Meet Michael & Leah
A video message from Michael & Leah
A Letter from Michael & Leah
Hi there! We are Leah and Michael from the beautiful California coast. We are so excited to become first-time parents through adoption! We love the Lord and enjoy spending quality time with our friends, family, and two wonderful dogs. We welcome a relationship with you and are open to any level of contact you would like.
Our Story
We met as students in college at a Christian retreat and started dating a couple of years later. We soon realized we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, and after graduating we got married. Fast forward seven years, and our marriage is stronger than ever. We enjoy starting each morning together with a fresh cup of coffee on the couch, talking and praying about our upcoming day. When we’re home, we love hosting friends and family, cooking delicious meals, working on house and yard projects, playing strategy board games, and goofing around with our two dogs. We also love traveling and experiencing new places and cultures (especially the food!) and have been to 8 countries together.
After walking through infertility, we believe that God has something different and beautiful in mind for us in starting our family through adoption. We can’t wait to share every part of our lives with our future child, from snuggling together on quiet mornings to planning more adventures around the world as a family.
Meet Leah (by Michael)
Leah is loving, compassionate, and caring. She has a warm personality and enjoys spending time with people, welcoming them into our home, and making them feel known and cared for. She has a strong faith and generously gives her time and energy to those around her. Her youngest sister has special needs, and because of this Leah is passionate about caring for people with disabilities and regularly volunteers with special needs students. In her role as a Clinical Scientist, she enjoys learning new things and reading about advances in the medical field. She’s so excited to nurture and encourage our child as they grow and to spend quality time with them doing things like tending our home garden, making crafts, and sharing in whatever interests they may have. All of these things will make her an amazing mom, and I can’t wait to parent with her.
Meet Michael (by Leah)
Michael is a patient, kind, and thoughtful man with a deep faith. He has a happy and easy-going personality and loves to care for people and make them laugh. Our nieces and nephew adore him, and I love watching him build Legos or make chocolate chip pancakes with them. He is very creative and loves designing and building things, which fits well with his career as a Mechanical Design Engineer. Michael can’t wait to share his skills and experience with our child, and he looks forward to teaching them how to make things. He’s also excited to show them how to play the piano and work on cars, and to take them on breakfast dates for “dad time”. I know that Michael will be a great dad and role model to our child, and give them all of his love and affection.
Our Family
Our family has been an amazing source of support and encouragement to us and we love spending time with them. Michael’s parents live close by, and Leah’s parents live within a few hour drive, so we are able to get together with each side on a regular basis. We also have a close relationship with our siblings and adore our nieces and nephew! Every year we take a week-long family vacation to places like the Oregon coast, Hawaii, or Mexico. We also have many holiday traditions with our families and always celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas all together. Our family is very excited for us in our adoption journey and can’t wait to shower our future child with love.
Our Home in the Bay Area, California
We live in a peaceful, family-friendly neighborhood within walking distance to parks and playgrounds and a 30-minute drive to the mountains or the beach. Our 3-bedroom house sits along a quiet street and has a huge fenced-in backyard. We’ve been working together to landscape the yard with fruit trees, raised garden beds, and lots of grass to run around and play on with our two dogs, Bailey and Toby. We love to host potlucks on our back patio and relax around our outdoor fire pit in the evenings. We also enjoy creating a welcoming atmosphere inside our home and love to share a meal and a board game with friends or family around the kitchen table. Christmas lights are a big deal in our neighborhood, and we love decorating our house for the holiday too.
Our Promise
We promise to treasure your child with all of our hearts and to provide a safe, loving and nurturing home for them. We promise to share their adoption story with them and always speak about you with kindness and respect. We promise to embrace an open adoption with you and welcome your involvement in our lives. We promise to teach them about God and how much He loves them. We promise to provide a well-rounded education and to support them as they pursue their goals. We promise to laugh with them, cry with them, and love them unconditionally throughout all of life’s ups and downs. More than anything, we promise to honor our commitment to you for entrusting us to be your child’s adoptive parents.
We’d love to talk or answer any of your questions. If you would like to learn more about us, please call or text Lifetime at 1.800.923.6784.
Learn More About Michael & Leah
| Michael | Leah | |
|---|---|---|
| Our Education | Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering | Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering |
| Our Professions | Mechanical Engineer | Clinical Scientist |
| Stay-At-Home | No | Part-time, after we adopt |
| Our Racial Background | Caucasian | Caucasian |
| Some of Michael & Leah's Favorites | ||
| Family Tradition | Saying what we appreciate about someone on his/her birthday | Cutting down a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving |
| Hobby | Anything with cars | Gardening |
| Vacation Spot | Hawaii | Lake Tahoe |
| Childhood Memory | Playing board games with my brother and parents after dinner | Snowball fights with the neighborhood kids |
| Movie | Star Wars | The Hobbit |
| Dessert | Ice Cream | Chocolate Lava Cake |
| Sport | Running | Soccer |
| More About Our Family | ||
| Our Pets | We have two wonderful dogs, Bailey and Toby. Bailey has lots of energy and loves running around our backyard playing fetch, giving kisses, and snuggling on the couch. Toby enjoys a slower pace of life and can often be found napping in one of his many beds, but he also loves going on our daily walks and gets super excited whenever his leash comes out. They are both very affectionate and playful, and will make great companions to our future child! | |
| Our Faith | We believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior and that He gives us purpose and meaning in how we live our lives. We are looking forward to teaching our child about God and how much He loves them, and to living out our faith together as a family by loving and serving others. We are active members of a non-denominational Christian church in our neighborhood and have an amazing community of believers who can’t wait to welcome our child into our church family. | |
| Our Thoughts on Education | We greatly value learning and believe that having an education can help “open doors” in life. We believe that a well-rounded education includes learning both inside and outside the classroom, and that exposure to art, music, and nature are just as important as science, math, and reading skills. We are excited to provide an excellent education to our child and to nurture their creativity. | |
| Our Family Traditions | Growing up, Michael’s family celebrated each person’s birthday by taking turns over dinner to tell the birthday boy/girl different things they appreciate about them. We’ve continued this tradition and look forward to showering our child with special words of affirmation on their birthday (along with cake and presents, of course!). We also enjoy making buttermilk pancakes together on Saturday mornings using our “famous” family recipe, often with chocolate chips added in for extra fun! It’s a great kid-friendly activity, and when our nieces and nephew are in town, they enjoy helping to stir the batter and drop chocolate chips onto each pancake as it bakes. Christmas is our favorite holiday, and we love gathering together with our family on Christmas morning to open gifts. We go around the room taking turns opening gifts so that we can watch each person’s reaction as they unwrap. Our anticipation for the holiday builds up all year, and whenever we take a trip to a new place we buy a Christmas ornament to remember our travels by. Our Christmas tree is so full of memories already, and we can’t wait to add many more with our child! | |
| We Prefer a Child Who Is... | ||
| Our Age Preference | Newborn - 1 Year (12 months old) | |
| Our Gender Preference | Either boy or girl | |
| Twins | Yes | |
| In Closing | ||
We are so grateful to be considered as you make plans for your child's future. We are looking forward to getting to know you and hearing about the life you would like for your child. We are open to any level of ongoing contact that you are comfortable with, including photos, letters, and visits, even if your comfort level changes over time. Our hearts are with you and your child, and we are praying for you every day. We hope to talk with you soon! Love, Leah and Michael |
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