Our Adoption Letter

So it's been way too long since I last posted...I think over a year! Yikes! Well to catch you all up (whoever may be reading this!)...Jay and I are taking our 30 hours of PS-MAPP classes in order to become foster and adoptive parents in the state of Arizona. We are doing the accelerated course of 6 Saturdays straight from 9am-4pm each week. My college-football-loving-husband has been so great about it and never complained once! Although he did say that since he would be missing college football he felt justified in buying the NFL Ticket through Direct TV so he could watch football on Sunday! Oh I love that man of mine!! :) Anywho, it's a long and involved process and (shocker!) I've had my fair share of tears and emotional moments. But we know the end result is well worth all of this and we are excited to be on the path and moving forward!! Our homework assignment for this week was to write a letter introducing ourselves to the birth/foster families. We were to tell about ourselves and share why we want to adopt. Jay and I worked on it together and I'm really proud of the finished product! I thought I'd share it with you all so you can see our reasons behind adoption as well! We can feel all of your love, support and prayers and we just can't thank you all enough! We are blessed beyond belief and our hearts are full!

Hi!

We are Jay & Jennifer Syler. We are so excited to have this opportunity to adopt a child and add to our family! We understand that this is a life-long commitment and it is not to be taken lightly. We know that you must be feeling unsure, a little worried and are probably even questioning who we are and why would we want to adopt a child. Well, we are happy to put your fears to rest and properly introduce ourselves and tell you all about the Syler home!

          Jay is originally from Ohio but fell in love with Arizona during a family trip and has lived in the valley since 1998. Jay graduated from Hillsdale University in 1996 with a degree in Art. Jennifer is a native Arizonan, growing up in the southern part of the state and attending college in the northern part. She graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2004 with a degree in elementary education and has lived in the valley since graduation. We met through E-Harmony in 2006 and were married in June of 2007 here in Phoenix, surrounded by our family and friends. We have made our home in northern Peoria, with our black Labrador, Brutus. We adopted Brutus in July of 2012 from a local rescue group and he has been a sweet although hairy addition to our family! Jennifer is in her tenth year of teaching and still enjoys her job with great pleasure. Jay works as the Registrar Coordinator for DeVry University and is constantly trying to challenge himself further. We are both dedicated employees who take pride and care with our careers.

          We have a very active life and our friends like to joke that they have to try and make plans with us months in advance! What can we say? We love seeing our family and friends and living life! Keeping that child-like wonder alive in our hearts, we are HUGE Disney fans and have dreamed of sharing the fun and magic of Disney with our children. We plan a family vacation for once a year, an important tradition that we have kept from our own childhoods. We also believe family to be important and we spend time with our extended family whenever the opportunity arises. We have been so fortunate to make a second family from our large and growing group of friends. This group is composed of friends from college, work and church that we see regularly for celebrations. Many of our friends have children ranging in age from new born to pre-teens and they are all excited to become “Aunts” and “Uncles” as we have been for their children.

We both are sports fans and have season tickets to cheer on the Arizona’s Diamond Backs! Jay enjoys playing Fantasy Football as well as cheering on his home team The Ohio State Buckeyes! We would love the opportunity to share our love of sports with our children and encourage them to play sports and be active if they so choose. We both were active during our school years with swimming, baseball, softball, volleyball as well as being in choir, band and drama. We would love to foster a love for sports and arts for our own child as they develop into their own person.

We also have our down time and enjoy relaxing as well. We are big movie goers and enjoy playing games of all types. We have been known to have some pretty fun family game nights and we are looking forward to sharing that fun and family togetherness time with our child too. We are active members in our church. Again, this is a tradition that we bring from our own childhoods that we wish to pass on to our children so that they can form friendships and bonds with other children their ago outside of school.

We have a safe and welcoming home in a very friendly neighborhood. We know our neighbors and feel blessed to call this place our home. We are aware that when a child is born an instant bond is made with the birth parents. We are not trying to replace that bond at all. Our hope is to form our own attachment with our child and share with them all of the love and happiness that we have in our hearts to give. We want our child to know their culture and to feel comfortable in their own skin. We know that our job as their parents is to encourage that journey of self-discovery and help them in any possible way, while giving them support, encouragement, guidelines and appropriate boundaries. We look forward to becoming parents and sharing our home and lives with a child whom we would adore endlessly. We want the chance and opportunity to make a difference in a child’s life and to be parents.

Thank you for taking the time to read our letter. Please feel free to contact us to discuss our adoption journey further.

                                                                   Sincerely,

                                                  Jay & Jennifer Syler