Dear Birthparent,

As you are reading this letter, we first want to let you know that we are praying for you. Although we have not met, we strongly believe that God has brought us to this place in our life and in yours. We ask God for wisdom, for His strength and His leading in our lives. You have great faith, courage and love in making this decision, thank you for considering us. We hope that by reading our profile you will get to know a little about us, our dreams and our hope for the future with children.

About Us:
We were both born in the beautiful island country of Puerto Rico and as young children our parents moved to Chicago. We spent all of our childhood, teen and young adult years in Chicago. In 1999, we moved to Hammond, Indiana where Enrique took on a teaching position at a school for inner city teens. We are both fluent in English and our native Spanish language. Our culture is a warm, loving, festive culture where people become family more than they become friends.

Meet Enrique
I am the second youngest in a family of four brothers and one sister, As a child, I loved to ride my bike, attend summer camp and play all sorts of sports. I was a mischievous but bright kid. There were very few days when I would be inside, I have always enjoyed the outdoors. I have been a life long learner always curious and always trying to figure things out. I enjoy reading, traveling, sports and good food!

Upon graduation, I attended college and earned a Bachelors degree in Theology. While working my way through college, I worked for a major Fortune 100 company and was rapidly promoted but declined any further offers to pursue my calling in life. I went on to teach at a high school for troubled inner city teens for several years and then became a Youth Pastor in 2001. Being a Youth Pastor keeps Zaida and I young. In addition to weekly sport leagues and Bible studies that I oversee, we also go camping, skiing, white water rafting and rollercoaster riding with our church teenagers. I enjoy helping our young people through whatever problem they are facing and enjoy laughing and playing with them. My wife says that I am energetic, bright and strong willed man who is tempered with a compassion for people who struggle through life.

Meet Zaida
Zaida has a beautiful and unique name. Her name is Arabic and means prosperous. Zaida will often tell her patients that her name is Zaida that rhymes with “potata” Zaida is the oldest of two girls. Zaida has a dynamic smile and is a magnet for children. Zaida grew up in a very close and loving home with parents that pushed excellence. As a little girl she was always the helper and the nurturing one. After high school she followed her calling of becoming a pediatric nurse. She attended college in Chicago and upon finishing was hired at a Pediatric hospital.

Zaida enjoys scrap booking, singing, walking, reading, traveling, cooking and chocolate. She has a beautiful voice and often sings at her church. Zaida teaches Bible and scrap booking classes to some inner city girls at her church. A parent of a patient best described Zaida when they said about her that “Children can see God through her!” Zaida is warm, loving, determined person with a great smile and a greater heart. On Saturday mornings you will find Zaida teaching piano to children at home. Some like her so much that they have to be reminded that they must go home.

Zaida with her piano students

Our Relationship
We came to know each other by attending the same church. Although we had known each other as teens we never considered each other until we were young adults. We were both Sunday school teachers at the time and were encouraged to date by one of our Pastors. We were engaged on a cold March night. After dinner and a beautiful carriage ride on Michigan Avenue, Enrique took Zaida to Chicago’s lakefront and asked her to throw some coins in the lake and make a wish. After she had thrown her last coin, Enrique pulled out a ring dropped to his knee and asked if she would marry him?

Enjoying our nephew's birthday party

We were married on August 24, 1996. The wedding was spectacular and made so much more special by the over six hundred family and friends that attended. We enjoyed a once in a life time honeymoon to Hawaii and then returned home to establish our home. We are best friends and lovers. We enjoy being together and have a hobby of traveling and trying new foods. Zaida is the more adventurous of the two when it comes to food, We have spent nights in the rainforest of Costa Rica, we have climbed the Diamond Head volcano in Hawaii, walked the beaches of Cancun, hiked the Badlands in South Dakota and have visited countless small towns. Our favorite place is home, our favorite meal, home cooked and our favorite person each other. We are both driven people but we get along incredibly well because neither of us is selfish. Selflessness has helped our marriage to last almost twelve years with great love and peace.

