Sharon and I live an active lifestyle. Our location on the waterfront allows us to access all the Chesapeake Bay has to offer. We love to swim and spend time on the water boating, kayaking, fishing or just playing. During the cooler months we will often be found at the local YMCA, which has many family friendly programs including an indoor splash park in the pool for the kids along with a long list of healthy ways to keep busy when the weather doesn't cooperate. We both love to hike and enjoy the outdoors as much as possible. We love animals and nature. At home we have a dog named Jake and a bird named Joey. On any given day we will receive visits from Geese, Rabbits, Ducks, Osprey and Eagles along with many other creatures that share our neighborhood. We always take at least one major vacation every year to the Caribbean or other tropical haunt, along with other trips to visit family. We are really looking forward to showing our child different cultures and areas of the world, places that my wife and I only saw in books as children, places that we hope help our child understand the diverse and wonderful world in which we live. I have already called "dibs" on being their personal snorkeling instructor! I work full-time as a Sales Manager and have a flexible work schedule, normally working from home on Monday and Wednesdays. My wife works at a community mental health clinic in an administrative capacity 4 days per week, and is home on Fridays and the weekend. We believe our very flexible schedule will allow for three major things for our new family. First, we will be able to minimize the need for outside care, as we believe being home when the kids come home and having dinner together are important values. Secondly, Sharon and I strongly believe in the personal development and socialization that comes with extra curricular activities, be it dance or gymnastics, sports or academics, children's personal interests are important. This schedule will allow us to be part of that portion of their life. Lastly both of us being off on weekends will allow this new family to explore the local world and bond as a family.
I have raised a son named Drew who is off on his own, now living in New Hampshire. He has benefited from Sharon's guidance over the past dozen years as have her two nieces who are 7 and 12. The Maryland's Pride foster and adopt training program began our combined training as a licensing requirement. In addition we have spent a lot of time reading and trying to educate ourselves on how to help children who have had less than optimum starts to life. We are both committed to being prepared to help our kids to attach and move through their past trauma as needed. On Monday evening Sharon facilitates a children's clinic, she sees the struggles their kids go through, and sees the sadness that trauma and neglect can bring. She will also tell you she sees the successes that professional treatment and good parenting practices can bring. Sharon and I have a very loving and close relationship and share this desire of adopting a child. For the past several years I have been a child's advocate as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children (CASA). We have both been attending seminars and training in the hopes of learning better ways to support children and care for these kids. I have also trained, and have experience in creating both behavioral and educational IEP's for foster kids. I have also been involved in learning from our local special education advisory board in support of services to children. So many of the kids coming through the system need help both at school and at home to catch up with their peers. A formal IEP may spell out what services the school must supply to assist a child, and getting the correct services is extremely important. Having an IEP however is not as important as having a family that owns that IEP with the school, and is willing to commit to consistent nightly support of homework and assistance to that child. Most recently we attended classes on Trauma Focused Care that we think will be very valuable. We believe in consistent and clear, rules and boundaries as ways to make a child feel safe, along with a high parental involvement and nurturing style as a way for a child to feel unconditional love. The real training we have received lately has been our role as foster parents to two girls now 7 and 9. The girls have been part of our family since October 2016. Though they have their challenges, these kido's have thrived and we have thrived as parents. Our role as parents to these girls has cemented our commitment to making permanent additions to our family.