Waiting Family Profiles

Below is a listing of hopeful adoptive families who have an approved study and are excited to meet with you and discuss your wishes for your child. Please click on the family name to go to their individual page and learn more about them.

In addition to the families highlighted below, we have familes that are part of our Waiting Family Book who do not choose to have their profile online. If you are interested in viewing other families or discussing your adoption decision, please contact our Pregnancy Counseling and Birth Parent Services at 888.205.3769 or email at pregnancy@chlss.org.

Chris and Shelby

Matched

Home Location: Central MN

Family Status: Couple without children

Children in Home: None

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

We are the Lofgrens, and we can only imagine the roller coaster of emotions that you’re experiencing right now. We’ve not yet had the chance to meet you, but we’re grateful that you have found the courage to consider an adoption plan for your child.

You will always be an important figure in your child’s life. Our hope is that we can provide you with the reassurance that your sweet child will be cared for and cherished in a loving home and environment that nurtures their talents and interests. We have discussed taking the adoption path since we were only a few dates in, so you have been in our hearts for a very long time.

We are honored that you are taking the time to learn a little more about us. We love each other very much, and we would love to open our hearts to you and your child; we firmly believe that family is defined by our love for one another, not shared DNA. We look forward to meeting you and sharing this experience together.

Our Story

Through chances of fate, we met in July of 2015 and fell in love. Chris proposed a year later, and we were married exactly a year after that beside the lake where Shelby spent much of her childhood. We love to spend time together, even if we’re just hanging out at home.

We share a love of the Beatles and Billy Joel, and we enjoy attending concerts and other musical productions.

Since Shelby is a vocal music teacher, Chris has attended many high school and elementary concerts. Even when we lived states apart, he never missed a concert, often making the three-hour drive on a weeknight only to turn around and make the return trip the next morning!

We also enjoy athletics, including tennis, baseball, and basketball. Most of all, though, we love football season. We often spend our fall weekends with a cup of coffee, watching as many college football games as we can!

We both believe that leading active and healthy lifestyles is incredibly important to our well-being. We frequently golf during the summers, and we both have run half- and full marathons. We cook healthy and nutritious meals, and we look forward to sharing our love of active lifestyles with our future child(ren)!

We love to explore new places, and our love of travel has taken us to many destinations together, including Las Vegas, Kansas City, and the Dominican Republic. We also enjoy all the activities that being near the water provides, including camping, boating, and swimming. We visit Shelby’s family every summer to spend time at the same lake where we were married.

We have spent our time together truly making our home our own. We love a good project, and we’re incredibly excited with how everything has turned out. We can’t wait to open our loving home to a child.

Our wedding day!

About Chris, by Shelby

I fell for Chris right away when we met; he is the most loving and generous person I know. Chris is extremely intelligent, and he has the best sense of humor – he’s been preparing himself for fatherhood his entire life with all of his dad jokes.

Chris will be an amazing dad. He is wonderful with our friends’ children and my piano lesson students. Chris is a chemical engineer with 3M, where he volunteers for various outreach programs with area students. I love watching him share his passion for science and engineering with young, inquisitive minds.

We love to travel together, and our excursions have helped us to develop a fondness for world cuisines. Chris is an excellent and creative cook, and he will have so much fun preparing nutritious and exciting meals with our child. Chris is also an avid sports fan and loves to golf. I can’t wait to see him become a parent, coaching Little League teams, helping with homework, and planning family trips all over the world.

After the Sioux Falls Marathon

About Shelby, by Chris

Shelby and I hit it off immediately when we first met; she is absolutely my soulmate and best friend. She complements me perfectly and helps me to be a better person. She is the extrovert that brings me out of my shell and allows me to explore new places, meet new people, and have amazing new experiences. She is the intellectual that challenges me and encourages me to look at things in a whole new way. She is the artist that brings beauty and wonder to my life in a way I never thought possible. She truly is my best friend, and I can’t imagine anyone else with whom I’d rather take this journey.

Shelby is going to be a wonderful mother. As a music teacher, she has experience with children of all ages, from infants to teenagers, and she has loved her time with them all. Seeing her interact with her piano students, teaching them the wonder and intricacies of music, brings a smile to my face. Shelby will encourage our child to be inquisitive and will inspire a lifelong love of learning within them. She loves to play with our friends’ children, and the laughter that ensues is highly infectious.

I am so excited for us to begin our journey into parenthood, planning vacations and sharing all the world has to offer with our child, including art, music, literature, science and technology, athletics, and more.

Playing the piano with our friend Olivia

Our Home and Community

We love our home, which is located an hour west of the Twin Cities and is just blocks away from the river and two adjoining lakes. We have plenty of outdoor space, and we are a block away from one of our community’s numerous parks and playgrounds. We are also just a few blocks away from the schools in our town, boasting excellent academic and extracurricular programs. There are many restaurants and shops, and on any given evening, you can hear live music at various venues.

We are so excited to take our child to the swimming pool less than a mile away and to the local farmer’s market where our child can choose their own produce and participate in the various children’s activities. We can’t wait to see the world through our little one’s eyes as we attend concerts in the park, check out new books at the library, visit science and history museums, and play a game of catch in our backyard. We will build memories as we bake cookies, create works of art, and start our own holiday traditions.

Our favorite place, home

Our Family and Friends

We are incredibly fortunate to have an amazing support system of family and friends who are excited to be active participants in our child’s life.

Shelby’s parents, Dave and Susan, along with her younger brother Dillon, live in southern Iowa. We keep in close contact, regularly talking on the phone, paying each other visits, and taking trips together. Dave and Susan are already planning visits and camping trips with our little one, complete with boating, at the lake where they camp every weekend during the summers.

Both of Chris’s parents live in northern Minnesota. His mom, Bonnie, has already been stocking up on all the books she plans to read with our future child. Chris’s dad, Brian, lives with his wife, Kristi, and they both are excited to become grandparents. Chris’s brother Jeff lives with his girlfriend Kally in the Twin Cities, and we frequently spend time with them.

Our wonderful network of friends is extended family to us, and they are all eagerly awaiting the new addition to our family. Several have children of their own who are excited to have a new playmate!

In Closing

Coming from such supportive families, we understand that positive, honest communication is the foundation of loving, lasting relationships.

We are incredibly excited to be parents and model this for our child. We are confident that we will provide a safe home where our child will feel comfortable in their own skin, free to explore their unique talents and interests, and know they are unconditionally loved.

You can be certain that you will always have a very special place in our family and hearts. We are open to continued communication, and our child will always know of your love and that our collaboration is what made us a family.

We understand that the information contained in this profile is only a snapshot into our lives, and we’re more than happy to answer any questions you may have. We are eager to meet you and learn about the dreams you have for your sweet child. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little more about us, and we would love the opportunity to talk further with you.