Dear Birth Parent,

We know that making the decision to place your child for adoption is difficult as well as one that takes great courage. We can not even imagine the pain, sorrow, and confusion, you must be feeling. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you. At the same time, we realize what an amazing person you must be to even consider such a selfless act of love. We truly believe that everything happens for a reason, even though we sometimes don't understand what that is right away. Our own path leading us to adoption has been a difficult one too. Yet, we find ourselves on a similar journey, sharing one common goal: to provide a healthy and loving environment to a child we will all love. We are comfortable with an open adoption and realize the many benefits of maintaining a relationship with the birthparents and families. We know we cannot make this decision any less difficult for you, but we hope that by sharing our story, we can help you find the answers you are searching for.

Our Lives Together

How We Met
We met in 1996 at an arcade/ miniature golf center where we both worked during the summer. We really didn't care for each other much. We went out once, and it was not the best time.

Kellie left to go to her first year of college; and, Rob continued working at the arcade where he was promoted to manager. In the summer of 1997, Kellie returned to the arcade only to find that Rob was now her new boss.

During this summer, however, feelings between us somehow changed. We began dating after Kellie, not being a shy person, asked Rob out. After a few weeks of dating, we realized that there was something special about the other one; and, we were inseparable.

How Rob Proposed
In 1999, after spending the summer abroad, Kellie came home anticipating the beginning of her last semester of undergrad. On the day she returned, Rob planned a romantic evening in Chicago, and proposed to her during a Blue Man Group performance. It was incredibly memorable.

Our Wedding Day
We married in August of the following year. We had a beautiful wedding in Kellie's father's church where our friends and family joined us in the celebration. The ceremony was followed by a rather large reception. Everyone had a great time dancing, drinking, and celebrating. It was one of the best nights of our lives.

The Present
Since we married at a fairly young age, our families had told us to be cautious about jumping into having children until we had time to truly enjoy each other. We thought this seemed reasonable and neither of us wanted children at that time either.

During the first few years of our marriage, we were able to travel, purchase a home, and establish our careers. We liked having time to spend with just one another and our friends. It was great. In 2005, we celebrated five fantastic years of marriage.

In 2004, however, we got bit by the baby bug. We began trying to conceive but had some complications. We consulted doctors, and to our dismay we discovered that we would not be able to conceive biological children. As a child, Rob had neuroblastoma, which is a type of cancer, and the doctors assume that the chemotherapy treatments that he underwent to save his life likely damaged his reproductive cells.

Additionally, we found out that Kellie suffers from a condition that can make it challenging to conceive. With the help of technology, we attempted some fertility treatments but agreed that we did not want to invest too much time or money on procedures that did not guarantee a child. After a few unsuccessful attempts, we realized that there was more than one way to have the family we desired; and, so we chose adoption. We are so excited about becoming parents and scared at the same time, but we can't wait to have a family to call our own.

WHO WE ARE

Rob
Rob is the only boy out of six siblings. His oldest sister is a half sister on his father's side, and his youngest sister is a half sister on his mother's side. The other three sisters share the same biological parents with fraternal twins being part of the three.

Rob's parents divorced when he was nine, making him the man of the house at an early age. Growing up, Rob lived with his four younger sisters and a single mom. Being raised in that environment, sharing one bathroom with five women, has made him a very patient person. He is close to his family, and his role as big brother makes him a good resource for advice.

Rob was an average student but was very active outside school with sports, friends, and work. After high school, Rob moved out and went to college to find that school just wasn't for him. With the death of his stepmother, he moved in with his father and got a job at the local amusement park, where he would meet his future bride.

In his spare time, Rob collects comic books that probably will put his children through college as they become more valuable. He dreams of one day owning a Harley. When he's not participating in sports, he can be found playing video games or just watching sports on television. Rob is a very social person with a laid back demeanor; he makes friends every where he goes. His light heart and sense of humor can brighten up any room. He is a joker at heart but compassionate to other people's feelings.

Kellie
Kellie grew up in a family where she always knew she was loved. She has one brother who is three years older than her and loves being in this role. At 30 years old, he thinks it is okay to put her into some sort of fake wrestling move when he sees her. While Kellie and her brother couldn't be more different from each other in their interests and lifestyles, they always find a common ground of childhood memories to share and laugh about together.

Kellie is very close to her parents and stepfather. While her parents divorced when she was only eight, she believes the divorce impacted her opinions of and respect for her parents positively. Kellie never once felt like the rope in a tug-of-war contest between them.

In addition to her family, education has also been an important part of Kellie's life. She sets very high standards for herself and has a continuing list of goals she hopes to accomplish. She attended Indiana University, where she received a B.S. in Business Marketing. In 2005, she graduated from Purdue University with a 4.0 GPA and a Masters degree. While she firmly believes a solid education is a vital stepping stone for success, she also understands that continuing education is not meant for everyone and doesn't always equate knowledge or skill. Secretly, she hopes her children will learn to love education as much as she does.

