About Us

We met when we were 19 and 21 years old and it truly was love at first sight. We have been inseparable since. Over the years we have grown towards each other each time more and more. We are best friends and we cherish our love and deepest commitment for each other. After 15 years we are still totally in love with each other, something that we know will go on forever.

We are always together in everything we do and we wouldn't want it to be different. Our love has grown as well as our life in all its aspects: we have discovered and developed our personal interests and talents, we are successful in our careers and have been blessed with a warm, close family, wonderful friends and truly nice neighbours who are in fact more like friends to us than just people who happen to live next door. We are happy people and would love to share this happiness with our child.

Jos about Jarko

Jarko is the sweetest man I know, a kind person with a strong sense of justice and an urge to protect and stand up for the weaker, whether it be people or animals. He is a genuine person, honest and open-minded. His gentle, good-humoured and outreaching character make many people spontaneously fall in love with him. Jarko makes me happy, I can't imagine a day living without him. After a day of hard work one smile or hug from my husband is enough to let go of the work routine.

In a world that can be pretty demanding Jarko is a real giver, unconditionally. I often realize that and it always touches me. He's a real carer, most of all for me, but besides that for our family and friends too. He will always be there to comfort you or cheer you up or just make you realize you're not on your own. He loves to entertain family and friends and surprise them with a new recipe. His warm gentle character also extends to respect and love for animals and nature. Jarko is the kind of person who stops the car on the road, just to get out and help a toad cross the road without being overrun by cars. On holidays, a substantial part of our holiday budget goes up on food he buys for abandoned dogs and cats. He also loves to take care of the flowers and the plants in the garden. It's wonderful to watch him all concentrated taking care of the young seedlings on the windowsill, every single one of them, just to plant them out in the garden as soon as the frost has gone. That's all Jarko.

If you now think of him as a softy, you're wrong. He's also a strong man, who will fight for his principles, justice and equal rights for all. With his efforts as an active political lobbyist in the field of adoption he has gained the respect of many, varying from adoptive parents organizations to members in parliament.

Jarko is a very intelligent, multi-talented person. He speaks as many as six foreign languages and also is a creative artist, specializing in etching and painting. Jarko is conscious in everything he does. There's already enough misery in the world. With his paintings he aims to put a smile on people's faces, to move or comfort them. It's this all-in-one person that makes Jarko such an amazing man. I can't wait to see him passing on all these beautiful values to our child, stimulating and encouraging our child to discover its own talents and do something good with it. He will be the greatest dad a child could ever wish. I'm proud to raise a family with this wonderful man.

Jarko about Jos

Jos is the most wonderful person I have ever met. How to summarize in a few words someone who means everything to me? Maybe this image illustrates what my husband means to me: when Jos comes to pick me up from work and I start to smile at the first glance of his face, my colleagues tell me the next morning: "Guys, you are so in love with each other. That is so wonderful to see". And that's just the way it is. Jos makes me happy, every day again. He's a sweet, affectionate, warm and tender person. He loves to care for me and surprise me with little gifts when I come home, 'I love you' emails with lots of electronic kisses at work that just make my day or just a spontaneous hug that makes me feel all warm inside.

Apart from that he's a very wise, literate and intelligent man too. Jos is a truly interested person and in a 'dull' moment you would find him reading and studying, preferably books about psychology, sociology or religion and belief. But he will enjoy the latest Grisham or Irving just as well. Jos is a successful psychotherapist and as such helps many people to manage their way through life. But clients are not the only ones who benefit from Jos's skills and expertise. Jos has always a listening ear and a good advice for family and friends who turn to him when they are troubled by something. Integrity and honesty are values that Jos holds high and people feel comfortable and safe with him. As such, though at times much younger in age, Jos is a father figure to many.

