It's About Love

This is my lovely, wonderful, dear friend and running partner, Marisa.

(Marisa might kill me for this but I found this pic on her blog and couldn't resist)

Marisa always wears nice shoes. She has a fantastic wardrobe, a lot of which is from Goodwill because she has the best Goodwill luck ever. She's the type of person to make two scarves because she knows you'll like the pattern and want one for yourself. She takes her daughter to the library every week and has like 70 versions of The Wheels On the Bus on her iPod because it's Ashlyn's favorite song. She cooks a mean roast. I have never seen her house messy. She gets up at the butt crack of dawn to run with me 3 times a week. I love her to little bitty pieces.



This is her husband, Paul.
Paul was not put off by Aaron when we hung out the first time and Aaron announced that he wants to know what it's like to smoke pot. Paul served a mission in Italy and knows where all the really good and authentic pizza and gelato places are around town. He treads water in the deep end so his daughter can jump off the diving board again and again. He ran the Scottsdale Night Run with us after like..no training. And he ran it in a respectable amount of time without dying. We weren't bitter about that at all.



This is their daughter, Ashlyn.


Ashlyn doesn't believe in walking, only running. And really, her run is kind of like a directional dance. When we go places together she likes to hold my hand. She's one month younger than Wes exactly and they like to bounce off furniture and play in our baby pool together. She LOVES dogs. The back of her head is covered in sweet little ringlets. She absolutely cannot stay up past 7 pm. And she was adopted.


And now Paul, Marisa and Ashlyn are hoping to add to their family through adoption again! Did you know that very few people have children placed with them through adoption agencies? Most adoptions happen when a birth mother learns of a family wishing to adopt, with the agency helping to ensure the whole process goes smoothly and correctly. A year and a half ago, Paul and Marisa sent out an email to their friends and family which eventually found its way to Ashlyn's birth mom. And now they have sent out another email asking their friends and family to help them spread the word again!

To read more about them, visit their adoption profile on itsaboutlove.org.