Who am I?

Born in Germany

I was born in Wurzburg, Germany to Hugo Bauer and Brigitte Jaeger in 1959. I was placed in an orphanage immediately after my birth by my mother's father. Hugo and Brigitte were then married and had two more sons and a daughter.

Adopted by the Taylor's

Richard and Ruth Taylor adopted me and raised me in Wichita, Kansas USA. The Taylor's met at Creighton Medical School in the mid-1940's where they shared a cadaver (how romantic). Richard was in the Army and they needed more doctors, so, off to med school he went. Ruth worked her way through university as a telephone operator earning 25 cents a day. Not being satisfied with a mere bachelors degree, off to med school she went. She then earned her Masters in Public Health from Harvard while Richard was at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Full family

The Taylor's adopted seven children in total - all from the same orphanage in Wurzburg - and also bore a son. Eight kids! All of us were teenagers at the same time and the youngest four are the same age for one week every year. (File that under strange, but true.) There were good times and bad, but it was an adventure!

"Found"

In the early 2000's, my little sister in Germany, Bettina, located me through a website on which I had posted information about my birth family. She reached out to me via email and, after a few weeks, we concluded that I was her long, lost brother in America. I have three siblings in Germany, a sister and two brothers.

Re-connected

Several months after being "found", my children and I traveled to Germany to meet my family. We met my mother, father, sister, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, Oma Maria, and more. It was glorious.

Retirement

I have retired to my hometown, a small village near Wurzburg.