Allison and Roch
Hello
We are Roch, Allison, and Samson. Thank you for the opportunity to introduce ourselves!
Roch grew up in Germany and Allison was born and raised in the Midwest. We’ve known each other for fifteen years and just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We met as high school exchange students and it was our mutual love of travel, adventure, and meeting people from new cultures that brought us together. After that, we sustained our relationship through letters, long distance calls, and emails, since we lived on different continents early on in our relationship.
Roch works in the energy efficiency industry and his day-to-day work involves selling things like eco-friendly water heaters and light bulbs. He’s very social by nature, and loves talking to people from all walks of life. He also loves tinkering around with cars and home remodeling projects. He has the amazing ability to read a do-it-yourself home repair book and then re-plumb the entire house. He also religiously follows Schalke 04, his favorite German soccer team.
In contrast to Roch, Allison is a little more on the shy side and prefers to spend her free time with her small, tight-knit group of friends, or to kick back and read a good book. She is the organizer in the family and makes sure that everyone has their keys, jackets, and lunch boxes on the way out the door in the mornings. Her most favorite time of day is bedtime with Samson and the stories, snuggles, and sweet dreams that come with it. Allison works as a research scientist for a large health care company. She specializes in vaccine research and often works with pregnant women and young children.
Samson came into our lives four years ago and we can’t honestly remember what life was like without him! He’s a sweet and tender-hearted boy with a terrific sense of humor. He loves putting on silly hats, making funny faces, or telling knock-knock jokes – anything to get a laugh! He is really looking forward to being a big brother and tells us every day about new things he wants to teach the baby. We learn from Sam every day and it’s difficult to put into words the feelings we’ve had in the past four years of being his parents. It’s important to us to provide Sam and our next child with a stable, loving, and nurturing environment at home. We hope to see our children grow into confident, compassionate, open-minded, and well-rounded people with a love of learning and a willingness to try new things and meet new people.
Both of us have exciting and challenging jobs, but our schedules are flexible, allowing us to work from home as needed. We live in a quiet suburb of a Pacific Northwest city in a comfy house with plenty of room for kids to play. We have big dreams about converting some of our yard into a vegetable garden, but for now, we’ll be happy if we can just get some tomatoes to grow in a pot. We have a wonderful park, library, and swimming pool within walking distance of our home. It’s the heart of our neighborhood, and we can be found there several nights a week after dinner, along with our neighbors.
Our extended family is spread out all over the U.S. and Europe, but despite the distance, we’re very close. We talk on the phone regularly, and family members love to stay with us for extended visits, especially around the holidays. Christmas is a big deal for us, with cookie decorating, stockings hung by the fireplace, and carols. We love taking family vacations, usually renting out a big cabin in the woods and spending time hiking, fishing, and just relaxing together. We also love the ocean and often drive out to our local beaches for little weekend getaways. Every now and then, we’re lucky enough to get to go to Hawaii, where Allison has a second office!
As exchange students, we learned some important lessons about family – mainly, if you keep an open mind and put some effort into it, you can develop family in any part of the world. Of course, there may be bumps and challenges along the way, but as long as everyone is committed, things will work out and the relationship will grow. We look forward to including you and your child in our family. We will value that relationship and take our commitment seriously, as we feel it’s in everyone’s best interests—especially the child’s.
We wish you strength, courage, and peace as you make this very important decision for you and your child.
Roch, Allison, and Samson