Kristi

Dear Future Family,

I'd like to thank you, first, for your courage. I pray that you can see your strength. I pray that you can believe how precious you are, and how worthy of your dreams - whatever they are, in whatever form they take, you deserve the hope and joy of the future. I pray that one day your baby will show the same strength of character: to choose life and hope in every circumstance.

My name is Kristi. I'm a single lady in my 30s, with a steady job in customer service, a 100-year-old house (it's had a lot of updates, but still bears a few creaky floorboards to maintain character) and a bunch of pets. I'm a small-time Indie novelist and an occasional-poet who loves to sing in the car - only the car, because I can't carry a tune in a bucket. Maybe not even a cow trough.

I grew up in a tiny farming town; my family didn't have livestock, but they were all over the place. I was 16 the first time I saw a sign warning drivers that cows might cross the highway; I thought everyone knew that. We then moved to a college town of 14,000 people - I thought it was the big city! I'd never lived within walking distance of a library, which was marvelous; never had to shovel a sidewalk, which was fun the first three times.

In my home, we laugh a lot. We work together, welcome friends, raise critters, flowers and food. Rather than travel long distances for long time periods, we take quarterly day trips; there's a lot to see around here, and it's more cost-effective. We're friendly with our neighbors and want to see everyone succeed. Life can be really hard sometimes, but it can also be really good - and that is what I want to share with a child or children.

From my earliest memories, I've always wanted to be a mom - and wanted to adopt. This was my first choice for building a family, even before I learned that I am physically incapable of carrying a child.

My older sister is a birthmom, and my younger sister was adopted. My grandparents adopted three of their five kids; one of Mom’s cousins was adopted; one of my cousins and her husband adopted their two kids. My best friend and her husband recently adopted a young sibling group out of foster care. In my church and work communities alike, there are many families formed through adoption: kinship, domestic, international, foster, private. Some of the families look eerily similar in spite of not sharing DNA, while others are beautifully, brazenly conspicuous.

I believe that our hearts are elastic, and that they can always stretch around "one more" no matter how many times "one more" comes into our lives. If you let me, I will wrap my heart around your child and love them wholly, unreservedly, with every fiber of my being. I will love you, too. I will appreciate you for who you are. I will honor and speak well of you, and will always want you to thrive. I will always want your child to know you.

Thank you for considering me to parent your baby. I pray that you will have peace, clarity, and confidence in your decision, and that your hopes are fulfilled. Whatever choice you make out of pure love, is the right choice.

With gratitude,

Kristi