Welcome! Meet:

Patrick + Molly

Psychologist / Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor/Case Manager

Oregon

Caucasian

Other

All About Patrick & Molly
Why Adoption?
Gallery
Family and Home
How We Met
Advice to Future Child
Perspectives on Open Adoption
Favorites

All About Patrick & Molly

Hi there! We’re Molly and Patrick. Ok, so we first want to admit that this feels like a strange way to connect with someone who will become so important to us. We’ll do our best to tell you about who we are and what’s important to us, acknowledging that if you decide to move forward with us, we promise to honor all of the complexity, strangeness, joy, anxiety, and deep appreciation there will be to share. As far as things that we love, in no specific order: travel, hiking, nature-gazing, making and eating delicious food, art, music, gardening, swimming in large bodies of water, animals, dancing, karaoke, reading, science fiction, being curious about the world around us, and most of all – our relationships with our family and friends.

Why Adoption?

We both have family members who were adopted through closed adoption, so adoption has been part of our family narratives for a long time. We saw firsthand how our family members were impacted by being unable to know their full story. We believe that open adoption is the most respectful form of adoption when it comes to a child’s understanding of themselves, and the important people in their lives. We believe that a lot of factors beyond biology go into making a family, and we also believe that children can benefit from having an expansive and deep sense of family and connections in the world. Molly comes from a very large family - with about 40 first cousins between the two sides - and for her this has meant having a great many people to love and be loved by. We believe that the more people who are there to love a child as they develop and grow, the stronger and more open-hearted the child will be.

Family & Home

We live in our forever home in Portland, OR. Our neighborhood is full of giant fir trees, a park, and many different types of wildlife. Our backyard is a little sanctuary in the city. We’ve got a little orchard in the city, with apple, pear, apricot, and cherry trees. We also grow raspberries, blueberries, and lots of different vegetables. We have an 8-year-old mutt who adores children and is very protective of them. Much of our chosen family lives here, and we spend most of the spring and summer hopping from one elementary school soccer or baseball game to another. Molly is originally from Michigan, and Patrick is from Oklahoma. Despite both growing up in the middle of the country, we both moved out to the Northwest because it has always felt like home to us. We have many close ties here, and we wanted to be able to live in a place where there is so much natural beauty to explore. Patrick has an older brother and sister, and four nieces (two of whom also moved to Portland!). Molly has two younger brothers, and three nephews. We also have several different chosen nephews and nieces who live here in the Northwest. We adore our family/chosen family, and spending time with them is one of the best parts of our lives. Our sibs, nieces, and nephews are some of the coolest people anyone could know!

How others describe me

Patrick thinks that Molly is the most caring, intelligent, and energetic person he has ever met. She knows how to make life fun and adventurous, and she cares deeply for her family, friends, and loved ones. She is also the person who keeps our life running ahead. She has the most infectious laugh in the world. It turns heads in restaurants.

Molly’s brother once told her that she’d won the lottery when she met Patrick. It’s true! Patrick is the best! He is calm when others are overwhelmed, empathetic toward others who are often overlooked and dismissed, and consistently supportive no matter where a person is in their life. He moves through life without judging others negatively but rather by being open, understanding, and caring. He loves traveling and learning and has become quite the long-distance runner in the past few years. He’s also a huge nerd and can give you the backstory and connections of any comic book character in the DC or Marvel Universes.

How We Met

We met in graduate school at Seattle University. Molly had a Radiohead sticker on her water bottle, and Patrick knew he was going to be friends with her. Through our graduate school years, we developed a close friendship. We found that we both had a lot in common, yet were also different enough to find that we balanced each other out in many important ways. Molly is very verbal while Patrick is introspective. Molly is the planner, but Patrick is the one who can really think through all of the plans. Patrick is the unflinching, steady calm in the eye of any storm, while Molly will be the one running around shoring up the seawall. We didn’t fall in love until we’d already been friends for a few years, and then when we finally figured out what we had together, we’ve been marveling at our luck in finding each other ever since.

Advice to Future Child

The most important thing in life is your relationships. Find the people who can love you unconditionally and have your back through all of the ups and downs. Be true to them, and don’t hesitate to express gratitude and love to the people in your life who deserve those things from you. Be open to who you are at every moment of your life. Be mindful that you will always be growing and changing, and you don’t belong in anyone else’s box. Be curious. Wonder about what you don’t know in a nonjudgmental way. Explore as much as you can about this incredible world we live in. Learn to love to read. Books will take you places that you can’t get to in any other way. Practice compassion toward yourself and toward others. Spend time with animals and plants. Make art. Honor your pain and sadness, and grow strength and depth from these places.

Perspectives on Open Adoption

As we mentioned above, we both have family members who were adopted through closed adoption. They have lived with a lot of questions about themselves that, in most cases, were never adequately answered. They have internalized shame - even though they have nothing to be ashamed of - because they don’t know the answers to some of the most important “why” questions. We feel that the open adoption model honors every member of a child’s family, and especially the child themself. We want any child to have the most complete understanding of who they are, and to be known and supported by all of the people who love them. We welcome the opportunity to grow our family not only with a child, but also with their biological family as well.

Favorites

Patrick

Favorite Movie: The Dark Knight
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: It’s a tie between enjoying the macabreness of Halloween and seeing all the lights of Christmas.
Hobbies/Interests: running, reading, painting, and travel
Dream Vacation: anywhere international and where I can see interesting art
If I Could Choose a Superpower: the ability to understand and speak any language

Molly

Favorite Movie: Perhaps a bit obscure: Baraka (check it out if you don’t know it!) Less obscure: The Princess Bride (anybody want a peanut?)
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Making delicious vegetarian food and being with loved ones on Thanksgiving. Also anything having to do with Halloween.
Hobbies/Interests: anything outdoors and/or with the people I love! Scuba diving, hiking, traveling, dancing, reading, and I do a lot of yoga
Dream Vacation: Anywhere with Patrick. Also, if scuba diving, hiking, international travel, and delicious food are involved, so much the better!
If I Could Choose a Superpower: the ability to heal others