I have found Jos to be a conscious, supportive and inspiring partner as well. Critical of what can be improved but also enthusiastically supportive of my talents and ideas. With his reflections, suggestions and thinking along Jos continuously inspires me to get the best out of me. The wonderful thing is, that apart from all these mature responsibilities, Jos can still be a kid at heart and very funny. He often makes me laugh with a witty remark or when he's paroding someone. He could easily be a stand-up comedian as well. I can already see him making our child laugh, reading bedtime stories, giving lots of hugs and kisses. But he will also be there as a true father when our child is in tears and needs comfort, or when our child feels insecure about something and needs support and advice. I am so much looking forward to seeing the interaction between our kid and Jos as a dad. He will be a wonderful father: loving, caring, supporting and inspiring, so our child will grow up happy and safe, feeling unconditionally loved and become a strong, confident and beautiful person, who in turn will be a loving, caring and inspiring person to others.

About our family

When we met, we were both still living with our parents. Our families have been totally supportive of our relationship since the very first moment. As we were still studying at the time we moved in together, our parents financially supported us until we graduated and found our jobs. Jos is a single child. Jarko has a four year older sister (Els), a three year older brother (Kristiaan) and a six year younger sister (Anja). They grew up happily together and as a result we still come together for any family event, such as birthdays and holidays.

Jarko was born and grew up in Belgium, where all his family still lives. He moved to The Netherlands to live with Jos. However, Jarko's family is just within a two hours drive so we get together with all the family at least once a month. Jarko's family is a multicultural family with people from four nationalities: Belgians, Dutchmen, Italians and Morrocans. Our German neighbours in Spain once said to us: "The world comes together in your family". We thought this was a nice compliment and it's true too. Apart from our deep emotional bond we have great respect for each other in all our diversity. It's what makes our family so closely-knit and that's why a couple of hours driving is no reason for not seeing each other as much as we possibly can. And it works both ways. We also often entertain our family at our home. Especially the 'weekends of fun' with the uncles are very popular with our nieces (Sophie and our godchild Pauline) and nephew (Thibeau). Making pancakes for breakfast, spending the day in an attraction theme park, and at night cuddling together on the couch to watch Disney movies. We all just love it.

Jos's mom lives only ten minutes away from our home. We see each other daily, since she 'babysits' our dog when we are at work. We in turn help her to do her weekly grocery shopping and when things have to be fixed around the house. She's very much looking forward to her first grandchild and we're "afraid" she will even spoil a grandchild more than she did her son. Unfortunately, Jos's father passed away 1½ years ago. He would have been so proud of a grandchild. Jarko's parents are also looking forward very much to welcoming a new grandchild. In fact, the grandmothers are already buying and making all kinds of gifts for the baby.

Your child will have nieces and nephews to play with too. Sophie and Pauline are already looking forward to babysitting and spoiling the baby with hugs and little presents. Jarko's sister Anja married last year and is planning to get pregnant soon, so the children will be of the same age and will be able to grow up together.

About our friends

We are fortunate to have been blessed with many friends. They mean a lot to us and they are part of our lives.

Again, it's a very diverse group of people, but they all have in common that they are warm, caring friends that we love spending time with, whether it be entertaining at home, or going on weekend trips or even holidays together.

The funny thing is that many of them are now in the phase where they are having children. There's a real baby boom going on in our circle of friends, which means that the child we are lucky enough to adopt will have many other kids to play with and grow up together with.

About our neighbours

Our neighbours are more like friends to us. The diversity of the Dutch society is also reflected in our own street with people from all ethnic backgrounds, varying from Dutch to Flemish, Surinamese, Caribbean and Indian. Since we live in a brand new street with all new built homes we kind of moved into our homes simultaneously and this created an instant bond between all of us, helping each other with stuff around the house, lending a hand when needed and even cooking for each other. For instance, we had a six weeks delay in the delivery of our kitchen. The neighbour kids discovered we were eating take out pizzas and Chinese food really often and when they told their mom, Elly rushed to our doorstep to say that this was the last time we were eating take out food. She promptly told us she's expecting us for dinner the day after and thus we stayed dining guests at Elly's for five weeks in a row. Also our other neighbours are awesome. Everyone helped to decorate the street with flags and balloons for our wedding and we come together for birthdays, holidays and the annual summer barbecue. Needless to say, that these kind people are also looking forward to meeting our child and embracing him or her in their hearts.