Our Family at Thanksgiving

Marla has one older sister who is married with two teenage daughters. Being only 2 ½ years apart, Marla and her sister are very close and have always spent a lot of time together. Marla is very close to her nieces, too.

Marla's dad (Grandpa to the girls) is retired and lives on a farm with cows and a dog named Tip. Tip loves to chase the girls or Grandpa on the four-wheeler, but is afraid of the cows. Marla's uncle and cousins all live on land adjacent to her dad's and everyone sees each other on a daily basis.

Marla's mom and step-dad (Mimi and Papa) own their own monument business. They have patented a machine to cut the stones and travel all over the country (about every other month) installing the machines.

Our Wedding Party

Mike and Marla live about 2 hours away from her family. Everyone gets together about once a month, spending time on the farm, and visiting with cousins, and of course Granny. All of Marla's family are very excited about a new baby in the family and can't wait to spoil him or her.

Mike is an only child but has many cousins, aunts, and uncles, so Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner are big events in his family.

Mike's dad was a machinist, building propellers for airplanes until he retired 10 years ago. He now spends his time fishing and gardening, repairing broken equipment, and attending auctions.

Mike's mom worked as a machinist until recently. Now she enjoys spending time with her church friends and her cat "Frisky Biscuit".

Mike's parents live out of state so they stay in touch at least weekly by phone and visits every couple of months. They have been waiting to be grandparents for the past 6 years and are very excited about Mike and Marla's decision to adopt.

Our Home

We bought our house 4 years ago in preparation of having children. It is a three bedroom, two bath house with a large kitchen and an extra den/game room. We recently added a deck to the back of the house and have really enjoyed it. We have a big fenced in backyard with several trees. Mike has been working on getting one of the tree's branches ready for a tree swing someday. Mike takes pride in keeping the lawn groomed and Marla enjoys setting out seasonal flowers and plants.

Fishing with the Boys

Our neighborhood is a wonderful place to raise a family! We chose this neighborhood because of the great schools. In fact, our elementary is just a few blocks away and is rated as one of the best in the area. There is a community swimming pool and a public library on the same block and a community fishing pond stocked with lots of trout in the winter and catfish in the summer. Several of the neighbors take their kids fishing there on a regular basis.

Several of the kids on our street are elementary school age. Two are high-school age and are always ready to babysit for the neighbors. There are also many young families on our street with children under age 5, and there were 4 babies born just last year (one of which was adopted).

Living in the house next door, is the family that keeps our neighborhood energized. It is "ground zero" for all of the activities on the street. They have a pool and a trampoline that all of the kids seem to gravitate to. In the summer, almost every weekend there is a pot-luck with "gobs" of food and fun. Every event, especially Super Bowl, New Years and the 4th of July involves a neighborhood party.

We love this neighborhood and feel very fortunate to have lucked into it. We couldn't imagine living in a better neighborhood or having better neighbors.