Home Sweet Home

Brighton's first school photo. His smile reminds me SO much like Justin in this picture, but the weird thing is Brighton NEVER smiles like this! This isn't a normal face for him at all.

Get a firsthand, brutally honest view of what it's like to be a hero HERE She is an amazing woman, just like the countless others out there who for the longest time were shamed into not telling their story or being proud of their sacrifice. I'm glad we are coming into a time where birthmothers can finally share their amazing stories.

Sad goodbye to Daddy... Justin left for Georgia yesterday afternoon. Right now he is somewhere in the middle of Texas. His good friend, David VanAllen, took time off work to be his driving buddy. Thanks David and thank you Jenny for letting him go! I thought I would be more emotional considering the seemingly impossible task of holding down the fort at home for 3.5 weeks with an impossible newborn and two other kids that love to challenge my authority on a constant basis, but I was doing pretty well. Doing well until Brighton started crying, that is. I expected Adaira (a TOTAL Daddy's girl) to breakdown but she was fine. Poor Brighton lost it and just wouldn't let Justin go. He hugged and hugged him crying and after we went outside he was crying and hugging him again. When Justin started pulling away Brighton started to freak out like he was going to chase down the truck, but luckily my Dad quickly distracted him by asking him to help him with something. Later on that day Brigh...

I hope I get to work with Birthmoms again. Being an adoption caseworker is hardly a job a person should get paid to do because it is awesome! I hope to be able to get involved again when Dale is a little older, but just in case, I had to give a shout out to my birthmoms and tell them how much I loved working with them. This last week I drove North on Gilbert road a few times. I passed Joe’s BBQ and remembered my first Face to Face with one of my birthmoms (you know who you are) and her couple. I couldn’t help but remember the excitement and nervousness of that day and how cool I thought it all was afterward when everyone clicked so well. I passed Oreganos where we had our first birthmother celebratory dinner. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go to Olive Garden again without thinking about two of my birthmoms. I can’t believe how much I have learned and changed in the past year and a half as I’ve been blessed to work with such remarkable women and watch them complete the impossible ta...

Don't be deceived by all the sweet innocents pics, this is what Dale looks like most of his waking hours! We still love him though...

Check out the hair on this kid! Brighton & Adaira had little more than blond peach fuzz until they were about 18 months old. Cute little monkey... Hey looks sweet here....just remember he is sleeping...during the middle of the day, NOT at night like I wish he would! Proud daddy, I'm pretty sure we cut his hair after taking this picture :)

And Georgia it is! About 10 months ago Justin applied for a federal agent position with the U.S. treasury. My brother Don is an agent and seems to like his job pretty well, plus time off, benefits, pension, government job security, car, firearm, etc., all are pretty appealing to a guy looking for some excitement in his career. Over the past several months Justin has been in the running for the job as the government conducted background checks, physicals, audits, interviews and all other sorts of checks on Justin. Apparently he passed because last Monday they called him and asked him to report to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Brunswick, Georgia, on September 23rd, giving us about 4 weeks to prepare from the time we were notified. Justin is going to drive out there with his truck towing my car, and the kids and I will fly out mid-October. Brunswick isn't a very safe place to live (It is where 8 people were recently murdered in a mobile home), so we will live ...

Here are some pictures of our first day at home with our little Dale. His face is pretty dark because he has a lot of bruising on his cheeks/nose/forehead from his head coming out so fast during delivery!

This is for those of you who may have thought I was exaggerating about my swollen feet! Left side is me a few days before the baby, right side is my foot today. I'm glad I'm not pregnant anymore!

Baby Dale Justin Ellsworth Owens was born at 4:50 AM on 8/31/09 . He weighs 9 pounds and 5 ounces. The guy is 21 and 3/4 inches long. We proudly welcome him into our home and thank Audra for all the hard work she has put into bringing him home. In anticipation of my departure in 3 weeks we wanted to have the baby this weekend on our schedule. We paid a price for that. The other two children were born quickly once they were ready. With Dale we first went in at 2:30 pm on Saturday 8/29 and went through 2 rounds of ripening gel then speed walks in the hallway and around the hospital. While Audra had regular contractions they weren't painful or doing much so we were sent home. Sunday morning we called at 6:30 AM for our 7:30 AM induction appointment. They hospital was full so we were on hold all day. Audra walked two miles and bounced on the large exercise ball but no luck. We got the call that they had room for us while Audra was in the shower. We made our way to the hospital and...

