Andrea

Hello,

Thank you for taking time to get to know more about me and for considering me as an adoptive parent for your child.  I cannot imagine what you are going through in making this decision, but I appreciate your selfless act. Know that if given the opportunity to parent your child, they will grow up in a loving home with a nurturing and fiercely protective mom.

My commitment to you is to raise your child with unconditional love in an environment where they can grow, learn and try new things with me to support and guide them. While I look forward to adventures, building memories and sharing family traditions with your child, I want them to know about you, love you and their story. I would love to share things about you like your favorite color, food or family traditions so as they grow you are always part of their life. I hope to share pictures with you and am open to facilitating a relationship with you as your comfort allows.  

I believe that nurturing a child is a constant process and a lifetime commitment to raise a child and support them as adults.

Looking forward to…

As a mom, I look forward to the simple joys of parenting.  Hearing your child laugh, watching them smile, comforting them if they shed tears, helping them learn what they like (and don’t like), and providing them the foundation to be the best person they can be.  I hope to share in adventures and activities they want to pursue be it sports, art, music or anything they love. Know they will always have me to cheer them on.  Note, if they love basketball, I promise to seek outside help as I only scored two points in my entire freshman high school season, and I fully admit I don’t have any basketball skills.

A little about me….

I am the middle child with two brothers.  I grew up in the Midwest with a fairly typical childhood with a love of cooking, family holidays and Shark Week (more on that later).  I learned as a young girl that I had a voice and did not have any issues asserting it but I also loved to help people.  To help pay for college, I joined the military but ended up serving almost 22 years in the National Guard.  It supported my educational goals, fulfilled my sense of adventure and taught me a lot about leadership, service and values.  I am fiercely loyal and protective.

While I am happily retired from the National Guard, I still work full time protecting the environment and using my degree in science.  Most days I work from home but do go into the office once a week.  This schedule gives me more time at home, which my dog Mac and two cats love.  

I spend time with my friends, hiking with Mac, traveling, cooking, crafting and gardening. My favorite life adventures include diving with people from Shark Week on a trip to South Africa to cage diving with great white sharks and then while on the boat planning a trip to Mexico to cage dive with more great white sharks with the dive master. It is important for me to encourage my child to dream big and push themselves to reach those dreams.  But while we all want a child to succeed in what they try, I want them to know that in every “failure” comes great lessons and that they will have me continuing to support them as they try again, improve  and build resilience and courage.  

My life so far has been colorful and it has been shaped by the places I have gone and more importantly about the people I have met along the way.  I want to share this sense of adventure and fulfillment I have gotten from traveling with your child as we explore National Parks, see new places and experience different cultures.  In my travels, the people I have met taught me to be humble, empathetic, open minded,  and aware of different people’s life experiences (and lived experiences).  This is something  I want to impart on my child because that will be important for them to excel in any environment and among all types of people. 

I have a close-knit family and while they are a few states away, I see them often and enjoy visits with my nieces and nephews.  Every Thanksgiving,  they stay with me in Chicago and we spend a few days when the house is full, we share quality time together and eat big family meals.  As my nieces and nephews have grown I have loved being hands on and teaching them by doing so if that means climbing a tree with them – count me in.

I also have an incredible group of friends and neighbors here in the Chicago area that are part of my extended family. The day trips to the dog park or to the Michigan beaches is the best way to spend a few hours of any weekend laughing with friends, and enjoying the outdoors.

Why adoption…

I have always thought of adoption as a possible path to being a parent.  While life, military service and education, pushed my timeline to becoming a mother until I was more settled in my career.  I shifted my focus on becoming a parent solely through adoption after learning that I was not a good candidate for fertility treatments. 

Thank you for taking the time to learn about me and I am excited to be a mom and give a child a lifetime commitment as I raise them from children and support them as adults.

-Andrea