Second parent adoption

A&C asked K and I to write a recommendation for A to adopt baby K through second-parent adoption. We drafted something quickly with the hopes of dropping by with it yesterday so we could squeeze in one more visit with baby K, but it seems they were out at a wedding all day with their 10-day old baby. I'd love to hear how that went!

Here's what we wrote.

April 27, 2008

Dear Sir or Madam:

We are writing in regards to the adoption of KHW by AW. We first met A and C in 2004 at our church. We were new members, and they had been attending for a long time. We became fast friends as we had a lot in common. We were two young couples in our mid-twenties going through what all young couples go through – planning our wedding, buying a house, wanting to have kids. We’ve been through it all with them.

We went to their housewarming party in 2005 when they bought an historic three bedroom row house in downtown Greenbelt. They loved the house because it was in the neighborhood C grew up in, just down the street from C’s parents. They imagined their children playing in the backyard, which has a beautiful view of the woods. They imagined their kids playing with the neighborhood children on the playgrounds and biking through the trails. They imagined family holidays, with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, crowded into their home and running around in that big backyard. They imagined their family and their lives in that house in Greenbelt. This past year they hosted their first family Christmas, and dream of many years to come.

We attended their wedding in 2006, a small affair with just their closest family and friends on a sailboat at sunset in the Annapolis harbor. The ceremony was beautiful and just so them. They took the same last name to symbolize that they were a family, and they chose the name Waters to symbolize their relationship, endless and beautiful and life-sustaining. There wasn’t a dry eye as we witnessed them declare their love for each other.

And now we’ve met baby K. He is everything they have been working for and wanting since we met them four years ago. They are so in love with that baby. C is Mama and A is Mommy. When they look at baby K, you see love and dreams and hopes for a future of family happiness.

A and C are both the moms of baby K. Neither of them could parent without the other. They co-exist as a couple, and now they co-exist as parents. Seeing them together as they care for baby K is like watching a choreographed dance – C feeds K, A burps K, K sleeps in A’s arms, C feeds K. In just one week they’ve figured out how to work out caring for a newborn as a team, and this is how they will continue to raise K – with teamwork and love.

Please grant A full adoption rights to baby K. He is as much her child as C’s. They planned for K together, and they will parent K together, but to do so, A needs to be K’s legal parent.

Thanks for considering this case, and choosing making a difference in the lives of this family.

J&K