Being an energetic person, Kellie finds herself involved in many activities. She loves to play or attempt various sports. Her favorites include volleyball, snowboarding, and just plain working out. She is a member of a book club; and, because Kellie is an avid scrapbooker, she is rarely found without a camera on hand and has become the family photographer. Her obsession with scrapbooking has created a new love for photography, and she can't wait to begin snapping pictures of her new family.

Our Careers
In 1997, shortly after we began dating, Rob took a position with a fire systems company. He started in the shop and after taking some classes to further his knowledge in the field he was promoted to a designer. About three years later, an opportunity to move into Sales presented itself, and he made another career move. In 2005, corporate restructuring led to further advancement in Sales within a more profitable sector of the organization. Rob finds his job rewarding which is why he has remained with the company for the last nine years.

After graduating from college, Kellie took a job where she sold power tools. After about a year she decided to make a career move, not because she didn't like power tools, but she just didn't like sales. In late 2000, she joined an investment company in downtown Chicago as a Marketing Assistant. The position was a bit boring at first, but she was hopeful that more responsibility would come her way. Five years later, she remains with this same firm and is now the Senior Marketing Manager.

Once a child arrives into our home, we both plan to continue working. We have some friends who are stay-at-home mothers as well as relatives that would be able to watch our child. However, Kellie worked in a daycare owned by a close family friend for a summer, and we most likely will take our child there.

For the Love of the Game
Rob and Kellie are huge sports enthusiasts. Whether it's watching football on Sunday or lifting weights in our gym, we both lead active lifestyles and enjoy participating in sports together. From the beginning of our relationship, dates and outings revolved around sports activities or events: running, bowling, mini-golf, biking, ping pong, full contact fighting, etc. Not to mention that both of us were actively involved in sports in our youth. Rob's list of favorite sports includes softball, paint ball, martial arts, golf, and snowboarding. Kellie's favorites consist of volleyball, snowboarding, exercising, biking, and bowling. We are both open to trying new things when it comes to sports which is what makes our relationship a lot of fun. This year, we plan on possibly participating in a mini-triathlon and the muddy buddy race, which is a six mile tag-team style of running, biking, and obstacle course that finishes in an army crawl through a mud pit.

Traveling
We love to travel. With our traveling experiences combined, we have been to seven different countries and visited 23 states in the U.S. One of our goals when we got married was to visit a different state each year for our anniversary, that way when we celebrate our 50th anniversary, we will have visited all fifty states. So far we've managed to go to Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Nevada.

We hope that we can continue in this tradition with our children as well as plan an annual family trip some place fun.

The Place We Call Home
A few months after we married, we began house hunting. We fell in love with this quaint two-story house in a new residential area. We moved in during December 2001. We have made significant improvements to the house since we have lived there, such as finishing the basement and adding a larger deck. This year, we repainted and plan to build a shed out back. Our home has a nice yard; and, we have great neighbors. The neighborhood is very family friendly, with nice sidewalks for bike riding, or stroller pushing, and a park that has swings and a teeter-totter for the children to play.

We currently have two cats Oliver (Ollie) and Ella. Rob isn't much of a cat person, but secretly enjoys their presence. Kellie absolutely loves cats and wishes that they were more affectionate with her. For some reason, they seem to only adore Rob. While the two cats don't always seem to be interested in us humans, they absolutely adore one another; we constantly find them playing and cuddling together.

Family: A Foundation to Build on
Our family is very important to us. They are our support network, helping us through challenges and sharing in our joys. Together, we have three living grandparents and one step-grandmother, eight nieces and nephews, six siblings, and five very excited parents waiting to become grandparents. Our extended families are very large too: Rob's dad comes from a family of nine and Kellie's dad comes from of family of eight. There are so many aunts and uncles and cousins, we can't even keep track of them. With the majority of our immediate family living within a ten mile radius from us, we are very close to our relatives, and we see each other pretty frequently.

Our Beliefs
Growing up Rob was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school. Kellie was raised Protestant. When we married, we decided that we would marry in the Protestant church simply because it was easier to do. We had not really discussed what our intentions for religion were when we had a family.

Recently, Rob attended a non-denominational retreat for men designed to heighten spiritual awareness. After that weekend, we have regularly attended the Presbyterian Church which organized the event. We are even considering becoming members. Furthermore, our church is incredibly involved in the community and provides an opportunity for us to become more active too. As we think about our own children, we now realize what an impact our religious upbringings have had on us regardless of denomination. We want our children to have the opportunity to experience religion and decide what their beliefs are for themselves.

The Future
As parents, we want to provide a stable home filled with love and encouragement with endless opportunities. Everyone always says this, but we really do want to be able to provide the things to our children that our parents couldn't provide for us. Growing up in divorced homes, we saw the challenges our single parents faced, and we hope that we can learn from them in our own family. On the flip side, we also saw the dedication and selflessness of our parents that we also want to imitate. Either way, we know that there will be times when things are rough and times when it feels like life couldn't get much better. As first time parents, we will be like everyone else, and learn as we go. It's difficult to have expectations about parenting because it is a road we have never traveled; we can only believe that it's going to be a great journey.

If you would like more information please contact Sunny Ridge Family Center.

Kellie and Rob

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