Picture's for Birth Parent Letter

So here are some of the PIcture's taken last friday and we want your opinion!!!!!!!!!

Last Home Study Visit

Well everyone we had our last Home Study visit till of course after placement visits... Our Home Study person was just so nice and really made it an easy going process... Tonight she was telling us about our list of baby stuff we need for when we have to travel to go where ever...Just the thought of packing a travel to go get baby bag is just amazing...

This is So Exciting!!!!

We are so much more proud of this Letter than the first.. We would really like everyone's feedback PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a professional Photo session today and we absolutly Loved the Gardens we chose.. We should have the picture's in a few day's.. They were mainly just our pics for Birthparent Letter main pic... We have our next session with our Photo Professional in a few weeks for more candid photo's of both of us with our niece's and nephew..

Birth Parent Letter Draft #2

Dear Birthmother,
We are Chad and Jason. We admire your strength and courage as you consider open adoption and are excited that you are taking the time to read our letter. It is very important for us to have you be a part of our family. We always knew that we wanted to do an open adoption because we want our child to know the story of their birth and of your love. We want our child to know who he/she is and how much he/she is loved by their birth family.

Career
Chad is an Elementary School teacher where he works with a variety of fifth graders and loves to see their smiling faces when they learn something new like multiplying fractions. Chad has a very flexible schedule since he is off of work during the summers and all major holidays. He looks forward to being able to help our child with their homework. He is so excited to be involved in our child’s school activities and can not wait to watch our child sing “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” on stage for the first time. Chad can not wait to see our child’s face when he or she sees Goofy for the first time on summer vacation at Disney.
Jason is a hairstylist he can not wait to give our child his or her first hair cut. Since Jason works for himself, he has a flexible schedule, and he plans to be home with our child during the day. Jason can not wait to see our child’s first step and first word.

Our Relationship
Jason and Chad met 6 years ago on a dating website where we were both looking for a loving relationship. We had our first date and have been together every since. We knew from the moment we met that we were starting a wonderful adventure. We have both always wanted to be parents and can not wait to welcome a child into our family.

Our Home
We live in Rock Hill, South Carolina which is about 30 minutes from Charlotte, North Carolina. We live in a quite neighborhood filled with children playing tag and climbing trees. We enjoy spending our hot summer days by our pool and can not wait to see our child do a cannon ball for the first time. We also share our home with 3 dogs and 4 cats. The animals are all very friendly, and good with children. We are looking forward to seeing our child cuddle with the cats and playing fetch with the dogs.
We have great schools in our area, which are all walking distance from our home. We can not wait to walk our child to Kindergarten for the first time.

Interest and Hobbies
Chad loves sports, especially football and basketball. He is looking forward to coaching his child’s basketball team.
Chad also loves the theatre. He looks forward to the day when he is able to help direct his child’s school play and Jason is able to do hair and makeup for the play.
Jason enjoys doing arts and crafts. He loves to make Christmas ornaments with our nieces. He can not wait to make our child’s “First Christmas” ornament.
Jason really enjoys cooking all types of foods. He can not wait to cook cookies and decorate them with our child.
We enjoy taking cruises and seeing different parts of the world. We look forward to taking our child and seeing him or her swim with the dolphins in Jamaica.
We also enjoy going to the movies together and are excited to hear our child’s laughter the first time they see Nemo in the movie theatre.


Family and Friends
We are very close to our families and see them often. Our nieces and nephew that live close by love coming to our house to swim during the summer. They are looking forward to teaching their cousin how to swim and build forts in the living room at night.
We have a great deal of family that live all around the US. We look forward to being able to take our child from Alaska to go sledding with Aunt Brenna and then warming up with some hot chocolate. We also look forward to taking our child to visit their cousin Annabelle in Nevada where we will visit the Hoover Dam.
Chad’s brother became a part of his family through adoption. Having a first hand experience how positive adoption can be makes us want to give that to our child.

