Hello,

We are Elke and Malcolm from Gilroy, California. We are grateful you have chosen to read our letter.  We hope reading about our family, will help you to make this very important decision. We both work as educators, as such, Elke will be a part time stay at home mom and Malcolm has a traditional school schedule with weekends and holidays off. We have had the opportunity to see open adoptions happen firsthand because we have many friends / family members who have been adopted. We realize that open adoption can mean many different things to many different people and we welcome the opportunity to explore open adoption with you. 

Elke according to Malcolm

Elke works part time as a one to one tutor. She works with students either during the school day or after school. The flexibility with her schedule makes it an ideal situation for raising a child because she can work when she wants to.

Elke is very family oriented, and is very close with her own family, which I appreciate, since I am also close with my family. She is very kind, creative, and is very outgoing. She loves to scrap book and as such, makes an album for every year we have been together, starting with the year we began dating. She is also into making cards and has made some of the most beautiful and creative cards our families have ever seen.

Elke loves baseball and is an avid Chicago Cubs fan, so she plans on teaching our child the fundamentals of baseball and to enjoy the sport as much as she does, even taking our child to a game or two. Elke is also fluent in American Sign Language, which she plans to teach to our child, and to me, as well. Elke loves to bake, especially around the holiday time. She sets aside one weekend in November every year, where she does all of the baking for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Chanuka. She would love to share her love of baking with a child, even some of her family recipes, which have been passed down from her grandmother.

Malcolm according to Elke

Malcolm works as an instructional assistant for students who are in Special Education. The students he works with cannot take care of themselves - they need constant care so Malcolm helps them with everything from moving their arms and/or legs to talking with them. Sometimes --- a friendly smile, is all these students are looking for. Malcolm loves his job. He loves just being around these students and giving them a smile every day.

Malcolm is fun, loving, and very outgoing. He always has a positive outlook on life. Malcolm enjoys reading, and he does it quite a bit, especially on his Kindle. He also enjoys working with a piece of wood and creating wood projects. He loves to burn designs into a piece of wood and then either, keep it for our home, or give it away as a gift. Like me, Malcolm is very family oriented, spending time with and seeing his parents at least once a month.

Malcolm would love to teach our child to love the great outdoors. He would love to teach our child how to swim, how to ride a bike, kayak, fish, and how to enjoy the outdoors. He would also teach our child how to do home projects both inside and out. Having our child involved in social activities, such as Boy /Girl Scouts or little league is very important to Malcolm, so our child can form bonds and friendships with children of their own age.

About Us

We met on-line on eHarmony.com. We have been married for 7 years. When we first started dating, Malcolm picked me up from the train station and drove me home. My luggage was behind his car and he backed up over my luggage! Malcolm drove a jeep at the time and he did not realize that I had placed my luggage behind the jeep tire. Luckily, nothing of value was inside my luggage, only clothes!

We love spending time with our extended family. There are lots and lots of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, even a great-grandmother. Malcolm and I enjoy many activities together. We enjoy being outdoors, whether it is going to the beach or just going for a walk either in our neighborhood or at the nearby lake that Malcolm actually grew up playing in. We also enjoy cooking, home improvement projects, and playing board games … Elke will occasionally let Malcolm win a game or two. We would love to share our life and our adventures with a child.

We discussed from the beginning the idea of adopting. After years of unsuccessfully trying to have a baby on our own, we are looking forward to completing our family through adoption.

Holidays with Extended Family

Every year, during the holiday season, we host a holiday party – a Christmas / Chanuka / Birthday Party / Anniversary Party all rolled into one – at our home in Gilroy, which we invite Malcolm’s parent’s to. Why a Birthday and Anniversary Party, you ask? Malcolm’s parents were married on December 3rd and his mother was born on December 11th. Malcolm and I are both educators, so not only do we have the Christmas and New Year’s holidays off, but we also have 2 weeks off that we spend in southern California with Elke’s parents celebrating Christmas and Chanuka with that side of the extended family. We can’t wait to spoil our child over these two weeks.

Our Home

We live in Gilroy, California - the Garlic Capital of the World. We live in a quiet, kid friendly neighborhood in Gilroy. We are within walking distance to the park, restaurants, shopping, and the library. We are fortunate to live in an area with terrific schools, where it is safe to ride your bike, take long walks and just raise a family. Elke works part time. Her job is very flexible so she will be home with the baby during the school day, while Malcolm is at work, then when he gets home, she will go to work for a couple of hours. So there will always be one of us at home to watch over the baby full time.

Our home is very warm and comfortable with lots and lots of family pictures on the walls, however there is still room to put some more with our child. We enjoy decorating our home to go with the different seasons / holidays. The outside of our home is a work in progress, but once it is done, it will be an oasis for us to be able to sit out and enjoy, as well as, have a child area to play in.

We believe in family dinners. We always have dinner together every evening. During our family dinners, we discuss how our day went.

Thank You! What a Baby Means to Us

There is so much that we would love to tell you about us, but most importantly is that we have more than enough love for your baby. We want you to know that words cannot express how very grateful we are that you are considering our family. We know that we can provide a child everything they need and we can't wait to welcome this new person into our family and help guide and support them as they grow into the person they were meant to be.

We have had the opportunity to see open adoptions happen firsthand because we have many friends / family members who have been adopted. We have seen our family / friends connect with their birth families. Each situation is different, but being open is the key. We feel that being honest and loving with any child is paramount. We will embrace the situation that works best for all of us. Our adopted child, in our home, will be loved and will always be an important, integral part of our family.

We’d love to learn more about your hopes for your child, so if you’d also like to learn more about us too, please feel free to contact us through Adoption Connection.