he visited Japan. Like Gina, Mike has visited numerous U.S. destinations for work and personal travel. Nowadays, we travel for work once or twice a year, and sometimes combine personal travel.

Other Personal Interests

We can't wait to share other personal interests with our children and learn theirs. Mike especially likes the adventure, natural beauty and solitude of the Big Outdoors. Gina is particularly fond of historic districts, cultural events, museums and other Big City attractions. Most importantly, we enjoy going out together and doing things, whatever the specific activity. We also both enjoy good quality organic food. Mike prefers standard American fare and Gina prefers vegetarian and ethnic foods.

Mike is an accomplished mountain climber and has been for many years. His other talents include taking photos of the natural environment, tending to the vegetable garden in our backyard, and being the techie of the family. Gina has practiced yoga for several years including attendance of a weekly class. She is an avid reader, especially of her favorite magazines, various non-fiction books, and the Sunday newspaper. Gina has put together an impressive collection of children’s books, so she can nurture a love of reading in our children early on. Already, our daughter Francesca loves storytime with Mom. Francesca will even pick up and flip through her books when it's not storytime.

Where We Live Our Home

There’s more than enough room in our home for two children, plus two friendly indoor cats. We have four bedrooms and each child will have his or her own bedroom. On the first floor, our home has an open floor plan and plenty of large windows, which makes it easy for us to keep an eye on the children whether we are indoors or outdoors. Our house sits on a little more than one acre. The front yard is a slight hill and our house is set back a good distance from the sidewalk and the minimal neighborhood traffic. In the back yard, we have a gated wooden fence several feet high which will help keep children and their toys in eye’s view and secure. Mike had a hand in building the fence and installing the gazebo in our back yard. He also planted a vegetable garden in the back yard, along with Gina’s favorite flowers, sunflowers. Gina installed a couple bird feeders and bird baths in the backyard. We enjoy having company over, especially during the holidays and for summer barbeques in the backyard.

Neighborhood and Surrounding Areas

Most of the homes in our neighborhood were built within the last several years, so all of the neighbors are fairly new. We have socialized with a few families in particular and keep an eye on each other’s homes when the other family is out of town. We also share gardening tools, favorite dishes, etc. Young children live in our neighborhood. When the weather is nice, it is not uncommon to hear children playing outside. Usually, the laughter is coming from a house a few doors down with swings and slides in the backyard. The elementary school is within walking distance of our home.

We live in a suburb in commuting distance of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. If you drive just five minutes from our home in another other direction, the area is semi rural. You can even see cows, horses and barns on a few of the properties. Several beautiful recreational areas, including hiking trails and a beach with boardwalk, are a short drive from our home. The Atlantic Ocean is a two hour drive away, and the mountains in Western Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania are a two to four hour drive away. Our area has numerous ethnic restaurants and cultural events and activities that we look forward to sharing with our children.

Family Life with Children Our best times are spent with our daughter and a second child will complete our happy family. Our photo album shows our progression from a family of two to a family of three. We know in our hearts we were meant to become a family of four!

When we bring home our second child, we will take leave from work for at least several months. Then we will adjust our work schedules to maximize time at home. Fortunately, we have flexible work schedules, including weekly work-from-home days. Regardless of a particular work schedule, we will be at home to eat dinner with the children, read to them, play with them, and help with school projects and homework assignments.

Though we do not attend religious services regularly, our spiritual beliefs, morals and values will continue to guide our family. We will attend religious services on occasion. There also will be fun outings during weekends and annual vacations, as well as visits with relatives and friends on special occasions and ordinary get-togethers.

Thanks again for taking the time to learn about us and consider making an adoption plan for your child. Please send us a message or call us toll-free at 1-877-827-3671, if there is anything you would like to discuss. We wish you and your child all the best.

Warm Regards,

Mike, Gina & Francesca