Waiting Family Profiles

Home Location: Northwest MN

Family Status: Couple without children

Children in Home: None

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

Hi, we are Shawn and Kayla Smith, and we both feel blessed that you are taking a moment to consider us in this important life decision. We live in Crookston, a small town in Northern Minnesota about 30 minutes from Grand Forks, N.D.

We have two dogs, our spoiled fur-babies, Addie and Louise. They love to go on adventures with us. They also love playing with our nieces and nephews as well as our friends’ kids.

We have both always felt a desire to become parents. Early on in our relationship, we had talked about the variety of ways to grow our family. Adoption has always been one of the ways we desired to grow, but we decided to try naturally first. We had pursued fertility treatments, but eventually we felt God calling us towards adoption instead.

Some things we enjoy to do together are that we enjoy the outdoors, including going hiking in different places around our area and National Parks across the United States. We also love to go to movies, be goofy together, attend sporting events, and go to Church.

We pray that you will consider us as you move forward with a possible adoption plan. Know that if you choose us, your child would be so loved.

About Shawn (From Kayla’s Perspective)

Shawn is a kind hearted, hard-working, fun loving guy. He is a strong leader in our home and out. He is active in multiple ministries in our church. Shawn is on the leadership team, technology team, and we co-lead a small group bible study.

Shawn loves sports. Which is a great thing since he works in the athletics department for the local university in town. He is the Assistant Athletic Director, in charge of communications. He works many of the sporting events by taking the statistics for the games, when the games are done he writes the game story and updates the school website and social media accounts.

When he’s not working or volunteering with our church he loves to travel and explore. He is also working on his “dad jokes,” already.

Shawn’s nieces and nephews have a special place in his heart. He loves spending time with them and being “goofy Uncle Shawn.”

Shawn is the sweetest most caring man I know. I have no doubts that he will be a wonderful dad!

-Kayla

About Kayla (From Shawn’s Perspective)

Kayla has one of the biggest hearts. She cares so much for people and children. She is a sixth grade teacher and educating the next generation is her passion. Kid’s love being around Kayla. They seem to be instantly drawn to her positive demeanor and infectious smile.

Kayla places family and faith at the center of everything. She is very close with our family and loves to spend any moments she can with them. A close relationship to God and remaining active in Kid’s ministry at our church is very important to her.

Kayla loves to craft and find different projects to do around the house. She is very creative and is a great decorator. She also loves to cook and experiment with different recipes and embrace different cultures in her meals.

She is also very fun-loving and has a goofy side to her. She enjoys adventure and new experiences.

I can’t wait to see Kayla as a mom. She will be amazing and I know it will bring so much joy to her heart!

– Shawn

Family Traditions

• We love to hike and spend time in the outdoors, exploring the country, and visiting as many National Parks as we can. We also have started taking up camping and have enjoyed doing that together.
• We enjoy spending time with family. We rotate spending Christmas and Thanksgiving either in Iowa or Nebraska with Shawn’s family or in Northern Minnesota with Kayla’s family. We have usually hosted Easter at our house.
• We get together with a small group from our church once a week, and love spending time together, and we have also gotten together at the lake for summer outings.
• Every summer we go down to Lincoln, Neb., to spend time with Shawn’s sister Mindy, brother-in-law Eric, and niece and nephew Camryn and Gavin. We love spending time in Mindy’s pool, and just having a great time with family.
• We love to garden in the summer. Kayla takes care of the vegetables, and Shawn takes care of planting and taking care of the flowers.
• We take our dogs for walks around the block, and around our area. They also love to spend time outside, so it is enjoyable for both parties.
• Shawn loves to use his meat smoker in the summer and experiment with different meats, including smoking ribs, brisket, roasts, and anything else you can think of

Our Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/smithstakeonadoption

Our YouTube video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-xHeYuLrnAo

 

If you would like to learn more about us, please reach out to our CHLSS social worker, Carly Kidd, at [email protected].