Copyright: Lottie Lillian Photography
My name is Rose Clearfield. I’ve been keeping some sort of journal literally ever since I learned how to write. I’ve been blogging publicly since late 2008. This is where I’m blogging now. It means a lot to me that you’re here.
I have my bachelor’s degree in elementary education. While my husband was in medical school, I taught special education for four years while earning my master’s degree in special education. When we moved to Milwaukee for his medical residency, I was ready for something different. I started freelance writing with the plan that I could keep writing when we had kids.
Copyright: Lichter Photography
Copyright: Lottie Lillian Photography
It took six and a half years to have our first kid. After five years of testing and fertility treatments, we changed course and pursued adoption, which is how all three of our kids joined our family – Tommy in July 2017, Olivia in January 2021, and Genevieve in November 2021. You can learn more about our adoption journey in the adoption section of the blog. I share monthly updates for the first couple of years of my kids’ life and other family happenings in the family section.
Our journey to grow our family is one of the toughest we’ve ever been through. I’m still doing a lot of processing about everything that’s happened. We are beyond grateful for everyone who has been praying for our family throughout this journey and continues to pray as we raise our children.
I live in southeast Wisconsin with my husband Jake, our three kids, and our three cats. All three kitties came from the Wisconsin Humane Society. Apollo and Ares turned nine in August 2021, and Hobbes turned six in April 2021.
Those of you who have known me since before roseclearfield.com existed know our 18-year-old cat Angel crossed the rainbow bridge in September 2014. She was Jake’s childhood pet and an integral part of the first eight years of our marriage. We miss her every day.
Photography is one of my biggest passions. I got motivated to better my photos for my Etsy jewelry shop and previous blog, and the hobby evolved from there. I bought my first DSLR camera almost two years into trying to grow our family. Improving my photography skills was extremely empowering during a time in my life in which I had very little control over the one thing that I wanted most. The silver lining of bettering my photography skills during this time is that I now get to take awesome pictures of my kids.
My writing influences (in no particular order) include, but aren’t limited to, Emily Giffin, J.K. Rowling, Michael Crichton, John Feinstein, Nick Hornby, and Madeleine L’Engle.
The past couple of years, our life has been pretty low-key. We enjoy lots of walks in our neighborhood, trips to local destinations like the zoo and petting farm, and visits with family and friends. We also spent a lot of time watching Lake Michigan.
Among other sources, my work has been featured in Yummly, Foodgawker, Craftgawker, and Finest 10. I’m a former contributor at Photorec.tv and Pixinfocus.