Hi, we’re Kara and Frank,
 Since we’ve found it difficult to put who we are on paper, we’ve included a lot of pictures hoping a picture really is worth a thousand words. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into our lives and our families.
In 2005 we were blessed to adopt our son, Seth, through Sunny Ridge. Words can not express how much we love being parents. We enjoy seeing the world through a child’s eyes and pray we will be able to adopt again.
We married in 1999 in a Christian ceremony outdoors and had a reception at a park. We both waited until we found the perfect person to marry, so that when Kara finally told her family, they all exclaimed “It’s about time!!” Each year we celebrate our anniversary by traveling somewhere special. Some of the places we’ve been to include Maine, the Grand Canyon, California, Hawaii and we even rode horses on a beach in Ireland.
We enjoy attending a Christian church. There are terrific programs for children from infant up to “twenty-somethings”. Age appropriate programs help to instill Christian beliefs in a safe and friendly environment where questions and uncertainties are welcome. Our church works through messages of forgiveness and the resulting desire to do good with our lives. We cannot imagine our family without God. We may not fully understand why we have so many challenges, but our strength and resolution come from knowing He is with us each step of the way. We regularly attend church and pray for our family and friends. We find great comfort telling God about all our problems or fears, knowing He is listening. We see so many hardships around us and thank God every day for what we have.
 We value: God, family, friends, truth, our environment, conservation, kindness, hard work
We are both scientists for a health care company. Kara has a Bachelor’s of Science in Biochemistry from Benedictine University and a Master’s of Science in Environmental Science (Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville). While in college, Kara worked at a veterinary clinic and at Argonne National Lab in their environmental research group.
During the summer she worked for her father doing building remodeling or new home construction to help pay for college. Her parents instilled a great work ethic early on.
After working part time for Seth’s first year, Kara went back to working a flexible schedule while her mother plays with Seth. She has been fortunate enough to work on many interesting projects which will help people who are unwell- an incredibly satisfying job. She has always been driven to help others, donating her time to write for the National Audubon Society, newspapers and to champion safety initiatives at her work place.
 Primarily, Kara loves to spend time with Seth. She enjoys going to the forest preserve trails, cooking, baking, gardening, horseback riding, sewing, scrapbooking, training and showing dogs, reading, camping, traveling, and getting together with family and friends.
Kara (by Frank):
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Loving and caring Mother
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Loves to train and show dogs
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Enjoys gardening
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Build and remodel projects
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Make cards and scrapbooks (especially with nieces and nephews)
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Loves to be outdoors/ ride horses/ hike
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Make quilts and scrapbook for family members
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Cook and bake
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Read
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Learn
 Favorite things: the sound of laughter, ice cream and home made cookies, church, exercise, kid hugs.
Frank has a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry from Carthage College in Kenosha, WI and a Master’s of Science in Biochemistry from Loyola University.
Frank loves the people aspect of his job, where it is his goal to help a team to get a project to work right. One year we had promised Kara’s nephew that if he got his grade up to an A in science, we’d come to his classroom to do science experiments with the class. He got his grade up quicker than ever and off we went to do ‘bad breath’ chemistry tests, smash frozen flowers, and watch the amazing floating bubbles. Kara’s nephew was the star of the class that day!
Frank also spends a lot of time with the kids in our family. They eat together, play together, shop together, and just about anything else you can think of. He loves to be with kids, hold and comfort them, and yes, play with them! Soccer and freeze tag are family favorites. He enjoys being part of a Big Brother, Big Sister program where he spends time with a troubled child once a week.
 Frank enjoys making fun kid food, family bowling, watching kid movies with them, and acting like a kid himself. He is by far their favorite uncle. Kara often teases him that he is really a ten year old at heart, and all the nieces and nephews agree!
Frank (by Kara):
 Favorite things: Playing sports and games with kids, prayer, pets, pizza, computers, joking, movies, holidays, exercising
Seth is a very happy boy with a ready laugh. He loves babies, is great at sharing toys, and loves to play with other children. We enjoy many activities outside together, such as going for walks, meeting friends at the park, gardening, playing fetch with our dogs, going to the zoo, or just playing games in our backyard. Seth loves going to the barn with mom and dad to feed (mostly to pet) the horses and the chickens. Playing with Grandma’s puppies is another big treat.
Extremely inquisitive and eager to learn about the world around him, Seth is continually pointing at new things and asking what they are. We are continually amazed at how he sees things and how fast he learns.
We feel it is an honor to be chosen to be parents and never take our role for granted. Every day we all hold hands and give thanks to God for our family.
Our children will always know their adoption stories and the wonderful way we became a family.
 Seth (by Frank & Kara):
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Busy
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Funny
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Entertaining
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Inquisitive
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Friendly
