Patrick & Adrienne

Dear Birthmother,
Thank you for reading our letter. We can only imagine how many letters you are reading right now and the long and difficult journey that brought you to our letter and to this decision. We both wanted to start this letter off by telling you how much we value your decision. You should feel proud today and everyday that you were mature and confident enough to make this decision. If we put ourselves in your shoes we can only imagine that the foremost concern for you is to give your child a life of experiences and opportunities that we all dream about. We promise you that in this, our goals are aligned. We as individuals and as a couple have put so much thought into this decision and we promise that everyday we will make it our mission in life to make every dream a reality for your child.

We decided early on in our relationship that we wanted to have a family. We also knew that we wanted to start our family through adoption, we may be a little unusual in that adoption is our first and preferred choice. We believe adoption is the one true way you can personally enrich and change a person's life for the better. We are confident that with our shared life experiences we can help your child navigate a world that is at times complex and confusing and give your child a head-start in life so that he or she can live to his or her full potential.

We are very fortunate to have loving and supportive friends and families. Our parents are looking forward to spending lots of time with their new grandchild. Adrienne's mom would love to tell you she has been waiting a lifetime to become a grandmother, and her father was born for his role as grandfather. Patrick's family being a little more remote from California will take this as an opportunity to visit more often, Patrick is from a very large Irish family and it is amazing when we visit Ireland to see how truly enormous the extended family has grown, 8 children all with families of their own, up to 20 nieces and nephews already.

We have a home filled with love and we cannot wait to share it. Everyone around us is so excited for us to start this adventure and can't wait for us to add to our family, Our dogs, Finnegan and Ulysses have been spoiled and are often dog-napped by our friends and family. We can only imagine how loved this child will be once it arrives.

About Us
We met at a work event 6 years ago and have been together ever since, we lived in separate states for the first year, Patrick in Indiana and Adrienne in California. Luckily, Patrick was able to secure a new job in the San Francisco Bay Area and we have been living there happily ever since. We adopted two small dogs, Finnegan and Ulysses their names are taken from novels written by the Irish author, James Joyce; Patrick an Irish native is a big fan of Irish literature, Adrienne is a native of California.

We both work in the medical device field, Adrienne works as a clinician for a company where she helps patients daily with heart conditions that require them to need pacemakers, the work is very rewarding a great sense of satisfaction is taken from helping people; Patrick is a scientist and works on the research and development side of the industry, he is a little bit of a "mad-scientist" at times. Both of us place great value on the natural sciences and we live our lives accordingly, we believe that the world and all its complexities are best understood through the open minded progressive views of science.

We both share a passion for travel and we intend to travel and experience every continent in the world together. We just recently returned from a trip to Europe with Adrienne's parents, we spent most of our time in Italy and visited many galleries and museums. Since we live on the west coast, we travel to Hawaii whenever we can, on our last visit we discovered a small cove where you can swim with hundreds of dolphins. I can't begin to explain to you what it was like to hear them talk to each other underwater. Adrienne's parents live half way between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe and we take the opportunity when time allows to head up to Tahoe and enjoy the lake and ski resorts year round. Patrick has a penchant for more unusual vacations, last year he took Adrienne to stay in The Ice Hotel in Canada, we actually spent the night sleeping on a block of ice in a hotel made completely from ice! Adrienne on the other hand makes Patrick step out of his comfort zone and do one extreme adventure on every vacation. On our last trip we got the chance to bounce down a mountain in Switzerland in a rubber ball - its called Zorbonauting and I guess we are now both certified Zorbonauts.

As Californian residents, we lead very active lifestyles, we try and exercise everyday. Adrienne particularly enjoys Cross-Fit, Yoga, Pilates, Running and Volleyball. Patrick likes to walk, mostly after golf balls, and in a rare disagreement with Mark Twain he does not believe that golf is a good walk ruined. Finnegan & Ulysses of course give both of us lots of exercise, Finn will swim in the pool for hours at end and Ulysses loves to go for long walks (but not after golf balls).

We also love to shop at the local farmers markets and Patrick enjoys cooking for our friends and family, risotto and a good steak are his specialty. When we have a free weekend we usually spend it with Adrienne's family as its only a 2 hour drive away, unfortunately the trip to Ireland is a little too far for frequent visits.

Our life together is one filled with love and commitment, we are continually learning from one another and are each others best friend.

Adrienne
I grew up in northern California, I have one younger brother, he is a fireman and he is very excited at the prospect of becoming an uncle. My parents have been married for 40 years, they still live locally and we take every opportunity to visit and vacation with them.

I feel very fortunate to have grown up here, I had a wonderful childhood, I was active in school at a variety of extracurricular activities including athletics, volleyball, basketball and softball; growing up in the Sierra foothills also afforded me the opportunity to learn how to water and snow ski at a young age, a passion I still pursue when time allows. I also babysat almost every weekend for all of the kids in the neighborhood.

After high school, I completed my degree in Biopsychology at the University of California Santa Barbara, during this time I helped pay for school by working as a nanny for a family near the campus and working at the local hospital.

These days I am kept very busy at work, when not working I can be found at the gym, visiting with friends or any other new adventure I find out about. I really enjoy trying new activities and meeting new people. I also love to read, I often read several books in a week, I am very close to my family, they often visit us and we often visit them, Patrick loves to golf or play squash with my dad. You will find us most weekends playing some kind of board game at my family's house after a long day outside enjoying the outdoors. My favorite time is being with my family and sitting by the pool and barbequeing.

Last but certainly not least, I absolutely love to be with my 2 dogs, Finn and Uly.

Patrick
I grew up in a less exotic locale than Adrienne and a much wetter place, the north west coast of Ireland. I am from a large family, there are 8 children in the family, I am number 5. My extended family still live in Ireland, I was the only one to move abroad. Growing up in Ireland had its advantages, the part of the country I am from is very beautiful indeed, great education system and lots of activities, my main activity as a child was golf, I basically grew up on a golf course. Playing up to 36 holes a day. I also earned extra spending money caddying for my parents friends.

After high school, I pursued my passion for science, I completed my undergraduate and PhD degrees in Ireland and then studied as a research scientist in universities in Canada and the USA before eventually settling in California.

Like Adrienne, I love to read, I have a penchant for humorists such as Oscar Wilde, Douglas Adams and Mark Twain, I find their wit and elegant writing styles to be uplifting. I am lucky to work in Silicon Valley with a number of start-up companies where I hold various positions, I enjoy my work and love to work on projects that I feel add value to society as a whole.

To relax, I golf, not too often these days but as much as I can. As Adrienne, likes to say I am a perpetual student and I love researching and learning new things from science to cooking. I also enjoying teaching and at any given time I have a handful of students that I mentor; whether helping them further their careers to helping them navigate science and bring their ideas to reality through patents.

Bay Area
We love the San Francisco Bay Area which stretches from Napa Valley in the north to the Monterey Peninsula in the south it is on balance maybe the best place in the world to live, there is something here for everyone. We live minutes from the beach, an hour from the wine country and two hours from the mountains. The weather is mild and warm which lends itself to outdoor activities all year round, great restaurants, theatre, opera, museums, academies, schools and universities. This is where we want to raise our family, we strongly believe that the healthy, progressive and open environment one finds in the Bay Area is the perfect place to give your child the head start in life that will ultimately lead to happiness.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our letter, we know you have many others to read, perhaps this is the type of life you have hoped for, for your child and if so we look forward to hearing from you.

Patrick & Adrienne

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