Adoption Book- Chris and Natalie

Chris and Natalie
We are very grateful to you for considering us as potential adoptive parents
for your child. We can’t imagine what a difficult choice this is for you, and we
are thankful that you are taking the time to hear our story.
We’ve been married for nine years. We are ready to welcome a child into a
happy, loving, supportive, and nurturing home, and to help that child to
cultivate their own personality, confidence, and individuality.
Chris and Natalie
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Chris and Natalie
Outfield at a Rays game
Our first big date: Prom 2000
Georgia Tech homecoming
Dressed up in South Carolina
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Hi, we’re Chris and Natalie. We met and became friends in high school, when
we were both members of the marching band. We didn’t start dating until Chris
(who is three years older than Natalie) was in college and Natalie was still a junior in
high school (her parents were not big fans of that).
We knew right away that our relationship was special, and we’ve been together
ever since. We dated long-distance for several years as we both finished college in
separate states. We earned many frequent flier miles flying back and forth between
Atlanta, where Chris attended Georgia Tech, and Tampa, where Natalie attended
USF.
Finally, Chris graduated and was able to move down to Tampa to be nearer to
Natalie. We were engaged shortly afterward, and we were married on June 11, 2005.
We’ve been together for a long time and we love every minute of it (usually)! We do
not have any children, unless you count our dog, Sydney.
Clockwise from top:
France pavilion at Epcot
Early for a Rays game
Quiet dining outside
USF tailgating
Dinner on vacation
On Pensacola Beach
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Natalie
Clockwise from top left:
With Syndey in Key West
On vacation in St. Martin
Natalie and her sister, Meredith
Natalie with her Chorus students
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I’d like to use this space to tell you a little bit about
myself. As child, I was always involved in music. Piano
lessons, church choir, but when I started playing the flute in
6th grade was when music became a focal point in my life. I
loved being a band nerd and learning everything I could
about music. When I figured out that there was a way for
me to share my love of music with others, I decided that I
wanted to major in Music Education. I attended the
University of South Florida and graduated in 2005 with a
bachelor’s degree in Music Education.
Today, I’ve been teaching music to elementary school
students for almost 9 years. I work at a fantastic school that
happens to have many high-poverty students. I have the
greatest job in the world sharing music with my students. I
typically teach every child, first through fifth grade, at our
school. Sometimes I get to work with the kindergarteners
and even the Headstart students, which I assure you is close
to herding cats, but is a ton of fun and very rewarding. In
my class students sing, play drums, guitars, recorder, and
many other classroom instruments. They learn to read
music and to appreciate and perform music from many
cultures. My kids keep me on my toes- it seems there in
never one dull (or quiet) minute, but to see those kids
making progress and maturing and growing to love all kinds
of music is what makes it worth it. I especially love that I
get to see the same kids every year. They walk in as tiny
little first graders and eventually grow up and leave me as
seemingly huge fifth graders. Sometimes, they even come
back to visit as middle and even high schoolers, to tell me
what they miss and how they’re doing music now, which is
the greatest gift you can give a teacher.
I’m currently 31 years old. As a teacher, I am very lucky to have some extra
time off around the holidays and of course over the summer. I spend a lot of my
free time reading. I’ve always been an avid reader. I love to get lost in a story,
but I also enjoy non-fiction works occasionally as well. Reading has always been
a refuge for me. I would describe myself as quiet, thoughtful, introverted. A
book has always been a quiet place to go when things are getting to hectic or
when I need to do some thinking. I love to plow through a long reading list
during the summer. For some reason, I particularly enjoy re-reading books,
because it seems that you find something new in an old story every time that
you go back to it.
I also enjoy cooking. We usually eat home-cooked meals most of the time.
This is how we both grew up. In my family, I learned to cook from those around
me. Everyone had something different they were good at. My grandma’s stew
or fried shrimp, my grandmother’s hams and coleslaw (and super-sweet tea), my
mom’s meatloaf, and my dad’s ability to successfully pull off any new recipe that
he tried. I also like to try lots of different recipes, and thankfully Chris is happy
to oblige. When we first were married, we tried to divide up the cooking to
make things easier, but I figured out really fast that if I didn’t want to eat jarred
spaghetti for every meal, that we were going to have to come up with a new
arrangement. Now, Chris does the dishes and otherwise stays out of the way.
