Tom & Sonya In South Dakota

We met in the summer of 2002. Tom was working on a ranch in Wyoming and Sonya was just finishing up nursing school and it was love at first sight. We dated for a year and got married in May of 2003, and are excited to celebrate our 20 year anniversary this year! Our love for training horses and outdoors easily led us to become best friends.

Sonya grew up on her family’s farm/ranch in South Dakota. She loved being outside working beside her Dad, Mom and brother. Sonya also worked at the hospital in Rapid City as a nurse for 10 years. She then went back to school and received her Masters Degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner and continues her career at the same hospital, having worked there now 20 years. Sonya still loves being outdoors on the ranch spending every second with Tom and Tux. No matter if it is hard strenuous work, soaking up the sunshine while wading in the creek or going for a lazy afternoon horse back ride, we do everything together.

Tom grew up in Montana on a farm/ranch. He loves being outdoors working with the land and animals. While dating in 2002, Tom came to South Dakota to work for Sonya’s parents on their family ranch. Sonya’s Dad passed away in 2018 and now Tom currently manages the ranch. We have outstanding employees to help with all the work involved in this farming/ranching business, and that allows Tom to be a stay-at-home dad for our son Tux. Tom’s schedule is extremely flexible — no day care here for us!! We are outside working and playing side by side every single day, and we love it! And in the winter months when it gets too cold we head to our large indoor riding arena for some good sand castle building and horse training time!

Our son, Tux is a very loving and kind little boy. He is full of energy and smiles. He is very knowledgeable and advanced for being only 3 years old, and we have no doubt he will love being a big brother to a little brother or sister. When he interacts with younger children, he shares his toys and enjoys showing them new things. Our next adopted child will have the love of not only Tom and Sonya, but also Tux, and he has a lot of love and hugs to give.

We just recently finished building a new home on our family ranch. It is a 5 bedroom, 3.5 bath ranch style with a loft, large living room, lots of play areas and a large kitchen. Although we hired some contractors to build the home, Tom did much of the work himself, and Tux was right there beside him every day helping too. It has been a wonderful experience.

Outdoor space is abundant for us here on our family ranch. Lots of room to explore, fish, play in the mud, ride horses, you name it, if it’s outside, we do it. We also have a large indoor riding arena for the winter time.

Even though we live in the country, we have a very close friendly community with lots of young families with other children close by. Tux has many kids his own age to play with. Also when we go to Rapid City for shopping or parts for the ranch, we always make time for swimming or parks with play areas.

Ohhh our family, is it ok to say we have the best family members ever??!! We are very blessed to have such wonderful family and we so enjoy spending time with them. Tom’s parents recently moved from Montana to Arizona, we love to fly down to AZ to spend time with them and explore Arizona. Sonya’s Dad passed away in 2018, and after his passing her mother moved from the ranch into Rapid City to live. She is very present in all of our lives and she often comes out to the ranch to visit and help us with our garden. We love the fresh yummy vegetables and the family time we spend gardening. Sonya has one brother. Tom has two brothers and a sister.

We have an open adoption with Tux's birth family and we have an outstanding relationship with them. In Tux’s own words, “Wow I have lots of Grandma’s and Grandpa’s!” We are so fortunate to have such a strong support group we call our family.

We love getting together for holidays, birthdays and vacations. Thanksgiving and Christmas are very special to us. Sonya loves cooking and baking huge meals for large gatherings, it is always such warm special times.

Sonya also loves spending time cooking and baking with Tux, there isn’t anything they won’t make together. Tux helps with literally everything. There may be an extra broken egg, or some flour sifted where it doesn’t need sifting, but the awesome memories in the kitchen are made and the smile of accomplishment on his face when he tastes the food he helped make is priceless!

Tom and I were so lucky to be able to expand our family through the adoption of our son. We would love to adopt again and not only welcome another child into our family, but have a sibling for our son.