Going Home

Got news today that Jen will be going home today. Pray for the babies, they are scheduled to make it home next week, pending continued improvements with their health! Thank you all for your prayers!

Twins Update

Thank you for all who have been praying for Jen and the babies. Today Jen is feeling much better and looking like she'll be released by the weekend. Pray for Filippo and Gabriella, they are not able to digest their food and are still in the NICU with feeding tubes. They are however able to keep their body temps up and breathing without any oxygen. Please keep them all in your prayers! We hope to be able to post more photos soon!

Newest Addition!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009, Brad's sister Jen, and her husband, Angelo welcomed into the world their beautiful twins! And of course our first Niece and Nephew - born the day before Brad's birthday!

Please pray for Jen, she's had some complications with her blood presure. All hope to be home by end of week!








Gabriella Elena Grimaldi (on left)
wt: 4.11 lbs length: 19"
time: 5:56 am






Filippo Grimaldi (below)
wt: 5.2 lbs length 19"
time: 7:25 am

5 Minutes of Fame

Last weekend Jack had a once in a lifetime experience. His fussball team was invited to escort the players for the local Bayern Munchen vs. SV Vaihingen fussball match. Jack's soccer club has celebrated it's 100th anniversary all year this event was the close of the celebration. We arrived at the club an hour before the match. The boys suited up in their uniforms and had some time to kill before being paired up with the players.

We were able to introduce the team to trailmix. Many of the boys were curious as to what Jack was eating. Being the polite boy that he is, he offered some to his teammates. Kids are kids no matter the nationality, they all wanted to toss aside the nuts and raisins and only eat the M&Ms! I think we made many friends that afternoon! Of course as I was passing around the mix, I thought "Oh, no! How do I ask if any one is allergic to peanuts in German?" After the peanuts were already in every mouth, I quickly thought, "well I do have one Epi pen with me!" Thank goodness, no problems.

The time came for the big line up. In the clubhouse all the boys went. I quickly gave Jack the instructions to stay with his coach and just follow all the other boys; wave when they wave, run when they run...that kind of advice. I saw that he was paired with a local player for the SV Vaihingen team. The player was just talking away to Jack and then Jack looked at me a shrugged his shoulders. I walked over and said "he speaks English". The player nodded his head and said "Ja" (yes). That was about it. He took Jack's hand and they rushed the pitch (the field). Jack did great, waved and ran right on que!

We unfortunatley didn't get any great photos of the field line-up due to the size of the crowd and players. Hope you enjoy the ones we were able to catch.

Below are a few from last weekends game!

Drachen (kite) Fest

Last weekend we attended the Drachenfest (kite festival) in Ost Fildern, a nearby town. We had a beautiful day and the perfect amount of wind for flying kites....well that is if you brought your kite! The advertising for the event stated that there would be complimentary kites available for your use. When we arrived the kids were immediatly side tracked with the huge playground as were all the kids! After climbing, spinning, jumping and squirting water the kids were ready to explore the rest of the festival. We came upon an area where you could paint a poster. The kids enjoyed making new signs for their bedrooms.

After securing their artwork with a rock on the side of the hill to dry we ventured down towards the multitude of kites. There were acrobatic kites and kites that carried small go-carts across the field. Along the way were an array of musical sculptures. Madeline's favorite was the one made with rubber gloves and recorders. The gloves (handschue) were taped to the mouthpieces of the recorders so you could squeeze a tune! Jack wasn't too impressed, he liked the ones you could spin, spin and spin. There was a moment that I thought we would see the musical wheel flying down the side of the hill!

What is a

Borke adventure without the local fare? Yes, we sampled the schweinsteak, ledentopf (soup), and yes you guessed it...Jack's favorite the rotewurst. After a few spills of the apfelshorle and cleanup, we came across these bunnies. We still are unsure of what they represent or why they were here. The kids of course saw them as another opportunity to do some climbing. We really had a great day!

A Day in Stuttgart

We were so kindly invited by our neighbors the week we moved in to join them for a day in Stuttgart. They offered to show us how to use the public transit (U-Bahn, S-bahn and Bus), the local sights, and the best ice cream place in town. We had a wonderful time getting to know one another and learning each others language (with the help of a dictionary at times)! They have a six year old daughter who is very cute and Madeline and Jack enjoyed teaching her how to play, Eye Spy, Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and other english language games. She in turn taught them how to play Shing Shang Shung, a German version of Rock Paper Scissors. I think this relationship will be great for all of us.

On our adventure we toured the famous Schloss Platz, Theatre district, and upscale shopping. Of course you can't afford much around here with how weak the dollar is. We enjoyed window shopping the sale shoes priced at 250 Euro which = $375. Oh, did I mention that in our wet shipment all of my winter shoes were moldy? At these prices, you can understand why I'm enjoying my tennis shoes so much. I really do need to break down and buy new ones - online of course!

Here's a photo of the kids at the Schlossplatz.

Soccer vs. Fussball

Welcome to soccer the European way! What a road it's been to get here. Three weeks ago we were able to find a boys and a girls German soccer team for Madeline and Jack. After a week of figuring out where to be, which team is the right age group, I think we've hit the nail on the head!

Jack is playing on the SV Vaihingen club, right here in our town. The team has 12 players and they play 2 teams of 6. Jack had his first games this past Saturday. They played 3 games from 8:30-12:30 in the nearby town of Plinegan. He scored his first goal in the second game!

The boys on the team all seem to be very nice and somehow they all communicate with one another while speaking different languages. The parents are all very nice and speak english so this helps Brad and I out a bit! We've been invited to attend the team ski weekend in Austria later in December! A great group of people. Through this emersion I will at least be able to talk about fussball, now how that helps me asking my neighbor for a cup of sugar, I don't know!!!

As for Madeline, no luck. We quickly found out that girls are the 2nd class athlete in these neck of the woods. Madeline practiced with the SV Morhringen girls team and didn't enjoy it like her brother. Rightfully so, she was paired up with a group of girls the average age of 14. She noticed the physical differences right away! This team practices on a cinder field, not the nice grass or astro-turf fields the boys have! So, in order to play agressively you end up falling and yes...bleeding. And if you know my Madeline and her skin infections - not a good pair! So to make a very long, long story and long, long week short...she is now giving the CYS team on base a try. She's not very excited about the caliber of play, but enjoys the social interaction with the American kids! More to report later !!