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Manuel & Cosima are hopeful adoptive parents from Pennsylvania waiting to adopt a baby.

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

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Hello!

We understand you are looking to find a loving, caring home for your child, and we wanted to thank you for the opportunity to introduce ourselves to you. We appreciate the magnitude and difficulty of your decision and admire you for wanting to do what is best for your baby. We are excited to be considered in your adoption plan, and we would like to share with you a bit of who we are and what we could offer to you and your child.

Our beginnings

We met in 1995 when we were both graduate students in college. We became fast friends and developed a wonderful relationship. After completing our doctoral degrees, Manuel went on to work as a research scientist for several years while Cosima started a position as a professor in biology at a catholic university. Soon after, we decided to get married. We were married in 2002 surrounded by our friends and family. Because of our jobs, we spent the first couple of years of our marriage three hundred miles apart. This separation, and our commitment to each other, made our relationship stronger and deeper, and it made us appreciate each other more. We also realized that together we could face any challenges that life may present to us. Communication, mutual respect, and the true love we feel for each other are the pillars of our relationship.

Since we got married, we always wanted to have children. However, we waited until we were both emotionally and financially ready for a family. Our daughter Melina was born in December 2008, and we were thrilled. Unfortunately, our attempts at having a second baby have not been fruitful, and we embraced adoption as a means of being parents again.

Why adopt

We love being parents and have always dreamed of having a big family. We both spent our lives with the love and support of our siblings, parents, and extended families. We share everything with them, from our daily routines to the big events in our lives. We would like for our children to also have siblings to share their life with. Recently, we have had the privilege of learning about the joys of adoption as some of our friends and colleagues have adopted children. We also have a very close friend who placed her baby for adoption when she was young. In all cases, the experiences were extremely positive for the adopted children, adoptive parents, and the birthparents. Everyone that we have shared our adoption plans with has shown their excitement for us and is very supportive of our decision. We know that no matter how our family is grown, whether biological or adopted, they will be loved unconditionally and welcomed with open arms and open hearts by us and by our family and friends.

Cosima & Manuel

Cosima has a number of different interests and hobbies. As a child and during graduate school, she was actively involved in ballet and modern dance. She also enjoys reading and loves plants, so gardening and being outdoors are a favorite activity. She spends a lot of time cooking, baking, and preserving foods, and Melina has been her greatest little helper. In the kitchen, Melina is now an expert in mixing and kneading; outside, she knows all about planting potatoes and seeds, watering plants, and taking care of flowers. As a person, Cosima is always thinking about helping others, trying to do the best for her family, and, most importantly, trying to become a better person. She is very polite, gentle, and extremely respectful of others and their beliefs. She shares a great sense of humor with Manuel, which leads to lots of laughter and enjoyment in our house. As mother and daughter, Cosima and Melina have a very special relationship. One of their favorite things to do is talk, and they can talk for hours about anything. Cosima is a wonderful wife and mother and a natural teacher to Melina. Her greatest desire is to share her love and life with her children, and she is so looking forward to being a new mom again.

Manuel enjoys reading, listening to music, and watching movies. He came to the United States not just because he wanted to further his education and become a scientist, but also because he likes traveling and learning about other cultures. Biking is his favorite sports activity and he takes great pleasure in watching world soccer on television. The most important characteristic about Manuel is the respect with which he treats others, and how much he appreciates meaningful communication between people. He values his family and friends very deeply and is committed to continually building those relationships. Manuel also has a great sense of humor, which makes our interactions at home very lively and positive. Manuel is a completely devoted parent. He is caring, kind, gentle and very patient with Melina, and the two of them have almost daily giggling sessions. Manuel has been introducing Melina to some of his favorite music, and she is always helping him when he is doing chores around the house, fixing things or working out in the yard. They also love to play together, swinging in the hammock, kicking around a ball, playing on the swings or looking for wild blueberries. Manuel wants so much to share in these activities with another child, and he will, without doubt, be an equally fantastic dad to our new baby.

Melina

Our daughter is a happy, even-tempered child and is very kind and gentle. She enjoys reading books, doing puzzles, playing in her toy kitchen, drawing, and caring for her baby dolls. Based on all the time she spends taking care of all her “babies” at home, and all the time she spends helping with the real babies at her daycare, we feel she is very ready to be a big sister! Melina attends a wonderful daycare, located right next to Cosima’s workplace. Their shared daily commute is a great time for Melina and Cosima to talk and for Melina to share all the things she has learned and discovered during her day. Rather than being entertained by electronic toys, Melina loves to shower Cosima with questions about traffic lights, firemen, trucks, bridges, snow, rain, and clouds! Cosima was able to stay home with Melina until Melina was 8 months old, and she plans to do this again if we are fortunate enough to adopt a baby. And since both of us are college professors, we have recesses and summers off to spend as a family.

