Welcome! Meet:

Ron + Aly

Vice President of Health and Safety / Director of Patient Advocacy

California

Caucasian

None

All About Ron & Aly
Why Adoption?
Gallery
Family and Home
How We Met
Advice to Future Child
Perspectives on Open Adoption
Favorites

All About Ron & Aly

Hello! We are Aly and Ron. We live in Burbank, California with our two senior dogs, Bisou (16) and Cricket (13). Bisou is a chihuahua/pug mix, and Cricket is an Australian cattle dog. They love relaxing and snuggling up on the couch with anyone who comes over – if anyone sits down in this house, there will be a dog on their lap within seconds!

We both work from home primarily. Aly is the Director of Patient Advocacy for a biotech company where she works to make sure patients with rare diseases are well taken care of and listened to in medical research. Ron is the Vice President of Health and Safety for a data center construction company. We both love what we do because it helps us connect with people and feel like we’re doing some good in the world.

We are huge Disney fans. We have annual passes to Disneyland and go at least once a month. (We love going with our 5-year-old niece, and can’t wait to start taking our child and going as a family one day.) We also love traveling together; we’re both fortunate to travel a lot for work, so whenever we can, we tag along on each other’s work trips and explore a new city together. We’ve visited 11 states and 7 countries together so far!

Learning and education are very important to us. Aly is a former teacher (high school French), and both her parents were teachers/educators in the California public school system for over 30 years. We both have pursued post-graduate degrees - Aly has a Master’s degree, and Ron just finished his Ph.D. last summer. Beyond education, we believe that the world is a wonderful, magical place, and there are always fun, interesting things to learn. We love to go to museums and zoos and are excited to bring our child with us on these adventures.

Love and respect are the basis for everything that we do, and we plan to raise our child with those values. We want our child to know that it’s okay to make mistakes. Their home and their parents are a safe space, and they can come to us no matter what the issue is. As Mr. Rogers said (Ron’s a huge Mr. Rogers fan), “If it’s mentionable, it’s manageable.” Being able to talk openly about our feelings, hopes, and challenges is the first step to finding a path forward.

Aly grew up speaking French in her household, and we plan to raise our child bilingually. Being exposed to different ideas and cultures is important to us. The world is a big place with so many interesting people and cultures, and we hope to instill this in our child through traveling and seeing the world.

Individually, you’ll often find one of us in the kitchen. Aly loves baking – cupcakes are her specialty – and Ron is the cook in the family.

Why Adoption?

A few years back while at Disney Ron saw a child holding her parents’ hands with one of those “I’m Celebrating…” buttons on her backpack and it said, “I’m Celebrating being adopted.” For some reason that really stuck out as something so unique, perfect, and beautiful. Just a special connection between that child and her parents. Adoption is also a part of both of our families’ stories - Ron’s dad and grandma were both adopted, and Aly’s dad had two adopted siblings. As a result of all of this, adoption was something we talked about doing since very early on in our relationship. We are so excited for this adoption adventure to continue with the next generation.

Family & Home

We live in Burbank, California, in a townhouse that has green areas and parks nearby, where we walk our dogs. We love it here because we are so close to so many things like Disneyland, Universal, great food, the beach, etc. It’s a diverse community with lots of wonderful people in it.

We also split our time between Burbank and a beach house in Grover Beach that has been in Aly’s family for over three generations. We hope to renovate it into a larger home in the near future and actually live there full-time one day.

We are so lucky to have a supportive family around us that is with us every step of the way. We couldn’t have asked for more loving parents who have shaped us and provided excellent models of parents for us. And all of them are itching to add another grandchild to the mix. Ron’s brother and sister both have families of their own with kids who we have so much fun with. They live in other states but we try to get together often, usually revolving around trips to some Disney park.

Beyond that, we have people in our lives that may not be blood relatives but are basically family. We also have a large family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, including some in the UK that we got to reconnect with this summer, reminding us how wonderful family is and how special it is to feel so much love and connection with people even when they are on the other side of the world. We talk with them when we can and are planning another visit out there in the near future.

How others describe me

About Ron - by Aly

Shortly before I met Ron, I actually put together a list of qualities that I wanted in a partner. I never imagined I would meet someone who actually checked off every single box, but he absolutely does - right down to things like “loves holidays” and “plays a musical instrument.”

His smile is infectious, and he brings so much joy to everyone around him. He’s the son-in-law who drives an hour and a half to help his mother-in-law put her Christmas decorations up. He’s the uncle who plays Disney princess dress-up with his niece. He’s the friend who drops everything to fly to New Zealand for his friend’s wedding – and then ends up playing guitar to accompany the bride down the aisle, with only a day’s practice.

