Don’t hesitate to contact us in all confidence just to chat or to receive a more comprehensive photo album. You can call us collect at 905-845-1913 or email us at lucieandalex@gmail.com. Our adoption licensee is Marie McCallum and can be reached at mccallumfamily@hotmail.com or 705-722-4163.

We can offer a welcoming, safe and loving home for your child. I hope that through this letter and these photos, you can learn more about who we are and the life that your child will have with us. We hope that this new connection gives you hope and helps you in your adoption plan.

Hi!

Life has the most extraordinary way to connect people and you never know when or how it’s going to happen. We are thrilled that you are reading this letter and that you are considering us to be the parents of your child. You must be going through a difficult time and we can’t pretend we understand how you’re feeling and what you’re going through right now but we’re here to help. We can offer a welcoming, safe and loving home for your child. I hope that through this letter and these photos, you can learn more about who we are and the life that your child will have with us. We hope that this new connection gives you hope and helps you in your adoption plan.

A Little Bit about Us
We met during a summer job in university and we just clicked! We’ve been together ever since! We are blessed to have each other and go through life together. Over the years, our love for each other keeps growing and takes on a deeper meaning as we go through life’s ups and downs. Alex always says the sweetest thing to me: "You’re the best thing that ever happened to me." That’s the best Hallmark card ever!

We believe in leading an active, healthy and balanced life. There is a time for work, play and rest. We spend time a lot of time together and we also spend time individually to pursue our interests and keep alive what makes us who we are as people and what attracted us to each other in the first place. Our home is filled with support, humour, trust, and respect. Oh, and did I mention we’re always full of projects and have a taste for adventure?

A Bit of Background about Lucie
I grew up in a family of four children and I am the third child. I have very good memories of my childhood. My parents played a big role in that and I hope to do the same with my own children. I learned a lot from them. From my dad, that there is always a solution to a problem; from my mom, to marvel at life’s wonders. I remember my mom waking me up one Saturday morning just to admire the humongous snowflakes that were falling from the sky. Wow! She was right! I don’t recall ever seeing larger snowflakes than that morning and now, I like to find the “wow!” in everything.

I was quite a baker at a young age. My mom taught me and let me bake a cake from scratch all by myself at age six! She had full confidence in me. My specialties were cookies and cupcakes and I was quite a hit with my siblings too. I also remember going on weekend morning drives - just me and my dad. I felt very special. Those were special times and I want to re-live these moments as a mom and pass on those values I’ve learned.

I have a very positive outlook on life and am always ready to learn something new or take on new challenges (maybe it’s that young baker in me again). I have an undergrad degree in engineering and a master’s in business administration. Alex was so supportive when I went back to school for my master's while working full time. I could not have done it without him.

I started my career as an engineer but I wanted to expand into other fields over the years, as pure engineering didn’t feel quite right for me. Right now, I am a director of marketing in telecommunications, an industry where I get to take advantage of my previous engineering background and that suits me well. It’s a more creative role and I’m happy. Who knows what the future holds but I’m ready to embrace it and I know it will be meant to be.

My motto is to live my life so that when people think of integrity, enthusiasm, commitment, and caring, they think of me. Alex is my soul mate, he keeps me grounded and he always knows how to make me laugh, even during difficult times and helps me put things in perspective. He likes to surprise me with funny messages on my voice mail at work or draws cartoons of me. Sometimes, that’s the best medicine ever!

A Bit of Background about Alex
I am the second youngest of eight children. My father died when I was eleven. My mother is the rock of our family. She had to go back to school to get a job and take care of us. I am very close to her. She bought me adventure books, I saw her read a lot too and I got the reading bug from her. My favourite author is Ernest Hemingway. She also taught me that with a goal and hard work, everything is possible and I believe it.

As a teenager growing up without a dad, I found it hard. I know as a teenager you don’t really want to hang out with your parents but I still miss him, because I did not get to know him much and I did not really have a male role model. I had to find them elsewhere. I joined the army cadets and that was a lot of fun meeting all these new people. I also had this great English teacher in high school, Jack Simpson. He promoted my work and was so encouraging. He made me feel great about myself and my reading.

