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’re a loving family of three that can’t wait to grow. Kari and Nate love adventures of all kinds and Harrison is four and wants to become a big brother – as well as a firefighter.

 

 

 

Hello!

Our four-year old, Harrison, has thought of lots of names for his new brother or sister – Wolf, Rock Stone, and Trailer. None of these names are in the running but continue to come up as we talk about the baby and how excited we are to grow our family.

We have considered adoption for many years due to Kari’s endometriosis. After Harrison’s birth, we decided adoption was the right choice to grow our family. We hope you find the same comfort and confidence in your decision as we have found in ours to adopt.

We hope you take some time to learn more about our family, community and adventurous spirit.

Meet our family

Nate was raised in El Paso, Texas and moved to St. Paul to be closer to his large extended family.  He works as an architect in St. Paul, where he designs hospitals and laboratories.  Nate loves to spend time outside in every season, he  especially likes to golf and watch the Twins when the weather gets hot.

Kari grew up on a dairy farm in southwest Minnesota, but fell in love with St. Paul as a college student and decided to never leave.  She is a research scientist for the Minnesota Department of Health, where she works to make communities healthier.  Kari enjoys reading, music, and pretending she is a good tennis player.

Harrison is four years old and hasn’t met a sport he doesn’t like.  He enjoys his school, where he (and we) have made great friends. The Children’s Museum and St. Paul’s many libraries are his favorite places. Harrison wants to be the first professional baseball player who is also a firefighter.

We are a loving family

We first met on an apartment stoop in St. Paul and fell in love watching the Minnesota Twins. For 15 years, we have enjoyed each other’s company, slightly inappropriate sense of humor, and commitment to our communities.  We continue to give back to our community, and be a generous family.

We were very excited to move into our house in 2014 after many years in tiny apartments.  We have spent many weekends working together on house and yard projects, discovering in the process that Kari should never paint and Nate should never tackle a plumbing project.  The highs and lows of owning a 100 year old home have brought us closer together.

We are always talking and making time for the two of us, which helps us maintain a healthy relationship. During graduate school, we recognized how important it was to have time together so we had weekly pizza and Hitchcock movie nights. Today, we still have weekly dates that range from a picnic at Lake Como to working out at the gym.

Our talking has passed on to Harrison who likes to say “let’s talk about our day.”  The three of us spend dinnertime discussing our days and many other topics ranging from the galaxy to birds. These conversations are the basis of our family and love. We are excited to add another voice to our talks.

We have a supportive community

Our families are excited for our addition and are a great source of love and support. Our parents are close enough to attend T-ball games and grandparent events. We each have three siblings and a total of 13 nieces and nephews. One of our nephews is adopted. We lean on our family and their experience to help us through the adoption process and parenting. Our 100 + cousins are also very excited for another cousin to join in celebrating holidays, watching Vikings football, and playing games (cribbage with Nate’s family and puzzles with Kari’s family).

We also find support in our circle of friends and neighbors. Our neighborhood is diverse with many young kids, lifetime residents and people from all walks of life. We enjoy hosting playdates and parties that fill up our house and yard with people eating, talking, and playing together. It has been an unexpected joy to become friends with other parents and experience their cultures and beliefs through Harrison’s eyes.

Our jobs also offer us support and stability. Kari is looking forward to four months of bonding time during maternity leave. Nate will also take a few weeks of leave. In addition, our jobs offer flexibility and benefits which assure we can be home on sick days, take the afternoon off to enjoy the nice weather, and travel for family events.

We love to explore the world

Istanbul, Rome, and Mumbai are places we visited before becoming parents. Now we have fun visiting zoos, state parks, museums, and concerts. These places bring us many adventures and can offer one-on-one time. Kari and Harrison often spend Friday evenings at the Children’s Museum. Golfing is Nate and Harrison’s favorite thing. Kari and Nate were able to take a quick trip to New York recently and look forward to more travel when the kids are older!

Both our parents live in rural areas so we get country life as well. Kari’s family have many animals to play with. Nate’s parents backyard offers hours of exploration and bug chasing. We are excited to add new and different adventures, together and one-on-one, as our family grows. We want our children to explore the world and their interests – creating lifelong learning and respect of people, animals, cultures, and beliefs.

We know that we’ll figure it out

We love to read books with Harrison. Our favorite is Ada Twist, Scientist. The main character, a curious, girl name Ada, grows up performing science experiments that cause chaos in her house. After making yet another big mess, Ada’s parents get angry with her but calm down when they realize they will figure it out.

We find ourselves saying “we’ll figure it out” so often it’s become our parenting and family motto. Parenting is a huge challenge, but it has been made easier because the two to us are doing it together. We know adoptive parenting will be a challenge, but our experience has taught us that if you take a loving, talkative family and mix it with a supportive community and the willingness to explore the world- there is nothing you cannot figure out.

You  can learn more about us at:

www.theboldnorthfamily.com

612.254.9675

theboldnorthfamily@gmail.com

 

Thank you for your time.

Thanks!

Kari and Nate