Waiting Family Profiles

Home Location: Twin Cities Metro

Family Status: Couple with Children

Children in Home: One

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

Hello! We are Megan & Krystal and we thank you for taking the time to learn about us as you consider adoption for your child. We have enjoyed parenting our daughter so much and want to add another child to our family.  We are seeking an open adoption where you would be an important part of our extended family and your child’s life.

Our Blended Family
Our family came together 6 years ago when Megan and Krystal were married. Our daughter, who was 5 years old at the time, is Megan’s biological child. Her father lives in East Africa and we stay in regular contact with him and our daughter’s grandparents, aunties, uncles, and cousins.

Megan
works for a non-profit that provides grants and training to small farmers and cooperatives in Africa and Asia. She served in the Peace Corps in Cameroon, West Africa and in her teens and early 20’s she was a whitewater kayak racer. She’s now an avid hiker, backpacker, and cross-country skier, and loves nature as well as music. She’s performed at a few open mics and writes silly songs like “Tricked You that I Tricked You” (about our daughter playing tricks on Krystal) and “Tuna Cheza Tennisi Meza.” (“We Play Ping Pong’-a song to help practice Swahili)”.

Krystal
grew up on a hobby farm in a suburb of Saint Paul. Dad worked as a union roofer; mom cared for us kids — who rode bikes, built tree forts, did chores for garage sale money, and had so many pets! In high school Krystal worked at Perkins and she was the first person in her family to go to college. She got angry that in the richest country in the world, a lot of people are homeless. So, she joined together with others to try to do something about it and (eventually) became a union organizer. Krystal loves nature, gardening, cooking, dog parks, reading and most of all being a mom!

Our Daughter
just completed her first year of middle school. It was a big transition from elementary and she handled it well. She loves to invent things, solve problems, read realistic fiction books, and cook elaborate meals and cakes with her best friend. She does theatre, ice skating and school sports. When asked what she hopes her sibling might be like, she said, “I hope they are cute and have curly hair.”  She wants to be a big sister her sibling can count on.

Our Dog Odin
loves going to the dog park every morning, romping and resting in the backyard, and going on hikes on the wooded trails near our house. At home, he proudly occupies his own “couch” in our living room where he can look out the window and watch the passing people and squirrels of the neighborhood.

Our Home & Neighborhood
We live in St. Paul, across the street from a park with oak trees, hiking trails, a sledding hill, and playground. Our triple lot backyard has gardens, a climbing tree and a trampoline (in the summer).

We grew very close to our neighbors during the pandemic — practically raising each other’s kids as they went from house to house, day after day during distance learning.

Our daughter attended a public Montessori elementary school and is lucky to have gotten into an excellent, small innovative middle/high school.

We appreciate our diverse community that has a lot to offer multi-racial families like ours. Including programs like Brownbody.org, cultural events and celebrations, neighbors who speak many languages, and more.

Our Extended Family
We have retired Grandparents (our parents) on both sides who would be overjoyed and eager to help with a new baby. They already invest so much in our daughter: teaching her about science, how to ski, bake and sew, how to grow, process and cook delicious foods, and how to give strong hugs.

We visit our daughter’s family in East Africa and receive a warm welcome. Our last trip had Krystal in tears a few times — happy tears because our daughter’s family was so generous and sweet to us. They would welcome any sibling of our daughter.

Megan’s sister lives in Norway with her husband and two kids (16 & 18). They are musical and adventurous, and they would love to teach your child how to care for sheep, fish with a net in their rowboat, and hike in the mountains near their home.

Krystal has a “little sister” through Big Brothers Big Sisters who is 25 and just recently married — they met when Krystal was 25 and she was 7! She is excited to see our family grow. Maybe her family will grow too — and the kids can grow up together? That would be magical.

We Believe:

• Kids learn & grow best when adults give them freedom with clear boundaries.
• Knowledge is power: when a 3-year-old asks “Why? Why? Why?”, we believe in giving them real, thoughtful answers.
• It’s important to feel your feelings.
• Black Lives Matter & we must demand change.
• Exercising in nature makes us feel grounded & energized.
• No one is better than us & we are better than no one.
• Tomatoes grown in the backyard taste best.
• It’s helpful to stay present in each moment & approach life with gratitude.
• Every person has their own spiritual path. There are many valid paths that center justice, equity & compassion between people.
• When people join together with a purpose, we can accomplish most anything.

Our Message to You
We would love to get to know you, and for you to get to know us, so that we can all decide if we are a good match.

If we were to adopt your child, we would want you to be part of our extended family. Ideally, we would love for your child to see you regularly because you are such an important part of their life. We hope they would also be able to know other members of their family (grandparents, aunties & uncles, cousins & siblings). We can imagine welcoming you into our home when you are able to visit, sitting next to you at sports games or a school play, and talking with you at family get-togethers. We can imagine calling you when your child wants to hear your voice or ask for your opinion. We imagine sometimes one of us will make a mistake and we’ll need to talk about it and change some of our plans or expectations and try again. We know that building this type of relationship is not easy and is only possible when everyone wants it. If this sounds like something you would want or can imagine, we would love to talk to you.

You can contact us through our social worker Emily DeLanoit at [email protected] or 651.255.2210.

 

Our daughter and dog enjoying tunes and sunshine in our living room.

 

Our daughter and her cousins in East Africa.

 

Our daughter making apple cider with grandparents.

 

Odin in our backyard.

 

Sunset paddle with Grandma in the Boundary Waters Wilderness.