I always considered myself to have blue eyes....until Adaira was born. My eyes look like hazel compared to hers. As an infant they almost looked purple at times. Now they look like sapphires. They are beautiful!

This last week we had the camera out to take a picture of my big belly and afterward Adaira and I were playing around trying to get a picture. She kept ducking her head to try to keep me from getting a picture with her. We finally got a few, and she thought it was a hilarious game. She asked me to play it again with her a few days later.

This last Mother's Day, Justin and the kids (k mostly Justin because the kids got bashful) sang this to me as a present (accompanied on guitar). Justin had been secretly teaching it to them, althoughAdaira blew cover a few times singing "there's only one thing to say..." but it didn't matter since I had never heard the song before. Since then we've heard it on the radio a few times and watched it on YouTube and it will always be special to me, especially when I see the kids' faces light up and hear them singing it with the music. Adaira and I were listening to it today. I don't know how to post the actual video of the song, but here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1LwS6-g-7E&feature=email

So growing up my family used to always sit down and watch America's Funniest Home Videos. We couldn't stand dumb Bob Saget but the videos were funny and I still get a kick out of watching AFV today with my kids, sort of a family tradition with some good wholesome entertainment. For the heck of it, I submitted this little clip online yesterday and AFV actually called me today! I know we won't win anything but apparently the screener was going to pass it on because it was a cute clip. Justin shut the camera off right after Brighton finished talking so it ends pretty abruptly, and the screener wanted to know if we had anymore footage. I told him we didn't but he said he still thought they could use it. Pretty cool!

You Know You Are DONE Being Pregnant When: You refuse to bend over any more. I don't care that the floor is a mess and needs to be swept, or that my kids are now my servants any time I drop anything. Bending over is OUT until this soccer ball disappears from my midsection. Your maternity clothes are too small for you. I feel a draft on my lower belly with half of my maternity shirts now, I'm starting to feel like my 10th grade Chemistry teacher whose shirt slowly rode up above his pot belly at least twice a week. Your body feels like it belongs to senior citizen. I don't think there is a position I can get into without grunting anymore. You are going to the chiropractor three days in a row to try and fix your screwed up SI joint that hasn't allowed you to sleep for a week, and it STILL hurts. You can't gloss over with a simple "good" when people ask how you are feeling. You just grumpily say "don't ask". Every time you look at yourself in ...

Justin Deserves Some Recognition So while we were building our house we were very aware of how many people around us were struggling. We have been so blessed in the past few years as we rode the real estate boom with a house in Chandler and some land in ShowLow and were able to save a reserve to allow us to buy some land in Chandler to build a house. It was a risky deal as we had to buy a larger piece and bank on the plan to split it and sell it before we ran out of money making the payments for the whole thing. Lucky for us, we got a buyer within three months, and originally we split the lot into two 1.25ac pieces, but the buyer wanted slightly more land, so we re-surveyed and had the .25 shaved off of ours to give him 1.5acres. He paid us enough more for the extra .25ac that we were able to add an unfinished basement to our plans! It was really a miracle for us because less than a week after we closed the deal his wife changed her mind and decided she didn't want to live there. T...

As sweet as Adaira is asleep she is even more beautiful while she is awake. Her blue eyes pop and her smile is so precious. We love her so much. These were taken as we waited for Brighton on her first day of school.

Tender Moments Every morning we have to check on Adaira. It's a routine now because half of the time she isn't in her room. The first few times we were alarmed because you think of some crazy man stealing her through the window or something, but we are used to it now. This is usually where we find her: in Brighton's room. Sometimes we find her next to him, sometimes opposite him with her head on the other end, or occasionally on his top bunk. This was where we found her last night. They fight as much as they love on each other, but this is precious with her little arm on him.

Brighton Goes to School Brighton had his first day of Kindergarten today! I sniffed a little bit after dropping him off at his classroom but today was a work day for me so after I went to work it didn't seem any different because either way Brighton wouldn't have been with me. Tomorrow all day with just Adaira and I will be different. Here is Brighton just before we left to school. He had his backpack straps on both shoulders but then took one strap off and said "some kids wear it this way." Gettin' a hug from his little sister Not such a great picture, but the bus got him home okay! Justin came home a little early to be with us to meet Brighton. Afterward we went and got ICEE's to celebrate

Oh So Helpful! Brighton took it upon himself to charge the battery to my camera since it was low. Now he can't remember where he put it and I can't find it anywhere, so no new pics for a while. Kids....gotta love 'em.