We are Gerard and Cheryl from Florida

Dear Mom, 

We truly admire your courage, strength of character and love. The thought process involved, the anxiety, the fear in choosing the right family to raise your precious child, are already a tremendous journey. So for you we already have tremendous respect and admiration. 

We’re also embarking on a journey filled with similar kinds of emotions in many respects. We pray and have the belief that everything is going to be alright for you, for us and, most importantly, for the child/children you currently carry. My husband and I have slowly accepted the realization that, although we may not be able to have children biologically, adoption is a God-blessed one, because He, our Heavenly Father, has adopted us and He wants us to be committed to raising children in an environment that is safe, filled with love and God honoring. This is a real demonstration of selfless and generous love. We will be doing our best to fulfill these goals for your child in the best way we know by God’s help and guidance. We’ve been working with young people of different ages all our lives as Youth Leaders serving in church. As our families are large, we do a lot of fun-filled family activities, outings within and outside of the United States, plus get-togethers for special occasions and holidays, all the time. Your child will not lack for fun, love, acceptance and warmth and will be immediately surrounded by solid family values. 

Our families are largely Christians, including ourselves, and are very involved in church related activities; and especially in the area of music and administration. As we’ve been blessed, we’ve been using our talents and gifts to honor the Lord. We see church as a strong part of a great supportive community to be an influential role in the raising of our children to become socially aware and kind. With that, we also plan through extra curriculum activities to nurture our children to explore their creative capacity. Children need love, care, compassion and a safe place to grow and develop to the best of their potential. Children also need guidance, and we believe that good parenting is about tough love to establish boundaries. So, we plan to be compassionate but firm, loving while setting boundaries. 

We adopted our son just over a year ago, and he is thriving and keeping us busy. He’s everything we dreamed of and more. Our family has been the better by having him and he’s bonding in well. We’ve been loving on him and staying true to our promise to keep him safe, comfortable and loved. We took home a keepsake from the hospital from his birth-mom and, although he’s too young right now to grasp the significance, we want him to become fully comfortable with the adoption journey when the time comes to understand more. 

So let’s journey together. We will be praying for you along this pathway as we seek God’s blessings, favor and kindness. We won’t for one moment hesitate to tell your child about this life altering change and about their brave and courageous birth mom. 

Cheryl and Gerard