Hello!Our names are Kelly and Paul and we thank you for reading our

letter. We hope you’ll get to know us a little bit and see what a life with us would be like for your child. We promise

to love them unconditionally and nothing would give us more joy than providing him or her with love and support, and welcoming them into our family.

We know that this is an enormously dificult decision for you and we understand that you

are considering adoption out of love for your child. We admire and respect you, and wish you the best throughout this

process.

Kelly & Paul

kelly and paul

Our relationship began with an accidental Valentine’s Day date ten years ago. After Paul helped Kelly with a photo shoot, she offered to buy him dinner the next Thursday to thank him for his help. What Kelly did not realize at the time was that next Thursday was Valentine’s Day! The date went well, we’ve been happily together ever since and have been married ive years.

Over the past 10 years, our relationship has grown

and become stronger due in large part to the fact that our personalities balance each other. For example, Paul is very conident that he is able to take on any task, no matter how big it is. On the other hand, Kelly is more cautious. Normally, it is a perfect balance when we meet somewhere in the middle.

We still love to go on fun dates. Sometimes we go out to a relaxing dinner together, but we also enjoy more active excursions like rollerblading, hiking,

about us

Jogging with our two dogs, Peanut and Butter

jogging and exercising in the beautiful canyons near our home.

The ocean plays a big part in our lives. We love walking near it, living by it and sailing on it. One of our favorite things to do is a simple walk down to the beach to watch the sun set over the Paciic Ocean. It is always so magical and reminds us how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place. We both love the ocean, the big beautiful sky and the smell of the sea breeze. We own a sailboat and love sailing together with family. It really gives us time away from the everyday schedule to talk and relax. To us, there is nothing more regenerating than spending time on the water. It feels like you have gone on holiday and you are only minutes from home. We can’t wait to teach our children how to sail.

Our home resides in a beautiful Southern California beach community with great schools and parks nearby. Plenty of young children live in our neighborhood and we like how active and family friendly it is. We also have a home in the mountains, which we drive to often, but most of our day-to-day living is spent near the beach.

Even though we have so many beautiful places to enjoy near home, once a year we take time out

to travel somewhere to spend time together as a family. While on holiday we sometimes visit Kelly’s friends and family in the UK and Australia, but also like traveling to new places. Last year we visited Fiji.

Playfulness and being silly come naturally to us and we can often be found giggling together, and pointing out the ironic and funny side of the situation, even when it’s not really going exactly as planned. Don’t tell anybody but we secretly love dancing to silly music at home when no one is looking.

“The ocean plays

a big part in our lives. We

love walking near it, living

by it and sailing on it.”

We have always wanted a big family to share all our love, fun and joy we have to give. Our big family dream started with Chayten, our two-year old biological son. He is a kind, loving boy who will make a wonderful big brother. Chayten is a very happy child always laughing and smiling. He loves exploring and playing in the beautiful parks and beach near our house and going on adventures with mummy. He goes to Montessori pre-school and he loves playing with other children. He keeps asking if he can have a baby brother or sister. We love Chayten so much and are excited to love the new baby with all our hearts, as well. Although we were able to conceive one child, it became clear that we were not going to be able to have another.

Since the beginning of our relationship we have talked about wanting to adopt someday, so this was a natural choice for us. Paul has always felt strongly about adoption and Kelly’s view of family is not constrained to a biological boundary. She has many good friends that she considers family and half-sisters and step parents that she loves wholeheartedly.

We feel very lucky to have such a great support network of loving family and friends. Paul’s family lives close by, and Kelly has a sister nearby too. Our families are both very supportive and there is always someone happy to babysit or help out.

Entertaining and having family over is something

we love to do. Every winter we throw a Santa party, where we invite friends, family and neighborhood kids over to have photos with Santa Claus and eat holiday cookies and cakes. Family birthday parties, Easter and Halloween are also some of our favorite reasons to celebrate and spend time with friends and family.

Paul’s brother and sister-in-law, who have 3 young boys, live nearby and we enjoy spending time at their house too. It’s fun to have young nephews and Chayten loves playing with his cousins.

A big family philosophy of ours is: Working Hard and Dreaming Big

Paul is from an immigrant family. His mom and dad came to America with very little money. They worked hard and were able to put their two sons through college. Paul’s brother is a doctor and Paul has a degree in Computer Science. Kelly’s father did not inish high school, and his family was not wealthy, yet he managed to start one of the world’s top design irms.

more about us

“Playfulness

and being silly come naturally to us and we can often be

found giggling together.”

Watching our families work so hard to achieve their dreams has had a big inluence on us, and we both admire our parents for their achievements.

When we irst started our relationship, we ran a visual effects company together. We worked on ilms, commercials and music videos and learned how to make decisions together under pressure, and communicate well with each other. Although we still own that company, we do not participate in the everyday running of it. Those irst years of living on hardly any money, and staying up all night to make sure projects were completed on time, created a strong base for our relationship.

