In 2018 we adopted little Lenny. We got to meet him the day after he was born and instantly fell in love with him! Lenny has a T-shirt that says, "Love is what makes family" and that is the truth. We would do anything humanly possible for all of our children. We are happiest when we have all the kids around. "Love is what makes family" also includes the birth family. Lenny's birth mom is always in our thoughts and prayers. Even though she chose a closed adoption, she is part of our family. Every time Heike puts Lenny down for a nap she says, "Sleep tight baby boy. I love you! And your belly-mommy loves you, too!"

Frank also has two adult daughters named Aolany and Tiffany. They are especially excited to have another baby brother or sister. Aolany turned 20 this year and is studying business at Florida State. She lives in Orlando, together with her cousins. Tiffany is 23, she just got her bachelor's degree and scored her first job as a therapist. She's working with children and she loves her profession! Although Tiffany is not biologically Frank's, he loves her just as she was his own, and so does Heike — she fell in love with the girls the first time she met them! We are incredibly proud of them and wish they could live closer to them to see them more often.

As a family we're always looking for new adventures together. We own a large travel trailer so we go camping every chance we get! For us, this is the perfect way of traveling because of its endless possibilities. This spring, for example, we spent three weeks at the campground on Patrick Air Force Base right at the Atlantic ocean. Lenny, got to enjoy his very first s'mores, Frank was able to fish right from the campsite's very own little beach and Heike loved to play catch with Lenny and the puppies. Lenny enjoyed to run around on the beach, he waved and said "Hiiii" to everyone he saw.

Heike's family is from Europe, so we also love to travel internationally. Last September we flew to Germany to introduce little Lenny to the family.

Frank's two older daughters, Tiffany and Aolany, recently came to visit and they enjoyed loving on their baby brother and having a dance contest with him. He just loves music and dancing around! Of course we took all the kids to Disney a few times. We'll go back in a few months, we can't wait for "Star Wars Land" to open! We love amusement parks and visit them every chance we get.

Also, we're kind of nerdy. We love superheroes and the "Big Bang Theory." We own all kinds of "Star Wars" LEGOs. Besides nature, fun things, nerd stuff and hanging out with friends we love football!

Our family IS diversity! Heike is Caucasian and so is her family. Frank is Hispanic, his family is originally from the Dominican Republic. He has darker skin and both of his grandfathers were Black. His daughters have amazing, beautiful tans and so does our son, Lenny. Our family displays all different kinds of colors and we love this so much!

It is really important to us to consciously embrace diversity. We will teach our child to appreciate the richness of differences that exists in our family, to empathize with all types of people and not discriminate against others.

Every person is perfect just the way they are. Our common pains and joys is what brings us together, but our diversity makes us unique. We will always give our children the feeling of being unique and perfect but at the same time teach them that they are no better than others. We hope to raise children that face others with kindness and respect, no matter what they look like and where they come from.

We live in a quiet neighborhood on an Air Force base in Florida. We have a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a large, fenced backyard. It's a diverse neighborhood made up of military families with many children of all ages. The community is very family orientated. The Air Force offers a lot of activities like story time at the library, youth sports, craft clubs and tons of events like movies at the park, concerts, bingo, beach bash and more. Yes, the base has its very own beach just for us! There are beach chairs and an inflatable playground on the water. There's a marina as well where we can rent pontoon boats and jet skis. Of course there's all the yearly events for Easter, 4th of July, Halloween and Christmas, too.

There are many playgrounds and even a splash pad and a pool, all in walking distance. Heike takes our son to meet-ups with other kids his age. Lenny has so many friends already! We will always have someone to share a good time with.

We love how safe living on base is! The kids can run around outside and play. If they accidentally forget their favorite toy at the playground, nobody would ever take it. Usually, you'll see the toy shortly after on the Facebook spouse's page searching for their owner. We appreciate how close-knit and supportive the military community is, people go out of their way to help each other out.

Heike's family lives in Germany in a county named "Rheinland-Pfalz." It's a really unique area in Europe and goes by the nickname "Tuscany of Germany" because of the wine they grow there and the many days of sunshine it receives just like the Tuscany in Italy. Heike's sister and two cousins love hanging out with us. We used to play video-games together but these days it's all about the kids playing together. Heike's sister Sabine and her husband Axel have a one-year-old daughter and another one on the way. Heike's cousin Chris and his wife Sina have a 4-year-old daughter and they're also expecting again!

Frank's family lives in Florida but is originally from New York City. Our family is very close knit and we take care of each other. We always hang out at Frank's brother Rob's house in Tampa the most. He has five amazing kids.

Frank's daughters, Tiffany and Aolany, both live in Orlando. We see them a lot, we either visit them in Orlando or they visit us at our house. They adore their baby brother Lenny and they couldn't be more excited about our plans to adopt again.

The pages here come from our heart and we hope they give you a small sense of who we are. Thank you for taking the time to get to know us and to consider us as potential adoptive parents.

We met for the first time at the world's biggest wine festival in Germany where Heike used to live and Francisco, aka Frank, was stationed with the Air Force. We instantly fell in love and both knew that we had just met THE ONE. We got married on a beautiful little island in Denmark, right on the beach. We lived together in Germany for another two years before we moved to the United States where Frank luckily got stationed in his home state, beautiful Florida!

Heike worked as a lieutenant for criminal investigations all her life and retired after 20 years, shortly before we moved to the U.S. She is now a stay-at-home mom and says that this is the best and most fulfilling job she's ever had!

We have a passion for fun stuff like LEGOs, NERF gun fights, books, movies and all kinds of outdoor activities and sports. We also love to travel. Our favorite kind of traveling is with our truck and travel trailer so we can go to the mountains, visit our family in Tampa, Ocala and Orlando and check out all kinds of amusement parks. We also love going to the beach, it's only a 10-minute drive to the beautiful beaches of the Emerald Coast or we walk to the beach on the Sound.

Last year, our dreams came true and we were blessed with our son Lennox, aka Lenny, whom we adopted. For him, the girls and our future addition to the family, we want to be the kind of parents our children run to and can't wait to tell every part of their day to, both good and bad. We want them to come to us even when it's hard so we can help resolve problems in a non-judgmental and loving way.

Family is incredibly important to us, we speak to them all the time and visit every opportunity we can. We both grew up with a strong sense of family. Our family is so excited to welcome a new baby and couldn't be happier about our decision to adopt again!

Aolany and Tiffany are especially excited to have another baby brother or sister! When we told them that we plan to add another baby to our family, they were extremely happy. We have a close relationship with both girls and they mean the world to us. We're so glad to back in the U.S. so we get to spend a lot of time with them. It's good to be close to them so we can be there for them and we know they're safe and sound.

We know that you want to know that your child is safe and sound, too. We will always stick to our commitment to send pictures and updates. We're also open to e-mail contact so you could reach out anytime and we could answer right away. We understand that open adoption might not be the right choice for you. We will always honor and respect your wishes for this adoption and we will let you take the lead on what type of conversation is best for you. Lenny's birth mom for example wanted a closed adoption. Still, we tell our son every day that his belly mommy is thinking of him and that she loves him.

Thank you for reading our profile, we are thankful that you wanted get to know a little about us.

Lots of love,

Frank & Heike