Welcome Post

Thank you for visiting our adoption blog!  We hope as you look through our posts, you will find a good connection to our family.  Please feel free to email me at sharenew@hotmail.com if you would like to chat.  We look forward to getting to know you!

 

Dear new friend, Welcome to our profile! Here, you will hopefully see a little bit of who we are and what we are about. Mike and Sharene met in college in a choir class they had together. Mike quickly realized after a day or two of class that Sharene was the most beautiful girl in the class. He was able to entice her into spending time with him through asking her to play the piano for him for an upcoming Christmas performance in which he was to sing O Holy Night. Mike had a few things going for him. He was nice and he could sing well. He was even a great kisser. Despite all of these great things, he had one problem that could get in the way of his love life. He was bald! No hair on top of his head. He could pull off a Friar Tuck hairdo, but that was about it. Despite this grave disadvantage, Mike was able to convince Sharene to date him for a time and within a year they were married in the LDS temple in Salt Lake City. Michael, Mike, or sometimes “Princess Daddy,” lived in many different places growing up. Born in the Chicago area, he soon moved to Palm Springs California and subsequently spent most of his growing up years between California, Utah and Washington State. He graduated high school in Issaquah Washington and has a great love for the Seattle area. Mike loves to cook, spend time with his family and sing whenever he gets the chance. Mike works in finance for a beauty company called Younique. Sharene (or Brielle and Brooklyn’s mom which is her favorite title) was born and raised in the small town of Roosevelt Utah. Since she is the second youngest of five children, she loves being around family. She is still close to her siblings, parents and extended family. She had a great childhood, going on many vacations with her family and enjoyed playing sports growing up. Sharene loves being a mother and is a great friend and loving parent to our two girls. She is also an avid game player including sports, board games and video games! In addition, she is a talented pianist and teaches piano to kids of all ages. She works from home as a medical transcriptionist so she can be there to raise her children as that is the most important job she will ever have. Sharene and Michael are blessed with two beautiful girls: Brielle, who is 9 ½ and Brooklyn, who is 7. Brielle loves soccer and her fluffy, white, bunny named Snowball. Brooklyn loves gymnastics and is constantly doing handstands and cartwheels everywhere she goes. They are both very smart and do great in school. We are so grateful and feel blessed to be able to have our two wonderful daughters. We feel strongly that there is another special person who still needs to be welcomed into our family. After almost 15 years of marriage, we have noticed that a loving family is where the most joy can be found in this life. We would love to add to that joy by bringing another child into our loving family through adoption. Brielle and Brooklyn are ecstatic to welcome a new sibling into our home. They will be the best big sisters anyone could ever want. Brielle has mentioned that the only thing she wants for her next birthday is another sibling. How cute is that? Below are some of our likes and dislikes so you can get to know us better. Likes: Favorite foods: Mac & Cheese – pretty much the best food ever (according to Mike), Thai Food – Yumm, anything Mike BBQs, pizza, potatoes of any variety (Sharene could live off of potatoes) and pasta (according to Brielle and Brooklyn). Favorite restaurants: Cheesecake Factory, Olive Garden, Café Rio, Spicy Thai, Baked Bear, Hu Hot, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Buffalo Wild Wings and Pizza Pie Café (Brielle and Brooklyn’s favorite). Sports: Ultimate frisbee, NBA – Go Jazz, football – both college (Go BYU according to Sharene and Brielle and go Utes according to Mike and Brooklyn) and NFL – Go Hawks!!, volleyball, soccer, swimming and gymnastics. Games: Istanbul, Mario Kart, Guitar Hero, Clue, Seven Wonders, Sleeping Queens, Life and Splendor is our current favorite. Best TV Shows: American Ninja Warrior, America’s Got Talent, The Voice, Designated Survivor, Stranger Things, Walking Dead (Mike is the only one that watches this though) and Sharene likes to indulge in the Bachelor. Best Movies: Star Wars (all of them), all recent Marvel movies, The BFG, Sing, Trolls, Moana, Ever After, Mulan, Cinderella (new live version) and Lion. Family trips: Hawaii, Branson MO, Cancun Mexico, Arches National Park, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Disneyland, Lagoon (Local Utah amusement park), Lake Powell, Chicago and Seattle. Dislikes: Country Music (this is a split opinion in our home)– Ew!, really mean people (not a split opinion), spiders, bees – ouch, mosquito bites and black licorice (but only Mike doesn’t like this). Thanks for getting to know us better! We would love to get to know you too and bring you into our loving family. Sincerely, Michael, Sharene, Brielle and Brooklyn Gulbrandsen