Personal Values
We have a strong belief that God will give us a beautiful child that we will be able to care for and raise.
We want our child to have every opportunity in life including receiving a great education.
We will raise our child in a loving, happy and compassionate home.




Our View On Openness
We believe in teaching our child about their heritage and about who they are.
We want you to have many pictures, and be able to visit the child as you feel comfortable so you may share in as many of our child’s milestones. Open Adoption is important to us because we want our child to know his/her birth story and that they were placed with us out of love. You will always be important in our child’s life and we look forward to you being a part of our family. We feel the more openness we have the better adjusted our family dynamic will be.

Parenting
We look forward to being there for all of the victories in our child’s life. We want to be there the first time they have puppy love.
We hope to instill in our child the value of equality and acceptance of others.

In Closing
We want to thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We want you to know that if you choose us your child will be brought up in a loving and accepting home. We would do anything we can to make sure our child is happy and well taken care of. We can not wait to hear from you and look forward to getting to know you.

With Love and Understanding


Chad Jarrett & Jason Mansfield
Our contact information
chadjarrett@hotmail.com
jaysinwantsu03@yahoo.com
Visit our open adoption blog at:
www.jasonandchadopenadoptionjourney.blogspot.com



Our website and 800 number are still being worked on but will have after letter has been approved.

The Red Pen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Upon our Birth Parent Letter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boy oh boy did they get us with the red pen of change.... I'm totally fine with what they want to se change but man 5 pages worth.. They didn't even give any positive feedback what so ever... And the funny thing is it's gonna sound just like all of the other letter's now after we make those change's.. We are gonna of course change those thing's verbatim to as what they suggested, but I feel like we are now gonna be just like every other letter out there.. We've given them our thought's in our first rough draft so why don't they just construct those thought's into what they want and allow us to give them our feedback.. We paid them all of our money up front down to the last red cent even for the delivery money part so why not just do it for us.. They know what they want to see... I'm really trying not to sound offended cause I'm really not ... But come on just write the damn thing if you are gonna change litterally everything about it...

Home Study ... WE PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were informed by our Home Study person that we were gonna be Daddies......... I'm SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!! WE PASSED WE PASSED WE PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She comes back next Tuesday so she can say she did her 2 visits... Thank You God.... We're gonna be Daddies!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our person was just so warm and kind and so easy to talk to .. she expects us to be with child right around Christmas time... I think that will be just so Wonderful on so many levels for us.. It's always been such a special time for us already and to add a child to the joyous holiday will be the best... And you guy's that follow our journey please pray that God Blesses us with a child from California so we both can be legal parents.. Please !!!!!!!!

Another post where I don't have much to say, just that we are getting the house all cleaned and polished for the Home Study Monday @ 1 .... I can't believe it's here.. I'm gonna be a great host and bake cookies or something nibbly like that. Everyone out there say your prayer's for us that she give's us a hint on monday if we pass or not..

I've been Interviewed !!!!!!!!!!

If you could take your family on a vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?2.What is your favorite time of day?3.How did you meet your partner?4.What's your favorite meal to eat for dinner?5.What is 1 thing you want to do before this life is over?1.I would take my Family to Mackinaw Island.. It's in the upper part of Michigan.. You can't even have a car up there..It's so Green and Lush and they have the Best Fudge out there.. If you've ever had Moose Track's ice cream that's where the Fudge is From.. 2.When I'm get off of work and get in the car and plug in my Ipod touch and roll all the window's and sunroof down and just blare the music and let that wind go through my hair..3.We met online.. we both saw that we weren't into the bar scene anymore and we both had career's and had goals.. not to many people were like us at that moment in time..4. Anything Mexican.. I LOVE IT ALL.. Mostly ..Even the heartburn is worth it..LOL..5.To become a Daddy and be able to teach my child about the Importance of Love and Family and Respect..www.michellespath.blogspot.com is my interviewer and if anyone would like me to interview them Please leave me a comment with your email and I'll think of 5 question's...

