This is the team. Moody and Emily are the captains, Hill, Wick, Avery, Isabelle, Eyasu and Abe are the starting line up!! Not too many years ago we were cruising along without much thought given to the orphan, the poor or Africa. We began to pray that the Lord would begin to open and break our hearts for the very things that break His and man did He answer that one.

We began to prayerfully consider pursuing an Ethiopian adoption. We started the process in May 2007 to adopt a sibling group between the ages of 1-5. We waited longer than we planned (as is often the case in International Adoption) and then saw 2 amazing kiddos on another agency waitlist. We prayed and talked as a family and felt led to bring them into our family!  We were devastated several months later to lose that referral.  Shortly after we received another referral, this time for one beautiful baby boy.  He was wearing a Texas Tech onesie.  You can read about the significance of that here and here.

That trip changed our family, for the better.  No longer could we pretend to not know of the poor, the broken, the hurting, the orphan, the widow, the very least of these.  No longer could we sit idly by and go about business as usual.  We felt a connection to Ethiopia and the beautiful people that live there and knew we would return as often as possible.
We have been blessed with many open doors to serve the people of Ethiopia through caring for their dental needs.  Ethiopia has 76 dentists for 80 million people.  Not 1 for every MILLION people.  Our hometown of Arlington, has almost 200 dentists alone.  We started EthiopiaSmile and take dental mission trips to Ethiopia.  We use dental care as a means to share the good news of Jesus with others.  We feel so blessed to have this opportunity to love the people that have given us so much!
We returned to Ethiopia to pick up Eyasu, our 3 year old son in November of 2009.  He is pure joy!  He is funny and so very smart.  He keeps all of us on our toes. :)


Moody is an orthodontist and I am a stay at home, homeschooling, therapy helping mama to the 6 kiddos He has entrusted us to raise.

Avery is 12 and is second mama to the little boys.  She loves dance, cooking and Africa.  Wouldn't surprise me one bit to find her living there one day.


Issy is 10 and our beautiful tomboy.  She is a gifted athlete and held the title of baby for 6 whole years!  She is a fun loving girl.
Baby Abe is 3 and spoiled rotten.  Once a therapist asked me what he did when told "no", to which I replied, "why on earth would I ever tell this child no?"  He works harder than anyone that I have ever met, has a smile that will melt your heart! He is the best teacher that I have ever had and our family delights in him daily!

Baby girl Alexander will prayerfully come home from Ethiopia by Christmas of this year.  We can not wait to have her home!