Everyone is happy. Several years ago, after my grandma passed away, I compiled
a cookbook of all her different recipes and gave one to all the women in the
family. I greatly miss my grandma but I think of her almost every time that I
cook. I am terrible at baking, which has been proven time and again. My sister
is a fabulous baker though, so my grandma would be proud that at least one of us
got that gene.
From top left:
Cooking at family Thanksgiving
Home-made pickles
Grandma’s recipe for stew and
biscuits
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Chris
Sailing Dad’s boat
Concentrating at Legoland
Dog park in Atlanta
St Patricks Day 5k run
Building at the workshop
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Growing up, I liked to tinker with things, take
things apart, and build things. I get it from my father,
who was an Engineer and encouraged this. It started
with Lego, but as I started to get tools, no mechanical
thing in the house was safe. My Father and I always built
the best science fair projects together and had the fastest
pinewood derby cars in the Cub Scout pack. The family
would also go sailing, and I would learn how to harness
the wind. As I got older, my attention turned to cars,
both performance and audio-wise. Even now that I’m 34,
they are still a big part of what I do. When I wasn’t
playing saxophone in the band, I was modifying the
suspension on my poor car and tweaking its very
ridiculous stereo system. My mother and father, while
usually annoyed at the mess and racket I was making, saw
that I was learning. With their help, I would eventually
go to Georgia Tech and get an Engineering degree.
Digital keyboard prototype
Working in the lab
Inspecting product at the factory
As luck would have it, I found a job designing audio
equipment targeted at small recording studios. The
industry is very small, and I am very fortunate to have
found this job. I have loved my job every day for the
past 11.5 years. Initially, I designed dozens of products,
from audio mixers to pianos to iPhone recording
hardware. I loved hearing about people using what I
had built as well as the idea that I was helping them
pursue their love of music and audio. Now I’m part of
a team that designs the huge mixing consoles that you
see in recording studios and at concerts. It still makes
me smile to hear about my favorite bands touring the
globe with something that I worked on.
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In my spare time I still work on cars. There is something about taking a $1000 car
and turning it into a machine that will beat the latest Corvette. My hobby became a
part-time job as I started a company with a friend tuning cars after hours. We would
later tune over 800 cars and it would fund my hobby. This hobby would also start
several of my long-term friendships. The company and the most hardcore cars have
come and gone, but I still share a workshop nearby with my closest friends where we
all hang out and work on our cars.
Chris and Jon building twin cars
Chris at the workshop
Rewiring my engine
In Germany at the Nurburgring
On track at Daytona
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Natalie:
- Favorite TV shows are: Downton Abbey, Project
Runway, and Game of Thrones
- Favorite book series are: Harry Potter, The Lord
of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia
- Favorite composer is Ralph Vaughan Williams
- Has naturally curly hair
- Is the shortest person in her family
Trivia!
Chris:
- Loves Futurama
- Had a pet rabbit named Leopold
- Speaks French, un peu
- Favorite food is sushi
- Once went 275mph on the Shanghai Maglev train
Family
We are both very close to our families, though we do not live near to them.
Natalie’s parents, Kim and Karen, have been married for 36 years. Her dad is a
retired pharmacist and her mom is a pediatric nurse practitioner. She also has a
younger sister, Meredith, who is married to Michael. Meredith is an industrial
engineer and Michael is in residency as an ophthalmologist. They do not have any
children yet. Natalie sees her family several times a year and is very close to them.
They talk on the phone a couple of times a week.
Chris’s parents, Robbie and Debbie, have been married for 37 years. Robbie is a
retired electrical engineer who still does some contract work, and his mother was
mostly a stay-at-home mom. Chris has a younger brother, Jon, who is married to
Mara. Jon is an electrical engineer and Mara is a college professor. They are
expecting their first child soon and we are very excited to be an aunt and uncle!
Chris is also close with his family and we see them several times a year.
Both of us were raised in a similar manner. Our parents were fairly strict, but
not overly so. We had strong, nurturing mothers and fathers. Our parents made us
a priority and they have always been there for us. As children, we maintained the
balance for having just about everything that we wanted (within reason) but without
being spoiled. We had structure at home and our parents emphasized the
importance of education.
