Dear Expectant Mother

Hi! We are Larry and Carol. If you are considering adoption for your baby, we know you must be having so many different feelings. We honor your thoughtfulness in searching for an adoptive family. We'd like to take you on a virtual, guided tour inside our family life and give you a chance to get to know us. We are a secure, long-married couple with a happy 8-year-old boy, and all of us are looking forward to increasing our joy through adoption.

For us, one child is definitely not enough! Raising our son has been such a wonderful experience that we can't wait to do it again. And our son is really looking forward to being a big brother. We tried to have another child for more than four years, the last year with medical intervention. When the doctors told us donor-egg represented probably our only hope, we never looked back -- we wanted to adopt rather than spending a fortune for a "maybe" baby.

Carol and Larry met when we lived on the same floor of a dormitory at college in Santa Barbara, Calif. We've been inseparable ever since! Larry proposed on a romantic mountain backpacking trip. We're a marriage of opposites, and have learned to laugh at -- and learn from -- each others' different approaches to life.

We are unusual amongst families you will meet in these pages in several ways. Besides having a completed adoptive homestudy, we are also foster care licensed. This means that in addition to an independently arranged newborn adoption, we would also welcome a child who is in foster care, or who might be coming into foster care. We are open to a wide variety of situations, including children that are biracial or older than newborn.

We're also unusual in that you won't have to wonder what kind of parents we might turn out to be. You can ask Evan! Our articulate, outgoing and friendly son will be happy to tell you all about life in our family. We spend a lot of time playing, reading, and just being together as a family.

We offer your baby or child a lifetime of love, laughs, family and friends, and a home full of art, music, games, learning, travel, and books. We believe that we are here on Earth to experience joy, as we go about making the world a better place. Important values in our family are being respectful of others, caring, sharing and having peace in our home, as we would like it to be in the world. We live in a big, 2-story home in a beautiful, wooded part of the Seattle area, and love the outdoor lifestyle here -- biking, camping, hiking, swimming and fishing. We live in a very safe, quiet neighborhood with great schools.

After spending most of her twenties as a singer/songwriter, Carol is now a reporter, and is happy to work for a very family-friendly company. She is able to work mostly from home. She is looking forward to taking a paid leave with our new baby.

After working many years in the television and film industry, Larry is now a visual artist and a project manager for a computer company. He also plans to take a leave with our new baby. He has a degree in motion picture/television from UCLA. More recently, he has begun studying digital media. Our home is filled with Larry's hand-painted black and white photographs, and his pictures of the flowers in our garden, along with the dried flower-wreaths Carol makes with our garden blooms.

We have five happily adopted cousins in our extended family, which has always welcomed new members, however they arrive. Larry and Carol each have a sister (Larry's just had a baby), and our family includes active grandparents and a great-grandmother, and about 30 cousins! Many of us get together for a big annual holiday party. Carol recently asked her grown-up, adopted cousin Greg -- who recently married and a had a baby of his own -- what he thought about our adoption search. He said, "Adoption is a great opportunity for a kid, especially with you and Larry."

We offer you the opportunity to see your baby's progress through letters, pictures and videos. You'll never wonder how they are -- you'll see their smiles for yourself. We are willing to explore further openness in our adoption if that is your desire.

We will be happy to answer all your questions about us, show you our picture scrapbook, or meet with you in person if you like. Our lives are an open book to you. Whatever you decide, we admire your courage at this challenging time in your life, and wish you the best. If you are interested in exploring adoption with us:

Heartfelt wishes,

Larry and Carol