Dear Expectant Mother,

Thank you for this opportunity to share our story. We admire your courage in considering an open adoption for your beautiful child. Our names are Peng and Paul, and for fourteen years, we’ve been life partners. Now, with the support of our families and friends, we are eager and ready to open our home and hearts to a child, to create a nurturing, loving family together. creating create a family together. We are so excited about becoming parents and appreciate your considering us as you make this very important decision about your child’s future.

About Us

We have been in a committed relationship for 14 years. We met the old-fashioned way: through our friends, We have been inseparable ever since.

About Peng

My family immigrated to Canada from Malaysia when I was six, and my parents settled in a little city called Sarnia, just over the Canadian border from Port Huron, Michigan, a wonderful place to grow up, with safe neighborhoods, great teachers, and summers at the beach. Being the only Asian kid in my school was sometimes challenging, but it taught me to be proud of who I am, to reach out to others who might feel shy or different, to work hard to reach ambitious goals, and to have compassion for other people.

My love of nature and the outdoors, science, reading, playing sports and music started with my parents providing every opportunity to explore and learn. My younger sister Lisan and I took piano and swimming lessons, played tennis and soccer, and studied hard in school. I worked as a lifeguard as a teenager and can’t wait to teach our child to swim. As much fun as it was to grow up in Sarnia, I have always loved big cities, including Toronto, where I attended university and received both my Bachelor of Science and PhD in Biochemistry. In 1998, Paul and I moved to California in 1998 when I accepted a job near San Francisco as a cancer scientist. While working for the biotech company, I went back to night school at UC Berkeley to get my MBA. Now, I have my dream job: as an advisor to companies seeking to treat diseases like cancer and diabetes. I feel very lucky and grateful to have work that can make a difference in so many people’s lives.

Last year, my sister Lisan had her first child, Sandro, who is a wonderful baby. Paul and I take every chance we can to spend time with our new nephew in Toronto, and my parents tease me about coming home so often. My parents love being grandparents and will welcome their new grandchild with joy. I can’t wait to introduce our child to Sandro, and as the cousins grow up, creating the kinds of enriching experiences and adventures that my family provided for me and Lisan during our childhood.

Paul on Peng

Peng is my rock. He’s extremely responsible, smart, an excellent planner even in hard times. We love many of the same things: travel, sports, the arts, good food, family, but it’s the ways in which we are different, that make us the perfect match. Peng is such a strong, dependable and caring person. Our child will always know that Peng is there to make sure that everything will be all right.

About Paul

I was born in Canada to Dutch immigrant parents. I had a typical upbringing except for one thing: I’m number four in a family with six kids! Martin, Irene and Marcela are older and André and René, the twins, are younger than me. When we were kids, everyone mistook me and my twin brothers for triplets!

As a family, we loved to hike, go camping and play all kinds of games, especially outdoors. My parents were loving, but strict, and we’re still very close, even though we no longer live in the same place. We keep in touch by phone and weekly email updates about our lives.

Every afternoon of my childhood, I would come home from school around 3:30 and as she did with each of her children, my mom would make me wash my hands, sit me down for a cup of black tea and cookies, and ask me about my day. Even today, I still find myself craving black tea and a cookie around 3:30 in the afternoon! I look forward to creating our own family rituals with Peng and our child. It’s so comforting to know that there will always be someone who cares about what’s happening in your life (and bakes good cookies!) waiting for you to come home from school.

I have seven nieces and nephews from my brothers and sisters in addition to Peng’s nephew, Sandro. Because most were born when I still lived in Toronto, I got lots of practice babysitting, changing diapers, and finding ways to entertain the little ones. I miss the noise, the activity and the bonds you have with family. I’ve always wanted to be a father, and am so excited about raising a child of our own with Peng.

I have a degree in Design from Canada, and in San Francisco, work for an architecture firm. I’ve designed restaurants, Native American casinos, electronics stores, luxury condominiums and a large portion of the interior of the new terminal at San Francisco International Airport. I feel lucky that even in a tough economy, my firm continues to do well and I continue to design projects both in the US and around the world.

Peng on Paul

Paul is the love of my life. I love his laugh, his open heart, the way he has of making everything fun. His philosophy, which he will share with a child, is that you have to “wrap your arms around life.” People are drawn to Paul’s positive personality, the way he has of making everyone feel special and important. I know that he will be an extraordinary, caring and very fun dad. Together we hope to create a wonderful life with our child, encouraging our child to explore the world and develop the talents he or she possesses. We are getting married this May, and I couldn’t be prouder or happier to be Paul’s partner in life.

Our Home

We live in a diverse San Francisco neighborhood of Victorian homes, shops and restaurants with cuisine from South American to Chinese, Thai and Indian. When we found the site on which we built our house, there was nothing there except for a steep fifteen-foot rock wall. Peng insisted on climbing the rock face and at the top, we were thrilled by the view of San Francisco from the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate. Paul challenged Peng to find a way to pay for building our house, which he did through hard work, and Peng challenged Paul to design a home to suit this difficult piece of land. Paul’s creativity and talent is demonstrated throughout our comfortable and beautiful home, which he designed to be a welcoming place for friends and family to gather with floor to ceiling windows framing the breathtaking views.

We share our home with our thirteen-year-old Shepherd-Collie, Moyer, whose name is Dutch for “more beautiful.” Moyer is great with kids, especially our godchildren, Aukje (a five-year-old girl) and her baby brother Mathijs. We love taking Moyer and the kids for walks theat the beach or driving north to Lake Tahoe, where Moyer enjoys playing in the snow.

In Closing

We have learned a lot about open adoption, and now would love to learn about you. Pleasecall us collect at 1.877.593.2958 or email us at peng_paul@ymail.com. You can also contact our friendly adoption attorney, Susan Romer, at 1.800.U.ADOPT.US or send an email to adamsromer@aol.com.

Thank you for considering us. We really look forward to meeting you.

With gratitude,
Peng & Paul