Ron is the kindest, most empathetic person I have ever met, and this carries over into his work. We always joke that I have a hard time describing what he does, but that’s because it’s so complex – because he’s actively trying to change the way an entire industry thinks, to make people safer. He also gives the best advice – always centered around making sure your own needs are being met first.

Ron was born to be a dad, and I cannot wait to see him raise a child and help shape them thanks to all his amazing qualities.

About Aly - by Ron

I first met Aly at a challenging time in my life and I just remember how calming and loving she was and still is. She always has a way of making you laugh or smile or even just holding you while you feel your feelings. Something about being around her makes everything feel like it’s going to be alright.

Part of what makes Aly this way is that she’s been through her fair share of challenges. Her dad was diagnosed with cancer at a young age and passed away during some of her most formative years. As a result, she let go of a promising career in government foreign service to come home and help take care of her dad while he was sick. As a testament to her resilience, she was able to bounce back and move to a new career, where she currently works as a patient advocate for a biotech company, helping to make sure patient voices are heard in the development of new drugs and treatments.

When she’s not working she loves musicals (she’s a great singer in her own right!), baking, and reading books such as Harry Potter and anything from Stephen King. She makes our house so beautiful, decorating it in lovely ways depending on what time of year it is. She loves doing little things for people like buying them little treats, giving thoughtful gifts, or just making sure their favorite snacks are available. And she’s such a fun, funny, smart, and amazing wife who will be an amazing mother.

How We Met

You know those stories about people who meet and suddenly everything just sort of clicks? Where things that didn’t make sense to other people just make sense to each other without even sharing a word? That’s basically us. There’s nowhere else we’d rather be than with each other. There’s no one else we laugh harder with, feel safer with, and still get as excited to see every day as each other.

We met via a dating app and immediately hit it off. It was pretty clear after the first few dates that this was special - which is really good, because we met in late 2019, and in early 2020 the pandemic started. So, within a few months of meeting each other we were faced with a choice - shelter in place apart and not see each other, or take a risk and basically stress test our relationship. We opted to do it together, spending nearly every waking minute together without much else to do. And we loved it.

We formally moved in together not long after that, riding out the rest of the pandemic and beyond. In 2021 we moved down to Burbank to be closer to Aly’s mom. On the day we moved we got engaged, and on April 16, 2022, we got married at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo.

Advice to Future Child

The world is a big place. This means two things. First, there is so much more to learn, to explore, to appreciate. Every time you think you’ve reached the end and learned everything there is to learn, if you look again or see it from another perspective, it will surprise you and challenge you and you’ll find there is more to it. And that’s beautiful and exciting. So never stop learning, being curious, challenging yourself, learning from and with others, and pushing your own boundaries. The limit of the world is determined by how far you push.

Second, the world is so big it can also be a scary place sometimes. Sometimes it can feel too big and the problems so large that you may not feel safe or that you can handle it. That’s understandable and ok to feel that way. Everyone gets overwhelmed by life sometimes. Being scared isn’t what makes you strong, it’s what you do with it. Just remember that you’re never alone. We are always with you 100%, as are your other friends and loved ones. And, most importantly, the world may be big but the strength inside of you is bigger. Bigger than you realize. We know you may not always be able to feel it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Keep going. Never stop fighting for what you want and for those you love. You are limitless. And we are so proud of you.

Perspectives on Open Adoption

Open adoption is important to us, and we want our child to be proud of where they came from – and a large part of celebrating this child is their birth family. We hope to create a loving, healthy relationship with them and share this child’s lifelong journey. We know that adoption is an incredibly difficult decision, and we want to honor that decision by bringing them into our lives as much as they are comfortable. We hope to show them how much we care - not just about the child, but about them as well.

Favorites

Ron

Favorite Movie: Won’t You Be My Neighbor
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: I love just being around family, being a bit cheesy, listening to holiday music, eating good food, and relaxing together (and Aly and I love bad holiday sweaters too).
Hobbies/Interests: guitar, basketball (Golden State Warriors), cooking/BBQ, Disneyland
Dream Vacation: I love to travel so just going anywhere and exploring sounds great to me.
If I Could Choose a Superpower: flying would be great (to get around LA traffic) :)

Aly

Favorite Movie: Wicked
Favorite Holiday/Tradition: Holidays are HUGE in my family. Christmas is always so special, but we even celebrate Groundhog Day. There’s a bakery in my hometown that makes groundhog donuts, and every year my mom and I bring them around to family and friends to spread groundhog cheer!
Hobbies/Interests: Broadway musicals, baking, reading (science fiction, fantasy, and horror), Disneyland
Dream Vacation: Paris
If I Could Choose a Superpower: teleportation (instant ability to travel!)