Welcome! Meet:

Andy + Claire

Corn & Soybean Farmer / Teacher

Minnesota

Caucasian

Catholic

All About Andy & Claire
Why Adoption?
Gallery
Family and Home
Advice to Future Child
Perspectives on Open Adoption
Favorites

All About Andy & Claire

Hi there! We’re Claire & Andy, and we live on a quiet acreage in rural Minnesota with our sons, our dog, and our turtles. We love animals, sports, being outdoors, the water, family adventures, and watching movies. We’ve been happily married since 2007 and became parents when Luke joined our family through adoption in 2017 and Des in 2021. We never knew we could love as deeply as we do until we met our sons and hope to share that love again. We have open and very positive relationships with both Luke’s and Des’ birth families. We hope that Luke, Des, and any other children that may someday join our family, grow up never doubting the unconditional love that surrounds them everyday. Thank you so much for taking the time to consider our loving family for your child. We’re looking forward to getting to know you!

Why Adoption?

We Can’t Wait To …

Pack up the car seats, toys, diapers, and Cheerios to travel, visiting family and friends around the country and explore new places too!
Snuggle in our big comfy chair as a family for bedtime stories
Spend sunny summer afternoons outside enjoying nature, fishing, and playing games
Bake warm cookies and share fresh homemade ice cream
Cheer on the kids at their games, recitals, competitions - whatever they’re interested in!
Share homemade, buttery popcorn while snuggled on the couch watching family movies on the weekends
Share special milestones like learning to walk, teaching them to tie their shoes and ride their bikes

Family & Home

Ohana Means Family

We see our big, loving families often! We both come from large families & would cherish the blessing of twins or other multiples!

The grandparents make special time for the boys and cannot wait to do the same for the child we hope to welcome!

Our Loving Home

We live on a quiet, ten-acre property where there’s lots of room to play catch, throw a frisbee, or hit a golf ball on the lawn! We love animals and enjoy time with our neighbors’ chickens, horses, pigs, ducks, and peacocks! We love using our family memberships to the Zoo, Science Museum, Sealife Aquarium, and Arboretum and visit local parks and the community pool, often!

How others describe me

Andy Loves Movies, Fishing, Music, Sports, & LEGO

“Andy is the love of my life, my best friend, and a wonderful dad. With a kind, genuine soul, open-mindedness, and empathy, he makes friends wherever he goes. Andy loves kids! He has an endearing sense of humor and willingness to be silly - I love finding he and the boys giggling!”

~ Claire

Claire Loves Being Outside, Animals, Coloring, & the Beach

“Claire is a very kind and gentle person, an amazing mother, and my best friend. She is selfless - always thinking about the good of others - and will do absolutely anything for the ones she loves. She loves children with all her heart and Luke, Des, and the child we hope to welcome will forever be the lights of her life.”

~ Andy

Fun Facts About Us

Claire loves Dairy Queen’s ice cream cake so much that we served it at our wedding
Andy is a big sports fan! He’s attended Game 7 of the World Series, the U.S. Open, and the Final Four
Claire’s hero since childhood is Bob Ballard, the famous deep sea explorer (NERD ALERT!)
Andy once attended five movies in a single day at a single movie theater (BIGGER NERD ALERT!)
Our 4th of July tradition is to watch JAWS and our Christmas tradition is to watch Christmas Vacation
All of our towels are beach towels. Why? Why not?!

Advice to Future Child

Thoughts on Education, Parenting, & a Lifetime of Love …

With Claire being a teacher and Andy running a farm and achieving his BA degree in Business Management - we’re lifetime learners and we want to share our love of learning with our children. We will set up a college fund to help our children pay for whatever higher education they choose and to meet their goals, just as our parents did for us.

We believe that kids should be well-rounded, so we’ll also encourage them to join teams, play sports, and play musical instruments. Our primary hope and goal as parents is to help our children be happy, healthy, kind, gentle, generous, and reach their full potential.

We promise to LOVE your child selflessly, in all circumstances and unconditionally all the years of our lives. When he or she starts exploring and crawling into cupboards, knocks boxes off the shelves at the grocery store, and paints the kitchen walls with food, we will LOVE! When our kids bring home their first dates, graduate high school and college, get married, and start families of their own, we will LOVE!

Perspectives on Open Adoption

Thank You …

Thank you for learning about us as you consider an adoption plan for your child. If you choose to match with us, please know we’ll do whatever we can to avoid making you feel pressured and promise to support you in whatever decision you make. If you choose us to love and parent your child, he or she will be raised embracing both his or her birth and adoptive heritage and will be made secure in the knowledge that your decision was based on love.

Our children will grow up in our home knowing their adoption stories from birth. We talk freely and openly about adoption with the boys, embrace their unique cultural heritages (we’re excitedly learning Spanish as a family!), and enjoy a very positive, open relationship with their birth families - we’re so thankful for visits, phone calls, gift exchanges, and regular texts! They’re extensions of our family and we love them dearly. We hope to build a positive relationship with you, too, if that is your wish.

~ Claire & Andy

Favorites

Andrew

Favorite Movie: Three-Way Tie Between “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Thanksgiving. Andy LOVES making his homemade lasagna and has been perfecting the recipe for years!
Hobbies/Interests: LEGOs, fishing, sports, podcasting, animals, movies, music
Dream Vacation: watching the Minnesota Vikings Play At (and WIN!) the Super Bowl
If I Could Choose a Superpower: Super Strength

Claire

Favorite Movie: Lilo & Stitch
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Christmas! Claire loves buying the family matching Christmas jammies (or just matching pjs in general)
Hobbies/Interests: gardening, horticulture, animals, reading, fishing, marine biology, oceanography, marine ecology
Dream Vacation: Hawaiian Islands
If I Could Choose a Superpower: the ability to heal all wounds (physical, mental, & spiritual)