Cowboys’ Ware Fulfills a Challenge for Fatherhood

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/sports/football/15ware.html?_r=1&oref=slogin  

Cowboys’ Ware Fulfills a Challenge for Fatherhood

By GREG BISHOP Published: June 15, 2008

SOUTHLAKE, Tex. — DeMarcus Ware cradled his 3-month-old daughter, smoothing her plentiful black hair, tickling her tummy, kissing her cheeks.

On his living room couch this month, Ware looked nothing like a menacing All-Pro linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys. He made baby noises. He shook rattles. He noticed Marley jabbing fingers in her mouth, an indication she was tired.

Nothing quite compares to watching parents hold their infant. But Ware and his wife, Taniqua, believe they appreciate their daughter, Marley, more because they adopted her after three failed pregnancies.

Finally, they have a child: penetrating eyes, chin covered in drool, curious and cuddly and cute.

“Our little angel,” Ware, 25, said.

He and Taniqua say they have two angels — one they hold each day, and one they can feel but never see or touch. A poem, “Angel in the Sky,” sits on the mantle in the living room. It refers to Omar Ware, who was stillborn in 2006 and cremated the same day. The Wares placed his ashes in a gold urn next to the poem.