We are both so grateful that you are taking this time to learn about our family and what’s important to us! If you have any questions or would like to see our complete profile please feel welcome to contact us directly on our toll-free number 1-866-454-BABY (2229) or by email at information@stanandmichelleadopt.ca. You may also contact our Adoption Professional, Sal Garofalo at 905-668-2768 or by email: garofalo@durham.net. Sal is very caring, honest, and will answer any questions you may have about adoption.

We want to be a Mom and Dad and share in the joys of parenting a child. Adoption has always been part of our family plan. Stan is adopted, as is one of my cousins and my best friend, so adoption has always been a part of both of our lives. We'll raise your child in much the same way we were raised: with a positive outlook toward life, lots of encouragement, lots of love, an abundance of warm hugs and adoring kisses.

Hi and thanks for reading about us!

We are waiting to open our hearts, family and home to a new life. We appreciate the difficult decision you are making and we admire your courage to consider adoption. We hope reading about us will give you a sense of who we are, how we live and why we want to become parents -- hopefully the right parents for your child.

We enjoy the fun that life can bring and take every opportunity to laugh and explore the world around us. Over the ten years that we have been together, we have learned a lot about ourselves and each other, and as a team we have built a home full of love. Together we have overcome personal challenges, like infertility, and become stronger as individuals and as a couple. Through hard work and commitment, we have gained a deep respect and lasting love for each other. We will raise your child with that same respect and love and a focus on developing their individuality and helping them achieve their fullest potential. We want your child to be surrounded by warmth, security, affection and laughter.

Although we can’t begin to know the journey that has brought you to us, we want to offer you encouragement, support and open communication throughout your pregnancy. We have so much we want to say so we wrote this letter together (with me, Michelle, at the keyboard and Stan by my side adding his thoughts) hoping to give you some ideas of the loving and secure home we can provide for your baby. We look forward to meeting with you and your family, and we would be happy to build a relationship that will last our lifetimes with letters, pictures and visits. It is important to us that we work with you to create an adoption plan that is comfortable for everyone. We want your baby to know as much about their birth family as possible and how much he or she is loved. As you read about us, please consider allowing us to welcome your child into our warm-hearted family.

Why We Want to Adopt
We want to be a Mom and Dad and share in the joys of parenting a child. Adoption has always been part of our family plan. Stan is adopted, as is one of my cousins and my best friend, so adoption has always been a part of both of our lives. We’ll raise your child in much the same way we were raised: with a positive outlook toward life, lots of encouragement, lots of love, an abundance of warm hugs and adoring kisses. We will guide and nurture him or her to grow, thrive and become their unique and special selves. We will trust them and give them space to be responsible and make the right decisions. We’ll show them that even when things don’t go as planned, the result can be just as good and usually better.

We believe that families created by adoption are special and should be honoured. Your child will always know their adoption story and the wonderful way we became a family.

Solid Families
We have three sets of experienced grandparents eager to spoil a new grandchild. My parents remarried when I was young so my brother and I gained some great step-parents and a marvellous collection of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins. My parents have lots of practice with grandchildren, and they have assured us they know just how to spoil them.

Stan’s parents are just as eager. Stan was adopted into a great home and lavished with love and attention. Stan’s parents now dote on our niece and nephews and are thrilled with our decision to adopt. Since they live nearby, we will certainly benefit from their experience, support and encouragement.

Our siblings also live close by so there will be a never-ending stream of cousins to play with. We’ve spent countless summer afternoons at both of Stan’s sisters’ houses by the pool. The kids have great imaginations and we love to be part of their pool party games. We’d like to adopt a second child as well, so they both grow up with siblings as well as cousins.

Our dog Neo has the run of our house as well as our hearts. He is spoiled rotten. After a long family meeting, he has given us approval to add a new family member. However he has called first dibs on fetch, and he has sworn an oath to protect any new addition from all manner of strange noises and squirrels. He is eight years old now and is very well behaved. He will be as great a friend to our children as he is to us.

Our Fabulous Friends
In addition to our large families, we have a large and supportive circle of friends. Many of them have young children so we have a wealth of parental experience to rely on, not to mention endless opportunity for play dates. Whenever we visit friends with children, Stan and I are always enthusiastic playmates whether it entails dressing up for tea parties, constructing a Lego masterpiece or snuggling up to watch Finding Nemo. Our close friends, Liz and Nelson and Mark and Tara-Leigh, are expecting, so our children can grow up together. Our friends are like our extended family. 

Though we don’t belong to any organized religion, we both are very spiritual people. We find our inner peace in seeing the sun shining through the trees or watching a hummingbird on the wind. We plan to raise your child with a great appreciation of all that is good and right in the world, and with encouragement to wonder at all its mysteries as well.

Both of us feel that a child needs a moral and ethical education as well as an academic one. We benefit from having close family and friends from a variety of faiths and cultures who can offer your child exposure to the wonderful differences that make our planet great.

How We Find Fun
We make the most of our free time and we can’t wait to share it with your child. Stan is an active left fielder on his baseball team. On summer weekends, our dog Neo and I race down to the baseball field near our home to watch Stan play. His passion for the game and his full body slide into home plate fill my heart with pride. I know he would make a great Little League coach.