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Energetic
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A Blessing!
Favorite things: kids, animals, his grandparents, being outside for long walks, snow, music, books, and his mom and dad : )
Our Lake County home has great park district programs, is close to shopping and medical care and has a variety of schools to choose from, yet is in a subsection of town which is unincorporated. When we bought our home, we were surprised to learn that the previous owners didn’t know where the house keys were- they said they never bothered to lock the doors!
 Here we have the freedom to have our horses, cat, chickens, rabbit and dogs on a five acre property.
Kara’s mom lives on the same property and is Seth’s best friend. We enjoy holidays and vacations with many grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins and look forward to sharing a new baby.
Our house is on a dead end street, has a fenced yard and a long drive way to ride bikes and skate on. We live minutes from some brand new, top notch parks – one of which is perfect for freeze tag and tire swinging, the two favorites.
We have kid-loving collies (puppies sometimes) to play with and two horses who really seem to enjoy giving kids rides. Kara raises chickens for our own eggs- the kids in our family love to feed them fresh vegetables and try to catch them. Luckily they don’t mind!
 Kara’s immediate family consists of a mom, dad, stepmom, and younger sister with four children. The children are at home at our house, often spending weekends with us all together or one-on-one for special time. We have traditions surrounding the holidays such as building a gingerbread house and hiding and finding Easter eggs each year (grown ups hide them for kids then kids hide them for grown ups!).
Frank has a mom, dad, stepmom and 4 sisters. He enjoys spending time playing with his sisters children (he has 21 nieces and nephews). They recount endless stories of how they would be waiting on the doorstep for him to arrive home from work so that they could play any number of sports or computer games.
There are two winter sledding parks within ten minutes of our house, miles of snowmobile trails, a large lake with a public beach, a YMCA and many forest preserves to hike, roller blade, horseback ride and bike in.
We have many friends with children (several also adopted) and have a great time getting together to let the kids play.
 We pray that God has another baby planned for us, a child who would love to grow up with a huge back yard, puppies to play with, horses to ride, and a family full of fun and love. We both feel there is someone missing in our hearts and our home and know Seth would love to have a sister or brother to share his life with.
“There is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and useful for life in later years than some good memory, especially a memory connected with childhood, with home.”
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
We believe that as parents, it is our responsibility to help make good memories not only to remember, but to learn from. Childhood should be filled with worry-free time to play and to learn.
We like to travel and enjoy visiting family in Florida every winter. Frank’s sister has a home on a lake and all the toys a kid (or grown up kid) could want. We boat, jet ski, play ping pong, arcade games, pool, pinball, board games, cards, swim in the pool and ride ATV’s.
 It’s fun to visit with a few of Kara’s family members and friends there too, picking up sea shells on the beach and going to the Florida markets. One year Kara and her dad got second prize in a TWIST dance contest!
Although Kara enjoys her job, she has the option of leaving work to care for our family. Since we work less than ten miles from home and grandma is available to watch Seth, Kara has chosen to work for now. Each day we come home to have lunch with Seth so it feels we are not gone for very long. We both believe that raising a child is a far more important role in life than any other, and we feel that no one will love and care for the baby more than family.
 In our family, aunts, uncles, and grandparents are very active in the lives of the grandchildren. The grandkids get to travel to Florida or to dog shows around the U.S., get care packages in the mail, camp, play cards, run G-scale trains, bake traditional Christmas cookies, trick-or-treat, and get lots of unconditional love.
We especially enjoy Christmas with our families. The first Christmas Frank dressed up as Santa… one of the children told her mom that she knew it wasn’t really Santa, but was one of his helpers. She said she knew this because his eyebrows didn’t match his hair and his (pillow-padded) belly was too big for the rest of him!
“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”
- Helen Keller
 It seems as if this quote written so long ago by Helen Keller could have been written for the situation you and we are in today. Because we believe a mother can never lose the love she has for the baby she has given birth to, we look forward to sharing our family. As the quote says, we believe that the child we love deeply will become a part of us.
We love to take pictures of family and enjoy emailing them to Seth’s birthmother. Kara’s sister’s friend is one of the reasons we chose to contact Sunny Ridge as she was a birthmother who chose to bless another family with her baby several years ago. Speaking with her and with Seth’s birthmother has helped us to understand what a loving and self-less act placing a baby for adoption is.
Through the generosity and selflessness of another parent, we have been able to experience the blessing of a child in our lives and pray there is another child who would love to grow up in our family.
We thank you for taking the time to read about us.
Words to Live by:
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Love God and love each other
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Be generous with hugs and warm words
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Be patient and respect each other
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Practice forgiveness
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Be kind and tenderhearted
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Live with a thankful heart
Family Photos
 
 
 
 
 
If you would like more information please contact Sunny Ridge Family Center.
Kara & Frank
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