Clinical Social Worker / Marketing Technologies
Minnesota
Caucasian
Christian
Hi, we are Abby and Cady!
Our family includes ourselves and our daughter, Paxtyn, who we adopted in June of 2022. We are a welcoming, adventurous, and playful family. We like to get out and do activities and love to have friends and family be a part of our world. From trying new foods, to playing games, to going on camping trips, we enjoy experiencing life with others and bringing people together.
In a lot of ways, we as parents, balance each other out. Where Cady is planful, Abby is easy going. Where Abby brings calm, Cady brings energy and brightness. This balance allows us to bring out those qualities in one another and strengthen our ability to face life’s challenges in a holistic way.
Quick facts:
Adoption is a chosen path for both of us. We are a family that is open and able to care for another child, so want to open our home to that possibility again.
Adoption has been a part of both of our lives. Abby has four cousins that were adopted and a close friend that was adopted from South Korea. Also, Abby’s mother placed a child in adoption when she was young and Abby has recently built a relationship with that half-brother. Cady has one adopted cousin that she has a relationship with as well.
We live in a 4 bedroom home in Richfield, MN; a close suburb to Minneapolis. It is a vibrant neighborhood with a lot of diversity, other families, and activities to do. We live about 3 blocks from a nature preserve that allows us space to go and explore nature while also being close to the city.
Cady's immediate family is located in South Dakota, Iowa and Oklahoma, with one married sister, two married brothers, and thirteen nieces and nephews. Her parents have been married for 47 years and still operate the family cattle farm. Cady's family is very hard-working and always on-the-go either doing at home projects or attending their kids' activities. We try to spend as much time as possible with her nieces and nephews, so road trips are often made for their school events, holidays, camping, birthday parties or just hanging out.
Abby's family lives mainly in Minnesota. She has one brother who is married and has two boys. Abby's parents were married for 38 years. After battling cancer, her mom passed away in 2019. Since retirement, Abby's dad splits his time between Minnesota and South Carolina, which means semi-regular trips to the beach for us. Abby's family is complemented by many extended family members. It is a competitive family (in the best way) with annual family football games and euchre tournaments. We get to see extended family often as many aunts, uncles, and cousins live in the same area, and second cousins go to the same daycare as Paxtyn.
Meet Cady
Written by Abby
Cady can be described many ways, but a few that come to mind are loyal, hardworking, compassionate, and playful. She is a child at heart and loves games, sports, and making people laugh. One of her friends describes her as generous – with her time, her talent, and her energy. Cady grew up on a farm which helped to build her hard-working character. She always does things all out and she works harder than anyone I know whether it be at work or getting creative around fun activities for Paxtyn. It has been a beautiful experience to see Cady become a parent. Cady’s playful nature is magnetic, and you can see Paxtyn light up when she is around her. Cady is a superb cook, a passionate Vikings fan, and a wonderfully supportive mom and wife. I am excited to see her continue to share her compassion and love with any future addition to our family.
Meet Abby
Written by Cady
Abby draws everyone in with her kind-heartedness, patience, and positive outlook on life. There isn’t much Abby wouldn’t do for the people she loves or even people she barely knows. Abby has brought her "Minnesota nice" around the world to New York City, Thailand, Tanzania and Guatemala over the course of her education and career in social work. Everywhere she goes, she inspires those she meets. Abby grew up playing tennis and loves to play almost any card or board game. This has led to many high-spirited competitions in the family. Abby is so smart and is an excellent teacher and mother to Paxtyn. Some of her best qualities are her go-with-the-flow attitude, thoughtfulness, and attentiveness. I love watching Abby flourish as a mother and to see Paxtyn’s love and joy she has for her “Mae Mae”. I know she will spread the same warmth with any future child.
We met via an online dating app in 2015. Abby was in the midst of graduate school and Cady was working in marketing at a local agency. After a couple months of dating, we became “official” and dated for another 3 years before getting married in June of 2018.
Our advice to our future child would be to take courage in who they are, learn and grow from the challenges they are faced with, and put themselves out there to try new things. We hope to be the safe support system that they need in order to do all of those things.
We have talked about the values that we would like to instill in our children and those include courage, generosity, humility, and well-roundedness. Our hope is for our future children to have the courage to be themselves in all the ways that make them unique and to feel confident in that. We hope that they are able to offer generosity and support for others around them, and also accept the generosity and support from others when they are struggling. We will strive to foster humility within our family and within our children, so that they are able to be confident in themselves, while recognizing the strengths of others. Lastly, just as we grew up, we want our future children to join activities that they are interested in and encourage them to go out of their comfort zone and try something they may not think they will like to provide them an array of experiences.
Our hope is that with open adoption you will always have a very special place in our family and our hearts. Our child will always know of your love and that our working together is what made us a family.
We have an open and positive relationship with Paxtyn’s birth family and have created unique relationships with various people depending on their wishes and comfortability. We hope to do the same with you and navigate this together.