Welcome! Meet:

Wes + Miriam

Chief Operations Officer / Senior Health Social Worker

Ohio

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

All About Wes & Miriam

Dear expecting parent(s),

We are Miriam and Wes from Central Ohio. Thank you kindly for reading our profile. We’re grateful to share a little bit about us in these few pages.

Having experienced adoption and the blessing of our amazing daughter Bianca, we are hoping to find her a sibling and grow our family once more. We would love to build an open, trusting, and loving relationship with the child’s birth family, as we’d done with Bianca’s. We would love to connect with you.

Why Adoption?

We both knew when we’d met that we wanted a family. We’d tried to have children biologically for many years. After years of infertility, heartache, and a lot of soul searching, we’d realized that we were destined to adopt. We feel lucky to have several friends who have been blessed by adoption in their lives; we’ve learned a lot from them. This group of friends provides us with a great deal of support and encouragement on this journey. Bianca was a prayer answered from above, and we are ready to grow our family once more.

We have an open adoption relationship with Bianca’s birth family and regularly visit with her maternal aunt, uncle and cousins.

Family & Home

Our home is situated in the well established suburban neighborhood where Wes grew up and his parents still live. This way grandma and grandpa have easy access to us, which allows them to spend regular time with us. The neighborhood is quite diverse and the primary school, grocery stores, restaurants, and parks are all within walking distance. Wes’ brother, his wife, and sister all live within 5 miles.

We love spending family time in our spacious backyard that’s equipped with a raised herbal garden, a pond with a fountain, mature trees, and sharing playtime with Bianca on her trampoline, slide/swing set, and her turtle-shaped sandbox.

We partake in many other activities and hobbies together, including Bianca’s weekly swim lessons, gymnastics or KidStrong classes, grilling and gathering around the bonfire, traveling, dancing/singing, and playing with our puppies. Bianca loves running and has participated in her first ½ mile community race recently, being very proud to wear her “big girl” medal.

Typically, we gather with extended family for special occasions, holidays, and events, and now have the opportunity to visit more frequently with Wes’ grandparents who moved back to Ohio. Bianca is a great deal of joy and entertainment for all. Grandparents’ and Great grandparents’ eyes always light up when she’s around.

Miriam gets to video chat with her family in Slovakia on a weekly basis and we visit overseas as often as we can.

How others describe me

About Miriam (by Wes)

Miriam is a remarkably kind and nurturing woman. She demonstrates this daily in everything she does for our family. She is a loving and affectionate mother, goes above and beyond in her career as a social worker helping the needy, but it’s also evident through her leadership skills in her management positions that she’d held in her women’s acapella chorus, at work, as well as through organizing clothing drives and volunteering with local organizations for the homeless and for the environment. But as impressive as this is, the thing that first attracted me to Miriam was her strength and courage to seek the things she wants in life no matter the obstacles.

Miriam’s heritage is in Slovakia where her parents and sister live with her family. We love to go visit them when we get a chance. Slovak heritage is important to Miriam. She likes to teach Bianca the Slovak language, about their traditions, culture, and folklore. She’s a great cook.

About Wes (by Miriam)

Wes is the most gentle man I’ve ever known. What really attracted me to him was his romantic nature. He shows his love to all of us in so many ways on a daily basis. Wes is a great provider and above all, he’s a present and hands-on parent and husband. He makes sure to spend quality time with each of us regularly. Wes is a very loyal friend and a family member. He would give his shirt off of his back for someone he loves, and that’s what I admire about him the most. He supports Miriam in all her endeavors with her competitive women’s acapella chorus and cheers her on each time.

After a busy work day, Wes loves to relax at home while playing with Bianca and puppies, going for a walk, watching his favorite sport match, or just simply hanging out with us. He can be very silly and playful, and Bianca takes full advantage of “daddy’s princess” time. His favorite hobby is camping, bonfires, hiking, and if he gets an opportunity, also flying or playing golf. Wes’ favorite exercise is martial arts in the style of Kung Fu.

Wes’ big achievement growing up was playing various sports in a competitive manner, but above all it was achieving an Eagle Scout rank (Scouts of America), which he’s still very proud of.

How We Met

Our love story began 2 decades ago while meeting on the volleyball courts at the local major university. We were playing volleyball with our friends during the summer and ran into each other, becoming fast friends. Miriam was then spending her summer in the U.S. as a college exchange student from Europe (Slovakia) and Wes was hanging out with his friends and family (his brother Chris was a part of that initial group) while enjoying his early 20s life.

After that hot summer, Miriam returned to Europe for her studies, but stayed in contact with Wes. He came to visit Miriam in Slovakia and meet her family. That’s when we started dating. Next fall we were married and started our new life together in Ohio. Our love has been growing ever since.

Advice to Future Child

Follow your dreams and never give up.

We as your parents will guide you as you grow, protect you from harm, show you the wonders of the world, and provide the support you need to flourish. We will be constant and there by your side every step of the way as you need us, as you learn, as you love, to celebrate your accomplishments and to comfort when you experience hurt and disappointment too. We will always love you no matter what. You can do anything!

Perspectives on Open Adoption

Our belief is that the more people love the child, the more likely the child grows up to become emotionally healthy and whole. When they know their life story, without secrets and unknowns, they don’t have to ponder and feel less than. The child can be confident about where they came from and who’s in their “corner” each and every day.

Open adoption is therefore important to us. We have experience with open adoption with Bianca’s biological family, and we would love to recreate that with her sibling’s family as well. However, we do recognize that this journey is very emotional, and full of ups and downs; we want to respect whatever level of openness you wish for.

Favorites

Wes

Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Family reunions with my mom’s side of the family. It’s always a blast when we all get together. There are tons of activities to do (boating, skiing, fishing, flying, and playing card games to name a few). It’s great to spend time and catch up with the uncles and aunts and cousins we don’t often see outside of these gatherings. A neat tradition is that cooking meals is split among the “families” within the larger family. We each get a turn to prepare a meal(s). The food is amazing and diverse and there’s plenty of it. We all eat well and the shared responsibility ensures we all get time to relax and have fun.
Hobbies/Interests: Performing music, playing sports (football, soccer, volleyball, basketball), outdoor pursuits (camping, canoeing, hiking, fishing), travel, technology
Dream Vacation: anywhere warm where I can escape the hustle and bustle of daily life and be surrounded by the beauty and serenity of nature
If I Could Choose a Superpower: To control time - It’s the one thing in life of which we all have the same amount (24 hours in a day, 7 days a week, etc.) and of which we can’t make more. To be able to slow or pause time to savor those great moments and to speed it up in our low ones in our lives would be incredible.

Miriam

Favorite Movie: Sweet Home Alabama
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: My favorite has always been Christmas. There is something magical about fresh powder of snow on the ground, chill in the air, jingle bells around the corner and people gathering to wish each other Merry Christmas. As a tradition, we gather on Christmas Eve for a big family dinner, where we serve Sauerkraut soup, homemade potato salad and fried fish. My chorus often goes to the community and sings carols. Christmas has always been a warm and family-gathering time in my family when growing up, especially an opportunity to visit with extended family and friends. There are many traditions from Slovakia that I enjoy and try to pass on to our children, especially the language, ethnic cuisine, and some of the folklore.
Hobbies/Interests: singing, dancing, music, gardening, hiking, volleyball
Dream Vacation: return to the paradise in Hawaii
If I Could Choose a Superpower: Safety Fairy - I wish I could provide a safe place/time for anyone who is in need. Whether it would be a home for the unsheltered (people or pets) or just a safe place for someone to escape or lay their head, I would love to wave my little wand and make that come true.