Hi.
We are Sully and Melissa Cook. Let
me start by saying, we have thought about this special part of the process for
a while. We would like to think
that we know the perfect words to say in our letter to you. The truth is, we
don’t. We do know, that
above all else, we will deeply love any child who comes into our care. We will pray for them everyday and do
our best to create a safe and loving place for the child. We would also like to encourage you
even in the smallest way. We have been praying for you since the day we decided
to welcome a child in our home.
So
now we would like to give you a little information about how we met, what our
life is like and why we are on this journey where your path and ours have now
crossed.
Sullivan
and I met while I was working as a Children’s Minister at a church in Pigeon
Forge, TN . I first met Sullivan’s
dad, Wayne at a ministry luncheon since Wayne is a Children’s Minister as well. After meeting, Wayne brought his family
to church, which included his son, Sully. His father then proceeded to
encourage Sully to ask me for a date.
It didn’t take too much! Sullivan
and I connected on our very first date.
We were together for about two years before we were married in Franklin,
TN. Sullivan and I are very different
but it works really well. We balance each other out. We have a different set of
gifts and I have loved learning how God uses us both in our marriage and in our
community. He is more reserved and
I am a goofball. He is steady where I am flighty. We have a great respect for
each other’s personalities.
Our
life is really a blessing. We have
a great church that we work for and a very close group of friends. So many of
our close friends have adopted and we have been able to see first hand how
special these kids are. While we
do not have immediate family close by, our church has become this for us. We are very involved and a lot of our
free time is spent with families from our small group. Even though, we are not geographically
close to our family, we are close relationally. Sully and I talk weekly to our
parents and they are praying for this journey as well.
We
are not perfect and our life is not perfect but God’s presence in our life has
given us perfect peace. We have walked through some hard things and God has
been ever-present.
We
believe God has also put us on the path of adoption since the early days of our
relationship and has kept in the front of our minds. Unlike most people on this journey, we did not start because of
infertility. God very clearly told
us to adopt so we passively began the process. A few months after, I found out I
have a condition that makes conceiving very difficult and most women are
successful with fertility treatment. Upon receiving this diagnosis, we felt
that this was God pushing even more towards adoption. Sully and I have not gone
through fertility treatment and do not plan to at this time. We believe that
God has called us to build our family through adoption at the moment.
When
thinking about the future of our relationship, we would like to have a level of
openness with you. We plan on telling our son or daughter often about their birthparents
and the special adoption plan that was made for them. It is our hope that our
child will recognize that God can choose to build families in so many
ways. We would love to send
pictures back and forth on a regular basis. We think it would be special for the child to know if they maybe have the
same eyes or smile as their birth-mother.
We
hope that you spend some time learning more about us in our profile. We really
are a fun couple!
whew.
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