We also take a camera everywhere we go. I love to take the time to capture the hidden beauty in the world around me or the precious memories of our adventures. One of the best gifts Stan ever gave me was a camera. Taking pictures can be addictive (thank goodness for the digital camera!). Some of my most treasured Saturday afternoons have been spent at the birthday parties of friends’ children, chasing cake-filled faces around with a camera. Capturing the best of children at play and sharing in the creation of those memories fills me with such a sense of satisfaction.

Ontario is a great place to live, with beautiful landscapes and rich cultural activities. We often take day trips to explore local hiking trails or indulge in the unique practices of different cultures at local bazaars and festivals.

We feel that trying new activities both at home and while traveling is a great learning and eye-opening experience. This past summer, we hiked through a forest surrounding a magnificent gorge just north of where we live. We have fantastic pictures of our day-trip hiking through the forest and sitting in the hollow rocks that surround the gorge. We have chosen the gorge as the destination for our next camping adventure.

Providing a Solid Foundation
Like most families today, we both work. This allows us to live a comfortable lifestyle, own our home and provide for the future and our family. We both have a strong work ethic and enjoy our professions. Although we work hard for our 8-hour workday, we believe that every other hour of the day should be dedicated to family time and family activities.

We have both worked for the same well-established company for several years. My role is to help co-workers plan for, and cope with, the changes that come with day-to-day business. Stan develops creative ways to display our products to our customers. The close-knit community that this company encourages has allowed both of us to make a great deal of close connections. We not only work with colleagues we work with friends.

A balance between work and family is really important to our company. We are supported with extended parental leave, plenty of vacation time and flexible hours. We will be able to provide plenty of attention to your child whenever it is needed. Our careers allow us the flexibility to be actively involved in your child’s life as they grow. Your child will get lots of attention from both of us. Together, we make a good income that makes us comfortably middle class. It is important for us to provide the best possible opportunities for our children.

Happiness Starts at Home
We live in a great, family-oriented neighbourhood that is within walking distance of a community centre, schools and a large park. We own a bright and cheery home with a backyard ready to be filled with toys, although the kids will have to share it with our other family member, Neo, a playful, loving Jack Russell mix. Neo loves to run around, play with our nieces, nephews and neighbourhood kids and give lots of kisses.  He also makes for a warm and fuzzy snuggle buddy.

We loved our house the moment we saw it and we have worked together on a number of small renovation projects to make it a comfortable home. As kids Stan and I both played “Daddy’s little helper,” handing our dads tools and watching them fix things around the house, so we are no strangers to home renovation projects. We can’t wait to work with your child to build a tree house in our backyard. 

We look forward to family dinners as we feel that sitting down together gives us time to enjoy each other’s company. Every night, we share the highs and lows of our days, talk about our plans for the upcoming weekend or share the jokes we heard that day. One night a week, we excitedly rush into the family room to eat dinner in front of the TV. We are both huge fans of detective shows, and we love to work together to solve the mystery before the end of the show.  

On weekends or in our spare time, we complete a host of small projects around the house, shop or go on a day trip to explore a new place. We also relish opportunities to spend time with the kids in our neighbourhood. Stan helped our active teenage neighbour rebuild his ten-speed. And I have become quite the road hockey player with coaching from our four year old NHL hopeful across the street.

Sundays are often spent visiting family, catching up on how our nieces and nephews are doing or seeing what projects have been occupying our parents’ time. Life can get busy with day-to-day demands, so we take every opportunity to spend quality time together and with family.

Raising a Happy Child
We have both had the opportunity to benefit from excellent educations, and your child will have that same chance. Hearing our nieces and nephews tell stories about their adventures at school makes us realize how involved we want to be in our child’s education. We don’t just want to hear about their day at school; we want to join them on their journey discovering this world. We can’t wait to read your child bedtime stories and help with spelling tests and math problems. Stan is a whiz at anything with numbers, and I love to make bedtime stories come alive with creative actions and voices for all the characters.

As kids, we both spent a lot of time on family outings. Stan’s favourite vacations were spent learning how to carve scrap pieces of wood with his dad next to the campfire. I remember summer weekends at my grandparents’ cottage, floating on an inner tube in the river. We feel it is important that a child experience an array of different activities and that we share many of these experiences as a family. Varied experiences help a child to learn, grow and find their own path.

It is important for each child to be who they are, and we want to provide them with the love and support that will encourage their unique and special qualities to grow and thrive. It is also important for kids to have consistency and routine and to learn responsibility for themselves and others. We know we can work together to provide supportive guidance for your child, while also allowing them freedom to explore and learn from the world around them.

We Would Love to Hear from You
We are so lucky to have found each other. We were so sure we were meant for each other we moved in together three months after we met. We spent six enchanting years building a home and a life together before getting married. We have been together for ten years now, and our relationship gets better with each passing day.

We are best friends, as well as husband and wife.

We want to thank you for the opportunity to share a little bit about us as you take these courageous steps towards considering an adoption plan for your baby. We hope we have painted a picture of the warm and caring family we will endeavour to provide for your child. We would be honoured to be considered as potential adoptive parents and look forward to learning more about you, your family and the dreams you have for yourself and your baby. While we are interested in an open adoption and look forward to building a relationship with you and your family, it is also important to us to be respectful of your needs and wishes. We want to work with you to develop an adoption plan that is as open as you are comfortable with.

We wish you well as you search for the best adoptive parents for your child and hope you find a path that is right for you. If we can answer any additional questions or provide any more information about ourselves please don’t hesitate to contact us, we would love to hear from you.

Thank you for reading, and take care,
Michelle and Stan