Andy and Sondra
Hello. Thanks for taking the time to look at our letter.
Who are we? Why are we here? We are Andy and Sondra. We have been a couple since we were 14. We are originally from Minnesota and have lived in northwest Washington for 10 years. We love it here! We waited a long time to start a family; that didn’t go exactly as planned. Around the time we ealized we needed to try something new, we lost Sondra’s dad in an accident. As we processed this, we realized how much love and joy we had the capacity to share, and decided open adoption was the right way to grow our family. We are excited to not only share our lives with a child, but also with their birth parents, in a role they feel comfortable with, whether it is large or small.
What does it mean to know us? First of all, there is music on. Always. Electronic, jazz, hip-hop, punk, from all different eras and places. We fix pizza from scratch once a week (yolo) and like cooking (especially since pandemic). We’ve got a beagle puppy named Sisu and an older kitty named Moon. We live in a medium-sized city in a small house with a big yard and a park across the street that we visit almost every day. We love to hike on nearby trails and in the North Cascades all year round. On our own, Sondra loves yoga and Andy likes to rock climb. Sondra works in marketing and as a massage therapist, and Andy is a math professor. We love going on road trips, from little day trips to longer adventures, though mostly in-between. We never run out of things to talk about even though we’ve been together for a jillion years.
We are hardworking at the things we enjoy and just normal at the rest of it. We try to be compassionate and see things from lots of angles. We don’t shy away from the messy things in the world and look to find beauty, wonder, and meaning in such things when possible. We are patient with each other and our loved ones, and believe in letting people be their authentic selves. We are known by our friends for being straightforward and having a dry sense of humor. At the core, we are practical people who value openness and moving forward through difficulties.
We want to be the sort of parents that say “we can try that” to as many things as possible. We want to strap our kiddo to our backs and hike the local mountains as a family, go on road trips, and travel abroad. We love to be active and camp, swim, ski, hike, climb, and we want to do that stuff with our kid, too. And then take a nap. We also want to draw, paint, read, and learn together. When they are older, we want to help our kiddo transition to a happy, healthy adult – confident in their relationships and self-made decisions, and with a known safe-haven at home whenever they need it.
There are a lot of unknowns in an open adoption, and we’re open to a full range of possibilities. We know that relationships and people change over the years. We want to grow connections between our child, their birth family, and ourselves that allow everyone to feel whole and at peace. What that means on day one will look different than years down the line. We’re committed to fostering long-term relationships that allow everyone to thrive.
We wish you the best with whatever lies ahead. Andy & Sondra