Hello! We
are Josh (33) and Kelly (34) and we are so grateful that you are taking the
time to read a little bit about us. We are so excited at the prospect of adding
a little one to our family! We have been happily married for 8 ½ years. We met
when Josh’s family moved to St. Louis to work at the church Kelly was
attending. We quickly realized that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives
together. Josh is a foreman at a landscaping/lawn mowing business and Kelly is a
student taking online courses. She will be finishing school by September. Afterwards she will be able to work from
home. Her desire has always been to stay at home with our children.
For as long
as we can remember we have wanted to be parents. We always knew we would adopt,
as we have several family members, immediate and extended, that are adopted.
Before we began this journey of adoption we tried for years to get pregnant.
Through various tests and several doctor’s visits, we learned that we have less
than 1% chance to get pregnant. While that diagnosis was hard to hear and
difficult to digest, we are excited about the chance to become parents through
adoption. We fully trust that God has a plan for us and for you and your baby
through this process.
We live in a
modest 3 bedroom, 2 ½ bath, raised-ranch home. It is approximately 1,200 square
feet with a spacious, fenced in front yard.
The lower level is finished with a half bath, storage and laundry
facilities. We live in a suburb of St. Louis and are within 15 minutes of 2
hospitals and various shopping centers.
We have one cat named Blue. He is two years old, neutered and is a
medium hair cat. While he is shy around people at first, he soon warms up and
is ready to play.
Both of our
families are extremely supportive of our decision to adopt. Josh’s three
younger siblings are all adopted, as well as his niece (from Haiti) and cousin.
Kelly’s nephew is adopted and her cousin is adopted from Korea. Adoption is
very common in our family and is, in fact, normal. We love it! We live within
five minutes of Kelly’s parents and an hour and a half from Josh’s. We plan to
see all of them as often as we can with our little one!
Josh’s
parents were foster parents for most of his life. He was always around
children, mostly infants, all with special needs. Kelly often babysat as a
teenager and young adult, and now spends as much as time as possible with two
of her nephews who live close by.
We love to
spend as much time together as possible, but there are also things we like to
do individually. Kelly loves to crochet, workout, and watch Cardinal baseball.
Josh loves to play soccer, do yard work and watch baseball and football games.
Together we enjoy reading, watching movies, attending baseball games, and going
to dinner every once in a while. Kelly
would love to teach our child how to crochet if they are interested in it, and
Josh would love to teach them all he knows about sports. We will read to our
child and hope to instill in them the same love for reading that we have.
We are both
very active in our church and we will raise our child in the church as
well. We were both raised in the
Assembly of God denomination and now attend a non-denominational church with
Pentecostal roots. We strive to live out our faith on a daily basis, and
through love and grace we will teach our child to do the same.
Thank you
for reading our story. We admire your courage and strength and we will continue
to pray for you through this process. If you are interested in learning more about us, please contact us at kelly.salazar1981@gmail.com. You may also contact our our case worker, Mary Ann Hoeynck at 314-854-5700 or mhoeynck@ccstl.org.
