Marley's Big Announcement

Check out our newest video.  Marley's got a big, big, BIIIIIIIIIIIIG announcement for everyone.  Look out Ethiopia, here we come.........AGAIN!!!

One year ago today (Pt. 3) HAPPY GOTCHA DAY!!!

One year ago today we FINALLY landed in Addis and had our sweet baby girl in our arms a few hours later.  Our lives have never been the same since.  Happy Gotcha Day Mar-Mar.  Mommy and Daddy love you more than you will ever know!  We threw this little montage of our first year together yesterday.  Enjoy!

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

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!"

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

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!



Two Firsts...

Her first salon appointment

 & her first overnight hospital stay :(

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!