Our names are Allison and Dave. Our life together began eight years ago when we met in a community service organization. We liked each other instantly—we had so much to talk about and were always laughing!  After two years of being great friends, we began dating. Early in 2003, Dave was deployed to Iraq with the National Guard. Dave’s impending deployment made us really think about what we wanted in life, and we both knew we wanted to spend our lives together. Soon after Dave returned from Iraq and four years after we met, we were married. Here we are four years after our wedding, still feeling so lucky to have found each other and deeply wanting to share our love with a child of our own.

Why adoption
We both had happy childhoods surrounded by lots of family; we loved that excitement and fun and want to provide our own children with the same happy upbringing that we had. After trying to conceive naturally for a year, we visited a specialist who diagnosed Allison with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. We tried everything to get pregnant, all the way up through in-vitro fertilization. The hardest part was the heartbreak each month when we found out a treatment failed.
We then moved on to try to adopt internationally, as we knew a little bit about it since both of us have cousins who have adopted from overseas. We chose Guatemala, but as soon as we paid all the fees and finished the paperwork, Guatemala closed all adoptions. Naturally, we were devastated because we want nothing more than to have a family. The good thing was that when Guatemala closed, we learned about Domestic Adoption from our social worker. After a lot of research, we chose open adoption, as it is a very healthy, loving choice for the child as well as everyone involved. The important thing to us is being parents, and we know that we will love our child unconditionally, no matter how he or she comes to us. 

About us
Allison is an oldest child and definitely fits that description—she is very responsible and goal-oriented, and when she sets her mind to something she works hard until she achieves it. Dave is the third child of four and is very outgoing and laid-back. He meets friends everywhere he goes, and is one of those people that gets along with everyone. He is also handy and can fix or build anything—he has even built an entire house! 

Both of us enjoy the simple things in life. Allison loves a long run on a sunny summer day, a trip to the library to stock up on books, and pretty much any baked good there is (especially carrot cake). Dave loves good conversation with friends, grilling a perfect steak in our back yard, and going on any kind of vacation.

We’re both lucky to have jobs that we really like and that are very flexible—Allison is a Marketing Director at a popular beauty products retailer and Dave is a Project Manager for a retail construction firm. We live in a suburb of Columbus, OH—one of our favorite things about our house is that it backs up to the grounds of a private school, so there are always deer to watch in the back yard. We also have two cats, Max and J.R. who we have to admit are a little spoiled but are very cute (we may be a bit biased, though).

While we have a happy life together, we are also looking forward to the days we can share it with children of our own. We’re excited for everything—cuddling, potty training, cheering them on in sports, even teaching them to drive. We both feel we were truly meant to be parents and cannot wait to fulfill that calling!

For more information on this family, please contact Naomi at Adoption Link at 1-800-643-3356.