Michael/Karen letter
Hello from Karen & Michael
We are a loving, caring, and fun couple, and we are excited and ready to adopt a child. We are thrilled about becoming parents and look forward to creating a family of our own with a stay-at-home parent and a loving and supportive extended family. We admire the choice you are making and appreciate how difficult it must be for you. Thank you for taking the time to read our letter and consider us as parents for your child.
About Us
Somewhere between a dinner, a hike along the California coast, and a Zen Buddhist meditation retreat, we fell in love. More than eight years have passed since, and our feelings for each other have grown stronger with each passing year.
Karen is a medical doctor, and Michael a scientist. Karen works as a community doctor for the county, and has fairly flexible hours. Michael works out of our home part-time and looks forward to being a stay-at-home dad once the baby arrives. While we love what we do, neither of us feels we are defined by our careers. We value our experiences and keeping a great outlook on life. You will find that we are accepting, caring, easy-going people who strive to do our best, and have a good time along the way.
We own a home in the East Bay area, just outside of San Francisco, which we bought with a child in mind. Within walking distance are nice parks, good schools, shops and restaurants, and a bike trail that follows along the shoreline. Our town is a very safe, kid-friendly, well established town.
Both of us love to travel, and have been fortunate to have visited a number of different countries. That said, travel for us isn't exclusive to faraway places, as we really enjoy camping with our friends and families. We make several camping trips every year to places like Yosemite, Death Valley, and Kings Canyon. We don't expect our travel plans to change much with the inclusion of a child and hope to expose him or her to the sights, sounds, and wonders of this world. We believe that experiencing other places and cultures gives us a broader perspective of the world, and we plan to share that with our child.
Our 9-year-old niece calls us "the most fun and funny family in the world." We see our nieces and nephews frequently. They are very excited to have a little cousin, and we will make sure that our child has plenty of play dates, get-togethers, and vacations.
About Karen: (As told by Michael)
Finding Karen is the best thing that ever happened to me. When I first met her, I knew that I she was someone special. Her love of people, drive to help others, humor and quick wit, intelligence, and easy smile, all make her the exceptional person I fell in love with. She has a loving, nurturing nature that ensures she will be a great mom.
Karen is very close to her nieces and nephews. They plays games, go to movies, bookstores, and to their favorite yogurt shop together regularly. One summer, she took some of her older nephews on a trip to Hawaii and had great time exploring all of Maui.
Karen is originally from South Korea. She is one of five siblings and came to the United States with her family when she was 13 years old. When she was in college on summer break she traveled to India and volunteered for the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa where she helped the impoverished as they neared the end of their lives. Working with Mother Teresa was truly a life changing experience for her. It was then that she realized that she wanted to be a doctor. She went on to attend medical school in Southern California and completed a four year residency program in Hawaii. She is now a practicing psychiatrist working with the underserved populations in the East Bay Area of San Francisco, and she very much enjoys her work.
Karen is an outgoing and sociable person and plans frequent get-togethers with friends at our house which always include good food, good conversations, and almost always some singing, dancing, or playing an instrument of some sort. Karen is very musical; she plays piano, and more recently has enjoyed learning to play guitar and sing.
About Michael: (As told by Karen)
Michael is the love of my life. He is smart, creative and athletic. His personality is kind, understanding, and patient. He is very close to his father who taught him to be open minded and accepting of all people, and he will instill the same values in our child. He is also funny and goofy and my nieces and nephews love hanging around him-he will secretly let them win at video games and take them out on bike rides. Kids are naturally drawn to Michael because they know that he will protect them and give them his undivided attention. Michael played an active role in helping raise his nephew Justin, whose mom is a single parent.
Michael is a native of California. He graduated from college with degrees in Biology and Chemistry and has spent the last eleven years as co-owner of a company that does DNA sequencing. Because of advances in technology, Michael is now able to work part-time from home most days.
A defining time in Michael's life was his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania, Africa. Living in a small, isolated farming community without electricity and plumbing, he learned a lot about life in a developing country. He was amazed by the generosity, kindness and general happiness of most people, despite their challenges. He has remained friends with his fellow Tanzanian co-workers and has worked on projects to help the village he lived in.
Michael has a number of passions. He has been playing and creating music on the piano since early childhood and he describes his music as "movie music"-a mix of world, classical, and electronic. He loves photography, especially taking pictures of nature and scenic landscapes. Michael also keeps a small coral reef tank with a few tropical fish. Michael is very excited to share his knowledge and experiences with our child, and I have no doubt that he will support any interest he or she might get excited about!
Our thoughts on parenting
Truly, we are excited at the prospect and privilege of becoming parents, and we look forward to the responsibilities of raising our child. Know that he or she will be greatly cherished, loved unconditionally, and given as many opportunities as is possible. We believe that when a child is given love and guidance that he or she will grow up to be a unique and happy individual.
Spiritually, we believe in compassion, tolerance, and the understandings closely aligned to the Buddhist beliefs. Our intention is that our child would grow up learning these values.
Our thoughts about you:
We want you to know that we believe you are doing an incredibly selfless thing, and we have the utmost respect for whatever decision you choose. Our child will grow up with the understanding that you are choosing adoption out of great love and care. We look forward to meeting you and sharing in the joy of seeing this child grow. We will respect your wishes about the level of involvement you wish to have in an adoption. Know that we truly wish you all the best.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read our letter. We hope that it has given you some insight about who we are.
Warm Regards,
Karen and Michael
You can contact us any time directly at 1-800-942-9935 or by email km@adoption4km.com. Visit our web site at www.adoption4km.com, or call our friendly adoption attorney, Susan Romer at 1(800) 823-6788 or email her at adamsromer@aol.com
