Two of the biggest influences in our lives have been athletics and our parents. Early in both of our childhoods, our parents encouraged and supported our drive to compete in a wide variety of sports. Through athletics we learned valuable lessons that we still carry to this day. We learned the importance of setting a goal and having the discipline to put in the time and effort necessary to achieve that goal. We also understood what it meant to be a teammate. Today we look at our relationship as a team. We work together daily to provide and support one another. And just like any other team, there are times in which we rely on each other to help the other overcome the obstacles we may be facing.

Learning these key components to life has helped us in our professional careers working with children and adolescents. It has strengthened our marriage and provided guidance in decision making and motivation to be our best. Another key aspect of what has made us who we are is our parents. The two of us have been blessed to have loving, caring and kind parents who modeled the way we hope to be as people and parents in the future. Through communication and kindness we work together and support each other as people and partners every day.

John-Michael About Samantha: The first and most admired quality I recognized is Samantha’s kindness and genuineness. Samantha prides herself on being kind to others and treating all those that she encounters with the utmost respect. These acts of kindness and generosity are not limited to her personal life but continue into her career as a healthcare professional. The attention to detail she provides to each patient and their family goes beyond what is required. She takes it upon herself to place forth the extra effort for each patient to ensure that they receive the best care possible. John-Michael feels this is a quality and trait that will make her an excellent mother one day.

Samantha About John-Michael: I admire John-Michael's character, compassion and humor. He is kind hearted and treats his student athletes like he would his own child. John-Michael guides, encourages and motivates his athletes to be courageous in their sport and kind and humble people. Everyday John-Michael leads by example and brings smiles to everyone he meets. He will be an amazing father that will support, uplift and care for our child every day.

The promise that we would like to make to you is that your child will be loved more than they will ever know. It has been a dream of ours to start a family. Through unfortunate circumstances, having children of our own is not a possibility. After discussing it in detail, we decided that although we could not bear a child of our own, we are blessed to be able to provide a loving and caring home to a child through adoption.

We believe that every child in this world should have the chance to be loved, be successful, and enjoy the time we are allotted on this Earth. We promise to protect and raise this child to the best of our ability and love them beyond measure. We will raise them to be the best version of themselves, encourage them to be courageous, be strong, and be happy and healthy. We know we can provide that, enhance their lives and experiences, and provide a fulfilling and fun future.

We are both blessed to come from loving and caring families that support us in our marriage. Samantha and John-Michael both have siblings as well as nieces and nephews. We recently relocated to Samantha’s hometown and made the selection of our new home to be in the same area as Samantha’s parents. They are very kind and loving individuals that desire to be involved grandparents to our future family.

We enjoy spending quality time together and creating long-lasting memories over various beach vacations, lake trips and holiday time together. Another thing we enjoy about having them local is weekly family dinners where we get to spend time together over good conversation and homemade meals.

John-Michaels' family spends time every summer at our home where we get to enjoy trips to the local zoo, amusement park, and spend time in our pool. We are very blessed to have the support of our families during this venture to extend our family and enhance our lives by bringing in a child to be a part of our family.

We live in a lovely ranch-style home with lots of room for our family to expand. Our aim when purchasing this home was to select something that would accommodate any additions to our family. We live in a quiet suburb within an excellent school district and a lot of local parks. We are blessed to have been able to purchase a home with a pool and backyard with intent on our future children and dogs to have room to enjoy and play.

The community is quaint and is one that has family centered events offered throughout the year. Our favorite tradition so far is the Christmas light show in our town in December where all the families join together to watch the show! We love that there are local art fairs, farmers markets, fundraiser runs, and trails to hike and bike. Our city offers a lot of different activities year-round that we enjoy spending time doing with family and friends. The zoo, aquarium, amusement parks, water park, local outdoor concerts, and lake/river offer fun opportunities to invest our time in.

It is with the utmost sincerity that we express how grateful we are to you as the birth parent and your decision to consider adoption for your child. We understand that decisions like this are not made easily and come with careful thought and consideration. Knowing that a birth parent is willing to give us an opportunity to adopt and raise a child as part of our family is a tremendous privilege. We have been looking forward to starting a family since marriage. We feel that we have an opportunity and calling to help a child by welcoming them into our lives and loving home.

We met in the most unusual of circumstances six years ago. Unfortunately (and fortunately), we both missed our connecting flights in the Atlanta airport. Although we had not officially met yet, we both had made the decision to turn down the compensated lodging for that evening to stay at the airport due to early flights. With the airport primarily being vacated we found ourselves in a unique situation that led us to conversing all night and into the morning until we had to go our separate ways and board our departing flights. Afterwards, we remained in contact with one another while living in separate cities. We opted to pursue a long-distance relationship until life-altering circumstances were able to bring us together. We continued dating for 3 years until we were ready to pursue the next chapter of our lives together ?" marriage.

Throughout the early stages of our relationship we talked about our hopes of having children. Both of us came from families with 3 children and it was our hope to also start a family. While we were originally hopeful to have our own children, God had other plans for our story. After years and many tests later, it was determined Samantha is unable to have children. While this was difficult news to hear, it didn’t deter us from continuing forward and finding another way to start a family. We are lucky to have close friends who adopted a beautiful little girl and she has been the biggest blessing in their lives. They have guided us and inspired us in our journey to find a child that we can love, inspire and encourage to be their best.

We want to encourage you as you work through this decision and journey. This baby will be loved not only by us, but our families and friends as well. They will have a community and support system around them to protect, uplift, and love them unconditionally. This baby’s future will be filled with happiness, love, faith, and the fun of traveling. You are incredibly selfless and we hope this letter is just the first step in meeting you.

Our hope is that we will get to know you and have the opportunity to tell you how we plan to raise this child and the future we hope to provide. We understand you may have questions about us and would love to tell you all about our lives. We are both open to maintaining contact through various channels like letters and pictures and would like to understand your hopes and expectations for communication as well. Through these points of contact you will be able to see the child continue to grow and blossom as well as have the affirmation that by selecting us as the adoptive parents ?" you made the best choice for your child.

Thank you for your consideration.

John-Michael & Samantha