Pictures!

If you'd like to see more pictures, please visit our other blog at www.craig-andrea.blogspot.com.

Our Family

Dear Friends,

Thank you for taking the time to read about us! Before we introduce ourselves, we first want to thank you first for considering adoption. We can only imagine all the many thoughts and emotions you must be experiencing. But please know we think you are so brave and you must love your child very much! We do not easily dismiss the tremendous amount of strength and courage it takes to choose adoption. Any child(ren) we adopt will surely know of our respect and admiration we feel for his or her loving birthparents.

Our family began in 2001 when the two of us got married. We became a family of three when our son Max was born to us three years later. After the devastating news that we may never conceive again, and many unsuccessful fertility treatments, we turned our efforts to adoption. Although we're not able to grow our family in the way we originally planned, we are no less anxious and excited. We are actually grateful that we could have the chance to experience parenthood in both ways - having both biological and adopted children.

Craig loves reading, baseball, football, hiking, camping, and movies. Andrea loves cooking, running, singing, playing the piano, organizing, and doing anything that allows her to use her creativity. Max is a happy kid with lots of energy who loves playing with his friends, baseball, building things, and drawing. We know he'll make a great big brother.

Together we really enjoy the outdoors, sports, impromptu dance parties, reading, movies, and hanging out with our family and friends. We don't care too much about what we're doing as long as we get to spend time together. We are by no means perfect, but we love each other and feel that we have a lot to offer any child.

Thanks again for taking the time to get to know us. We truly admire your strength and courage, and always pray for you.

Love,
Craig, Andrea, and Max

About Andrea

Marrying Andrea was the easiest decision I ever made. She possesses all of the qualities I ever wanted in my wife and the mother of my child(ren). She is beautiful, intuitively smart, talented in a variety of ways, loving, compassionate, funny, creative, and fun to be around. It's important to us that Andrea be able to stay home with Max and our future children and we feel lucky that she gets to do so. I could not ask for a better mother for Max. She knows when to just love and accept Max, when to hold him, when and how to discipline him, how to answer his questions and teach him, how to encourage him and give him the confidence to be brave, and on and on. She does not sit by and let life just happen to her. She has plans and aspirations, and works hard to make them happen. Despite the challenges we have faced together, I can, with all my heart, state that life with Andrea is a joy and privilege.

About Craig

Craig is a well-rounded guy. He loves anything outdoors, reading, sports, politics, and learning new languages. I fell in love with Craig because he’s funny, handsome, smart, athletic, loyal, and loving. I am so lucky to be married to such a great guy. Craig takes such good care of our little family and is an incredible father, which makes me love him even more. He loves spending time with Max and does everything he can to make sure his childhood is a happy and fulfilling one. Craig grew up having an open, honest, and trusting relationship with his parents, where he felt he could ask or tell them pretty much anything. He is really good at making sure that we try to develop that same kind of relationship with Max because he appreciated it so much in his own life growing up. Craig is my everything. I say that because he is my greatest happiness, can drive me crazy like no other person I know, and everything in between. But he is my complete package and I am so glad he chose me to be his eternal companion.

About Max

Max is a happy kid. He loves being outside running around, building forts, playing with friends, coloring, playing the piano, playing baseball, and using his hands to make anything his imagination desires. He also loves making frequent trips to the library to pick out books and DVDs. He, like his dad, has a real love of learning. Max is also a sensitive and tender little guy. He never hesitates to say "I love you" or give hugs. He wants to be a big brother so much! He loves little babies and is my best helper whenever we babysit. We asked him once what he would teach his brother or sister and he said "I'll teach 'em to run fast, how to catch the bad guys, and to play nice!" We don't doubt that he will.

From Max

Max has been one of our biggest advocates for adoption. Here is one of his uses for our pass-along cards:

Our Families

Andrea's side of the family:

We have to admit that we're pretty lucky that we get to see my parents and all my siblings as much as we do. It gets crazy and a little crowded when we all get together, but it's so much fun! My parents recently bought a cabin in the mountains that we go up to a lot when we have our reunions. We're always quoting movies and teasing each other. When we're not doing that, we're either playing the Wii, out on the boat, watching movies, out on a walk, or just talking about whatever. There are always a lot of little ones running around playing. Max can't get enough of spending time with his cousins. It's always hard for him to say goodbye when that time comes around.

Craig's side of the family:

Craig's side of the family is spread out all over the country - from Las Vegas to the eastern tip of Tennessee. We haven't been fortunate enough to have had a full reunion in about four years, so neither of these family photos are complete. But when most of the family is together, we have a ton of fun playing lots of games, venturing to the park, or sitting around talking. Max has a lot of cousins he loves to play with on this side, too. Max also loves wrestling his grandpa and uncles. It's kinda hard to pry him off them, but we guess they're just too much fun for him to resist! It isn't hard to find something fun to do when we see Craig's parents and siblings!

We are the first on either side to adopt. However, both of our parents and all of our siblings are very supportive and excited about our desire to adopt. There are also a lot of cousins (as you can see) on both sides that would love to welcome in a new member of the family. We do not doubt for one second that any children we adopt will be loved and accepted just as much as any other family member.

