open adoption website of Frances and Mat for birthmothers seeking open adoption


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About Mat

In Frances’s words:
Mat is calm, kind, thoughtful, fun and sociable. He has a wry sense of humor, and likes gently teasing family and friends. When we first met, he kept surprising me - he seemed formal, but then kept doing things which were slightly off the wall, or just didn’t fit his image - being the first to jump enthusiastically into a freezing river on a rafting trip; letting my 6 year old nephew dress up in his smart blazer and hat, then eating ice-cream with him and crawling backwards through hoops on the lawn; getting up at 3 am so he could watch the shooting stars on his way to work. He unexpectedly decided to come to Lourdes with me (a Catholic place of pilgrimage in France where we help disabled people – and he’s not a Catholic) – he was wonderful with the sick and disabled people, just getting along and having a laugh with everybody. He told me he wasn’t keen on hiking, then came for a 3 day walk through the Alps, and carried my pack the whole way…. (and changed his mind about hiking, luckily). Mat is inventive, and enjoys fixing things for our own home as well as for other people. All the children who visit really enjoy seeing the workshop and his model steam trains (his specialty), and love helping him fix things. He is a natural with small children, and seems to understand what they might be thinking or feeling much more quickly and instinctively than other people, he understands and relates to them, so they feel at home and comfortable with him. Mat is a wonderful father to Luke and is so excited about adding to our family again through adoption.

Mat has two sons from his previous marriage, Adrian, who is 22 and is studying at University in New York state. Laurence is 19 and lives with his mother in Costa Rica, where he studies business. Mat’s marriage broke up when the children were still very young, and, sadly, they moved with their mother to Costa Rica. However, Adrian decided to come back to England to go to school when he was 16, then transferred to the US for university to join his girlfriend who lives there. Both Adrian and Laurence are very mature now, and are warmly supportive of having another younger brother or sister. Mat has spent a lot of time in Costa Rica, as well as other Latin American countries, and speaks fluent Spanish.

Mat’s parents are British, though sadly his mother died some time ago. His brother and sister are both married and he has four nephews & nieces, and we see all his family regularly.

Mat is an engineer and entrepreneur. He studied engineering at Cambridge and did a business degree in France as well. He is a director of an engineering company, and works on other business projects mostly in food manufacturing. He works a lot from home so he is a very involved father, which suits him very well.