Our fun times

We enjoy spending time outdoors, taking walks or bike rides in the surrounding state parks and playing in the back yard. We also like going to the lake in our development to enjoy the playground, lake, and beach area. We spend a fair amount of time traveling to visit friends and family. We enjoy getting together with friends, including our neighbors, all of whom have young children who have become Melina’s friends. Summer, of course, is our favorite time of the year. Since we have our summers off, we always look forward to all the time we’ll get to spend traveling or simply being together outdoors. We love living in the northeast since it brings the beauty of all the seasons, not just summer. In spring, we always look forward to starting our garden and planting the flowerbeds around the house. In winter, there’s always the fun of getting our Christmas trees, decorating the house, and going out to “crunch the snow,” Melina’s favorite winter activity. In the fall, finding leaves of different colors and all kinds of mushrooms in our yard is as exciting as getting dressed for Halloween. We would love for our next child to share in all of this fun and so much more!

Home Sweet Home

We settled in northeast Pennsylvania. While our immediate surroundings are fairly rural, we live about two hours from New York City and Philadelphia. There are several state parks, ski areas, libraries, shopping centers and amusement parks nearby. We are in the Pocono Mountain School District, and we are also considering some private schools for Melina’s education.

Our home is a 3 bedroom house with a large yard, which we spend a lot of time in during the summer months. We put a lot of effort into tending our vegetable garden where we grow all the summer delicacies. Besides being healthy, there’s a lot of joy when we can sit at the table and enjoy our harvest. We also love watching birds in our yard so we have been working on a “bird garden,” a small yard area with shrubs and flowering plants that are very attractive to birds. This is a long-term project, but we hope to complete it before the deer eat everything!

Our house is situated in a development with a private lake, a beach, and a large community playground. The lake is great for swimming, and lifeguards are on watch for most of the day during the swimming season. Our Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day celebrations attract many families to the community center for potlucks, children’s games, and other fun activities. Halloween is wonderful as community moms organize hayrides and trick-or-treating around the development for all the children. There is much diversity here in terms of ethnicity, age, and economic status with residents coming from many areas in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. It is a wonderful place to live and raise a family.

Open adoption

We plan on being open and honest with our child about their adoption story from the very beginning. We could never pretend to fully know the depth of your sacrifice, but we can promise to give your child a lifetime of love and happiness, and share with them the truth of their adoption and the pure love you had for them in making that plan. As your child grows up, we will work hard to create a loving and comforting environment in which your child can express his or her feelings and questions about adoption. We embrace open adoption and feel it is important for a child to know and love their birthfamily, whether it’s through letters and photos or occasional visits. We strongly believe that the child’s best interest should at the heart of any decisions regarding open adoption, and we are willing to work together with you so that the experience is loving and positive for everyone.

Our values & parenting

We are a family with strongly rooted values. We believe in human rights; we treat people with respect, tolerance, and kindness and care deeply for the well being of others. We see people as individuals and do not judge them based on any internal or external characteristics. These are the beliefs we were raised with and hope to instill in our children. We wish for our children to be fully integrated in society and to be active and contributing members of their community and hope that they will use their knowledge, skills, and energy to further the common good. We believe that access to education is a fundamental human right. As scientists who have achieved the highest possible level of education, we want to ensure that our children will have the same opportunities that we had. We will support our children in any way we can so that they may live out their dreams and aspirations in life, and hope that we can also support them in discovering their own spirituality and inner peace.

Our families

Our families are very important to us. Manuel’s sisters live in Colombia, and our communication with them and their families is constant. Now, thanks to the Internet, video chats are fun and frequent. Manuel’s sisters come to the United States relatively often, and we have enjoyed several Christmas vacations together. Manuel has a very close relationship with his niece Elena, a medical doctor who lives and works in Miami. She and her husband Mike recently had a baby, Catalina, who has become very special to all of us, but particularly to Melina. We spend a lot of time visiting with Cosima’s parents, either in their home outside Washington DC or in our home, and we spend many holidays and birthdays with them. Cosima’s sister lives on a farm in Minnesota with her husband and six children, and visiting the farm and all her cousins every summer is a big highlight for us! Melina has gotten to see the cattle and pigs, dogs, cats and chickens and has had a great time playing with her cousins there and getting tractor rides from uncle Fred. Cosima’s extended family, including her cousins, aunts and uncles, live in Germany. Even though they are far away, the relationships she has with them are very close and we travel to Germany to visit them as often as we can.

Thank you!

We appreciate your taking the time to learn about us. We would feel honored if you chose us to adopt your child. We would love the chance to speak with you so you can learn more about us as we learn the dreams and wishes you have for you and your baby. We respect you and your selfless decision very much and wish you and your family comfort and peace while you make your decisions.

Manuel, Cosima & Melina

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