To our angel

Welcome! We are Darwin and Melissa and we would love to share a little of ourselves with you. We are grateful you have chosen to consider adoption and commend you for your courage and strength.

We share in your desires to make the best decision for you and your child and we pray often for you. We are a loving family of six, and although we are not perfect, we are very secure in our relationships with each other and with each of our children, we have a solid foundation in parenting, and we can offer your child all the love and nurturing of a dedicated and established family.

You may be asking yourself, "Why do they want to adopt when they already have four children?" We are very grateful and blessed to have had our four wonderful children naturally, but with each delivery, Melissa had an increasingly difficult time with post-partum depression. After the birth of our fourth child, we decided that for health reasons, she should not become pregnant again and should concentrate on healing. We had been looking forward to more children, and decided that God must have other plans for our family. We have felt strongly that our family is not complete, and we are all excited to grow our family through adoption. Darwin and I both grew up in large families, and have wonderful memories of our childhood. We cherish our large families, and want our children to have some of the same experiences we had growing up.

We are pleased that you have taken the time to read this letter and to learn a little about our family. If our family is the right one for your child, we would be honored to accept them into our home and into our hearts. We are all excited to meet you and your child and are ready to begin this next journey in our lives. May you find strength and peace through this time in your life and may God bless you for the amazing courage you have!


With love,
Darwin, Melissa, Brooklin, Caleb, London, and Isaiah

About Darwin. by: Melissa

Darwin was born in Provo, UT. He grew up in Oregon, Utah, Arizona, and Idaho. He is the oldest of seven siblings, with three brothers and three sisters. In high school, Darwin participated in wrestling, track, and football. After graduating from high school, he served a two year mission for our church in Sweden. Following his mission, he attended and graduated from Boise State University with a major in biology, and a minor in philosophy. He is currently an officer in the United States Coast Guard, and is stationed in Alaska. He loves his job, and can't believe they pay him to go to work every day. Darwin is a wonderful husband and father. Once he surprised me by planning a get away for us to Oahu for my birthday. He bought plane tickets, rented a car, and arranged three sets of sitters for our children, all without me finding out. He takes really good care of all of us, and is a treasure to me.

About Melissa. by: Darwin

Melissa was born in Spokane, WA. She grew up in Washington, Arizona, and Idaho. She is the oldest of eight siblings, with six brothers and one sister. In high school, Melissa participated in the symphonic and marching bands. She played the saxophone, cymbals, bass drum, and a few other percussion instruments. After graduating from high school, she planned to take a year off from school, to relax and earn money for college. She met and married me in that year, and her plans for college were put on hold, while she instead worked to support me through college. Melissa is very loving and kind. She is my best friend. She recently sent me on a ten day fishing trip to Kodiak, AK, so I could go fishing with one of my cousins. She is also an awesome mother to our four children.

Photo Album pages

How we met

Darwin and I met at a dance. We saw each other every night after that and he asked me to marry him 2 1/2 weeks later. I had just had surgery on my left foot, and when he asked me to marry him, he said I looked just like a penguin, hopping around with excitement! I of course said yes, and we were married in the Boise Idaho Temple four months later. We have been married now for 15 years, and have developed a much greater love for one another.

Traditions

St. Patrick's Day - Part of Melissa's heritage is Irish. Each St. Patrick's Day, we have a special leprechaun, named Calvin O'Russell (after Melissa's Grandfather) that visits our house and leaves presents and makes mischief. Once he made dinner for mom, and once he covered our garage with rainbow colored yarn and left the kids golden dollars. We always have corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread for dinner, following a tradition started by Melissa's grandparents.

April Fool's Day - Melissa likes to play April Fool's Day jokes on the family. One year she made meatloaf for breakfast. No one wanted to eat it until the found out it was made out of cocoa crispies! Another year she poured the kids' cereal and milk the night before, and put it in the freezer. In the morning, she added just enough milk to make it look like regular cereal, and then when the kids tried to eat it, it was frozen solid. They can't wait each year to see what kind of fun tricks will show up for April Fool's Day.

Birthdays - Each year for birthdays, we let the birthday child choose the restaurant we have dinner at. We also let that child choose something fun to do as a family.

Christmas - Darwin's Danish heritage and Melissa's German heritage were the foundations for our Christmas traditions. In those countries it is a tradition to open presents on Christmas Eve. We have a special Christmas tradition. Each year we choose a family in our area to play secret Santa to. We deliver the gifts anonymously on Christmas Eve, and then we go caroling to our friends and neighbors houses. While we are away, Santa Clause visits our house, and leaves gifts under the tree for everyone. When we get home from caroling, we open all of our gifts and stay up late. We wanted our children to appreciate service, and we also wanted them to realize the importance of Christ's birthday. The only way that Santa will come, is if they are out of the house, serving others. By opening the Santa gifts on Christmas Eve, we reserve Christmas Day for the reading of the Christmas story from the bible, and for visiting with our relatives. We also enjoy having strawberry and whipped cream waffles for breakfast each year.

Home is where the heart is

Our home has been located in several different places over the years. We have lived in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, and Washington DC and love experiencing and embracing all of the different cultures and traditions in each of the areas we go. We don't currently live near any of our relatives, but many of them will tell you that they hear from us more than any of the families near or far from them. We visit our families whenever the opportunity arises and love sharing our home with them when they can come and visit us.

Our home for now is located in the beautiful state of Alaska. We were transferred here by the Coast Guard and were able to buy a home. We moved here from Maui, HI, and had a wonderful three years there. We are excited to be back in Alaska!

The Coast Guard moves our family every three or four years, and we always include a request for an area with family near, even though we don't ultimately get to choose where we will live. Unless we specifically request it, we will only be living within the United States (or its territories) while working for the Coast Guard.

Meet our Children

Brooklin

Caleb

London

Isaiah