FAMILY FACTS Location: Nova Scotia, Canada Ethnicity/Ancestry: Michael - Dutch, Kelly - British/American Marital Status: Married 9 years Age: Michael, 32 - Kelly, 38 Children: Owen, 6 years old

Hello and Welcome to our story

We are so happy to have the opportunity to share a little about our family.  We thank you for taking the time to get to know us. Knowing that love, respect and dignity are at the heart of adoption, we recognise that your decision to allow another to raise your child takes enormous courage and trust. We are deeply moved by this.  We hope our story helps you with your decision.

We are Michael and Kelly - proud parents to our 6-year-old son Owen, and we are eager to add to our family.  Another biological child is not an option due to complications with Owen’s birth, but we had both dreamed of having more children.  Now that Owen is in school, as a stay at home mom, Kelly can devote that special one on one time to a new baby without anyone feeling left out.

As we said, Kelly is a stay at home mom, who is also active in fundraising, and volunteers as a ‘teacher’s helper’ at school one day a week.  We believe in giving back to the community as much as possible.  The school in our area is fabulous, it was the reason we choose this area in the first place.   Michael has his degree in computer engineering, and is an officer in the Canadian Navy.  As ‘Granny Martin’ loves to tell everyone, we met in her bedroom.  Granny Martin is a surrogate granny to both of our families although we had never met each other until 10 years ago.  Kelly was taking care of Granny M after a surgery, and Michael came over to visit Granny M and see how she was doing – the rest is history.  Granny Martin has a great sense of humour and loves to tell this story to anyone who will listen!  We have been married for 9 years.

Being in the Navy means we get to live on the coast, which we love.  We are both from a land locked province, so we try to take advantage of all that living near the ocean can offer.  Even though we live on a lake, we enjoy going to the ocean for walks on the beach, picnics, and so Owen and Michael can try to body surf.  Our house is on 2 acres of land right on a small lake.  In the summer we go swimming at least once a day – Owen loves the water.  Owen and his Daddy also enjoy fishing off the dock (mommy -not so much), and we all go for rides in our kayak.  We have a 8 year old black lab named Bella and we have to lock her up when we go out in the kayak, or she will try to swim out after us, and then she gets tired in the middle of the lake and we need to drag her back.  She can’t bear to be out of Owen’s sight.  Bella loves all children and they love her too.  At one of Owen’s music classes, a friend told the class that Bella was her dog!  In the winter Michael clears a spot on the lake for skating.  Owen was born in February, so for his party we did an Olympic theme.  We had ice-skating, tobogganing, inuksuk building and painting all in our backyard.  Everyone got a gold metal.

There is a fenced in area of our backyard with a swing set, slide and lots of toys, as well as the ‘wild area’ where Owen likes to climb rocks and play jungle.  Owen would probably live outside if we let him.  It would be so wonderful for him to have a sibling to share in his ‘adventures’.  Although we are on acreage we are in a subdivision with lots of children, five minutes from the elementary school and a 20-minute drive to downtown Halifax.

Kelly loves to cook, and Owen enjoys being her little helper – when he wants to bake he says ‘lets stir it up mommy’.  His favourite is chocolate cake, with pancakes a close second.  On Saturday mornings Michael and Owen make pancakes together and Kelly gets to sleep in.  Kelly also enjoys scrap-booking and card making, but Owen is not so much into the crafty thing – maybe the new baby will be? 

Michael is a huge sports fan.  Live, on TV, or playing them.  His favourite teams are the Edmonton Oilers for Hockey, and ‘The Colts’ are his favourite NFL team.  He would LOVE to see the Colt’s live.  We both agree children should be given the opportunity to try different sports and see what they like, but sports should be fun and something to look forward to, not a chore.  We want our children to know they have a choice in what they participate in.  It is important to see things through once you have made a commitment (like joined a team), but if it isn’t their ‘thing’ they do not have to do it again.

In the winter Owen participates in a gymnastics class that he loves, he takes swimming lessons, and we all go swimming at the public pool (here our lake freezes in the winter).  Although we want our children to partake in scheduled activities, we don’t want our lives to revolve around them.  We feel that it is essential for children to just be kids and have free relaxing time too.  With this in mind we only do one or two ‘enrolled’ program a season.  This also allows us the time and freedom to do family activities like go to the zoo, check out the train museum, and all sorts of other day trips. Before Owen started school this September we met friends once or twice a week for walks, playing in the park or indoor playdates.  Halifax has beautiful trails, and in the fall when the leaves are turning colours it is breathtaking.  We are so excited to show these wonders to new eyes.

Both Michael and Kelly are avid readers and are dedicated to instilling the love of reading in a child.  We both look forward to reading to a new child as now Owen ‘can do it himself’.  Music is another significant part of our lives.  We usually have the radio on or music in the background.  When Owen was a baby we burnt out a CD player in his bedroom from having the music on constantly!  At times it was the only thing that would calm him.  We both played instruments in school, and as a child Kelly dreamed of playing the piano, but it wasn’t to be.  We now have a piano in our home and have started Owen on lessons.

Another thing we all enjoy is travelling.  As we mentioned earlier, we do frequent family ‘day trips’.  As both of our families are back in Alberta we make a point of going back as much as possible.  Michael has two brothers and one sister, and Kelly has one sister.  Owen has five cousins – 3 boys and 2 girls.  It is always great to see everyone, and we have at least one huge family gathering with aunts, uncles, cousins and all else who can make it (Granny Martin included of course!).  Most of our family has come out and visited us here in the Maritimes at least once.   Both of us travelled before we met, but prefer to share our travel time.  As a couple we have gone to Hawaii and Cuba (before Owen), and Owen has joined us in Arizona, Florida (Disney of course), and a 3-week drive across our beautiful country from coast to coast.  We dream of bringing the whole family to Europe one day – a place that we have both experienced separately but not together.

We have written a lot about Owen in this letter, and we don’t want you to be put off by this.  Right now, he is the center of our world, and we want you to know how fundamental our family is to us.  It is everything.  If you bless us with the gift of another child, that child too will become the centre of our universe.  They will be raised together as equals with all of our love and attention.   If we are lucky enough to be your choice, we want you to know we are open to sending you pictures, videos, and letters over the years, and depending on your comfort level we are open to meeting as well.   Adoption is a gift that can never be equalled – there is no thank you that can cover our gratitude in being given a chance to expand our family.  That being said we do humbly thank you for reading our letter and getting to know us.  If there is any more information you would like, please do not hesitate to contact us, or have the agency contact us if that is more to your comfort level.  You have our utmost respect.

Sincere and best wishes,

Michael, Kelly, and Owen

MORE FAMILY FACTS

Education: Michael: Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering- Kelly: 2 years University

Occupation: Michael - officer in the Canadian Navy , Kelly - Stay at home mom

For more information about this family please call us at 800-348-0467 or send us an E-Mail:
info@adoptionflorida.org

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