Our Parents' Thoughts

"Craig and Andrea are truly a unique couple. They not only show great love and devotion to each another but also to their son, Max. During the day Craig is out working hard at his career as an attorney. Andrea is a stay-at-home mom enjoying and playing with Max. She has shown wonderful qualities as a mother, such as her patience in teaching Max through reading, music, games and just fun time outdoors together. When Craig arrives home, he’s a family man, looking forward to spending time with his wife and son. As much as they love and enjoy Max they feel their family is not quite complete. They long for another child to help round out their family. Max even asks in his bedtime prayers for a brother or sister. We, as Max’s grandparents, also pray for him to have a sibling. It’s not as much fun being alone. We would all welcome a new child into our family. There is some lucky child who will have the wonderful opportunity of being loved and cherished by Craig and Andrea. In the end, being loved and feeling part of a wonderful family is what life is really all about."
- Jay & Peggy, Craig's parents

"The most joyous thing in our lives is watching our children grow and see them make good choices. However, seeing them with challenges beyond their control gives us reason to be saddened as well. Even as a little girl, Andrea loved playing mother to her dolls and younger sisters, thinking about the time that would come when she would be a 'real' mom. We are grateful Craig and Andrea were so blessed with Max, but know they long for him to have siblings, as they themselves continue to have the joy that comes from having brothers and sisters. It's interesting to watch our children as they enter parenthood and see their 'philosophies' and directions. We see them do many good things they learned from us and many wonderful things they apply on their own. Craig loves to play with Max and gives him attention a child loves from a father. Andrea nurtures with complete patience and love. We could expound on their positive attributes as parents, but suffice it to say, we truly feel that any child would be lucky to have Craig and Andrea as parents, and grow and learn in their care. Our prayers are for them to have more children to raise and love. They deserve that opportunity."
- Jim & Carol, Andrea's parents

Hobbies and Interests

Craig:
Reading! Craig loves history books, biographies, the Harry Potter and Twilight series, or anything else that piques his curiosity. Even during law school with all the large amounts of required reading, I'd always catch him getting in some reading time of his own.
Politics and Current Events! You can always find Craig watching Fox News each night after work or reading up on current events online. I love that he shares his thoughts and new-found knowledge with me and other loved ones. He says that you can't emphasize enough the importance of staying informed!
World Languages and Cultures! Craig can speak Spanish and Arabic and wants to formally learn at least two more languages in the near future. He has a special interest in learning about the Middle East. It's just always been a very interesting place and people to him. I don't doubt that he will make a visit out to that part of the world someday.
Writing! Craig is such a talented writer. He's pretty private about his desire to write, but in his free time he really enjoys brainstorming and developing new story ideas that will hopefully one day turn into published works. There are a couple of ideas we're both really excited about.
Sports! Craig grew up playing football and did really well as it came really natural to him. He is very quick on his feet and perhaps his life would have known a different path had he not torn his ACL the first home game of the season during his Senior year of high school. We'll never know for sure how different his life would have been, but he says he can't complain with how his life has turned out. Craig runs pretty fast and likes to race his brothers or friends when they are up for the challenge.

Andrea:
Music! I love to sing! I teach voice and piano lessons and love it! I also play some guitar. It is still a dream of mine to learn to really play the violin someday...it's never too late, right?
Art/Crafts! I am relearning to paint with acryllics and love to draw, or learn the trade of any kind of craft, whether it's crochet, or making jewelry - which is my latest obssession.
Exercise! Despite my pathetic history of always coming in last in any physical activity for most of my childhood, I somehow developed a love of running. I'm no super-athlete, but I enjoy staying physically active.
Food! I love cooking! I love to try new recipes and always try to make sure I have good and healthy food to feed my family. Cleaning up after cooking is a different story...I also love decorating cakes just for fun.

Max:
Legos! As we mentioned, Max loves to build things. He's made some pretty awesome things and never seems to tire of them. Legos are pretty fun for us, too.
Coloring/Crafts! It's sometimes the first thing he does when he wakes up and the last thing he does before bedtime. He can't seem to get enough of it....his bedroom door, our fridge and bulletin boards are pretty much covered with his many masterpeices.
Piano! He just started learning how to play the piano this past Fall. He also likes to make up his own songs - mostly about Jesus. It's just about the cutest thing there is.
Anything outdoors!

Together:
Baseball! We love to play it at the park, or watch our favorite team play on tv - the Colorado Rockies! Max even has a favorite player: Troy Tulowitzki. We all look forward to a new season each spring. We try to attend at least one Rockies game per season. Max got two balls this year which was really exciting. .
Hiking!
Traveling! We've been lucky enough to go to Hawaii two times since we've been married. Once with Max and once without. It is such a beautiful and relaxing part of the world. Before Max was born, Andrea had the chance to go to Paris for work. (Max actually went with her, but nobody knew it at the time!) We've also been to Disneyland three times, and is next on our family trip list. To be honest, a lot of our travels have slowed since having Max and going to law school, but we definitely have plans to go visit different parts of our country such as St. Louis, Kentucky, and Tennessee. We also plan to go abroad and see places like Germany or France. All in good time, though!
Playing at the Park!
Camping! Craig grew up camping every summer with his family, and although I admit that I don't love it as much as he or Max, we've made a lot of fun memories taking our own little family excursions into the mountains.
Running Errands! It might seem silly, but we love to just get in the car and run our errands together after Craig gets home from work. We get to talk about how our days went and get things done at the same time. We don’t always care what we’re doing as long as we get to spend time together.