I think when there are people around you who really take an interest in you and are supportive, it’s easier to explore what you like, what you don’t like, set goals and decide what you want to do. That’s the kind of dad I want to be, a role model that is loving, supportive and encouraging.

I went to Carleton University and I supported myself financially throughout university with two jobs while attending school full time. I have a very interesting job now, with the Toronto Police. I work as a Detective in downtown Toronto. I am lucky to work on a great team and conduct challenging investigations. I took the job to help people. I like to get justice and closure for victims. Helping people is more valuable to me than my salary.

I take my job seriously, but I do not take myself too seriously. I hate bullies and showoffs. I hate when stronger people take advantage of weaker people. One case I am particularly proud of is when I intervened in a school where a kid was being bullied and got assaulted. I was able to ensure it would not happen again and that the victim got counselling. Phoney people tire me out because I see through them very quickly.

I have a charmed life thanks to Lucie, my co-workers, my neighbours and friends. I go out of my way to engage with unique and funny individuals. I have friends from the GO Train commute, the gym, my work, the dog park, my neighbours and the cottage. People say I am approachable, upbeat, funny and loyal. I always told myself I was never going to become bitter and twisted. I enjoy the outdoors, nature and wildlife and of course, reading.

Our Four-legged Friend Bailey
Bailey is our super friendly dog. We rescued Bailey at the local shelter when he was five months old and he’s now a good family companion. He is a Brittany Spaniel, a working breed known as “bird dog” that can flush and retrieve birds. He’s a doll with all the kids at the park or our nephews. Since we rescued him, Alex has decided to take up bird hunting as a hobby and at the same time, train Bailey with new skills and use his natural instincts. Alex is very patient and has been teaching him all sorts of tricks. We’re lucky to have Bailey. He’s a good dog and a good friend.

Our Life Together
We live in a welcoming home in Oakville that Alex and I renovated from top to bottom ourselves. We picked that house because it reminded me of the house where I grew up, with a large back yard and a pool where other kids on the street can congregate to in the summer and lots of trails nearby to go biking and explore. It’s just perfect for a family! We take Bailey everyday to the dog park nearby where he plays with other dogs or to the woods across the street where he goes for a serious sniffing or hunting expedition.

Can you believe our local library has an entire floor that is dedicated to children’s books and is decorated with fun and bright coloured furniture? It looks so cool there, I can’t wait to go in there to visit their colourful nooks and crannies with your child and attend their parent-child activities like Alphabet Soup or Shake, Rattle and Read.

At our cottage on Beech Lake in the Haliburton area, we love taking an early morning canoe ride when the lake is still flat as a mirror and no one else is on the lake. That’s the best time to enjoy the lake and smell the morning. Our first stop is always the “wild life shore”, an area of the lake we named because it is free of cottages and where we’re always guaranteed to find herons, ducks and muskrats or old nice driftwood that I like to transform into different objects. Or we take longer expeditions and paddle to connecting lakes for a picnic.

There are so many beautiful hiking trails around that we keep discovering but we have our favourites that we return to year after year. We always dedicate a week in July for our family reunion where everyone comes together and enjoys the cottage. It’s always a fun filled week of BBQs, fishing, craft, fire camps, and playing cards and dominos and sometimes, witnessing life changing events too. Our godson Gabriel walked his first steps at the cottage! Our favourite time at the cottage is sunset. I am always in awe at this wonderful display of colour. I have hundreds and hundreds of sunset pictures that I run as my screensaver.

We love to cook. I’m the side dish and dessert lady and Alex is the BBQ man. He loves to try new BBQ recipes and marinades even in the dead of winter. We like flavourful ethnic food. Every Friday night, we go out for dinner together or with friends and we try to find new places or visit our favourite spots. I love doing craft and things. Since we bought the cottage, I like everything rustic and I even started making some rustic furniture for the cottage. I am proud to tell my friends "I built that bench myself!" I can’t wait to do crafts projects with your child.

