CURRENT MISSION

Planning our next adventure away from home.

ABOUT ME

It is hard to sum up two adults and four children with a few short descriptors.

Jenna is a die-hard optimist willing to try nearly anything once. Outgoing with a good sense of humor, she in quickly comfortable with new people.

Jenna believes that raising the children to value kindness, civility and curiosity is a laudable goal worth striving toward. Jenna has concluded that the most important relationship in her house is between the two adults, as a strong base holds up the timbers of the home. Nourishing her marriage to their father is a renewable daily objective.

Jenna and Rob work together as co-mediators to clients in crisis, most often couples seeking a civil and private way of getting divorce. In her free time, Jenna writes. With five novels completed since April 2014, she is now looking for a literary agent. Jenna served in the Peace Corps (Latvia 1996-1998) where the rewards of being the "outsider" resulted in a new view on life and how to live it.

Rob is a kind and gentle soul with an uncanny ability to listen. He enjoys his quiet time but has the energy to be an active and fully committed husband and father. Rob's sense of humor is dry and witty. To get him into a laughing jag is tough, but so worth it.

Rob used to work in the prison system as a therapist and chose to open a private clinical psychotherapy practice. He works primarily with men with criminal histories and with people exploring questions of gender identity.

As for the children, four is a perfect number of little ones for us -- though they're not so little anymore. The four of them spend a great deal of time together playing in the woods. Therefore, they are not only siblings but also dear friends to each other. Asher is seventeen; Greta is fifteen; Salem is thirteen; and Abram is eleven.

Jenna and Rob want the children to be exposed to as many different cultures and peoples and ways of life as possible before they get the idea that there is only one way to live life. Living in the suburbs has its benefits, as does escaping the 'burbs for more colorful destinations. They love to go couchsurfing almost as much as they enjoy hosting. After both hosting and surfing, the children have stories to tell and memories to share, which indicates -- we think -- the deep meaning they attach to the couchsurfing experience.

PHILOSOPHY

Jenna and Rob live our lives striving toward social justice and a respect for all living things. We are committed to raising our children in a place of peace and promise.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We have hosted and we have surfed.

We also promote couchsurfing as a way to travel to many a sideways-glancing skeptic. Jenna's favorite tag line for this is: "No, I don't think that it is unsafe -- it's an awful lot of hoops to jump through to murder someone in their sleep."

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We enjoyed the company of individuals, couples, and families in our home and have surfed with great hosts.

There is something authentically wonderful in the act of inhabiting, even for a short time, a home of another.

Interests

Getting involved.

Now is the time to reach out and experience the world, for it gets smaller every day.

• dining
• sauna
• traveling
• origami
• cycling
• surfing
• soccer
• lacrosse

Music, Movies, and Books

For Jenna:
Music: NPR; though, recently, when she is in the mini van with the children, it's radio pop music.
Movies: American Beauty is, perhaps, the perfect movie.
Books: The classics and non-fiction books.

For Rob:
Music: NPR as well.
Movies: Grosse Point Blank, Godfather, Heat, Departed.
Books: How-to "living better"

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Jenna and Rob chose to have unattended home births of their 3rd and 4th children. This means that they decided, in advance, to birth these children -- at home -- with no one (medically trained) to "help." The only two people in the room were Rob and Jenna when they met Salem and -- two years later -- Abram.

While this might not seem remarkable to the majority of the planet, for those in the USA, it is pretty unusual.

Teach, Learn, Share

Rob is happy to speak to anyone about living as an amputee. He is and above-knee amputee who uses a prosthetic leg.

The children have taught us so much. As their interests sometimes differ from ours, we are the beneficiaries of their curiosity.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Our home: food, conversation, laundry, shower, bedding, towels, our sauna.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russian Federation, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

Latvia, United States

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