Thank you for taking the time to get to know us and to consider us in this important decision you are making.  We can’t imagine how hard this is may be for you, but admire your strength and offer our support and encouragement to you in this adoption process. We are excited about the opportunity to get to know you and hope to have an open and ongoing relationship with you, welcoming you into our family to whatever extent you are comfortable. 

Our Story

We met through some friends during a snowboarding trip. After dating for a while, a romantic proposal took place on the beach at Coronado where Matt lit one hundred tealight candles spelling out “Will you marry me?” We married the next year with a beautiful ceremony in New Zealand. We believe God bought us together as a perfect match and it was worth the wait! We are best friends and love doing life together. We talked about our desire to have children early on in our relationship and with being unable to have our own birth children, we looked at options and quickly saw adoption as God’s beautiful ‘Plan A’ for our lives.  

Just over three years ago we were blessed to adopt Ella and she has been the sunshine of our lives. We both love children very much and have so much love to give. It is our hearts desire to expand our family with a much needed sibling for Ella and would love the opportunity to bring your little one into our home and hearts.

Our Home

We live in a beautiful, friendly city in Northern California . Our home has lots of space to play hide ‘n seek and also to do arts and crafts. Outside is beautiful backyard that’s fun to play in with a swing, lawn and play area. It is surrounded by mountains and picturesque lakes. In the summer, we love to have picnics by the lake, and paddle around on the water. In the winter, the nearby Mt. Shasta offers a great ski slope, and we love family times tobogganing and making snowmen. Matt is looking forward to introducing our new little one to snowball fights! Grandma and Grandpa can’t wait to take the new little one to ‘Turtle Bay’ - the local children’s museum. We are very involved with our local church, which is multi-cultural and has a strong community of friends and families that we love to hang out with. 

About Matt 

Matt is my ‘Mr Perfect’.  He is an easy-going, loyal, caring, fun-loving person who enjoys life. He has a great sense of humor and keeps the fun and the play in everything. He can relate to almost any child because he has a child-like heart. When he walks into a room with children, they gravitate towards him. Ella absolutely adores him and it’s a sure bet our new little one will too! Matt grew up in Pismo Beach, California, and loves to surf. He can’t wait to one day teach our second little one how to ride a wave! Matt has a stable job as an X-Ray technician at the hospital, and has a flexible schedule, so can have lots of quality time with the family!

About Karina 

Karina is a fun loving, easy-going person with an outgoing, go-getter personality.  Coming from beautiful New Zealand, she loves the outdoors and healthy lifestyle, and I bet you’ll like her “down under” accent! Karina comes from a large family, and values going back to New Zealand every year with Matt and Ella to spend time with loved ones. Karina’s love for gourmet food and making the best espresso coffees in town makes our house a magnet for friends and family. Karina is savvy in business, with a Bachelor’s in Business and a corporate marketing background, and she even owned a café! With her ‘career’ behind her, she now loves being a Mom and is such a natural at it. I love watching how Karina converses with Ella throughout the day, and how they paint and do crafts together. Karina works part-time from home doing some property management so has the freedom and flexibility to be a stay at home mom. Karina is the most amazing, fun, loving Mommy and wife I know and I am a very blessed!  

Ella

Ella is a bright, outgoing three year old who has a lot of spunk and personality. She loves dancing (especially to ‘Let it Go’), singing, playing chase/hiding and painting.  She is very caring and keeps talking about a baby sister or brother. We think she will make such an awesome elder sister and playmate to the new little one.

Interests and Hobbies

We love being active and doing things together as a family. We enjoy road trips, weekends in Santa Cruz surfing, mountain bike riding on the trails around Redding, walking (and playing) down the river trail, and hanging out with other families. We love overseas travel, and look forward to showing our second child the world, especially New Zealand so he or she can grow up knowing Karina’s family. 

Our Family 

We are blessed to have the most loving, supportive family. They are all very excited to welcome a new one into the family. Grandma and Grandpa (Matt’s parents) live just down the road and are the best Grandparents a child would want! We also love to visit Uncle Jason (Matt’s brother) and Aunty Christine and three cousins who live 15 minutes away at a house in the countryside. Our New Zealand family love to visit us in the USA and we love to make trips to New Zealand every year to visit Granddad, and all the aunties, uncles, and cousins.

Our Promise

Thank you for reading our letter. We hope that you are able to get a glimpse of who we are and the loving parents we want to be to your child. We want this child to grow up knowing how loved he/she is by both you and us. Please know that in our family you will always be an important part of your child’s life. Our Christian faith and values are central to who we are, and we will bring up our child with everything we have. That includes our love, time, education, finances and the best thing that we can give, which is our faith and God’s love. We look forward to meeting you and discovering your goals and thoughts for the future. 

Warmly,

Matt and Karina