The Mr. and Mrs. {the story of us}

We met in the summer of 1989 while working at a night club.  Was it love at first sight?....Pretty close to it! After a whirlwind courtship, we were married in the winter of 1989.

We jumped into family life with both feet! Jeff was excited about his new role as husband and Father and needless to say, Tyler was thrilled to have Jeff as his Step Daddy.

We celebrated the birth of our second son Kyle in the Spring of 1990.

In the fall, we took a family trip to Arizona to visit Jeff's parents. We fell in love with the Valley of the Sun and decided it make it home in Spring of 1991.

In June of 1991, we bought our first home and shortly after we started attending a Bible Church. It was there, that we made the decision for Christ in June of 1992.

In the Winter of 1993, we joyfully welcomed the birth of our Daughter, Jordan.

In the winter of 2003, we made a bold move and relocated the family to Texas! (Sometimes....it's the bold move that pays off!) We love, love, love Texas!  (Really, we do!)

Today, we are super excited as we wait for our new daughter to join our family. We can't wait to make the trip to Ethiopia to bring her home. (and we are praying it will be sooner than later!)

Along the way- The past 19 years have been filled with joy (and sorrow), ups (and downs), peaks (and valleys) all "par for the course" in marriage. (Hey...Marriage is not for wimps!..it can be hard work sometimes but it is worth it!)

Through it all...we are committed to our marriage and to our family. We look forward to watching our kids continue to grow and thrive, to becoming Grandparents (someday), perhaps traveling the world a bit and even growing ..together.


Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

I Cor 13: 4-8

Why Ethiopia?

• One in six children die before their fifth birthday

• 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old

• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition

• The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years

• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone, and there are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia.

• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa

• In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%)• Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)

• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.

• Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.

• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.

• In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports.


"Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. Surely you will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them"

Psalm 10:17-18