Waiting Family Profiles

Home Location: Twin Cities Metro

Family Status: Couple without children

Children in Home: None

Child Ethnicity: African American, Asian, Caucasian, East Indian, Hispanic/Latino, Native American

About Us

We are so excited to grow our family through adoption!  Adoption has been our dream since our first date in early 2013.  We met online and quickly bonded over our mutual love for terrible television, board games, and good food.  In 2014, AJ proposed to Whitney by hiding her engagement ring in a cheese platter (which was perfect according to Whitney).  We were married in front of God and everyone else we knew in 2015.

We both love to learn and education has always been very important to both of us. AJ graduated from Macalester College in Saint Paul in 2007 with a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. AJ studied Applied Mathematics in Denver, and got his teaching certification from Saint Mary’s University in 2013. AJ worked as a middle school math teacher for 4 years, from 2013-2017. Over the last couple of years, AJ has been in professional discernment.  After working as a Kitchen Manager at the Xcel Energy Center, and a commercial real estate agent, AJ met with a career counselor and re-entered graduate school at the University of Minnesota in the Masters of Financial Mathematics program full time.  AJ will be graduating in the spring of 2021, and hopes to work in the field of finance, banking, or insurance, and dreams of someday working for the Minnesota Timberwolves’ analytics department.

Whitney graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2009 with a degree in Art before attending seminary in the Chicago area and receiving her Masters in Divinity in 2012. Whitney is a pastor in St. Paul and loves what she does!  Our long-term dream would be to own and operate a food truck or restaurant that operates part time for profit, and part time as a charity for families in need.

In order to have fun, pretty much all we need to do is be together. When we are at home, we are low-key, spending our time cooking, doing crosswords on Sundays, reading, sitting by the fire pit on our patio, or watching TV or movies (usually something on Disney+, some stupid comedy, or a dystopian drama). When with friends and family we’re usually playing Dungeons and Dragons or some board game, playing cars and Legos with our nephews, or spending time outside playing yard games and having a lake day at Whitney’s parents’ house. We also really enjoy traveling (to places with good food), having been to Italy for our honeymoon, Chicago, Denver, Hawaii, Nashville, and Florida, but also love renting a remote cabin for a long weekend with our dogs.

Our Home

We live in a 5-bedroom, 3-bath home in New Brighton, which is part of the Mounds View school district. There is a separate upstairs nursery, just off the master bedroom. We have a large fenced-in yard, with a basketball court and a play gym. Our neighborhood is quiet and friendly, and features a large park (Hansen Park) right down the street. We share our home with two miniature Schnauzers, Jack (13-years old) and Wally (8-years old), who are currently our “fur babies”, but who are very excited to be big brothers. The area surrounding our home is diverse and has a variety of cross-cultural opportunities. Our home is filled with love, faith, gratitude, and laughter. We believe in the power of communication and teamwork, and are excited to grow our family and our team.

Our Family

Our family is very close and full of dogs.  At home, we spend all our time with our mini-schnauzers, Jack and Wally. They are currently the centerpiece of our family unit, but they’ve always been great with and very interested in kids.

Whitney’s family is all in Minnesota.  Her parents and brother live within 30 minutes of our house.  Her sister and brother-in-law live in Duluth. We love to spend time seeing movies together, watching family curling matches, or floating on the lake with all our dogs. We have been able to travel with Whitney’s family regularly and always take a week off for a stay-cation on the lake in Shorewood over the summer.

AJ’s parents live in Rochester (75 minutes from us), and his sister and her husband and their three boys (ages 6, 7, and 9) live in Pine Island (just north of Rochester). We usually make it to Rochester about once a month, and spend our time playing with cars and Legos with the boys, listening to records, or watching movies. AJ’s grandmothers both reside in Rochester and we are always stopping in when we’re in town.

