Born to be our Babies

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

One year ago today (Pt. 2)

Oh where to start? Alot of colorful words could be used to describe this day but for the sake of our readers will just call it "Bittersweet". We arrived at Frankfurt, Germany around 8 A.M. as scheduled and everything was going smooth...that is, until we managed to miss our flight to Addis. What a nightmare! For some reason, Frankfurt doesn't declare a set gate until about an hour before takeoff so the only thing we had to go by was the gate # printed on our tickets. BIG MISTAKE! We set there for a few hours until our scheduled departure drew closer and closer. We asked several airline and airport staff if we were at the correct gate, to which they all said, "yes". Yada, yada, yada....long story short, we missed the flight, was told that the next flight out wasn't for 2 more days (which meant we would likely miss our Visa appt), cried, cursed, finally found another flight out at midnight with another airline (Ethiopian Airlines), cried some more, forked out another $1600 and at 10:30 PM finally departed the hell hole that is Frankfurt Airport en route to Addis Ababa and our baby girl! Now if that's not bittersweet, I don't know what is!

Our inspiration through 2 days of layovers, missed flights

Monday, March 7, 2011

One year ago today (Pt. 1)

One year ago today we boarded the plane from Kansas City to Frankfurt, Germany enroute to Addis Ababa. Had to be the most exciting day of our lives! We posted this to our blog just before our departure:

"It's hard to believe that after 3 long years, the time has finally come. We're off to get our beautiful baby girl!!! Don't know if the opportunity to upload photos or update our blog will present itself during our stay as we've been told the internet is slow...I mean, reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally slooooooooooooooow. Not to mention the frequent power outages but rest assured there will be plenty of pics and videos to go around when we get back and we can't wait to share these experiences with all of you! Sorry to rush off but we're sort of in a hurry... we're off to meet that certain little someone ;) Ciao!"

Friday, February 25, 2011

The Great iPad/iPod Giveaway!!!

One of our adoption buddies is trying to raise the necessary funds to go on a mission trip to Uganda in a few short months and came up with a really great idea for a fundraiser. By visiting their blog you can donate and enter to win and iPad, an iPod, or Both! An iPad entry is $20 and iPod entry is $10. As if that's not a great deal already, she's also giving additional entries for posting a link back to their site on facebook, blogs, and twitter. To donate and enter for your shot to win these awesome prizes, click HERE!!!

Congrats on your upcoming trip to Uganda, Elisa. Hope all is well with you guys!

And just because, here's a shot of Marley getting ready to party it up at MiMi's (grandma's) b-day party tonight

Saturday, February 5, 2011

one year photos....FINALLY!

In keeping with our "better late than never" theme, here are some pics from Mar's 1 year photo shoot. Nothing like ordering them 4 months later :) Enjoy!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Two Firsts...

Her first salon appointment

& her first overnight hospital stay :(

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Marley can count to 10!!!

This is the best video we've been able to get so far. She can do it by herself but it seems every time we pull out the camera, she gets a little shy and needs a prompt here and there. Pretty darn good for a 16 month old!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

First Christmas!

I guess better late than never seems to be our theme lately, but we did have a great first Christmas with Marley. Kris and I put a lot of thought into each gift we got her and really wanted to get toys that she would really like and would grow with her. Obviously Kris and I were far more excited about our first Christmas together than Marley since she had no clue what was happening anyway. We spent Christmas Eve with my family, which included my 4 year old niece and 1 year old nephew so you can imagine how crazy it became when it was time to open gifts. We all had a great time and Marley got several great gifts. Once we got home Kris and I made sure all her gifts were under the tree and that Santa had come. Christmas morning, again us more excited than her were up early waiting on Marley to get up. It was a wonderful Christmas morning, we took our time opening each gift and playing with it then moving to the next one. Her big gift this year was a kitchen that she does love, she also got her own little rocking chair, she got blocks, crayons, crayons for the tub and a little music player that she can pack around with her. We had also gotten her some Christmas pajamas but she got those the night before. Later that day we went and had Christmas with Kris' side and again she received several great gifts. Christmas with Marley will always be special but I don't think anything can beat that first one. Since everyone loves pics I will leave you with some. Hope you all enjoyed your holiday as much as we did.