The story of Rosanna and John is a curious one that starts with the birth of John in the throes of winter 1986. The winter was cold that year and if you looked closely at the cobblestone streets of Portland, lit dimly by gaslights, you saw a young couple struggling in the snowstorm toward the hospital that loomed ominously on top of the hill.

Okay, okay, it didn’t happen like that, there were electric streetlamps. Anyway, John was born in Portland in December of 1986 and was a baby with very wide shoulders. Rosanna followed suit in September of 1988 and was a very cute baby, just ask her father. They grew up rather happily, if never meeting each other, in Portland. At age five Rosanna and her family moved to Newberg where she continued to grow up happily as a “free range” child. Rosanna and John were both homeschooled by their respective mothers. John started dabbling in computers about age thirteen and Rosanna in Languages around the same age. They both went to different community colleges to finish out their high school education and started looking at four-year universities. And here is where God starts happening. John chose to come to George Fox University in Newberg; he studied Political Science, because he wanted to be a lawyer, and Computer Science, it was just a hobby. 

Rosanna went to Portland State University and studied Chinese and International studies. 

John started going to the Coffee Cottage because they served excellent coffee. Rosanna was an occasional customer because they had good hot chocolate. They lived their merry little lives, working, studying, and probably passing each other on the street. Rosanna went to Taiwan and John graduated and worked for a company in town. John went to law school in Michigan and hated it so he returned to Newberg. Rosanna got back from Taiwan, thoroughly confused as to what grammar was and got a job at the coffee cottage. Rosanna, at the time, was very frustrated with Newberg boys and swore never to date a “foxy” (George Fox student) and to never date a computer geek, because they are generally addicted to computer games. John continued working for Code Monkeys as a computer programmer making mobile applications. John came into the coffee cottage on a regular basis to drink coffee in the evenings and talk to the baristas. John and Rosanna never met. Rosanna was slowly moving toward graduation and John was working. John and Rosanna still didn’t meet until one Friday at the end of September 2011.

The day they met the weather was nice, and rather temperate, Rosanna worked until six and John came into the Coffee Cottage about 5:30 or so. He got in line behind a rather interesting character and after ordering a rather unusual drink, a 24 oz chocolate crème de menthe cremosa with whip cream, Rosanna and John struck up a conversation about the unusual character. It was slow and Rosanna’s best friend Joia was there and jumped into the conversation.  Rosanna got off work at six and the three of them moved their conversation outside and continued talking. Rosanna had to leave at seven to go eat dinner with her roommate. But John got her number before she left.

Later that evening he texted and asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner the next night. Rosanna said no, she had other obligations, but what about the next weekend? And so it was arranged. The next weekend they went to dinner at Sinju, a sushi restaurant at Bridgeport. Rosanna had no expectations. John was a computer programmer and reminded her rather unpleasantly of other computer geeks, and he had gone to George Fox University, a double strike against him. But he made interesting conversation and she thought it would be an excellent opportunity for a free meal and a chance to make a friend. John also had no expectations, he had gotten out of a bad relationship early that year and had just made a hundred dollar bet with one of his co-workers that he wouldn’t be married for at least two more years.  John and Rosanna had a rather fabulous dinner and walked around Bridgeport and talked, and got gelato, and talked, and talked, and talked until 2:30am.

Rosanna was a little overwhelmed because there were elements in John that she had asked God for and assumed would never coalesce in a real human being. The next day John brought Rosanna flowers at work and she blushed prettily. They had dinner again on Monday night and soon there after decided to be in an “official” relationship. They weathered a lot of difficulties that year. John switched jobs, twice, as did Rosanna. Rosanna had a malfunctioning professor who couldn’t bring himself to pass any of his students. They, at some point, started talking about getting married. They had come to realize that God had given them, in each other, everything in a partner they wanted and a lot more besides.  So they asked Rosanna’s parents for their blessing. Then in July Rosanna went away for a week to a leadership conference. John realized how much he missed her and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, and this was possibly why God had him reading marriage books the year before. And so he went to her parents and got Rosanna’s grandmother’s ring. The Friday she got back she went to John’s to see him. He suggested that they go out to Bridgeport. Rosanna said she didn’t want to because she had had four hours of sleep the entire week and was super tired. So they got Thai food and went back to his apartment where John got down on one knee and told Rosanna that he loved her very much and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and would she marry him. Rosanna said yes.

That is the beginning of John and Rosanna’s family story. Today John is in California working as an IOS developer for a startup named Bitcasa. And Rosanna is in Newberg writing full time and planning their wedding. Rosanna will move down with John after the wedding. They thought about having a long distance marriage so Rosanna could stay in Newberg but decided it was a bad idea. If you wish to catch up with them feel free to connect with them on LinkedIn, follow them on twitter, or friend them on Facebook. Phone and letters work too!