Kara & Dave

Hi!

It means so much to us that you are reading our letter. You obviously care deeply about the future of your child. You are making a courageous choice by considering adoption. We appreciate you taking time to get to know us through our letter and photos.

Our Path to Adoption

After we married, we found out that we were not able to conceive, so we began to plan to grow our family through adoption. Both of us have family members who were adopted (Kara's uncle and Dave's cousins), and there has never been any question that they are family. We're comfortable with open adoption, and we hope to keep in contact with you.

Our Vision of Family

As parents, our goal is to provide a safe, loving family environment, a good education, and opportunities for our children to grow and thrive. We believe in working hard while having fun together. We believe that the more a child knows about the world, the better prepared he or she will be to face it. We like to travel within the US and overseas to learn about other places and other people. We look forward to sharing our lives with our children, helping them grow as individuals, and achieving their dreams.

Kara as a Mom: Kara will make a great mom! When she saw that our niece liked drawing, she made sure that she had art supplies so she could express her creativity. She impresses all the kids with her craft projects and skills at drawing. When our friends come over with their kids, she always makes sure that they have toys to play with and snacks to eat. The kids always want Kara to go with them to watch their favorite Disney movie or to show her their newest toy. She's a great teacher to her current kids – her college students – and will be for our child! — Dave

Dave as a Dad: Dave will be a loving and patient dad who will share equally in the care of our children. He is always willing to play tag, climb around on the playground equipment, and do headstands for our nephews, nieces, and friends' kids. He takes an active interest in what they are learning in school, and looks forward to helping our kids with their homework. Above all, he will spend time with our kids, taking them on bike rides, making them waffles on Sunday, and reading to them at bedtime. He will always be there for them! — Kara

More About Us

Kara is the oldest of 3 kids and grew up in Minnesota. She went to college in Duluth – Go Bulldogs! – and now teaches art history as an adjunct professor.

Dave is the youngest of a big family (10 kids!) and grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. He went to college in Eau Claire, and is now a web developer and manager in Minneapolis.

We both have flexible schedules, and can spend a lot of time raising children.

When we met four years ago, we realized right away that we had a common outlook on life and similar senses of humor. (Dave tells the jokes, and Kara laughs at them. . . or most of them!) We share a love of travel, whether it's a weekend in Duluth or two weeks in Greece, and look forward to sharing the world with our children. We both love spending time in the country, and recently bought land up the road from Dave's family farm. We plan to build a cabin there where we'll spend our weekends in the summer.

Our Lifestyle

We stay active. Dave loves to ride his bike, sometimes even biking to work, and plans a 100-mile ride this summer! Kara likes to hike around the beaches on the Mississippi and Lake Superior, looking for agates (and making Dave look for them), and goes to garage and estate sales, looking for antique treasures. On the weekends, we go on bike rides, and take long walks with our gentle dog Sammie. Every Sunday morning, Dave cooks a big breakfast of yummy banana-pecan waffles. (Then Kara cooks for the rest of the week!)

Friends and Family

We live in Minneapolis in a neighborhood filled with kids. We're close to plenty of parks, museums, and city attractions. Every week we get together for coffee with a group of friends, all of whom have young children. Our kids will have plenty of playmates!

Throughout the year, we make weekend trips to visit Dave's family in Wisconsin and Kara's sister in northern Minnesota. The rest of Kara's family lives in the Twin Cities, so we often get together for birthday parties, holidays, and backyard barbeques. Every summer, we spend a week at a cabin we rent up north.

Both our families and all our friends are very excited about our plans for adoption and are looking forward to meeting the newest member of our family!

Our Invitation to You:

We're very excited that you have read our letter. (We're not just excited – we're also pretty nervous!!) We hope you'll give us a call any time at (612) 327-5661, or by email at . You can also learn more about us at our website, http://karaanddave.googlepages.com. We want to know more about you and about your hopes for your child.

Hoping to hear from you!

Dave and Kara