Allison & Steven In Ohio

We met in October of 2017 through friends, got married in October of 2020, designed and built our forever home in September of 2022 and moved in March of 2023, and now we’re ready to experience parenthood! We live in a farm-style house on 3.5 acres of land in a great school district. We actually have already started planning and saving for our future child’s educational career so we can provide them with the most opportunities that we can.

Allison is a graphic designer and photographer and works for a supplements company, Muscle Feast, on their marketing team.

“I absolutely love my job and I am now lucky enough to be able to work full time from home, which means that I will get to enjoy your precious gift all day, every day. I run my own professional photography studio on the side, so we are more than happy to send updated pictures because I’m sure I will be taking a lot of them. Being a designer, I love everything creative. I have danced and played the violin since elementary school and even taught dance in my later years to K-12 students. Our house is often filled with music when we are inside, though we do spend a lot of time outdoors. We love to go camping with our friends and family on the weekends. I grew up camping and always loved every trip. There’s something about sitting around a fire with your family and friends that does good for your soul.”

Steven is an electrical engineer lead at a company called Actalent, so between the both of us we cover both sides of the brain!

“I work partially from home so I won’t miss out on all of the fun. In my free time, I like to volunteer at local events, as I’m a member of the Zanesville Jaycees. I serve our community in many ways, but my favorite is definitely “Toys for Tots” because I get to visit local houses and pick up toy donations dressed up in costume, and I make a great Grinch! I enjoy playing golf and learned from my dad. I’m hopeful our little one will take an interest so I have a new buddy to teach and t-off with.”

We also love sports, both on tv and playing them ourselves. We enjoy playing tennis and disc golf in our free time. We also love to host so we often get together with friends during televised games, and we often play games while all together. We definitely have a lot of people in our lives who unconditionally love and support us, and we know the same will be extended to our future baby.

We are animal lovers and have two very good girls, Luna-Dey, who is a German Shorthaired Pointer mix, and Rye Bread, who is a Corgi. One of our favorite past times is taking them to a nearby lakeside dog park, and they love it as much as we do. We also plan to someday build a barn for a few goats. Allison grew up with farm animals and would love to give our child the same experience. Other experiences we'd like to share with our future child is the joy of being outside. We have plenty of land to play on and explore.

We live in a brand new modern, industrial, farmhouse that we completely designed ourselves. It started with measuring out the rooms and deciding our layout then had that made into blueprints. We moved into our forever home on 3.23.23 and for lack of a better word, it is paradise. We own 3.5 acres of land and have one neighbor, but you can’t see their house from our backyard so it is very private. Our neighbors are a family of 7 with another baby on the way, so our future child will have friends to grow up with. We do neighborly things such as exchange baked goods and they seem like a very close family. Our backyard is surrounded by pine trees and a portion of our yard is fenced in, both for dogs and our future child. We designed our home with our family in mind, so we have two guest rooms that will become bedrooms once needed. We are so excited to start decorating a nursery to complete our home.

Living in a smaller town, everyone is friendly and is always looking out for one another. We live in a great school district with graduating classes around 120 students. Most of the parents and families seem to know each other well. Our school district has all the standard sports, plus a very nice music and drama program, and it is one of the top 3 in our area for education. That is why we laid our foundation on this area. We know the importance of schooling and want the best for our future child’s dreams, whatever they might be.

We are very close with our family members and are lucky enough to see them often. We celebrate holidays and all of the life’s moments together, and we are always here to support each other. The (hopefully) soon-to-be grandparents and great grandparents are already purchasing things in excitement for a baby, so our child is definitely going to be spoiled. Both grandmas, Tam (Allison’s mom) and Becky (Steven’s mom), have already decided that they would like to be called Gigi and Mimi.

We are also surrounded by wonderful friends that we consider family and love dearly. We like to get together for camping trips and euchre tournaments, and potlucks with delicious food are always involved. We can count on them for anything, including helping us move into our forever home.

Our future baby will be joining our family with cousins who we love dearly. On Steven’s side we have our niece, Lydia, who just turned three and our nephew, Evan, who was born in July. Then on Allison’s side we have a new cousin due! These kids are the reason that we know we are ready to be parents. After spending so much time with them, we are confident in our parenting skills. We have discussed adopting often, but we are now very ready for this next step of joining you on this journey.

In our free time, we like to spend time together. We often have projects that we work on, such as refinishing a vintage pool table top for Steven’s future man cave in the basement. On the weekends, we like to get together with friends. Recently, Allison went to the Mohican river with her high school friends for their annual trip.

“As I was passing out and collecting snacks for everyone, I realized and said out loud that I am the mom of the group! Very quickly my friend, Tristen, said, 'Ally, you’ve always been the mom of the group.' I realized that I always try to care for everyone to the best of my ability, no matter the activity or situation.”

We also love to go camping with a group of friends that we consider family. We love to venture to new places, but we also have our traditions. Every year at the end of the camping season, we plan out our last trip together at the same campground in Amish Country. We love this location because they have a lounge with a huge table that we can all sit around and play games.

For exercise, we enjoy playing tennis together at our local state park. We match and challenge each other well so our games are always competitive and fun. We also play disk golf for a more leisurely, but still active activity at the same state park. Their course goes along a hiking trail and through their campground, so we know it well, yet every time it’s still a challenge.

We also enjoy volunteering in our free time. Steven is a member of the Zanesville Jaycees, which is a non-profit organization based on serving our community. They host free events for our community throughout the year and the members work the events if they’re available at the time. There’s often food trucks and live music at the events, and spouses are always welcome so on occasion we donate our time together.

We want to have a child to expand our family and we want to give someone a home filled with unconditional love. Instead of passing along bad genetics, we would love the opportunity to adopt a child in need.