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Clockwise from top:
Chris and Natalie with their parents
Chris with Natalie’s family at Epcot
Karen and Meredith in Charleston
Natalie, Karen, and Meredith with their dogs
Debbie and Jon at Georgia Tech homecoming
Clockwise from top left
Our parents and Jon and his wife
Chris, Jon, and Dad playing with planes on
Christmas morning
Chris and his Dad at Georgia Tech
homecoming
Natalie and her family at the Arboretum
Natalie’s family with the sons-in-law
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Travel
We are lucky to usually take a few small trips each year. We like to take trips with just the two of us together. Over
the past few years, we’ve taken some fun vacations with family and with friends. Sometimes we even take our dog,
Sydney. We’ve been to Key West for a long weekend, to St. Martin, we recently met up with Natalie’s family in
Asheville, North Carolina for a week. Natalie’s been to Charleston, South Carolina with her mom and sister for a girl’s
weekend. We’ve been to Boston a couple of times with Chris’s family, and we meet them every year at the Georgia Tech
homecoming game. What we would really like, though, is to include a new member of our family. I’m sure that
travelling with a baby isn’t easy, but we are ready to give it a try! There is nothing more that we would love than to
include our child in our family trips and small vacations.
We often make quick trips to Disney world, Epcot being our preferred park, and to Universal Studios to go see the
Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Natalie is obsessed with the Harry Potter books). We’ve also recently been to
Legoland. Chris is obsessed with Legos and looks forward to sharing that with a child. I’m pretty sure we were the only
ones there without kids but we still had a pretty good time.
Opposite:
Natalie and Sydney in Key West
From top left:
Chris in St. Martin
Anse Marcel beach
Natalie and Chris at Epcot
Chris and his dad, Robbie
Chris and Natalie in Key West
At Hogwarts Castle
St. Martin Beach
North Carolina winter
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Debbie
Adoption has been in our thoughts
for a long time. Chris’s mother was
adopted at age 1 from an orphanage
in Seoul, South Korea in 1957. She is
especially excited to welcome an
adopted grandchild.
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With Mom at Chris and Natalie’s
wedding
Music
In our life, music always seems to be at the center of things. Natalie grew up
singing in church choir, taking piano lessons, and playing the flute. Chris plays
the saxophone. In our house, music is very important. We seem to have an everexpanding collection of instruments. At last count, we have two flutes, a piccolo,
two saxophones, a clarinet, a trumpet, a keyboard, and a couple of guitars.
We met in marching band in high school. In fact, Natalie was the drum
major of the marching band during her senior year. We were both in marching
band in college, Chris at Georgia Tech and Natalie at USF. As a music education
major, Natalie was exposed to all kinds of musical ensembles and genres.
We love classical music and occasionally attend orchestra concerts. We also
love a variety of other genres, Chris’s mostly being alternative rock and Dave
Matthews Band-type stuff, and Natalie’s being punk music (like New Found Glory
and Panic at the Disco) and also a little folk music (John Prine and Mumford and
Sons). We like a little bit of everything. We also love going to live shows
together.
Chris’s job is also related to music. As an electrical engineer, he designs
hardware that professionals use in a recording studio, as well as the big
soundboards they use to run live concerts. Think of those giant mixing boards
they use in a recording studio.
Chris gets to practice his mixing skills when Natalie has Chorus programs at
school. He always gets talked into helping to run the sound for rehearsals and for
the performance so that Natalie can stay focused on conducting the kids. The
kids are always excited to see him when he comes up to school to help out.
We are very lucky that music is such a fundamental part of our lives. We
look forward to sharing that with our child, to watch him or her develop their
little singing voice and to be introduced to playing instruments and eventually
develop their own musical preferences, as well as a life-long love for music.
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Our Home
We live in a single-family home in a suburban area. It is a nice, small neighborhood, with some excellent neighbors. Our
neighborhood is nice and quiet, safe, with very little traffic, and the sidewalks and streetlights make walking the dog fantastic.
There is a good mix of families in our neighborhood. Our neighborhood also has a clubhouse and a pool. Our home has 3
bedrooms. We also have a small backyard that Sydney loves to run around in. We have been in our home for about 8 years
and we love it. It isn’t huge, but we have plenty of space for what we need.