We are both hard workers and passionate about everything we decide to achieve in life, and we always try and see the positive side of a situation.

Paul has worked on large movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Hell Boy and The Italian Job. Recently, he purchased a chain of 7-Eleven stores and rental properties to give him more time to spend with his family.

Kelly now works part time, as a photographer.

about paul by kelly

When I irst met Paul I was drawn to him by our joint love of photography, and his fun loving personality. After I watched him save a music video shoot by rigging together some equipment with paper clips, I fell even more head over heels in love with him.

I describe Paul as a big-hearted nerd illed with loads of love. He is also very smart, driven and creative. One of my favorite things about Paul is his very loud laugh that comes from the belly. You can hear him laughing from down the street before you get into the house.

He was brought up to believe that family is the most important thing in life and it never ceases to amaze me how he inds time to spend with me and Chayton and his extended family – he always puts family irst. He is the best Dad; he gets so much joy from playing with Chayten. I know he is very excited to have another baby in the family.

Paul always pushes me to take that extra step in anything I am trying to achieve in life, even when I do not feeling conident about doing it. When things don’t go according to plan, he is very calm

and positive about making a plan to ind a solution to the situation. So, not only does he push me to reach farther than I would have on my own, he keeps me grounded. I feel so lucky to have Paul in my life, our relationship has helped me to grow and develop as an individual.

Paul is such a generous person. He is always there to offer help to a friend. He also volunteers and raises money for local schools and charities. It makes me really proud to see him make a difference in other people’s lives. I admire his drive and energy to make these fundraising events come together.

Paul has always got some new project that he is extremely excited about working on. I never know what the next project will be and it keeps life exciting. At the moment he has been building robots and creating salt-water ish tanks with Chayten.

He grew up in Southern California, but he was born in Toronto, Canada and has lived in New York and San Francisco.

“I describe Paul as a

big-hearted

nerd filled with

loads of love.”

Getting ready to take the sea plane out with Grandpa

Fundraising for a Local School

Family holiday in Fiji

about kelly by paul

I describe my wife Kelly as very patient and loving. The strangest thing about Kelly is that she is always in a really good mood and wide-awake in the morning no matter how little sleep she gets. I don’t know how she does it!

When I irst met her I was instantly drawn into her orbit, like a planet around the sun. She has a positive energy around her that draws everyone into a whirlwind of happiness. She is always laughing and inding ways to ind the “silver lining” even when

there is “drama.” She is the sunshine of my life.

She is so loving and caring and willing to help everyone, almost to a fault. She takes care of friends, and even cares about friends of friends. Her sister’s best friend stayed with us for months while she organized her move out here from Ireland.

Kelly doesn’t consider herself adventurous, but she is always planning adventures. As a mom, Kelly wants to encourage her children to see beauty in the world and love life. Every week she takes Chayten

“She has a

positive energy

around her that draws

everyone into a whirlwind

of happiness.”

on great adventures. They visit museums, art galleries, aquariums, and the beach and go horseback riding. She tries to take him to see things that interest him. This week he told her he wants to go to space, so they went to the science museum to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor. Kelly is exited to plan more great adventures around what her children love.

The irst thing people notice when they meet Kelly is her accent. She was born in Ireland and moved to England when she was 9. Her Mum is an American and her Dad is from New Zealand. Her accent is a mix of all four places. It can really get people guessing as to where she is from.

Kelly has traveled extensively throughout the world. Before settling in Southern California she lived in London, Berlin, New York and the Caribbean.

Although she is currently working part-time (she’s a talented photographer), she will stay at home with the new baby until the baby is old enough to start Montessori pre-school part time.

In Australia with Kelly’s Family

what we

We believe every child is unique, biological or adopted. They come with their own strengths and weaknesses. Those may or may not be similar to yours, or completely different. We believe that our job as parents is to encourage our childrens’ strengths and be there to help them through the things they struggle with. We also believe we should not judge our children, or compare them with others, but instead celebrate their own individual personalities. Let them dream big, and help them to understand that with hard work everything is possible.

We want our children to have the best education and attend the best schools. We both have University degrees, and if our children wish to go to college, we will encourage them and support them inancially. We have already started saving for college educations.

offerhope to

Sailing with Grandpa

Chayten at Paul’s brother’s house with his cousins

thoughts on

adoptionWe will be happy to send letters and photos to you and we will tell our adopted child that their birthmother loved them so much that she wanted them to have a beautiful and wonderful life, and because of this love she made the dificult decision to let us adopt you. We will forever be grateful to you for bringing him or her into our lives.

Not everything in our lives is perfect, but there is always a lot of love and fun to be had. We’re excited about growing our family and look forward to meeting you, if we seem like a good it.

If you would like to learn more about us or arrange an initial phone call, please contact Cindy anytime at A Loving Alternative 800 556 5635.

Kelly & Paul

Chayten’s irst birthday at Hurst Castle in England

Chayten makes a friend in Australia

“We feel very lucky to have such a great support network of

loving family and friends.”