HGTV / YouTube Dave and Jenny Marrs
HGTV stars Jenny and Dave Marrs’ travels are coming to an end. The “Fixer to Fabulous” co-hosts brought their five children (twin sons Ben and Nathan, 13, daughters Sylvie, 11, and Charlotte, 9, and son Luke, 4) across Europe this Summer to experience new countries and cultures, and to get some finishing touches done on a special renovation in the Tuscan countryside for their show’s upcoming spin-off mini-series, “Fixer to Fabulous: Italiano”, which is expected to premiere on HGTV in early 2024.
After leaving Italy (by way of Venice), the Marrs family made their way to Bruges, Belgium, per Jenny’s July 29 Instagram post. In her post’s caption, Jenny recounted their trip to Bruges, as well as the last time she and Dave visited the city sans children, saying that both trips had their ups and downs.
“We decided to end our ‘epic European vacation’ in Bruges. The travel day to get here was longer than I expected and the logistics ended up being more complicated than I had planned,” Jenny wrote, “During our 12 hours of travel, I regretted the extra stop and considered just throwing up our hands and going home already. Then, just as the sky turned to dusk, we arrived.”
Why is Bruges an Emotional Place for Jenny & Dave Marrs
The Marrs family is all smiles in Jenny’s photo slideshow, despite the long travel day that she wrote about.
Jenny went on to explain in her caption why returning to Bruges with her whole family in tow was a “full circle moment”, writing, “Dave and I first visited years ago, broken and weary. We were on a long layover on our way home from visiting Sylvie in the Congo. My arms quite literally ached from where she had been ripped from them outside of the Kinshasa airport. My heart was shattered as I left her in a place where she wasn’t safe or healthy. And, my body physically broke down. I was so very sick. I questioned the long layover and just wanted to be home.
“Then, we arrived here. Here, we processed all we had experienced. Here, we ate and nourished our bodies and our souls. Here, we cried and we laughed,” Jenny added.
Jenny & Dave Adopted Their Daughter Sylvie in 2014
On July 9, Jenny shared a post to mark the anniversary of when she and Dave finally got to bring their adopted daughter Sylvie home from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sylvie had been living in an orphanage when the Marrses met her, and Jenny had told People in April 2023, “Her adoption had been finalized. She had her U.S. passport. And then the country shut down adopted kids leaving, so she couldn’t get her exit permit.”
The Marrses began calling Congressmen and Senators, and Dave made several trips to the Congo, each time returning without Sylvie. During this time, Jenny became pregnant with her daughter Charlotte, but told People, “I wasn’t able to really rejoice in the amazing news because we were so overwhelmed with sorrow that we couldn’t get our daughter [Sylvie] home.”
After 602 days of waiting over a process that normally takes approximately six months, Sylvie was permitted to travel to the United States, finally uniting her with Jenny, Dave and her siblings in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Jenny’s post includes an emotional video of her and Dave greeting Sylvie as she gets off the airplane on her way to the United States.
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