- Colorado -
Meet the Bardens! We are a fun-loving family from Colorado. We believe life is best lived together, with plenty of sports, laughter, and love along the way. We are an active family. We are very lucky to live in a quiet and safe rural community. We live close to the city where we can play and it's only a short drive to the beautiful Colorado mountains. We are active in our church and believe that with kindness and compassion are the only ways to raise our children.
Luke is a General Contractor in Colorado. He owns his own business. He grew up in Colorado, the same small town where we are currently raising our children. He is a kind and loving father. He spends alot of his time volunteering as a coach. Luke is active in the church. He enjoys all sorts of outdoor activities like camping and hunting with our two dogs. Luke is a fun dad. He is usually the one dressed up as the Easter Bunny, Santa, or the American flag. He puts on a huge firework display every Fourth of July and truly lives to make the kids happy.
Karla is a Registered Nurse. She has a Masters Degree in Healthcare Administration. She works at a local hospital as an Assistant Chief Nursing Officer. Karla is a lieutenant in the Navy part time. Karla is active in the church and Parent Teacher Association in the school. Her biggest accomplishment is her family. She's often found on the sidelines cheering for the little Tigers or at school helping with fundraisers and costumes. Karla enjoys baking, especially with the kids. She creates themed birthday cakes and cupcakes for every birthday. Karla loves to travel, camp, kayak, fish. She enjoys trips to New Mexico where her hometown is and her dad still lives today.
Hello Friend.
As we sit to write this letter, we find it incredibly difficult to put everything we want to say into words. This letter is supposed to represent who we are as people and what kind of parents we are to our boys. It’s supposed to provide an idea of the kind of parents we will be to our adopted child.
There is so much to say, so let us start with this. We’d love to talk to you to understand what dreams you have for your child, the wishes that you’d like us to fulfill, culture and traditions that you’d like carried on. We understand that we have an obligation to help our adopted child understand their roots, their heritage. It may take effort on our part, but we are willing to go far to help our child be as well rounded as possible.
Education and faith are very important in our family. We love to celebrate life, any accomplishment, big or small. We celebrate the holidays, and we go all out. Our home is filled with fun decorations leading up to every holiday. We love to make things fun for the kids, and truthfully, the two of us are really big kids at heart.
The ideal adoption to us would be to have an open or a semi open adoption. Honesty is important to us and we will always be honest with our baby if we are chosen to be adoptive parents. My little boy Kason asks “Mom, what if the baby asks if he/she is adopted?” My answer is that we answer with honesty. “Yes, you are adopted. You are lucky to have two sets of parents who love you more than anything in the world.” We will be truthful with this baby from the start. We recognize the importance of self identity. We want he or she to know who they are and where they came from. We want them to understand that they were placed for adoption out of love. To us, being able to adopt is a gift of a lifetime and we will speak your name with honor.
We’d love the opportunity to call you extended family. We’d love for you to be present for special occasions, big birthdays, graduations, etc. We recognize that your role in baby’s life is equally important and we promise to put their needs first, always.
We also recognize that a mother’s heart is at stake and we promise to be cautious with your heart. We recognize that there is loss in adoption, and we will be there for you.
We’d love an opportunity to connect and answer any questions you may have about our lives, plans with baby, open adoption. Please let us know if you’d like to chat.
With so much respect and admiration,
Karla and Luke Barden
We emphasize the importance of faith, love, support, traditions, and family values. We are Christians who try to teach our children compassion and love for all. We attend most school events and are highly involved in our childrens’ school. We can be found on the sidelines cheering our kids on in sports or drama. We support them in whatever they choose to do.
We also like structure. We are in bed at a reasonable time on school nights and we attend church on Sundays. We expect kindness and respect to others, we encourage good work ethic, and try to teach responsibility. Our boys are 8 and 12. They are required to do a few little chores like cleaning their rooms or helping with the dishes, all age appropriate. We are consistent parents, but not rigid.
When it comes to discipline, we’ve grounded the kids on occasion or taken away video games and things of that sort. We have conversations about what went wrong and would should have happened instead. We want our kids to trust us. When they mess up, we want them to be the first ones to tell us. We want to be their first call when they need help.
Our home is a four-bedroom ranch style home with a finished basement. Our adopted child already has their own nursery. It is located on the first level in our home, the same as mom and dad. We have a decent sized back yard, which is fenced in. There is a patio with grass for picnics, swing set, pool, and trampoline. Most importantly, our home is safe. We are a short distance to a cute local park and about five blocks from the school.
We’ve built a nursery with a baby animal theme: Lions, Elephants, and Giraffes. The baby will have momentos from their birth mother in their room. Our thought is a framed letter, picture, blanket with Mother’s scent.The nursery walls are light gray in color. There will be shades of greens, beige, possibly pink or blue once we learn the gender of the baby we are adopting.
The boys have bought the baby some little stuffed animals that are sitting in the crib.
There is a rocking chair next to the crib with lots of baby books that we cannot wait to share with our little one. Some of our favorites are Snuggle Puppy, Mommy’s Say Shhh, Little Blue truck and I’ll Love You Forever.
We have two dogs, Tarzan and Cici. They are German Short Haired Pointers who are very gentle with kids. Tarzan is 9 and Cici is 3 years old.
Luke is a General Contractor (GC). He is the owner and CEO of his own company. He has the flexibility to work from home and take time off when he needs to. Luke is kind and caring. He can usually be found on the sidelines coaching our boys in all sorts of sports, baseball, basketball, and most recently football.
Karla is an Assistant Chief Nurse at a hospital in the city (30 minutes away). Her schedule usually consists of 4 days. She also has the flexibility to work from home when needed. Karla is a member of the Parent Teacher Association at the school and she enjoys volunteering in the classroom. She is artistic, enjoys creating costumes for the drama program at school.
When the adoption is final, both parents will be home the first 4 months to bond with baby. Both parents have holidays, weekends off. We are lucky to have schedules where we can be very present for our kids.
Kolton is going to be the oldest brother. He just turned 12 and is in the 6th grade. Kolton loves sports, drama, and plays the trumpet in band. Kolton is very smart. He could recite all 50 presidents when he was 5 years old. He loves history and can’t wait to teach the baby all about it.
Kason is 8 years old. He also plays sports and enjoys swimming and roller skating with the neighborhood kids. He’s quick to make friends everywhere he goes. Kason loves to bake with mom, anything from suckers to cookies and cupcakes. Kason enjoys cooking dinner with Mom and always offers to help clean up.
Both boys are very kind by nature. They put others first and consider others feelings. They are both looking forward to becoming big brothers.
We value traditions in our home. Luke is usually the man dressed as the Easter bunny or Santa Clause. He puts on a huge firework show every 4th of July. He wants nothing more than to create lasting memories and to make the kids smile.
We spend alot of time with family and extended family. We love to celebrate birthdays and accomplishments, no matter how big or small!
We push the importance of hard work. We believe that you can do anything you set your mind to if you are willing to put the work in.
We want each of our children to have the opportunity to persue their dreams. We encourage them to work hard in school. If they choose to go to college, we will assure they are given this opportunity without debt. Karla is a nurse in the US Navy part time. The intention is to fund college for the kids, when the time comes.
