Letter to You

Hi—

We’re Ryan and Kristin and Peter.  

Kristin:  Kristin graduated from BYU with a degree in Art History.  She loves Ryan a lot, but admits that she still has slight crushes on Taylor Kitsch from Friday Night Lights and Ralph Wiggum from the Simpsons.  Kristin is a very creative person who loves art and design.  She’s always creating, whether in her basement studio or on the computer with her beloved Photoshop.  She’s very opinionated about design (she can give a very long and detailed treatise on how to hang Christmas lights).  She loves Diet Coke—but only from the fountain, not a can, and it must have the perfect ice to soda ratio. 

Kristin comes from a family of builders—her grandpa was a general contractor, and her dad works in road construction.  Kristin was a daddy’s girl growing up, and she can fix anything and everything.   

Ryan:  Ryan is a lawyer for the government.  He really likes his job because it is never boring and gives him a lot of good stories to tell.  He survived law school through a combination of hard work and Mountain Dew.  Ryan really loves watching football, reading, and playing in the yard with Peter.  He doesn’t love yard work, though (but Kristin likes watching him push that lawn mower).  Ryan listens to a lot of Snow Patrol and U2, and has lately had the Zac Brown Band on a continual loop while at work.

Ryan’s parents are from different parts of the country, so he spent his summers growing up taking road trips across the country to visit family.  If there was a way to spend the spring in the South, the summer in Utah, and the fall in New England, he’d be all for it.  Since there’s not, he’s happy to have settled down in Utah.

Peter:  Our little boy Peter turns 6 this spring.  He loves playing with anything super hero related, animals and chasing our cat around the house (he’s convinced the cat loves it!).  Peter is a budding artist; we’re thinking of buying stock in an office supply store because he uses so much paper, crayons and scotch tape in his creations.

When Ryan comes home from work each night, Peter stops chasing the cat and starts chasing Ryan.  Most nights, they run circles around the main level of the house until one of them (let’s be honest—it’s usually Ryan) gets winded and gives out.  Once a week, Peter and Ryan make French toast together—in fact, Peter could tell people all the steps to making French toast before he could spell his name.

Peter is a good sleeper, but when he gets scared at night, he likes us to sing Primary songs to him.  His two favorites are “I Am a Child of God” and “Popcorn Popping.”  He’s going to realize someday what bad singers we are, but we’ll keep singing until then.

Us:  Ryan and Kristin have been married for almost ten years.  We wish we had an exotic story to tell about how we met, but the truth is pretty boring—we met at BYU when Ryan was just about done with law school.  Kristin was dating someone else at the time, but Ryan talked her into a date anyway, and we never looked back.  After dating for awhile, Kristin gave Ryan a Playstation 2 as a gift when Ryan graduated from law school.  Ryan proposed less than a week later. 

Over the years, we’ve learned to appreciate each other’s interests.  Shortly after we were married, Ryan surprised Kristin by taking her to a Cure concert, even though he couldn’t actually name any of their songs.  Ryan has also learned to love all the design and cooking shows on HGTV, even though he had never really painted or cooked until we got married.  On the flip side, Kristin has learned to play fantasy baseball, even though she wasn’t sure what a shortstop actually does until recently.  One of her proudest moments came when she beat Ryan in a fantasy baseball league made up of several of his friends.

We feel really blessed to have found each other.  We both like to laugh, and usually at the same things.  We both love books and ideas, and we love talking about them over dinner.  We’re also both committed to trying to be kind, serving other people and our community, and good lives.  Each of us feels like we married our best friend. 

Our Family:  We’re both from Utah, and we both have siblings and parents who live close by.  We like to play board games with Kristin’s family—mostly Settlers of Cataan, plus Ticket to Ride when we need a change of pace.  Ryan and his family get together for all the BYU football games, and Ryan is really excited that Peter has started coming along (though he’ll be more excited when Peter starts coming for the football, and not just the food). 

Adoption:  We didn’t realize it at the time, but it turns out that it was something of a miracle that we were able to have Peter.  It doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to have more children on our own. 

We’re excited about the possibility of adoption.   We’re aware that adoption presents some challenges—but we’re also aware of the amazing blessings that can come through it. Kristin has two first cousins who were adopted, and she is close to both of them.  Growing up, she knew that they were adopted, but it never occurred to her to think of them as anything other than her cousins. 

We love Peter more than anything, but feel strongly that we have more love to give. We’re also excited about Peter becoming the protective older brother that he thinks he’s destined to be (plus our cat would appreciate Peter having someone else to chase).

We look forward to meeting you—

Ryan, Kristin & Peter

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