We also lean on our “chosen family” for a lot of support, and expect to continue doing so as we enter parenthood. Whitney’s college roommate married AJ’s high school friend and they’ve recently become parents to a baby girl born in October ‘19. They live 10 minutes away and we are thrilled to be new parents together. We also have a very close “games group”- six of us get together quite often for board games, golf, basketball games, cooking adventures, cabin weekends, or just vent after long days.  Our other close friends in the metro are mostly clergy and church friends (many of whom are part of families made through adoption), and longtime college and high school friends.  They all cannot wait to surround and support our growing family.

We think that it is important to note that both of our families have experience with adoption. AJ’s mom and uncle were both adopted domestically (through Lutheran Social Services), and Whitney’s uncle was adopted from South Korea. We have had many conversations with family and friends, and all are excited about the prospect of being part of the village that will help raise our child.

AJ in Whitney’s Words

On our first date, AJ housed a jalapeno burger, caught me up on the latest season of the Real World, was super nice to the bartender, and leaned in for the kiss.  On our first date I knew I had found my partner.  Since then I have come to know AJ to be the most loyal and determined person I know. He is protective of his family, and fiercely dedicated in our relationship and marriage.  He is honest and keeps promises; he is a good man and I trust him.  AJ is so smart.  He is analytical and discerning and loves to learn.  His passion for all things sports has actually gotten me excited about football, basketball and soccer.  He is a plan maker and a follow-through-er and the greatest partner.  He is the kind of guy you always want on your team. AJ is emotional.  I love how deeply he cares for people and fairness.  I think he is brave and he teaches me to be brave.  AJ will be such a good dad. He will care about our kiddo’s happiness and their potential.  He will care about them feeling loved and heard.  He will always be on our kid’s side.  He will advocate and challenge; he will say, “I’m sorry” and “I love you.”  He will let our child change and grow.  He already tells terrible dad jokes.  I cannot wait to parent with AJ, and to grow our team.  I cannot wait to be proud of our family with him.

Whitney in AJ’s Words

From the moment I read the description of her as a dirty-joke-telling pastor, I knew that Whitney must be something special. Little did I know that she would become my closest friend, and the best part of my day. Soon after we started dating, I began looking forward to Whitney meeting my friends and family, not to show off how happy I was, but rather because I knew that being around her would make them happy too. To this day, I don’t think I’ve met anyone who isn’t drawn to Whitney. (Sometimes I think my own family even likes her more than me!) Her smile can light up a room, and her heart is so pure, and so good. She is full of love for everyone and everything, and her passion for life is unparalleled. She is smart and brave, talented and goofy, open-minded and sincere, and I’m reassured daily that she’ll be a great mother to our child. Whitney has been very passionate about adoption, ever since she “learned what it was”, and even brought it up on our first date. Motherhood is without question her calling and her utmost passion, and I am thrilled to share that journey with her. She has supported me through many difficult moments, and I know that she has the strength to be both my rock as we navigate parenting, and our child’s most trusted confidant. Whitney is without a doubt my favorite person on this planet, and I’m certain that she will become our child’s favorite person, too.

Dear Expectant Parents

We have been praying for you since long before we entered the adoption process. While the emotional burden upon you right now must be incredible, we hope that our collective passion for adoption and our immense love for both our child and you will ease some of your struggle. We are excited to begin a lifelong relationship with you in order to provide the best possible support system for our child, and we will always be mindful of and grateful for the gift that you have given us. We will celebrate the story of how our family came together and honor you as a part of it.

Our Promise

Our promise to our child and their birth parents is much bigger than words will allow us to describe. We promise that our child will become the focus of our whole world. We promise that being a parent will become the highest calling that either of us will ever have. We will celebrate our child’s story, who they are, where they came from, and how our family came to be. We will embrace our child’s birth parents as a part of our family.  We will commit to a plan that will put the child first, and allows them to know all of the love that exists for them. We will provide a loving, safe, consistent, supportive, and fun home for our child.  We will let our child be messy and make mistakes. We will throw birthday parties and host sleepovers.  We will help with homework and volunteer at school.  We will allow and encourage our child to pursue the full extent of whoever they are. We will go out of our comfort zones to support the needs of our child, no matter what they might be. We will strive to help our child and ourselves understand more about their culture, if it differs from our own.