We can be reached by contacting our adoption worker, Lisa Cowie at lisa@sunriseadoption.com or on her toll-free 24-hour line 1-888-984-2488. We will call you back as soon as we hear from Marg, as we are excited about getting to know you and moving forward on this journey together.

"Welcome to our hearts and our home, both are filled with love and laughter, family and friends and already bursting with the joy of parenting. We are a family of three and hope to become a family of four! Our son Zachary is our sunshine. He has brought immeasurable joy and love into our family and continues to remind us, on a daily basis, about all that is good in life. Now that he is three years old, we would love to build our family through adoption, so that Zachary and his sibling can grow up experiencing all the wonders that life has to offer, hand in hand."

Hi and thanks for reading our letter,

You’re looking for a wonderful home and future for your child and we’re looking to share our love and lives with another child in our family. Perhaps we are looking for each other?

About our Decision to Adopt
You may be wondering why we want to adopt when we already have the gift of a child in our lives. We have walked the path of infertility together and were finally fortunate enough to conceive our son Zachary. He has brought immeasurable joy and love into our family and continues to remind us, on a daily basis, about all that is good in life. He has shown us that our passion is for parenting and we are looking forward to sharing our love with a new life. Zachary is too!

Before we had even thought about building our family through adoption, Zachary was ahead of the game. He has been telling us stories about his imaginary brother and sister since he was about 18 months old and still he continues today. We admire your decision to make an adoption plan, even though it may be a difficult one, and hope that we can help fulfill your desire to find a loving family for your child.

About our Family
We have been together for 19 years and our relationship just seems to grow stronger as we experience more of life. We have a healthy lifestyle, try to live every day to its fullest and appreciate all that we have together. The foundation of our relationship is built on trust, respect, love and commitment to lifelong learning.

Our first date seemed to set the scene for our future adventures. We spent a wonderful week together, back-country skiing in the mountains, appreciating the peace and quiet of the wilderness. Since then we have shared many adventures, particularly while travelling around the world. We have sipped rancid yak milk tea with Tibetan monks at the highest inhabited place in the world and enjoyed Singapore Slings (a special cocktail) at the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore.

We have welcomed the sunrise at the top of Mount Killimanjaro in Tanzania and scuba dived with the sharks by moonlight on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. In Indonesia, we were enchanted by the dawn chorus of croaking frogs and in Africa we camped while a pod of hippos grazed around our tent. We have hiked into the mysterious Machu Picchu in Peru and danced at the carnival in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

The focus of our lives changed once we hoped to start a family. We decided to move from a busy city to a rural town so that our children would appreciate a sense of belonging in their community, and so Sarah could stay at home with our children. We renovated a rundown home which took a lot of dedication and hard work (and a lot of mistakes!) but it was worth it.

We now live in a beautiful three bedroom, heritage home at the centre of a family-orientated community. Our children will be able to walk to school and ride their bikes to their friends' houses. Our home is surrounded by vineyards and orchards and has a view of a great lake, just a five-minute walk from here.

We were more than ready to share our love of the outdoors and adventure with Zachary. In the winter, there is nothing that makes us happier than packing up the sled, the skis, (yes, Zachary began skiing at two), our dog Jasper and a picnic and heading for the mountains. After playing in the snow, we hang out in a rustic cabin, reading books while sitting by the fire. In the summer, it is very warm here and after a day of cycling with Zachary in the trailer, we love to cool off by playing in the clear waters of the lake.

Zachary has already been on his first cycling trip. When he was eight months old we took him on a biking/camping trip to the United Kingdom. It was a lot of fun and a lot of rain, as we recall.
Our community offers many toddler programs that we also love to attend. Zachary particularly enjoys playing with his friends at a parent-participation playgroup, arts and crafts programs and story time at the library.

We plan to raise our children in much the same way as we were raised; with love, patience, humor, gentle guidance and consistent parenting, which reinforces positive behavior. Our hope is that our children will grow up to be thoughtful, sensitive and compassionate towards others and have a strong sense of morality and integrity in everything they do. We want them to enjoy a life packed with all kinds of experiences (rather than possessions), and for them to have the confidence to believe that they can achieve anything, provided they are prepared to work hard at it.

