Choose A Family : Parent Profile
Melanie and Howard
Dear Birth Mother,
Our names are Melanie and Howard and we want to thank you so much for taking the time to read this letter and much more importantly for making the decision to help couples like us fulfill a dream that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. What you’re doing takes an extraordinary amount of courage and we appreciate you so much!
How can we ever convey to you on paper how much love we have for each other and the dedication we have to this process?
Let us at least try. A little bit about us...
About Us
We met on a blind date In October 2005, and have been connected and very much together ever since. We both had heard of “love at first sight” but never imagined it could happen to us! We have a running joke that it took Melanie all of 45 seconds to know she had found her soul mate, while Howard played hard to get and held out for just under 3 minutes! We were married less than a year later and every day we count our blessings that the universe lined up as it did that fall night.
Howard is a successful comedy television writer/producer. He has created and been involved with several television series both here and in Canada. He loves what he does and is lucky enough to have a home office in the back of our house so that he can write from home and be around the family.
Melanie is blessed to be able to be a stay at home Mom which she LOVES! She very much enjoys being able to keep a nice home and garden, despite Fred the dog’s determination to dig up the latter (more on Fred later). Melanie is an active member of the PTA at her daughter Emma’s school and runs a monthly feeding the homeless program with the students in 1st 5th grade. She is also on a committee to oversee healthy food changes and choices in the cafeteria and on campus.
Our Backgrounds
Howard grew up in Montreal Canada with one brother and one sister. He always loved learning, especially history, and continues to be a history buff to this day. He attended McGill University after high school and at the same time was establishing himself as one of Canada’s best- known stand up comedians. He moved to Los Angeles to further his career, but when his daughter, Alexandra was born, he gave up life on the road, and began writing television for a living. Needless to say Alexandra was thrilled when he Dad got a job writing for her favorite show, “Boy Meets World”.
Howard’s family is still in Montreal so we try and get up there as much as possible. The holidays are very important to all of us, and a wonderful time for everyone to get together and catch up either in Montreal, Guadalajara, Mexico where Melanie’s father lives or here in Los Angeles. With nine nieces and nephews there’s never enough time and always too much food, but we love every minute of it.
Melanie was born in New York and has two brothers, one of whom was adopted by her father. She attended high school in New York City and then went to boarding school in New Hampshire. After graduation she took college courses and her first real job was being a counselor in a residential treatment facility for emotionally disturbed boys in Northern California. When she moved to Los Angeles she began to work in the entertainment industry as an executive assistant and later on, bookkeeper.
She is very close to her family. The day Melanie’s daughter was born her mother and stepfather put their house in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the market and moved to Los Angeles to be close to their first granddaughter. They are now blessed with two more granddaughters as Melanie’s brother Matt has two daughters, Chase and August. Matt, Hillary, Chase and baby August live near us in Los Angeles and are a very important part of our day-to-day lives.
We have two beautiful daughters. Alexandra is almost 20 years old, and is studying at the University of Toronto. She is majoring in Art History and is extremely creative both in her writing and in the art that she creates. She is excited to move into her first apartment this summer that she will share with two friends!
Emma is nine years old and in third grade. She is an extremely bright, loving and funny little girl well, not so little anymore as she likes to remind us! She loves to read and do arts and crafts but her real passion is with animals. If it were up to her she would rescue every animal that we see! We call Emma “the baby whisperer” as kids of all ages are drawn to her and she seems to be able to make even the crankiest baby smile!
Howard and I knew right away that we wanted to have a child together but after trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant we now know that adoption is to be a part of our present and future life together.
Our Furry Friends
We have what seems sometimes like a menagerie! We have 5 pets all together, all of them rescued. There are four cats: Big Kitty, Little Kitty, Owen and Max and one cute dog that we call Fred! And if Melanie can talk Howard into it there will be more dogs and cats rescued in the future!
Our Home
We live in a warm and comfortable Spanish style home in Southern California.
Both of us take pride in our home and enjoy working around the house. Our house is filled with so many family photos that we fear we’ll run out of wall space one day! We have a great backyard which we use all of the time, especially in the summer, when Howard is our master barbecuer, (with the burn marks to prove it!). The street we live on is beautiful and we love taking long walks with Fred the dog and admiring all of the flowers, gardens and trees.
Our Interests
We both enjoy gardening and working around the house repairing things and our favorite kind of weekends are spent doing just that. We both love movies and Melanie is an avid reader. Going to the theater is something we really enjoy, especially musicals and take Emma as often as possible. In the past we’ve seen Wicked, Peter Pan, The King and I and Oklahoma.
Because we have families in both Canada and Mexico we like to travel as often as our schedules allow. Howard has taken Alexandra on father-daughter trips ranging from Quebec City to London and even Belize. But with family and pet responsibilities looming large, we generally like to stay closer to home and take mini one or two-day trips. We are lucky that both San Diego and Santa Barbara are both within driving distance - and Sea World is always a thrill for Emma.
Living in Los Angeles allows us the opportunity to take advantage of all the wonderful museums, theaters, parks and beaches so we never get bored!
What We Say About Each Other
Melanie Says:
I’ve always said how much I love Howard but more importantly, I like him. He is a wonderful, kind soul who is compassionate, generous and a man who always does the right thing. He is my best friend, my source of strength and sometimes, when I make him, my dance partner. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank God for sending me Howard because we are such a great team and there is no one I love more. He makes me laugh until I fall over and every time he walks in the room I light up. He makes me want to be a better person and he inspires everyone around him.
Howard Says:
Melanie is my muse, my audience, and my best friend, all rolled up in a
heart that’s bigger than her tiny body. In human years we haven’t been
together all that long, and yet I can’t remember that there was ever a day that we weren’t together. When I look at her I consider myself the luckiest man in the world. Mel’s a great wife, a wonderful mother and fantastic cook.
Watching her with Emma has taught me to be a better father. Every day she teaches this beautiful girl about love, about tolerance, and about being good to others, and every day I see these lessons turn Emma into a little jewel of a person.
But truthfully there are a few areas that Mel could use some improvement in. She’s not much a juggler, she constantly erases my TIVO to make room for Supernanny, and to be frank, as a dancer she’s a much better singer, but despite these faults, she’s the love of my life. And even though I refuse to tell her to her face, between you and me, she is the funniest person I know. (after me of course).
I hope we’ve conveyed to you the kind of love we have for each other and for our children. We both feel the opportunity to have another child this way has replaced years of frustration with the magnificent feeling of hope.
If you would like to speak with us about adopting your child or have any questions for us, please contact one of our Adoption Advisors at AdoptHelp by calling 1-800-637-7999 toll-free.
Love,
Melanie and Howard
Check Our Rating