Fortune Friday!!!!!!

Please copy and Paste this and let's see how far it will reach.. I'm just doing what I'm told... There needs to be an objective.. Maybe we should post what out Horoscope say's ..

Birth Mother Letter!!!!!!!! No Red Marks Yet

Thank You to all of you for the great comments on our Birth mother Letter... We've not heard back from our agency about the letter.. So I'm assuming there's gonna be lot's of red crossed through everything... LOL.. Honestly it doesn't bother us.. Cause we know how much this letter will affect our Birth Parents, and we want that to be a great first impression... So Bring it IAC..hehehe.. And of course I mean that in a good funny way.

And A Big Congrats to all of the New Family's that were started or added to this week.. Matteo is So Handsome and of course a little cutie. Happy Friday and have a great weekend to all..

Dear Birthmother Letter 1st Rough Draft !!!!!

So here it is folks a 1st rough draft... We just sent it off to the agency today...Comments PLease!!





Dear Birthmother,
We are Chad and Jason. We are very excited to have the opportunity to do an open adoption. It is very important for us to have you be a part of our family. We feel the more openness we have the better our family dynamic will be. We want to raise our child in a loving, happy and compassionate home.

Career
Chad is an Elementary School teacher. He looks forward to being able to help his own child with their homework. He is also excited about attending his child’s school activities as a parent like the Christmas Concert. Chad is looking forward to going on vacations to Disney when they are both out of school for the summer.
Jason is a hairstylist. He will make sure that his child is up to date on the trendiest styles. Jason works for himself so he can make his own schedule and will be able to stay home during the day to see all the baby’s firsts.


Our Relationship
We have been together for 6 years.
We knew on our first date that our relationship was going to be a new adventure for both of us. On our first anniversary we signed the papers to buy our house. Since that first year we have been looking forward to having a child to make our home complete.
Chad has a brother who was adopted through a closed adoption. We knew that when our time came to adopt that we wanted to have an open adoption. We want our child to know who he/she is and how much he/she is loved by their birth family.

Our Home
We live in Rock Hill, South Carolina which is about 30 minutes from Charlotte, North Carolina. We live in a quite neighborhood with a large yard in which our child will be able to play in and climb the trees. We are looking forward to teaching our child to swim in our private pool that sits in the backyard. We have three dogs and 4 cats that our child will be able to cuddle up with or play fetch with in our house. All of our child’s future schools are within walking distance. We look forward to walking our child into Kindergarten with their new backpack and lunchbox starting their whole new adventure.

Interest and Hobbies
Chad has a love for sports that reaches no other. He loves to watch football and basketball. He is looking forward to attending his child’s first little league game and being the biggest cheerleader in the stands.
Chad also has a great love for the theatre. He looks forward to the day when he is able to help direct his child’s school play like he does for his students.
Jason enjoys doing arts and crafts. He loves to make Christmas ornaments with our nieces. He can not wait to make our child’s “First Christmas” ornament.

Family and Friends
We have several nieces and a nephew that live close by. They are looking forward to having a new cousin that they can come over and have pool parties with and build forts in the living room at night.
We have a great deal of family that lives all around the country. We look forward to being able to take our child from Alaska to Nevada to visit all of these relatives.

Personal Values
We both have a strong belief that God will entrust us with a beautiful child that we will be able to care for and raise.
We feel strongly about giving our child every opportunity to get the best education either being Technical School or Ivey League.

Our View On Openness
We believe that our child should have every possible answer where they come from, their heritage, and an understanding of why their mother chose us to parent them.
We want the mother to have many pictures and be able to visit the child so the child knows they are loved.

Parenting
We look forward being there for all the victories in our child’s life, as well as, the loses. We want to be there the first time they have puppy love. We want to be there to pick them up when they lose in the championship game.
We want to teach them that no one is better then anyone else. We want them to learn there are no rules when it comes to who you love and how you love them. Love is unconditional and can never be lost.

