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Kevin & Brandy are hopeful adoptive parents from Illinois waiting to adopt a baby.

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

We've Adopted a Son

Welcome to our Hearts Welcome to our hearts, we hope you enjoy what you see and will stay awhile! We believe being a parent – loving, providing, and caring for another life – is truly the most important job one will ever have. It is this belief that has us excited yet nervous as we anxiously await a new addition to our lives. We imagine this same concern is also weighing heavily on you, as you consider what is best for your child. We are grateful that you may consider us in your plan as you consider your future. We would be honored to raise your child in a loving home as part of our family.

Welcome to our Lives Hello, we are Kevin and Brandy. We married 8 years ago after 6 years of dating, and have shared 14 years of love and friendship. We are both 31, so we have spent nearly half of our lives together! Though we were the first in our group of friends to marry, we waited to start a family to accomplish important goals and enjoy life together – establishing our individual professional careers, furthering our education, and traveling to places like Hawaii, London, Scotland, Dublin, Paris, and the Bahamas. During this time we lived downtown Chicago enjoying all the Windy City has to offer.

Just over three years ago we began living life with an eye towards parenthood, making family oriented decisions such as buying a house, taking jobs that require less travel or fewer hours, and buying a family-friendly four door car. Though we were ready to start a family, we were reminded that not all of life is within our control as we struggled through the disappointment and emotional roller coaster of infertility. We never imagined adoption would be the way we’d build our family, but we now realize our goal is to be parents, not simply be pregnant, and we embrace the opportunity to do so through adoption.

Welcome to our Home
In 2005 we moved west of Chicago to a small town in the Fox Valley near where we grew up, to be close to our families and good friends. We bought a house with more bedrooms than we needed with visions of filling them with children. Though our rescued yellow lab sleeps in one room, we long for the day we swap Maizey’s dog pillow for a crib and a baby nursery!

Our home is located in a neighborhood full of young families. With nearly 30 school age children on our block alone, swing sets dot backyards and minivans dominate the driveways. Bike trails zigzag through the area, nearly 100 miles in all, and baseball diamonds, soccer fields, and golf courses fill open spaces. We think that we live in the perfect place where city meets country, minutes from shopping, restaurants and anything we need, yet a stone’s throw from miles of farmland. It is not uncommon to see someone on horseback on the bike trail behind our house!

Welcome to our Story and our Family Welcome to our Story
We met in 7th grade math class and started dating senior year of high school. After graduation we both made the decision, separately we insist, to attend the University of Iowa (although each of us jokes the other followed!). We studied Business, graduated four years later and accepted jobs at the same large consulting firm. Looking back it is clear it was during college that our relationship grew into the love we share today. While each of us were away from family during critical times, we began to rely on each other – Brandy adapting to the distance from her family as her parents moved to Nebraska and Kevin mourning the loss of his father.

Kevin is an Operations Manager at a large corporation a short drive from our home. His consulting experience and Masters Degree have helped him start a successful career. With no travel and reasonable work hours, Kevin’s job provides financial and healthcare benefits, but also allows time for Kevin to be Dad.

A few years ago, Brandy traded in her spreadsheets for kitchen utensils and went to culinary school to pursue her passion of cooking. As a cooking instructor, she loves sharing recipes and cooking tips. She also teaches kids cooking classes and loves the look on their faces when they masterfully flip an omelet or pull a perfect chocolate cake out of the oven. Although Brandy plans to continue to teach, her career allows her to lighten her workload and focus on being a mom, her number one priority.

Welcome to our Family
We are lucky to live close to family, Kevin’s two sisters, Kevin’s mom and Brandy’s sister all live within 15 minutes of us.

Brandy and her sister spend as much time together as they can, going out for sushi, to yoga class, and shopping. Brandy’s younger brother and parents live in Nebraska. We spend a week at Brandy’s parents lake house every summer boating, water skiing, tubing, and roasting marshmallows at night. Brandy’s parents visit often, coming to see us and her large extended family in Illinois, Brandy has 40 first and second cousins!