Wanting a family
We had talked openly about the starting of a family. Our world revolves around children on a daily basis and to have our own would be exciting. We have struggled with infertility for eight years. This is a private pain that we have endured as we have sought answers from the medical profession and our own faith. We went through infertility treatments that did not work as well as a disappointment with a previous adoption attempt. The thought of adoption is comforting realizing that God brings children into our lives through so many different ways. We look forward to add not only to our family but also to yours. We have a term that we use when people ask about us not having children, we call it the “waiting years” We believe that the waiting years will one day come to completion. We are excited about becoming parents and we have prepared ourselves and our home to receive a child. We also look forward to future adoptions after our first so that our child can have siblings that he or she may enjoy and share in life. Our desire for a child is to share what we have earned and learned and to leave a Godly heritage.

	Enrique with two of his brothers, sister, and mom
	Zaida's mom and dad, sister, brother-in-law and nephew and niece

Our Home
A visit to our home and you would think that we have children. There are baskets full of good children’s books, throw blankets and games. Our nephews and nieces along with Zaida’s piano students enjoy these very much. There is a collection of beanie babies in a hutch and collector dolls throughout the house. We believe that home should be enjoyable for children, a safe place and a place that children enjoy. Our neighborhood is a beautifully tree lined and safe location. Our home is a well kept three bedroom home. Our home has a large yard for children to run and play in as well there are walking and biking trails nearby. It has been said that “home is where the heart is” but we also believe that “the heart should be in the home.” We want to be home when our kids get home, we want home to be a place that children can build fond memories for life and a place that is nurturing and peaceful. Zaida will mostly be a stay at home mom with Enrique caring for our child when Zaida is at work a day or two a week. We believe that homes are not museums just to show off, but that they are places to live and grow in.

Our Family
Aside from the two of us, no one would be more excited about bringing a child into our home than our Family. When we say family, we are talking about a very large family of  twenty plus nephews and nieces, two grandparents, two great grandmothers, nine aunts and uncles and hundreds of church friends. Our family and friends have prayed for us and are eager to help in making our dream a reality. We are the only siblings on either side that do not have children. Abuelo (grandfather) Jorge and Abuela (grandmother) Betzaida can’t wait to spoil our child with love as they have with their other grandchildren. Our culture will be very important in rearing our child. Our friends at church have assembled a work crew to help us prepare for the arrival of a child at short notice. When we moved to Indiana from Chicago, Zaida’s parents and sister followed along. This was mainly because we are such a close knit family that even a distance of thirty miles seemed a world away to them. They frequent our home helping with our garden, enjoying a meal or helping us with one of our many activities. They have big plans for helping us to care for our child.

	One of the many games we play at our church Teen Camp
	Our newest nephew

Our Faith
We both believe that God has sought us out throughout our lives. We don’t say that God is a part of our lives, He is our life. We have had disappointments and set backs but God is always Good! He is the reason that we live and breathe and have our being. We want our child to share our values and our faith. We are born again Christians attending a Baptist church. Our decisions in life are based first on how would this honor God? We are both very active in our church serving as a full time Youth Pastor, Sunday school teachers, teen mentors, singers and servants. We want to rear our child in our faith and want to teach him or her to share their faith in all areas of life. We often share the fact that only God would make Enrique to be a Youth Pastor, Zaida to be a pediatric nurse and not gives us any children. This test of faith has drawn us closer to each other and to HIM.

	A chapel service during Teen Camp.
	At the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado

Our Future
In just a few days, we look forward to meeting our birthmother so that the words on this page can be matched with a face. We look ahead to preparing the room right next to our bedroom for our child. We will continue to pray and seek God’s help until the day that our waiting is over. We plan on being at home for our child and teaching him or her before they enter kindergarten. Our child will attend a private Christian school and we will encourage them to become involved in activities that they enjoy. We will continue to make our marriage stronger and more solid. We look forward to the trips that will expose our child to the beauty of God’s nature and of this world. We plan on becoming our children’s coaches should they play sports, or chaperoning their activities at school. We want to read to them, love them and share with them the incredible story of how they came to us. We will prepare for their education but teach them to live as oppose to just teaching them to make a living.   

We want to thank you for the consideration that you have given us by reading this short history of our lives. We realize that any decision that you make will require a lot of faith, prayer and support. You have shown courage in this time and we are praying for you as you seek to do what is best for you and your child.

For more information please contact Sunny Ridge Family Center.

Sincerely,

Enrique & Zaida

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