Welcome! Meet:

Adam + Lauren

IT Manager / United Methodist Clergy–Campus Minister

Minnesota

Caucasian

Christian

All About Adam & Lauren
Why Adoption?
Gallery
Family and Home
How We Met
Advice to Future Child
Perspectives on Open Adoption
Favorites

All About Adam & Lauren

Hi! We’re Lauren and Adam, and we live in St. Paul, MN with our dog Phoebe. Lauren is an ordained Christian (Methodist) minister to college students, and Adam is an IT consultant. We’ve been married for over 10 years and love living in Minnesota! Adam’s big passion is the outdoors–he loves going on backpacking adventures and can’t wait to share nature with our child. Lauren is more into the arts–music, theater, and crafts. She can’t wait to help a child connect with ways to be creative and express their passions, whatever they may be!

Why Adoption?

We always knew that if we had a family it would be through adoption. With many kids and birth mothers in need already, and feeling less drive to have our own biological kids, adoption just made sense to us. We considered multiple options around adoption, including international adoption and foster to adopt programs, but we settled on the infant adoption program as being the best fit for us. Whether it is the start of a long relationship with the birth mother or not, knowing that we picked and accepted each other and have a basic understanding of each other’s hopes for the child is also a meaningful part of the adoption process to us.

We know that an adopted child would be welcomed into their extended family like any other child. Our Christian faith also shines a light on the beauty of adoption–Jesus was in a way adopted by Joseph, and many parts of scripture talk about God’s love for humans being like an adoptive family. Blood relations matter far less than the love that binds a family together and the relational love of God for us all.

Family & Home

We live in a diverse neighborhood of Saint Paul. Life in our neighborhood consists of walking our dog in a quiet residential area, cultural festivals at the state capitol nearby, a wide variety of restaurants and stores, and catching up with our neighbors.

We have friends and family across the Upper Midwest, from Chicago to the Twin Cities, and we try hard to keep up with everyone. A child in our home would get to see family and friends in a variety of environments—an aunt, uncle and cousin in the big city (Chicago), Lauren’s parents in the suburbs, Adam’s family on the farm in Wisconsin, and extended family with young kids in the towns in between.

How others describe me

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT ADAM (Written by Lauren): Adam is one of a kind. He is patient, thoughtful, and caring. He has the ability to find common ground with people without judgment. We are very different and don’t always agree, but we make space for each other’s differences. I trust his judgment and value his perspective. He is a great listener, and I know he’ll be an amazing father. He’s also hilarious–he makes me laugh every day and never takes himself too seriously. I can picture him laughing hysterically with our child at the goofiest things. He seeks wonder and adventure and loves to be outside where he feels closest to God. Our child will have endless opportunities to go on adventures with him and explore Creation! Most of all, Adam loves deeply. He is steady and supportive through all the ups and downs of life. He is the love of my life, and I can’t wait to see him become a father.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT LAUREN (Written by Adam): Lauren is a caring and empathetic person who has devoted the last several years of her life to helping young people navigate the complexities of life. She is a social person who values her friends and family, especially her new little niece. Lauren is devoted to moderation, always encouraging others to avoid divisiveness and extremes. She also makes a conscious effort to grow herself, improve, and learn on multiple fronts, following John Wesley’s motto of “moving on to perfection” (meaning always trying to be a better person to live more like Jesus).

How We Met

We met in college and just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary! . We started as friends through mutual friends and campus ministry events, but we grew closer over time. Lauren got a crush on Adam first and started hanging around the computer science lab to spend more time with Adam. Two years later, we got engaged and got married in January 2013!

Advice to Future Child

Know that you to know you are deeply and unconditionally loved by us, by your extended family and friends, by your birth family, and most of all, by God
Don’t worry about being “high achieving”–do the best you can, most of us are pretty average (if we weren’t, it wouldn’t be an average), and that’s OK
Find your passions and interests and follow them–even if you can’t do it as a full-time job, your life will be fuller if you don’t give up on things you love
Draw close to God–people see God in different ways and draw close to God in different ways, and knowing what works for you will give you meaning, purpose, and hope
It may feel difficult to balance what sometimes will feel like two cultural and family identities, but know that you have two families and as you grow older, you can lean into whichever parts of this you want to, and you will be supported and encouraged

Perspectives on Open Adoption

Adoption is our first choice for creating our family. We promise that if we take this road together, match time will be just the beginning—whatever decisions you make about visits/openness, you will always be honored, appreciated, and accepted as a member of our extended family. It is our hope that you will always have a relationship with your child if that is your choice. We would like to know your hopes and dreams for the child, and would strive to help them become someone you are proud of. Thank you for considering us as part of the story of you and your child’s life.

Favorites

Adam

Favorite Movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark (honorable mention: Airplane!)
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: The Christmas schedule in general–seeing three sides of the family in one day is exciting and fun, and eating the familiar recipes that only come out once a year
Hobbies/Interests: hiking, reading ancient history, hiking to ancient history I read about, learning Spanish, Muslim/Christian interfaith group, my parents’ Christian kids camp
Dream Vacation: returning to the Bolivian jungle to find and map more of the vanishing Incan pathways
If I Could Choose a Superpower: to only need 30 minutes of sleep–I’d get a lot more done, and I’d still get the good feeling that comes with a nap

Lauren

Favorite Movie: Apollo 13
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade and the candlelight service at church on Christmas Eve
Hobbies/Interests: theater, playing violin, jigsaw puzzles, board games, crafts, and movies
Dream Vacation: Hawaii is my favorite
If I Could Choose a Superpower: Being able to talk to dogs! Then I could tell all the dogs I meet how good they are.