This will be the first grandchild on Brandy’s side and her family is excited to welcome a baby and take on roles as aunt, uncle, grandma and grandpa. Brandy’s mom volunteers in the church nursery, anxiously awaiting her own grandchildren to fuss over.

Kevin’s father passed away while we were in college. His mom lives on a small farm just west of us, sharing her life with a new partner and fellow widower, Tom.

Kevin’s two sisters also live in the area. His older sister has a 3-year-old son and an 18-month-old daughter. We love to spend time with them going to the pool, the children’s museum, or grandma’s house on the farm. Kevin’s younger sister lives just a mile from us with her black lab, we often swap favors such as dog-sitting or watering flowers while the other is out of town.

Welcome to our Values, Hobbies and Dreams Welcome to our Values
We are both very close to our families. Kevin talks with his mom and sisters almost every day. His proudest moments include walking his older sister down the aisle on her wedding day and taking his mom to Scotland to visit her father’s childhood home. Though Brandy’s parents are farther away in miles, no more than a few days go by without phone calls or e-mails.

Both of us are close with our siblings sharing unique friendships, not just family bonds. Brandy’s parents have been married for 37 years. Though Kevin’s dad is no longer with us, he left a strong legacy for him as a father. This strong family foundation is the model we will follow as parents. We will welcome a new baby into a strong, close, family full of love and support.

We were both raised with a strong belief that education is very important – school came before sports, friends or other activities. The importance of a strong, balanced education will be passed along to our children – we will encourage our kids to learn in all parts of life and ensure education is a top priority in the opportunities we provide them.

We are proud to serve as Godparents to our niece, nephew, and the son of our close friend from high school. We plan to baptize our child in the Christian church. Religion will play a strong role in our family – instilling ethical and moral values.

Welcome to our Hobbies
Brandy enjoys volunteering, reading, shopping, hanging out with friends, and acting as Kevin’s foreman on home projects. Of course her #1 hobby is cooking and she is lucky to get paid for doing something she loves. Our kitchen is filled with cook books and Brandy loves to cook for the family at Christmas and birthday gatherings.

Kevin is a self-described sports fanatic; he has Chicago Bears season tickets and is an avid Cubs fan. He tries to work in a trip to a ball park on any vacation that allows. Boy or girl our child will no doubt be a sports fan, just as Kevin and his sister are. Kevin also enjoys do-it-yourself projects – remodeling our condo in Chicago and adding custom finishes to our new home. When he runs out of projects at our house his mom is happy to put him to work on her house – installing new wood floors and remodeling a bathroom.

Together we enjoy traveling, working on the home, landscaping our yard, taking our dog for walks and runs, and spending time with family and friends. We love being outdoors. Our summer weekends are spent in the yard, playing frisbee with the dog, planting flowers and hanging out with the neighbors. We’re lucky to be good friends with our neighbors and we look forward to our child running through the sprinklers and catching lightning bugs with the neighborhood kids.


Welcome to our Dreams
So far we have been lucky to achieve most our goals; a strong marriage, successful careers, and a nice home, but we long to be Mom and Dad more than anything. We need help in reaching our dream. We promise to approach parenthood with dedication, hard work, patience, and endless love. Though Brandy will stay home with our child, we will approach parenting as we do all things in our life, as partners, equally sharing responsibilities.

Our child will always know he/she is adopted and your loving choice of an adoption plan will play strongly in his/her life story. We are comfortable with an open adoption and would like to work together to develop a relationship that suits you and us, while putting the child’s best interest first.

Thank you for reading this letter. We realize the magnitude of the decision you are considering and appreciate how difficult it is to bring a life into this world under uncertain circumstances. We hope we can help – our hearts are open, and we’re ready to offer a loving home, financial security, and a caring extended family to your child. We want to welcome you into our lives, and we hope you want to get to know us better as we have so much more to share.