Lori and Michael
Hi, we’re Michael and Lori. We are warm, friendly and welcoming people who are excited to open our hearts to a baby and a birth family. We’re a loving and stable couple who will make patient, solid, and fun parents. We come from supportive families who are all thrilled to see us adopt a baby and will welcome a birth family with open arms.
What Michael likes about Lori is that she is a generous person, and this generosity shows up in everything she does. She does not require good reasons for the gifts that she gives. Michael also admires the fact that when she is wrong, she is not defensive. She is easy to talk to, and not judgmental. She likes to hear other people’s embarrassing stories, and yes, she will tell you about the time her dress was stuck inside her pantyhose. Lori does not mind laughing at herself. In fact, she rarely misses an opportunity.
Lori could see from the beginning that Michael was a loyal, solid, trustworthy sort with a hilarious sense of humor. He isn’t boisterous; he doesn’t interrupt, and he genuinely values what others have to say. He’s an English professor, not the sort who’s picky about everyone’s grammar, but the sort who makes fried trout in class when he’s talking about Hemingway so the students will get a better feel for the story. Michael is a kind soul. He bought a new bed for our dog three days before we had to put him to sleep, just so he’d be more comfortable in his last days.
We live in a 3-bedroom house, built in 1925 with hardwood floors, a nice sun room with lots of windows, and a big backyard in a neighborhood filled with kids. Two sweet dogs snuggle up on their beds, though we admit that we often let them up on the sofa to cuddle with us while we read or spend time on our computers. We like to cook—sometimes food that Lori calls “experimental.” When we’re not too intimidated, we join maddeningly creative friends who do crafts (knitting and Ukrainian Easter egg-dying) or our talented family members who work on their houses, go on camping or bicycling trips, and do science projects.
As an English professor, Michael spends a lot of time reading and writing. He has summers off and tenure (job security, yay!). Another benefit of his job is free college tuition for any of our children. Lori works in research at a university, and she currently manages a project about children with autism. Before that, she studied ways to help depressed mothers develop healthy and secure attachments with their babies.
We want to raise children (we’d eventually love to have two) with loving support, helping them to believe in themselves and their own judgment. Ultimately, we hope they can forgive themselves for mistakes, withstand troubles, and keep their hearts open for connections with others.
We have traveled a lot, and want to continue to do so with kids. We had great fun on a trip to Ecuador, partly in the remote jungle, and also small towns with colorful, lively markets. Michael speaks Spanish and can make his way in a couple of other languages. Spending a big chunk of time with family and friends makes for great memories and closer bonds. Though we live in the Midwest, we would enjoy regular visits to the Pacific Northwest to spend time with you, and would invite you out to see us. In between visits we plan to find other ways to be in contact too—phone, email, website to share pictures back and forth, whatever we can think of!
As we write this we are thinking about you and the strength and courage you have to be making some very big decisions. We wish you peace in this process.
For this family's complete adoptive parent profile, please contact Open Adoption and Family Services.