Dallas Cowboy DeMarcus Ware Adopts

After a hard practice with the sun beating down his 6-5 frame, DeMarcus Ware stormed off the field.

Ware walked through a maze of fencing controlling where fans, media and family could watch Cowboys' training camp practice in Oxnard, Calif.

He said he was tired of practicing and wanted to get the season started.

But Ware's disposition changed when he saw little Marley Ware.

The Cowboys linebacker picked up the nearly 6-month-old girl with his meaty hands and kissed her on the cheek. He hugged her, tickled her and tried to get her to smile.

Marley smiled with some prompting by her mother, Taniqua.

These are fun times for DeMarcus and Taniqua Ware.

There's diaper changing, feedings and shopping for baby clothes.

"You are so happy because you have a little bundle of joy in your life," he said. "I even find myself going to Wal-Mart looking for little toys. When I'm going grocery shopping looking for food, I'm getting baby food instead of food for myself."

Last January, DeMarcus and Taniqua were hurting professionally and personally.

The football season crashed when the Cowboys lost to the Giants in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Sitting in the front row behind the Cowboys' bench was Taniqua. She was crying as she talked on her cellphone to family members.

Just five days earlier, Taniqua had suffered her third miscarriage.

After things had calmed down, DeMarcus went to a Grapevine car dealership to get work done on his Corvette when he met Justin Norwood.

Ware sat in Norwood's office and noticed a picture of two kids, Norwood's son and sister.

Norwood told Ware both were adopted.

Ware revealed his struggles with starting a family.

Eventually, Norwood called his father, Jim, a pastor at Oakcrest Family Church in Kennedale and told him about the Wares.

"I told him I knew of somebody who might want to adopt a child," Justin said. "It's funny, but he said, 'I know of a woman who approached me today about a baby that she needed to find a home for that she was about to have.' "

Jim Norwood, who counsels troubled women, put the adoption process into motion.

"Everything happened so fast. The timing of it all definitely shows she was meant to be ours," Taniqua said of Marley.

The woman, who gave up her parental rights, was due in February.

Justin Norwood told the Wares to attend the Pro Bowl in Hawaii and teammate Stephen Bowen's wedding in New York because he didn't expect the birth that soon.

DeMarcus was in New York on Feb. 29 when he got a phone call about the baby's birth.

"That just tells you how badly they wanted a baby and how important it was to them," Justin Norwood said.

The Wares missed the birth, but they met the mother. They named the baby after DeMarcus' favorite singer, Bob Marley.

Being a father is important to DeMarcus, who was raised in a single-parent household while growing up in Alabama.

"I never had a father around and so now with Marley in our lives this has really taught me a lot of responsibility," DeMarcus said. "It's also taught me how important a child is and how much happiness a child can bring to a family." via