Hi! We are Andrew, Kate, Addison, Mackenzie, and Emma. We are grateful you took the time to read about our adoption journey. We are excited to welcome a new member into our family and are praying for you.
We met in 2004 when Andrew came to work at the church Kate grew up attending. We spent a year growing our friendship and then began dating when Andrew moved away to work at a Christian camp. After 18 months of long-distance dating, we were married in July 2006. Our faith in God is the foundation of our lives and marriage. The decisions we make, the things we choose to spend our time and resources on, and how we structure our family time come from this core value. Early in our marriage, we took a short-term mission trip to South Africa to care for orphaned and abandoned children. This trip has impacted the rest of our lives.
We welcomed our daughters Addison in 2010 and Mackenzie in 2012. By the time Emma was born in 2014, we had moved to South Africa. We lived at that same orphan village we had visited in 2008 as full-time missionaries. We lived in South Africa until 2020, and our hearts for children who needed a family grew. Both of us cared for a number of babies in our home as emergency foster parents until a permanent home could be found. Now that we are living in the United States again, we desire to grow our family through adoption!
My husband, Andrew, is a man of integrity who is intentional about building relationships, caring practically for the needs of others, and fostering others’ relationships with God. He is bold, hardworking, humble, calm, loyal, and kind. He is a purposeful husband and father who listens and cares about the little details of our daughters’ lives, bringing joy and laughter to our home. Andrew is one of the pastors at our church. He loves leading and serving people in our church and community.
When asked about their Daddy, our girls enthusiastically say: “Our Daddy is a great listener and encourager. He plays games with us and helps us with our math homework. He loves to play football, and basketball, bike ride, run, eat spicy things, and have dance parties. We enjoy our nightly devotions that Daddy leads our family in.”
What drew me to Kate when we first met was her love for God and her passion for other people. Kate is the type of person who makes friends wherever she goes. She is my best friend, a loving mother, and cares deeply for her children, friends, family, and coworkers. She is a pediatric emergency department nurse who puts the interests and needs of kids and their families first.
Kate leads a women’s Bible study at our church, helps in the infant nursery, and serves on mission trips. Together, we mentor newly married couples. Her favorite things include reading, running, spending time with friends, playing with our girls and the kids in our friend’s families, having a great cup of coffee, and baking with her girls.
When asked to describe their mom, our girls say with big smiles, “Our mom is always willing and ready to help others. She cares for us, especially when we get hurt, sad, or scared. She loves us so well and is kind and loyal to the people in her life.”
About Addison
Addison is twelve years old and in 7th grade. Addison is outgoing, encouraging, and friendly. She loves hanging out with friends from school and church. She enjoys running and swimming for her school and playing the flute. Her favorite subject in school is science, and she wants to be a nurse like her mama when she grows up. Addison leads a Bible study at her school and serves in the toddler room at our church. She loves caring for others and was a huge help when we had foster babies in our home. Addy is looking forward to helping with a baby in our family again.
About Mackenzie
Ten-year-old Mackenzie is in 5th grade. Mackenzie is always looking to see who else needs to be included in the group and who she can invite to play. She loves to tell jokes, read, ride her bike and ripstick, look at the stars, and play basketball. Science is her favorite subject in school, and she wants to be a teacher someday. Mackenzie loves to put the needs of others before her own and is thoughtful, kind, and encouraging. She is excited to be a big sister again!
About Emma
Emma is eight years old and in 3rd grade. She loves building, making crafts, creating things, and playing pretend with her dolls. She is our ballet dancer and singer. Emma is determined, friendly, adventurous, a hard worker, and creative. Emma loves school, especially reading, music, and stem class, and wants to be a Lego engineer when she grows up. She can’t wait to have a younger sibling to play with!
Our family lives in a three-year-old two-story home in a new subdivision with many young, multicultural families. Behind our neighborhood is a large pond with a walking path that connects through the woods to the High School and small downtown area. We love to explore our town and often run, hike, and bike together. We live in an area with lots of opportunities to pick different local produce ourselves, so we enjoy picking strawberries, blueberries, apples, and pumpkins when they are in season. Our kids and Chocolate Labrador, Michigan, enjoy adventures in the creek near our home and playing with the neighborhood kids.
We have an open floor plan home where we love to play games, put together puzzles, and make memories as a family. Our children love to bake and cook with us in our kitchen, which leads out to our deck and has amazing sunrises over the pond most mornings. When we purchased this home, one of the things that drew us to it was that we would have enough room to grow our family through adoption. We often have friends over to our homes for dinner or to hang out, and our extended church community is a very important part of our lives. They are excited to care for us as we welcome a baby into our family. Many foster and adoptive families in our community are there to support us.
Andrew grew up in a small town in New York with his Mom, Dad, younger brother, and younger sister. One special childhood memory for Andrew was going to his Grandpa’s cottage on a lake every 4th of July. They swam, skied, and had Uno tournaments till late at night. Andrew’s parents have been married for over 40 years and live just 4 miles away. They love being a part of our kids’ everyday lives. We often have Sunday lunch at their house after church, and Grandma teaches them all piano lessons. Andrew’s siblings live out of state, and we usually see them once a year. The cousins all love to play and make lasting memories when we are together.
Kate grew up on the state’s east side with her Mom, Dad, and two brothers. Kate loved going on vacation to a new place around the country each year with her family while she was growing up. It grew her love for adventure and traveling. Kate’s family all live a few hours away. We visit them most holidays and every birthday. Kate’s brother and sister-in-law are foster parents, and it has been so special to see our family wrap around and care for their foster kids and love them like family. Our girls are close to all their cousins and love playing games and camping with them each summer.
We are an active and full-of-life family! We enjoy watching our children compete in sports and activities they love. We are involved at our kids’ schools and serve in our local church and community with our children. We incorporate our kids into everything that we do!
After school and work are done for the day, we are often found playing outside- drawing sidewalk chalk, riding bikes, going for a run or a hike, playing basketball in the driveway, jumping on our trampoline, playing pretend and singing, and walking our dog around our neighborhood. We regularly eat a home-cooked dinner together and then usually play a game. Kate loves to snuggle with our daughters on the couch after dinner and read aloud to them. Our routine is to study the Bible with our daughters, sing, and pray before tucking them into bed. We are a very close family, and our kids are best friends.
Family Traditions
Most weeks, we do a family movie night with popcorn. We also have a tradition we call “Special Night .”A special night is once a month on each child’s birth date. That child stays up 15 minutes later than her sisters to celebrate them and do something special with only mom and dad. They look forward to these nights every month! Every year our children pick a theme for their birthday cake, and Kate will make it from scratch and decorate it. Each August, we explore a different zoo as a family. We typically spend our holidays with our extended family and love having a big meal and enjoying time together.
Thank you for choosing life for your baby and reading our profile to get to know our family. We would be honored if you chose us to adopt your baby. Our desire to open our home to children in need, coupled with our love for all God’s children, is the driving force behind wanting to grow our family through adoption. We promise to love and raise your child in a loving, fun, nurturing forever home and family.
We would love to keep in contact throughout the child’s life and will follow your lead however open you want this adoption to be.
We are praying for you and your baby. We thank God that you are choosing life, and we pray for strength and peace for you!
Love,
Andrew and Kate
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