Welcome! Meet:
Rochelle
Clergy/Non-Profit
California
Caucasian
Christian
All About Rochelle
Dear Birth Mom,
My name is Rochelle, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to share a little bit about myself with you. I imagine this is a challenging season you are going through as you make this decision, and hope that this profile helps you catch a glimpse of who I am, what my values and dreams are, and how deeply I will love my future child.
I am a daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, friend, learner, adventurer, person of faith. I love children, and have had the privilege of working with all sorts of different kids for almost a decade (first as an English teacher, and then in a church setting as I led the Children & Family ministry department for 8 years). I loved celebrating each child’s first step, or their first day of kindergarten, or their first graduation. I loved working with parents and families to try and create homes that are safe, caring, and stable, where children can really flourish and where they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are loved.
Perhaps the most important thing I want you to know about me, however, is that my love and commitment to my future child is unshakeable. I have longed to expand my family for many years, and would be overjoyed if you chose to partner with me to make that happen.
Why Adoption?
I have been interested in adoption for a long time now. I have a nephew who is adopted, as well as many people in my extended circle of friends who have either been adopted or who have adopted their own children. I believe adoption can be a beautiful gift, where someone who is ready and prepared and longing to raise a child connects with someone who is unable to do so at this time, for whatever reason. I have spent the past few years intentionally preparing to adopt, and am in a great place financially, geographically, emotionally, and socially.
Family & Home
I am part of a large, warm, loving family that has filled my life with laughter and joy and who are very supportive of my decision to adopt. I have three brothers and several cousins and close friends who all live on the west coast, and have a huge number of nieces and nephews that I love being an incredible “aunty” to. We prioritize our family gatherings, and in fact just had a camping trip up this summer in Mammoth Lakes with 12 adults and 11 kids. It was the first camping trip for some of them, and it was so much fun to see their eyes widen at roasting marshmallows over the campfire and looking up at a sky full of stars. Your child will have a built-in village of people who already love them, and who cannot wait to meet them.
In terms of my neighborhood, I live in the beautiful city of San Diego, in a home I bought in 2019. I feel so grateful for my home - it is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house with huge windows looking out on Jacaranda trees, and a lovely fenced-in backyard with a hammock and various fruit trees. Perhaps the best compliment on my house I received was from my 13-year old niece, who told me recently that “some people have houses; but your house is a home!” I share my home with my 14 year-old cat Leo, who looks like a lion but loves to purr like a kitten.
San Diego is a very child-friendly city, with parks and beaches and children’s museums and many excellent schools. I love that while I live on a quiet side-street in a suburb, we are only 15-20 minutes away from the beach, and only 1-2 hours away from deserts and mountains and snow. I am lucky that I live just 15 minutes from the world-famous San Diego zoo, and love to see my nieces and nephews' faces when they see a giraffe or lion or monkey for the first time.
I also love how diverse San Diego is. At my current church we have people from over 60 different countries that are part of our church family, and part of the work I get to do is to figure out ways to learn from each other, listen to each other, and love each other well. I enjoy hearing so many different languages spoken together - Spanish and French and Creole and Kinyarwanda and Swahili and Tagalog and Laotian, to name a few. Since I believe it will be important for my future child to have a sense of connection to their heritage, I love that in this community, whatever background they are coming from, there will be people with whom they can connect and share a sense of tradition and roots.
How others describe me
I actually had an experience recently that helps answer this question. For my most recent birthday, my cousin put together an incredibly special birthday gift. She reached out to various people in my life, and asked them to write a few words about who I am and what they value about me that she then put into a booklet and gifted to me. It was such a meaningful gift, and is actually an extension of a birthday tradition we like to do in our family, where we gather around the birthday person and tell them what we love about them and what we hope for them in the upcoming year. This time, though, she had people write it down so I can look back on it for times like this!
My friends and family describe me as warm, passionate, enthusiastic, caring, adventurous, loyal, loving, creative, and a life-long learner. They shared with me that I bring joy and laughter and a sense of adventure into a room with me, that I am someone they can depend on when things are hard, and that I have made them feel included and seen and valued and loved. My nieces and nephews told me (the ones who are old enough to write), that I feel like a kindred spirit to them, and that they loved how I would take them on adventures and play make-believe and help them collect rocks and pinecones and tell them stories. I am someone who prioritizes family and friends and loves to create special memory-making moments.
Advice to Future Child
Dear future child,
You are so loved. I have been waiting for you for a long time, and am overjoyed that you are part of this family. I cannot wait to get to know you, and learn who you are, what you like and don’t like, whether you are extroverted or introverted, if you like math or science or reading or soccer or ballet or playing with animals.
It is hard to give advice before I have met you, since I have found the best advice is specific to the person and situation. But I will share with you what I hope for you. I hope you grow up confident in who you are. I hope you know that you are loved deeply, by both our family and your birth mom, who chose to place you with us. I hope you are resilient and kind, able to overcome the inevitable obstacles life will throw at you, but without losing your ability to see and value those around you. I hope your life is filled with a sense of joy and laughter and adventure, full of possibility. I hope you know that whatever direction life takes you, you will always and forever have a home in me.
Perspectives on Open Adoption
As I mentioned earlier, I have several friends and family members who either have adopted or been adopted. Several of my friends share letters and photos and family updates with their child’s birth mom, and I am very open to hearing what would feel most comfortable for you in this process.
Finally, thank you so much for taking the time to read through this profile, and please know I would love to answer any questions or connect more if you feel drawn to anything I have shared.
Favorites
- Favorite Movie: The Princess Bride (a family favorite)
- Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Hmm… I love both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I enjoy decorating the house, baking christmas cookies, carving pumpkins - but most of all I enjoy the family gathering together and seeing everyone.
- Hobbies/Interests: I love animals, travel, board games, hiking, swimming, and playing the piano.
- Dream Vacation: I have been blessed to be able to travel to over 40 countries - next on my bucket list I think are probably some child-friendly islands (Fiji, Hawaii).
- If I Could Choose a Superpower: I would love to be able to fly!
We’re here to help.
AdoptMatch connects expectant mothers to a community of licensed, ethical, and compassionate adoption providers and their waiting adoptive families.
AdoptMatch is a project of Ethical Family Building, a nonprofit organization working to safeguard domestic adoptions through education, transparency, and accountability.
- AdoptMatch
- 140 S Lake Avenue, Suite 348
- Pasadena, CA 91101
- (626) 219-6266