Kathy's cultural heritage is something that she is very proud of. She is from Lima, Peru. Her father was born and raised in the Andean region in a very small town, and her mother was born in the Amazon.

The depth of her heritage is a combination of traditions and beliefs from all three regions of Peru: the coast, highlands and jungle. Religion, history and food are some of the factors that her heritage is composed of. Going to church with her parents on Sundays was extremely important. This religious background has influenced her life greatly, as we are Godparents to our two nephews.

Kathy's father, whose mother was native Incan and father of Spanish descent, taught her how to prepare a traditional Pachamanca meals underground.

Her mother, whose mother immigrated from Portugal and father was a native of the Amazon, still reminds her and her siblings to celebrate San Juan, the patron of the Amazon, by making lots of dishes and of course praying and thanking him.

Matt has been able to experience and embrace this heritage because we lived in Peru for three years and we go back to Peru at least three times a year.

In our leisure time, Matt loves to play golf and Kathy is just getting started playing, but enjoys getting out on the golf course as well. Matt also loves to fish - no matter what type. It's not so much to keep the fish he catches, but mainly for sport.

We purchased out first boat no too long ago and cannot wait to experience a full season of boating. We have three large lakes where we live and anticipate using our boat a lot next summer.

We both enjoy sports. While Matt enjoys baseball, Kathy enjoys soccer and tennis. We also enjoying hiking as there are so many trails here. In the winter time we love going to ski resorts. Kathy snowboards while Matt is a skier.

When not outside, we enjoy board games and classic movie marathons. We also like to meet our friends for bowling, going to see different local shows, or going to different restaurants.

Pets have always been an important part in our lives. We have two French Bulldogs named Dominoe and Gabby. Dominoe is 3½ and Gabby is almost 2. They bring extreme amounts of joy to our lives. After a long day at work, we are greeted with uncontrollable wagging and lots of kisses, no matter what kind of day we might have had, they are always happy to see us and show us support and love. They love us unconditionally and we consider them a part of our family. Dominoe is more attentive and always on alert. While Gabby more of a cuddling type.

They love other dogs and people, especially children. When our friends come to our house with their daughters, they play for hours in our back yard playing catch and chasing sticks. Our fur babies enjoy walks, jumping in the lake, and going for boat rides.

We know that they will show our child the same amount (if not more) of love as they show us!

We live in a small, peaceful neighborhood in southern Missouri. Our house has three bedrooms and two baths with a large fenced in back yard where we cannot wait to build a play set. Kathy has already started sketching the designs for converting one of the bedrooms to a nursery.

We consider ourselves very lucky to live in a city that is so family oriented and that has so many attractions like live performances, dinner shows, go karts, water parks, and an abundance of hiking trails.

Our neighborhood is active with playing children, walkers, joggers, dog walkers, and our house is even on a couple of marathon routes. We live very close to parks, lakes, and shopping.

Our community has several seasonal festivals, including a famous Christmas festival at our local amusement park. During the 4th of July we like to spend the day on the lake and then watch the fireworks from our back yard while spending time with our friends and family around our fire pit.

Family is extremely important to us. We cherish every moment we get to spend with our loved ones.

Matt's family lives in the mountains of Virginia, where we get to enjoy various home cooked meals every September during our annual family reunion. Matt's mom is retired and comes to visit us every other month.

The majority of Kathy's family lives in Peru. We go to Peru at least three times a year to visit her parents, her brothers, and our Godson. We spend time enjoying classic Peruvian food while sitting around her parents' pool and also spending time at the beach.

We have recently started a tradition of Kathy's family coming to our house in Missouri every Christmas. Kathy's sister and our nephew live in Tennessee. We see them quite often; when they visit, we like to go boating and Matt and our nephew enjoy fishing.

We also consider a small group of friends our extended family. They both have daughters, and when they all come over, we enjoy cooking, playing games in our back yard (board games in the winter,) and listening to music around our fire pit.

Our whole family is extremely supportive of adoption and cannot wait for us to welcome our new child.

We are extremely grateful that you would take the time to get to know us. There are simply no words to express our gratitude towards you. Even though we have not met you yet, know that you are loved by us and admired for your courage. We will never know how difficult this decision is for you. We hope that by the end of this letter, you will be able to see the love we have for each other, our family, and for our future child.

We met while working together at a ski resort 18 years ago. We began dating and quickly realized that we had a lot in common, like the love of traveling, love of food, and love for our families. We knew we were ready to spend the rest of our lives together. We dated for a year and were married in August of 2005. In 2011, we moved to Peru to be closer to Kathy's family. Matt attributes part of his Spanish learning to negotiating prices at different markets in Lima. After three years in Peru, we made the very difficult decision to move back to the U.S.

After having lived in a few different States, we, and our two french bulldogs, Dominoe and Gabby, have found our forever home in a small town in southern Missouri, where we are fortunate to be surrounded by a great group of friends who we now consider family.

Half of our family lives in the U.S. and half lives in Peru. With that being said, we have become creative on how we are able to spend time with each other. We sometimes meet our family in different vacation spots and other times they come here for holidays, since families are extremely important to us and who we are as a couple. We are very lucky to have traveled to different countries. We will continue this tradition with our child as we believe that experiencing different cultures further increases children's awareness, appreciation, and inclusion of diverse beliefs and cultures as our family is multicultural.

Please know that we will devote our lives to caring, spoiling, and loving your child. You are changing our lives by blessing us with the greatest miracle. We have been waiting for this child for quite some time. We know God has a plan for all of us, and in our hearts we believe that his plan for us is adoption.

As you go through this process, know that we consider you an Angel sent to us, and that these two strangers are keeping you and will forever keep you in their prayers.

We commit to raising your child by reminding him or her of the selfless, courageous woman that you are. Whatever you chose your role to be in your child's life we will honor it. Rest assure, your child will know how much they are loved by you and their adoption story. We promise to include you with emails, letters, keepsakes, photos, videos, and visits if you so choose. You will forever be part of our hearts and your child's heart. Thank you very much for completing our family!

Sincerely,

Matt & Kathy