In Closing
We want to thank you for taking the time to get to know us. We want you to know that if you choose us your child will be brought up in a loving and accepting home. We would do anything we can to make sure our child is happy and well taken care of. Both of us look forward to talking to you in greater length.
Thanks,


Chad Jarrett Jason Mansfield

Home Study !!!!!!

Yikes !!!!!!!!!!!!! It's our first Home Study on Monday... Our Home Study person told us yesterday that we should be done with that process by the end of this month.. She was speaking of these 2 guy's that recently became father's of twins last visit and she was like every time I think of them it makes me think of you both wanting your family .. How nice to know that she is on our side and thinks the same way as us.. We are still working on our Birth Mother letter and will send off our first draft in the next few day's... Hopefully there won't be to many changes to it.. But if so we'll just roll with it.

Networking!!!!

Hello all... Thanks to everyone subscribing to our Blog... I hope it really gets the word out for us that we are in search of a Birthmother.... This Networking thing is fun but alot of work... I've been meeting alot of really awesome people over the last month... I can't wait to meet more of you out there..I really don't have much to say today so I guess I'll catch up with everyone later...

Here's a couple of pics of the snow that fell at our Home March 1st... This is the most snow we've had in this house for almost 6 years...

The Kid

"The Kid" by Dan Savage was a very good book for people wanting to adopt especially for gay men in the adopting process. It gives their process in open adoption. It deals with a lot of issues from dealing with the birth mother who did drugs and drank, to the birth father who suddenly appears. It also tackles issues of talking to friends and family about what is going on. It starts with them attending their weekend session all the way to their child's first birthday. I am not a huge reader when it comes to reading things at home. But I found myself really enjoying this book. It had some strong language used, but nothing most homosexuals have not heard before. I found myself laughing at some of things and feeling sad in other parts. So I totally recommend this book especially if you have an agency that requires you to read two books. I would tell you to choose this book as one of your required two.
Now I must head to bed. I took Friday off and Monday was a snow day so I have to get my rest to deal with my 28 little ones tomorrow-If they do not make me change my mind about adoption nothing will!-Chad

Snow Day !!!!!!!!

We got about 5 inches here and it pretty much shuts everything down... School was out for Chad so he finished the book called The Kid... He's almost finished with it so I'll start it tonight then dish on it for everyone...It was required reading for us through our adoption agency Independent Adoption Center www.adoptionhelp.org ...... Chad's all excited to have read a book in 24hrs..It's only 250 some page's so I guess that's good.. We need to get started on our Dear Birth Mother letter soon... We really don't want the process to slow down at all....We've covered alot of ground pretty fast and keeping that momentum is crucial... SO to all of you Blogger's out there We are getting ready to hit your Dear Birth Mom letter's pretty hard LOL.. S if u see us log on like 500 time's you will know why... I just hope that the agency will just Love what we've come up with.... My Sister has an English major so maybe we can talk her into helping us.. Thanks for all of the encouragement from all of you and Please Keep the Suggestion's Coming... We Really Love That....

Now The Waiting Begin's

So now we've completed the Weekend Intensive in Atlanta and are now home,Heads spinning and shivering from the cold snow that is falling really hard and fast.. So Much Info OMG!!!!!!!! And so many decsion's to make about what we are able to accept in our live's.... I'm thrilled we have moved to the next level... Just can't believe it got here so fast.. Like I've said in earlier post's we were able to complete the first round of paperwork for home study , and it felt great to hear from adoption person in class say oh you guy's already did that and the rest of the class needs to do it .. We are on Top of it...So now like I said we wait for Home Study person and wait for approval for that.. And of course Dear Birthmother letter writing begin's.. They called off school for Chad tomorrow cause of freak snowstorm here so maybe we can really focus on that tomorrow.. It sounds like so much.. And kinda Overwhelming knowing who is gonna read this.. We'll just have to take it one word at a time...Any suggestion's ????