Chris is very handy and good at building and fixing things. Which is good, because Natalie is terrible at those sorts of
things (duct tape works great, right?). Chris has updated much of the house since we moved in, including putting in new
floors, updating the bathrooms, putting in new doors and trim, and most recently he re-did our kitchen (Natalie’s favorite
room). Natalie keeps a small garden in the backyard, and loves to grow vegetables when it’s not too hot outside to grow
anything. Natalie also loves decorating the home and finding small things that make it more personal and comfortable.
Clockwise from upper left:
Chris and Sydney playing in the yard
Kitchen renovation in progress
Kitchen renovation finished
Brewing beer in the garage
Retiling the bathroom
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Sydney
Our dog Sydney is a big part of our lives. We got her when she was a puppy and she’s seven years old now. She
brings great joy to our lives, when she is not getting in trouble for something. She can be a handful but we love her.
She’s an Australian Shepherd and she loves to play Frisbee and run around in the back yard. She really loves it when
we take her to the dog beach; she gets in the water, rolls in the sand to get the water off, and then gets back in the
water. She knows a few tricks and she loves to beg for food from the table (and she usually gets something), but
mostly she loves to sleep. It seems like every time we look up she’s in a different spot in the house taking a nap.
Sydney has been a great comfort to us as we have gone through some tough times.
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Holidays
There are a few holidays that we really love to celebrate. Holidays are an important part of family life, and often we go out
of town to celebrate them with our families.
At Easter, it’s usually just the two of us. Natalie usually cooks a big ham, potato salad, and other family recipes. We also
dye eggs every Easter.
For the Fourth of July we usually get together with Chris’s extended family (usually about 20 people) at his parents’ house and
visit with everyone and do some boating.
For Halloween, Natalie loves making candy bags for the neighborhood children. And she always takes the leftover candy to
school the next day. We always carve a pumpkin, which usually means that Chris does all of the carving while Natalie fishes out
the pumpkin seeds and roasts them. Usually, Sydney is forced to wear a costume but usually she looks so miserable that we take
it off of her after a couple of minutes.
Christmas is the biggest holiday in our family. Natalie’s favorite thing to do all year is pick out a Christmas tree. We
usually get the biggest one that will fit in the car and then we decorate it. We have a family tradition of getting a Christmas
ornament from every vacation we take, so we have some fun memories as we decorate the tree. Natalie also has some of her
grandma’s special Christmas ornaments and decorations that she grew up seeing every year. Chris puts up the Christmas lights,
but his favorite thing is to set up his Lego trains. Under our Christmas tree, we have piles of Lego train tracks and Chris has 3
Lego trains. He says he could never afford them as a child, but now Natalie thinks he may be overcompensating. Sydney does
not like the trains but she cheers up if you put a dog biscuit in one of the cars and let it go around the track. Natalie loves
Christmas music, and regularly tortures Chris by singing all of the lyrics to every song. We usually end up spending the actual
holiday with our families out of town, and it is very nice that Natalie gets two weeks off every year around Christmas.
Clockwise from right:
Christmas nap
Sydney and Lego train
Syndey loves Halloween
Dr. Zoidberg pumpkin
Easter eggs
Chris building Lego train
Center:
Chrismas Dogs
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Adoption
You may be wondering why we are interested in adopting a
child. Simply stated, we’ve tried to have our own children, at first on
our own and then working with a fertility specialist. We have
experienced much joy and hope but also much disappointment
throughout this process. We worked with the fertility specialist for
over 4 years. We are not able to have our own children.
In our marriage, we have never had to go through anything
remotely as hard as this. We have faced many difficult decisions,
stress, and disappointment. Our marriage is very strong and we have
worked hard to make sure that infertility issues weren’t the only
thing we were focused on. We have taken time to enjoy it being just
the two of us, and I don’t think that either one of us is sorry about
that.
Now, we are ready for the next chapter. We are ready for our
own child, who we can love, teach, and encourage. We are ready to
have someone to dye those Easter eggs with and to buy those
Christmas presents for. We are ready to see the world from our
child’s eyes in a whole new way.
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We hope that this book has helped you in learning more about who we are and what we
are like. We have no way to know what a difficult choice you have to make. You have
our gratitude for creating an adoption plan for your child, and we are thankful that you
are considering us.
Thank you,
Chris and Natalie
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Bonus!
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