Other Ways to be Parents and Help Children
We believe there are many ways to be parents. In our cases, it’s with volunteering. I volunteered for five years on the board of the Oakville Parent Child Centre, a non-for-profit organization that offers programs to parent and young children. Their programs help parents meet other parents and support families in the crucial role of ensuring children get the best possible start in life. With my business background, working on the board was the best place where I can give back to ensure the success of the organization and indirectly impact the life of children in the programs.

I am also involved now with my local professional engineering chapter with their “adopt an engineer” school program to talk to children about engineering and my own career experience. I think it’s really hard to make curriculum choices because it’s hard to know in grade 8 what you want to do when you grow up. I’d like them to see that engineering is a career choice that can open many doors, like it did for me, and that there are also different ways to be an engineer and that it’s not just a geeky profession for guys. Go girls! So hopefully this will give them more insights and help them in their school and career choices.

We also have a few friends that are high school teachers. They regularly invite Alex to speak in their class about policing. They have some really interesting questions not just from a career perspective but also from a counselling perspective like “What should I do if this is happening to me?” So all these experiences are really rewarding because you make a positive difference in someone’s life and that’s the bottom line at the end of the day.

Our Families
We’re very close to our family and we take road trips to go visit regularly. We have family reunions with big BBQ’s in the summer. We decorate cupcakes together based on the holiday/theme we’re celebrating. We are godparents to two bright and fun kids, Gabriel and Chloe, and have fourteen nephews that we see regularly. We’ll play in the snow making angels or pull them in the sleigh with Bailey. Alex can entertain them for hours just by making silly faces with them or building some serious construction towers. And of course, you guessed it, I love to bake cookies or do crafts with our goddaughter Chloe. I can’t wait to pass down these skills to your child!

Good Vibes! Music, Movement, Travel and Language
We speak English at home but we also speak French with our families. I also speak French and English at work. So your child would be sure to grow with French and English comfortably. I am also learning Spanish right now. Part of our goddaughter’s heritage is Latin American and I want to be able to communicate with her in one of her primary languages. Knowing other languages opens you to the rest of the world and brings new perspectives and a respect for other cultures.

We love to travel and experience new environments and speaking the language is a sure way to connect with the locals. We have a list of places we want to see posted on our fridge. I love ethnic dances and music, which has such a vibration of high energy that is hard to find elsewhere. It gives me goose bumps! Movement has always been a big part of my life. I enjoy taking dance classes and to me, it’s a fabulous outlet for creative expression and connecting with your body and mind. A little secret of mine is that I enjoy doing improv dancing in my living room to some cool music and just enjoying the moment. Ahhhh!

Growing our Family
Having a child has been our dream for a very long time. Because of unexplained infertility, we believe there are other ways to be parents than to have a biological baby. We have embraced adoption as another alternative to growing our family. Adoption is not new in our life. I grew up with two cousins that were adopted. One of my best friends is adopted. A colleague of mine had chosen adoption for his biological child while he and his partner were still university students. Our families and friends are so excited for us and your child will receive a warm welcome! Our parents are really looking forward to have another grandchild to spoil!

Building a Lasting Relationship of Trust
As birth parents you are and will always be part of your child’s life. Your adoption plan has to feel right for you and your child, now and in the future and we’ll work with you to make sure it happens. It can be through letters, pictures, Facebook or visits. We’d also love to have pictures of you and your family to ensure your child grows up knowing his birth heritage. We are very open and flexible about the adoption process and approach you decide, in whichever way that will work for you.

Connecting
I hope it’s easier now for you to imagine the life and the many experiences your child will have with us and that you have a better feel for the kind of mom and dad we’ll be to your child. We’re here to nurture your child, care for him in the way that you want him cared for. We can’t wait to meet you so you can get to know us more. We’d be more than happy to answer any questions you have, show you more pictures, and find out more about your adoption plan as we make this special connection with you.

Sincerely wishing you all the best,
Lucie and Alex