Alex and His Family Hiking

We both grew up in large families. Alex has an older brother and a younger sister, Claudia has two younger brothers. Alex's parents and Alex's brother and his family live close to us. We meet them every week when we pick up our dog for the weekend. Claudia's family lives in the eastern part of Germany (Saxony), which is a 3-hour drive by car so we visit them whenever it is possible; quite a few times a year. There is often a birthday to celebrate, a Christianization of a cousin or any other reason. We celebrate a lot over the year and we very much like to be close to our lovely families.

Claudia’s Extended Family on Her Grandmother’s Birthday

We have a very long standing tradition during Christmas, which Claudia brought from her family. At the end of the year, two days before Christmas season starts, our whole house is decorated with handcrafted wooden Christmas arches (they have lit windows in Germany's Saxony area for over 270 years) and handcrafted wooden pyramids (with candles etc.). Our friends who visit during this time of year are overwhelmed every time as we are among the only ones in our neighborhood with such a lighted house.

Most of our friends live close to us. We spend a lot of time with them while playing cards and Monopoly, cooking together and having a lot of barbecues in the summer time or we go swimming in one of the lakes in our surrounding area.

We figured out, that the attitude of our families and friends is very positive about our decision to adopt. All family members were involved at the beginning of the adoption process. Our parents are excited to be grandparents, as Alex's parents are already grandparents of two really nice little girls. They support us, they encourage us, they are present whenever we need them.

Front Side of Our Home

We live in a very open city, with 1.7 million living here, including the suburbs in the middle of Bavaria, which is located in the south of Germany north of the Alps. We love living here because if you drive a couple hours in any direction you find yourself in wonderful locations such as the Alps or the Baltic Sea or the beaches of the Mediterranean.

Our city has a lot of castles and parks, e.g. the castle of Blutenburg with its large park and a lake with ducks and swans is only three minutes away by foot. There are lots of recreation areas nearby as well as highly recognized school system. Crime rate is very low; unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the country. All facilities for daily life are nearby.

Park and Castle Next to Our Home

We live in town house that we bought three years ago. It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, a hallway, a kitchen, a living room with a huge fireplace and a basement. All rooms are spread out over four floors. All are beautifully decorated in warm and natural colors and wooden floors. We are very proud of it as we spent a lot of hours developing, painting and decorating on our own. In the front and the back of the house are two gardens and patios where we both like to work on once spring time has arrived.

Our direct neighborhood has people from China, Turkey, Poland, the Baltic's and Morocco. Most of them have young children in ranging in age from 1 to 14 years. Schools are basically open-minded towards all nations, as well as the people in the city are very friendly and open to different nations and ethnic backgrounds. There are a lot of social engagements for children, e.g. the fire department is doing a lot of child work (like kids' parties, open days etc.) The churches are also offering a lot of activities for kids as well as child care facilities/kindergarten.