After a few weeks of chatting online in typical modern dating fashion, our first real-world meeting occurred on Christmas Day in 2016 in a hospital lounge. Stefen was working a 24-hour shift on the labor and delivery unit when Andy brought him a Starbucks beverage. We’ve been head over heels in love and inseparable since that day. Stefen serves as a family medicine physician with a special interest and emphasis on maternity care, LGBTQ health, and addiction medicine. Andy is currently a full-time MBA student in a career transition where he is dedicated to leadership, Human Resources, coaching and team building. Andy’s cheerful, spontaneous, selfless, caring, and humorous demeanor are complemented by Stefen’s passion, loyalty, quick wit, diligence and forward thinking. We love spending time together going on walks, binge-watching TV shows, kayaking, and playing video games. Stefen loves listening to audiobooks while working on home improvement projects, whereas Andy enjoys gardening and improving his home improvement skills.
Our five-bedroom, ranch-style home has been a passion project for us, having painted various rooms and installed new floors ourselves. We’re located in a family-friendly neighborhood less than a 10-minute walk from the local elementary school and various parks, playgrounds, and walking trails. We have an amazing fenced-in backyard that includes a large deck, garden area, firepit, and hammock with plenty of room for a swing set and/or trampoline in the future. We have three cats and one dog. Wolfie is our newest addition and is a beautiful gray, snuggly & feisty kitten born in June 2023. Goose is a feisty, food-oriented four-year-old orange short hair, and Cleo is a 13-year-old grumpy tabby. Merlin is a nine-year-old border collie mix who just loves to be loved.
Our chosen family consists of Andy’s family of origin, which hails from the state of Wisconsin and consists of three brothers, the best sister-in-law one could ask for, three nieces, one nephew, his mom and stepdad, his dad and stepmom, and numerous stepsiblings, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Most members of our family live within two hours of our home, and we routinely gather for holidays, dinners, and random weekend events. Stefen has found tremendous love and connection through his acceptance into Andy’s family.
A great number of people in our family have April, May, or June birthdays, and as a result, one of our family traditions is celebrating all the birthdays by gathering in Wisconsin during Memorial Day weekend. During that time, we kayak, hike, play/sing music, and order pizza. Stefen has kept some of his childhood traditions alive, including baking pies at Thanksgiving and sugar cookies at Christmas; he can’t wait for these to become traditions he shares with our children.
Our goal is to expand our family as we have so much love to give. We started our life together nearly 7 years ago and have always known that expanding our family was going to be a part of our future. Being a gay male couple makes this biologically impossible, but being parents is something we both feel like we were born for. We have both known joy and sorrow, which we believe will enable us to be the best parents we can be.
- Andy and Stefen