Although our extended families live in England, they are our constant visitors. In the three short years of Zachary’s life, he has been there several times and many family members from overseas have visited us. We have surrounded ourselves with a large “chosen” family of close friends who are involved in our lives, all of whom are Zachary’s aunties and uncles. Everyone is excited about welcoming another little person to our family.

While we don’t belong to any organized religion, we were both raised as Catholics and maintain strong spiritual beliefs. We plan to raise our children with an appreciation of all that is good in the world and to respect other’s religious/spiritual beliefs while formulating their own.

About Sarah (by Alan)
I still can remember the first day I saw Sarah. She was working as a Speech and Language Pathologist at a Child Development Centre, and when she walked into a room full of young children, the positive energy buzzed around her. The children eagerly looked up to see what was going to happen next. That is because when Sarah is around, fun things happen, and her enthusiasm is quite contagious (especially to kids!).

There is nothing more important to Sarah than spending time with Zachary. She is a loving and devoted mother, who encourages his learning through play and fun at every opportunity throughout her day. She has boundless energy and imagination. She is a terrific story teller and Zachary listens in awe as she spins tales of Zachary and Jasper getting into all kinds of mischief with fabulous fairies and friendly monsters! Her imagination shines through in the endless games of “Fire fighter Dave” where she bravely fights off the advances of savage stuffed animals, while our hero Zachary patiently learns how to dress himself in full firefighter gear, in order to rescue her!

Sarah makes friends easily. She’s a good listener and can put herself in other people’s shoes. She always finds the right things to say at the right time, to make others feel good or better about themselves. Her friends know that she will always be there for them in a crisis. In the past she has not thought twice about jumping into her car and driving through the night to be with a close friend whose mother had died unexpectedly, or leaving a family holiday to support a friend with a very sick baby.

Sarah is a lot of fun to be with and can laugh at herself. She sometimes has to do this when one of her famous baking attempts go wrong, like the time her muffins looked more like hockey pucks and were about as hard. Sarah puts her heart into everything she does, whether it’s her family and friends, her career or her garden. Her dedication has made her a successful athlete, competing in numerous marathons, triathlons, cross-country ski races and long-distance swimming events. She continues to stay active by running with Zachary in the jogger or skiing, towing him behind her!

About Alan (by Sarah)
When I first met Alan he was coordinating a Canadian Mount Everest expedition that took place in 1991. At this time I admired his ability to focus on difficult challenges and find great solutions, while respecting the opinions and contributions made by other members of the expedition. Alan was well suited to this task since he had extensive mountaineering experience himself, climbing in many different countries, and was well trusted by his climbing partners. He was also a top level cyclist, competing at the provincial level and again his clear sense of commitment to his activity ensured his success.

Alan’s ability to apply himself and persevere guided him through his university degrees and along his career path. While he is trained as a forester and wildlife biologist, he now works as a general operations manager in a vineyard, where once again he is respected as a leader and a team player. He understands the importance of balancing work commitments and his family time and appreciates having a job that allows him the flexibility to spend time with Zachary during the week as well as at week ends. He is quite a “homebody” these days and really loves being at home surrounded by close family and friends. He’s a great host and when there is a houseful of guests, will always be found in the kitchen, early in the mornings making huge batches of pancakes for everyone.

Alan’s gentle nature is really evident when he is with Zachary. Parenting has truly touched his heart. I have also seen a more playful side of Alan’s nature since Zachary graced our lives. I will never forget the day I came home to see Alan and Zachary chasing each other around the house shouting “har de har” wearing pirate patches on their eyes, tea towels on their heads and waving long straws at each other!

About Zachary
Zachary is our sunshine. He is chatty, funny, empathetic and loving. He has boundless energy and never tires of playing. He has a great attitude and always sees the positive side of life. He will be a wonderful big brother.

About Jasper (our dog)
Jasper and Zachary are best of friends. Jasper is a gentle giant who loves to ski and hike with us as much as he loves to lie in front of the fire, sucking on his toys!

About Openness
You might wonder what your child’s future will look like with us and we would love to share the joys of parenting with you. We would be happy to discuss the level of openness that you feel comfortable with. Whatever the level, please be assured that your child will always know about you and that your decision to make an adoption plan was made with love and from the heart.

We hope that we can go forward on this journey with you,
From our hearts to yours,
Sarah, Alan and Zachary