We are Tom and Carrie from Minnesota, and we’ve been married since 2019. Tom is a movie buff who also enjoys working outdoors. Carrie loves experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen while singing along with the radio. We both tend to be introverts but love trying new things together. We both enjoy our jobs and the flexibility they allow us. Tom works for a large construction company filming and editing videos for corporate communications and marketing. Carrie works remotely for a large hospice company recruiting, training, and supervising volunteers to assist patients. We love spending our free time with our family and friends, especially having them over for dinner and game nights. We are active in our church and community doing volunteer work, including making children’s birthday cakes for a local nonprofit. We enjoy traveling, especially road trips across the U.S. to explore places we’ve never been.

We both come from large extended families; our relatives mostly live in MN and WI. Both of us have one older sister and are very close to our immediate families. We are lucky to have our sisters and parents living nearby. We adore being Auntie Carrie and Uncle Tom to our nephew and three nieces!

One of the first things Tom noticed about Carrie’s family is that they hug…a lot! Carrie’s family seemingly has a tradition for everything, from our annual Christmas open house to movie marathons for New Year’s and an annual Lobsterfest held by her aunt and uncle. We spend a lot of hot summer days in Carrie’s parents’ backyard pool and often visit her snowbird parents in Florida during the winter. Carrie noticed that Tom’s family is much more reserved but still extremely loving. His father is a widower who always has a story to tell, and his sister and brother-in-law enjoy hosting get-togethers on their ten-acre property. He also has a lot of uncles, aunts, and cousins in the area.

We get together to celebrate every holiday and birthday with both sides of our family, and rarely does a weekend go by when we aren’t enjoying at least one meal together.

We purchased our dream house three years ago in a quiet suburb. We live just down the street from a local elementary school in a neighborhood filled with children of all ages. Our city has a lot of parks and lakes and we love being close to all the events and festivals downtown. Our three-bedroom, two-bathroom house has a beautiful, big backyard. Tom enjoys grilling on the deck. We have a small garden where we try to grow lots of different vegetables but usually only end up with hundreds of tomatoes! We’ve spent the last three years renovating the inside of our house. It’s been a lot of work, but every project helped make the house into a home we truly love. We have a fourteen-year-old orange tabby cat named Marigold.

We’ve both always wanted children. It is something we have discussed since before we were married. While we long to be parents, we have not been able to have a biological child. We have built a wonderful life together filled with love and laughter, but it feels as if something is missing. Tom has a cousin who was adopted as an infant, and we have seen firsthand what a blessing adoption can be. Our hearts are filled with so much love, and we hope to one day share it with a little one.