You decide whether you would like to let them adopt your baby.
We are here for you to help make the decision that best suits your needs.
Michael & Shelley
Dear Birthmother,
We are so grateful to you for considering us as you make such a courageous and difficult decision. Our names are Michael and Shelley Kieran. We have been very happily married for five years and live in Palo Alto, CA on a quiet sunny street in a lovely house with a garden all around it. We are very much in love and want nothing more than to share our love by having a family. We have been trying to have a child for five years, and know in our hearts that we can create a life for a child that is full of love, rhythm, and security.
Michael and Shelley
Michael and I met in 1997 and married in 2001 when I was 39 and he was 47. At that point in our lives, we had both experienced a great deal, gone through many transitions, and we came together as two self-identified individuals with a deep understanding and appreciation for the fact that we’d found one another.
We have a very loving, affectionate, playful relationship and both believe that open communication and lots of love are the keys to a happy home life. We are very happy in each other’s company, but also have different interests. We have a four-year-old Yellow Labrador named Chester who has many fans among our nieces and nephews. He is very friendly and loves children.
Michael and I have always wanted to have a family and believe that as strong, loving, and secure individuals, we can create a home for a child that is warm, safe, and secure.
Palo Alto is a very family-oriented town with lots of activities for children of all ages, wonderful community centers, playgrounds, and excellent schools. We live near several parks and are close to the Stanford campus, which has lots of beautiful open spaces, a lake, and hills to walk and run in.
Michael has family in Toronto, Massachusetts, Connecticut and North Carolina, all of whom regularly travel to visit one another and bring young cousins together. Michael also has two grown sons, both of whom are enthusiastic about a new addition. They’d like very much to be big brothers. All of my family live in the Bay Area and are very excited at the prospect of adding a new member to the family. We have already received baby-sitting offers from my parents, siblings, in-laws and nieces and nephews!
Shelley
I grew up in a large family in San Francisco and am the youngest of six children – three boys and three girls. I have had a blessed life, filled with the love and support of family and many friends, many of whom I have known through grammar school and college. I am still very close to my parents and all of my siblings, and since marrying Michael, I now have four brothers-in-law, five sisters-in-law, and nineteen nieces and nephews. My family is a very big part of my life. We are close and connected and in addition to big holiday festivities, we frequently gather at our beach house in Aptos, CA, and often take trips together. Open expression of our love for one another and our great fortune to have formed such a close-knit family is a big part of our gatherings and an important influence in our family.
I am the Director of Communications for Dwell magazine in San Francisco and work from home most of the time. The entire executive team at Dwell is made up of women with children ranging in age from a newborn to eight years old, so flexibility and motherhood are very important to our corporate culture. I love to cook and read and am an avid runner. I especially love Italian cooking, but also love to bake and experiment with all different kinds of cultural influences. I have been a reader all of my life and still love children’s books as much as the more serious stuff I had to read as an English major in college. I also love to read the newspaper and magazines of all kinds. I love to laugh and feel that life is a lot better when you make a connection with people, so I am often teased for the fact that I make friends with everyone, whether it’s the person at the checkout, the dry cleaner, the phone installer or the insurance appraiser. I have boundless energy and enthusiasm and look at life in a very positive way.
Michael
As the second of seven children, I’ve always known and loved the feeling of being part of a family. To me, it’s one of the most important aspects of life.
I was born near Toronto, Canada and lived there most of my life before moving to Palo Alto last year. My mother and father still live near Toronto, while my brothers and sisters have settled throughout the United States and Canada. (I have dual US/Canadian citizenship, which confers automatically to my children.) I have two sons from my previous marriage (Andy and Chris, now 23 and 24 years old), and I remain close to them, staying in touch through visits, phone calls and email. I love them deeply, and continue to coach them on their studies, careers, and life in general.
I’ve worked in the publishing industry throughout my career, and have written four books on digital color technology. Three years ago, I started a company that develops publishing software for the catalog industry and we now have five employees. It's hard work getting a new company going, but I enjoy it tremendously.
I’m fortunate that I can work from home, as it allows me to work on my own schedule, leaving more free time for other things, such as family. For fun I like to do woodworking, especially designing and building furniture. I have a small workshop set up in our garage, and I find it very relaxing to spend time out there, measuring, cutting, sawing, drilling, sanding, and finishing.
My other main hobby is astronomy, which I studied in school and continue to find fascinating. For me, there is nothing more awe-inspiring than observing the night sky, with its endless beauty and complexity.
If you would like to learn more about us, or would just like to talk with us, please feel free to contact our friendly adoption attorney, Susan Romer at: 1-800-U-ADOPT-US or e-mail her at: adamsromer@aol.com. You are also welcome to visit our website to learn more about us at: http://web.mac.com/mrkieran.
With warm regards,
Michael and Shelley