Barack Obama Biography: Family Life as 'True' US Citizens
Obama's family members
| Obama married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on October 3, 1992. Their first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998, and their second daughter, Natasha, known as Sasha, was born on June 10, 2001. Both Michelle and the Obamas’ two daughters were born in Chicago and, until moving to Washington, DC, on January 5, 2009, two months after Barack Obama was elected president, they had spent almost their entire lives there, MillerCenter said. |
 |
| Obama's family Photo: En.Wikipedia |
The Obamas were accompanied to Washington by Michelle's mother, Marian Shields Robinson, whom they invited to live with them in the White House and who did so for all eight years of the Obama presidency. Robinson is the only surviving parent of either Barack or Michelle Obama.
Life after the White House
During his final year as president, Obama consulted with a wide range of formal and informal advisers about life after the presidency, which began on January 20, 2017. In March 2016, Obama said that he and his family would remain in Washington, DC, at least until Sasha finished high school in 2019.
In May 2016, the White House announced Malia’s decision to attend Harvard University, starting in the fall of 2017 after she took a gap year between graduating from high school and beginning college. The Obamas rented and then bought a house in the prestigious Kalorama section of northwest Washington.
Obama kicked off his return to civilian life with a February break in the British Virgin Islands, where he was a guest on the private island of the British billionaire Richard Branson.
 |
|
Photo: Bostonglobe.com |
In May, he flew to Europe and met with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany just ahead of the NATO summit that Trump would take part in. Obama also made time for a days-long family vacation in the Tuscan countryside.
A month later, the Obamas and their daughters, Sasha, 16, and Malia, 19, took another family trip — to Indonesia, where the former president lived for several years as a child — and river rafted on the island of Bali.
But Obama couldn’t go long without returning to his roots as a community organizer. In April, he made his first public appearance since leaving office, encouraging students and young activists at the University of Chicago to "take their own crack at changing the world."
