Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. We respect the strength you have to make this adoption plan. Our names are Brandon and Teresa. We hope that after reading a little about us, you will find that we can and would love to provide a safe, secure life for your baby.
We met as teenagers at our church youth group 10 years ago. In 2005, we married after three years of dating. Our wedding was everything we could have imagined. It was a small event with our closest friends and family. Teresa was so nervous that she put Brandon's wedding ring on the wrong finger! Everybody laughed and had a great time. We've been enjoying life together ever since. In 2010, we decided to renew our vows on our 5th anniversary and have a big party to celebrate. An Elvis impersonator came to do the ceremony and we wrote our vows to each other.
We bought our house four years ago. It has 3 bedrooms. Our nursery is painted green and light pink. We have a playroom next to the kitchen that is filled with toys and books. Our back yard is fenced and is the perfect area to play in the sprinkler or eat lunch under our tree in the summer, jump into a big pile of crunchy leaved in the fall, and make snowmen in the winter. At the end of our street is the community recreation center. There is a playground and a baseball and soccer field. Little league teams play every Saturday in the summer, and we look forward to bringing our children there to watch and play. We live in a city that has so many fun things to do. We love to go to the zoo, museums, and all of the festivals happening all year. Also important, is the children's hospital that is 10 minutes away from our house. It is a highly ranked center with top notch specialists and a developmental services program.
Three years ago, we knew we wanted to devote our lives to helping children, and decided to become foster parents. Since 2009 we have welcomed 6 children into our hearts and home, and helped 4 of them move back to their families. It has been an exciting journey. We have learned a lot about children with special needs through the experience with our children. We brought home a 3lb preemie who was born at 30 weeks and watched him grow into a walking, talking 1yr old when he left to live with his Dad. Our oldest child was 4 yrs old when he was placed with us. He needed 8 surgeries in the past year that we have been with him through, and he's doing very well now. We have worked with speech and physical therapists in the early intervention program, and special education teachers in our school district to help our children be their best. We love being a foster family, but the opportunity to become a forever family to a child through adoption is our ultimate dream.
Faith and family are the biggest portions of our lives. Sunday mornings are spent in church with great friends, and Sunday evenings are spent having dinner with our family. We are Christians, and we believe that God wants us to love other people and treat everyone with respect. We teach this to our children by living what we believe. Teresa's parents live close to us and we see them almost everyday- whether it's taking walks in the mall or coming over for dinner. Brandon has three of his six siblings living close by, and we get together often. Our family has loved every child we brought into our lives through foster care and they can not wait for us to add to the family through adoption. We feel so lucky to have them so close and willing to babysit.
Parenting special needs children is a destiny we have been building up to our whole lives. Teresa was an only child and always dreamed of one day having a big family. Brandon was born to a young Mother who couldn't give him the life she wanted him to have, so he was raised by his Grandmother. Teresa studied Early Childhood Development in college and taught preschool for four years before becoming a stay at home Mom to our foster children. We have both taught vacation Bible school, counseled at summer camp, and worked in our church's children's ministries since we were teenagers. We have cared for children with autism spectrum disorder, pervasive developmental delays, oppositional defiance disorder, feeding tubes, broviac central lines, tracheotomy tubes,fetal alcohol effect, and prenatal drug exposure. These experiences of longing for family and realizing that children with special needs can enjoy life as much as anyone else with the right support led us to the decision to pursue parenting special needs children.
Thank you again for getting to know us better as you consider adoption for your child. We are happy to answer any questions you may have and would love to hear from you. We wish you the best with your decision.
-Brandon and Teresa
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