Dear Birthmother

Though we cannot fully understand the weight of the decision that you are making right now, we understand that you must have a lot to think about. We honor and respect you tremendously for the love that you have for your child. We also thank you for the opportunity to share our lives with you. In getting to know us, we hope that you will trust that we will raise your child with a sense of respect and unconditional love just like we were raised with by our parents.

How We Met

> Our names are Antoine & Jennifer and we met while we were 19 years old, nine years ago while working at a local pet store. We dated for about 7 years before marrying in October of 2007. We had a very small wedding with close friends and family, followed by a lovely honeymoon cruise. Since we met at a very young age, we have really grown together and truly are each others best friends! While no relationship is perfect without any bumps in the road, we have a very honest & respectful marriage with each other, and believe communication, honesty & respect are the foundations of a healthy relationship. We believe this to be true not only with our marriage, but with the relationship we hope to have with our children. Since Antoine has much younger siblings, we have had a chance to watch them grow up, and experience some amazing milestones with them. We knew a couple of years before we got married that we wanted nothing more than to start a family. However, after a few years of surgeries and unsuccessful infertility treatments, we decided that adoption was the way for us to start our family. With as much as we loved his younger siblings as our own, we knew that it did not matter if our child was biologically ours or not. Our ultimate goal was to be parents!! We have both grown up in families where adoption was a very openly discussed matter. Both of us have multiple cousins who have been adopted & we have great relationships with them.

About Us

Jennifer is not only my wife but my best friend. She is the strongest person I know. One thing I admire about my wife is that no matter what challenge faces her, she never looks at it as a failure, but only a bump in the road. I know my wife was put on this earth to be a mom. She just loves spending time with my brothers and sister and enjoys teaching them new things. She is also extremely close with her mom dad and younger sister.She enjoys going shopping each weekend with her mother and sister and spending time with them. Jennifer also has a great love for animals and has helped foster many kittens and find homes for them in the past. She truly has a warm heart! Jennifer always puts the needs of others first and I think this is what will make her a great mother. Currently, Jennifer works in system configuration in the I.T. department at a health insurance company. She also loves photography like I do and cannot wait to take pictures of our new family!! She loves to not only create great memories, but capture them as well. Antoine is not only a very dedicated husband, but also a very dedicated brother, son and friend. He is the oldest of his siblings. He has been a wonderful role model and "rock" to his siblings during their young lives. His brothers are 13 years old, and 7 years old. He also has a nine year old sister. There has never been a graduation, rehearsal, football game, or event at his brothers and sisters schools that he has not attended. While his siblings may not have always had their fathers present in their lives, he has stepped up and taken responsibility of that role, to show them a stable male figure in their lives. This is one thing I admire the most about him. Antoine loves the outdoors, and especially photography. He has a tremendous talent for seeing things through the lense and bringing them to life! The thing I admire most about Antoine is his patience and strength he provides for both of us. He will always listen with an open heart and mind before making any decisions. I feel that this is how we have been so fortunate in having some of the wonderful friends we have in our lives today & feel very blessed by this. He has a passion for meeting new people and getting along with almost everyone he meets. Not to mention, he has a hilarious sense of humor! Antoine has been a contractor as a cable technician for quite a few years now. This is a very satisfying job for him, as it allows him to approach each job differently & problem solve on a daily basis. It also allows him to do one of his favorite things which is meeting new people from all different backgrounds!

Our Family & Hopes

We are both very close to our families. Frequently, we go to Antoines mothers house for a nice home cooked meal. We live about five minutes from Jennifers parents house and see them at least 4 times a week to have dinner with her family, or just to spend time together. During the summer months, we spend most of our days at Jennifers parents house cooking on the grill, swimming in the pool, or exploring at the creek at the end of their street. Often times, Antoine joins Jennifers father on motorcycle rides. We feel very fortunate to have such great relationships with our families. Antoines siblings regularly spend the night at our house and attend family outtings. Jennifer has one younger sister, who she is very close with. We are fortunate that all of our family still lives very close to one another and are constantly getting together to spend quality time. Both of our families are very supportive of our adoption plans. Our parents cannot wait, since this will be the first grandchild on both sides. This child is sure to be spoiled!! We also all like to take trips together. Every year we usually get everyone together and take a family vacation. Typically we like to go South and enjoy warm weather. We love to do new adventurous things like white water rafting, jet skiing, and swimming with dolphins. We feel it is very important to take at least one nice vacation a year to relax, and really enjoy the company of your family. As we become parents, we cannot wait to share some of our family traditions and holidays. This is something we look forward to the most once we are parents. Some of the fun traditions we have are going to the St. Patricks Day parade, coloring easter eggs, making Christmas cookies, and having Chrismas Eve dinner at Antoines mothers house (including Jennifer's family). Of course we like to do fun things for the kids (Antoines siblings) as well, by not only including them in the things mentioned, but also by hiding the Easter baskets, taking them to "Santa's Workshop", and going to Christmas Eve night at Jennifers aunt's house. One of Jennifers favorite memories was "spotting" Santa on the way home from her aunt's house every year as a child. These are just a handful of things we will continue with our child. Not only will we celebrate the "fun" traditions of the holidays, but, we will also make sure our child knows the true meaning behind the holidays. The goal for our family is to raise our children in a home filled with love, laughter and happiness. Our home is a place where our children will know they are loved and accepted unconditionally. As we said before, we believe communication and respect are the foundations of a relationship. We hope to have and will encourage a relationship with our children so that they feel comfortable in coming to us about anything that they may be going through in life. We hold a strong philosophy that no matter what happens, even if we may not agree with the decisions our children may make as they grow up, we will ALWAYS love them and be there for them. We will raise them to always know this. We would also like our child to have faith in God. Jennifer was raised Catholic, and Antoine was raised Baptist. We would like to expose our child to religion, as we feel faith in God is an important thing to have while growing up. We will also support our childs desire should he or she like to experience another faith as they get older. We feel that it is important to at least give them a background of religion in order for them to make an educated decision as they get older as to what is best for them. We both feel very strongly about education for our children. While we will not pressure or push our child into expecting too much from them, we will always make sure we are able to help them reach the potential we know they can. We would like to give our child all of the tools to develop his or her own unique personality and talents in life. We will also raise them to know the courage, strength and love you have for them in making your adoption plan for them. We want our child to always know how lucky we are to have them in our lives, and how lucky they are for the many people who love them! Whatever your decision may be, we already feel eternally grateful for birth parents like yourselves who lovingly consider adoption. It means so much to us that we are able to share this with you. Each time we will look at our child, it will remind us of you and how much you mean to them and us. Thank you so much for taking the time to learn more about us! Please visit our website to learn more about us: www.AntoineJennAdopt.com Or please email us at AntoineJennAdopt@live.com