Meet Stefanie, Scott, and Cece Norlin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stefanie, Scott, and Cece Norlin. 

Hi Stefanie, Scott, and Cece, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Scott and I met online on eHarmony in 2011. He lived in a place with poor cell reception, so he used to drive to a Walmart parking lot after work and call me to talk. We spent almost every night talking on the phone before deciding to meet in person about a month later. After all those hours of getting to know each other up front, we took our relationship pretty seriously right from the beginning. Scott and I dated from 2011-2013, got engaged in the summer of 2013, and married the following year. A year later in 2015, we adopted our rescue dog Bash and two years after that; we had our daughter Cecelia (who we call Cece). 

Today, we live in a cute Cape Cod bungalow with black shutters and a bunch of raised garden beds in our backyard. I work as a senior writer at an advertising company, and Scott is a Logistics Supervisor for a large e-commerce company. We’ve told Cece that it’s just her job right now to have fun, learn as much as she’s able to, and to be kind. As a family, we like to spend time together outside, have fun with friends, travel locally (and further when time allows), and make all kinds of art. During the beginning of Covid lockdowns, Cece even sent out 100 “Cece Originals” she painted to people all over the world, including Brazil, Germany, Spain, and Ireland. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like most relationships, our family has weathered both easy and rough patches. One of the largest challenges for us has been in growing our family. It was years — and countless rounds of medications, shots, and infertility treatments — before we had our daughter. After a miscarriage late in 2020, we decided to stop and think about all our options. We spent a few months reimagining what our life as a family would look like. We knew that even if we were able to have another baby biologically or through adoption, we’d need to grieve our plans of having a large family and what that would mean for Cece. Thankfully, Scott and I grew together in our relationship instead of apart, and our family became even stronger. Grief work is slow and often “three steps forward, two steps back,” as the old adage says, but by the following year, we were ready to sign with an adoption agency. 

We’ve been waiting for an adoption placement with our agency, Catholic Social Services, for almost two years now. The long wait has been a huge challenge, but we wouldn’t change our choice in agencies. Most days, it’s taught me to really focus in on the everyday moments and appreciate the ordinary: Saturday morning bagel runs, lunch breaks at the park, family dance parties, and monthly game nights at our church. 

Our experience so far has taught us to lean into persistence, search for joy wherever it can be found and hold onto hope as an active practice — something that many of us need to be reminded of occasionally, no matter what the hardship.

Appreciate you sharing that, Stefanie. What else should we know about what you do?
Professionally, writing is at the center of my heart and soul. My mom likes to remind me that I wrote my first poem (called “I’m a little moonbeam”) at the age of four — she says she always knew I’d be a writer, even before I did. It wasn’t long after that, though, that I figured it out for myself. A high school teacher named John Hanley really encouraged me in my writing and pushed me to keep submitting even when my work was rejected because “it meant I was in the game.” The persistence he instilled helped me early in my career, from my first few jobs as a writing consultant, catalog writer, and blog manager to establishing my own freelance business in 2008. I started my career catering my writing services towards helping Detroit small business owners just getting started, jobs I’m still passionate about taking on today when I have the time. After a while, I realized that working on my own didn’t feel as fulfilling as working with other people, and I made the switch to copywriting. I started at my advertising agency almost 10 years ago and have written for everything from local nonprofits to multinational corporations like General Motors, Navy Federal Credit Union, and Coca-Cola. 

I received my MA in English/Creative Writing in 2016 from Wayne State, where I studied Creative Nonfiction. As an interdisciplinary artist, I use poetry and creative nonfiction to explore my own experiences as a women, daughter, and mother. It’s led me to write a lot about maternal mental health and motherhood, as well as infertility, memory, and the matrilineal line. Through these topics, I’ve naturally begun exploring the different ways women become isolated or estranged from themselves and others. My writing has appeared in publications like Catapult, The Kenyon Review, Brevity magazine, and more. I’ve also won several writing awards, including 1st place last year in an Ekphrasis poetry contest for my poem “Ann and Billy,” based on the 1981 Alex Katz painting of the same name. I also am a co-founder and help facilitate a local writer’s group called Detroit Writer’s Collective. Come write with us! 

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
My favorite parts of southeast Michigan include Belle Isle, Literati bookstore and TK Wu in Ann Arbor and Detroit’s amazing food scene. I especially love Bon Bon Bon! Scott loves the state park system and all the available ways we’re able to get outside, including kayaking, hiking and weekend brunching. Cece enjoys living room dance parties and playgrounds, with Grosse Pointe’s Tot Lot and the splash pad at Mt. Elliot park in Detroit being two of her favorites.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://teamnorlin.carrd.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/norlinfamilyadoption/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087854066165
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefaniebohdenorlin/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/stefanienorlin

Image Credits
Monnette Co.