make new F R I E N D S...

we have been so fortunate to have made

so many new friendships here in hamburg

from time to time we'd like to start

introducing you to the new friends

that are becoming so very dear to our hearts

let us introduce you to

jan (pronounced 'yon') & anja

we love the story of how we met them

months back we took the kids out to the countryside

just to get out of the city for a day

we found a local bakery and popped in

jan & anja heard us speaking english

we ended up sitting together

talking for an hour & exchanged numbers

since then we have continued to get together

when jan & anja come into the city

the kids love them

and they LOVE the kids

as you can see, jan is grace's

'ride around town'

he loves it as he is like a big kid himself

notice how jose stole his bmw hat

and yes, they have the car to match

a few weekends ago they invited us

to their beautiful home that they built

this is the view from their backyard

are you kidding me?

AMAZING.

i told them so, and they asked

"what does 'amazing' mean?"

it was fun to explain it to them

we have been welcomed

not only by jan & anja

but by their entire family

tim is 18 & lena is 16

they are really sweet

they all speak english, too

which most of our friends here, do...

which is easy for us &

fun for them to get to practice

tim was an exchange student in omaha

for a year, so his english is excellent

he now has an american girlfriend

and just flew out a few weeks ago for prom!

this is more of their backyard

notice the american flag they hung

just for us--ah, home sweet home

we spent the whole sunday there

after a delicious meal we went for a walk

their village is only 2 streets long & wide

so we had to walk the whole thing of course

and what did we find but a friendly horse

had to be silly & put a rhyme to that, sorry

extra credit points for si & shh shh

if you can name what kind of horse this is...

jose & grace love 'horsies' so that was extra fun

they have made

the 2nd largest city of germany

feel small & like home to us

their love, hospitalitly & new friendship

is one of the many reasons

we are so, so grateful to be here