Boating with friends

Seth, Eli, and Gage getting ready for their tube ride. They did great!

Dave and Baby Lena!

Olga and me- 

we told Shane to only take the picture from the waist up! :)

Dads with the children

Thank you Olga and Dave for coming out with us. We always have such a blast with you guys! We are blessed to have you as our friends.

Camping

Our family taking a "much needed" break from the real world and camping at Alexander Springs on April 18-20, 2008!

Our silly pose....

I love that Seth did spiderman web fingers as his "silly" pose!

Canoeing together

17 months

Selah turns 17 months old today! 

Happy 17 months Selah Grace Owens!

We wish we could be with you!

STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN!!!!

YES, that IS a picture of Steven Curtis Chapman and ME!!!!! Poor Shane was busy helping load all the Music equipment and missed it! 

ok, so last night was awesome. Let me give you a quick recap....

Shane and I were volunteers for the SCC concert at our church last night. I was "ticket taker" and Shane was "security". He was a little bummed he couldn't use a gun though! LOL  

Anyway, it was soooo sweet to see little girls coming in with their Cinderella costumes on and their tiaras! However, I especially loved seeing families who have adopted internationally coming in. I wanted to give each of them a BIG HUG. We saw this little girl, holding her sign that says "What Now, I was found in Russia" while sporting her Cinderella attire. She was a doll.

I was able to talk with so many families that have adopted from China, Vietnam, Guatemala, Russia, Ukraine....all in ONE night!

We had the privilege of sitting on the FRONT row! Then Mark (our Pastor) gets up and says a little something and then proceeds to say that there is a family in this church adopting and having some difficulties with the ____ and asked if we could all pray over this family. That family was US! He called us up to the front and said a beautiful, yet powerful prayer. People had come up to us and laid hands on us. It was the most humbling time. I am still thanking God for that moment.

After we sat down I realized how even though we are in this struggle, God is being made known. God is getting the glory and He will continue to.

The concert was so much more than a concert. I love that SCC is extremely passionate for orphans and adoption. It comes out of almost every word he says. I KNOW that people were touched and I KNOW that more orphans will find their families from just last night. I KNOW it has stirred something in people's hearts. I love how SCC talks about how WE are all adopted and God is our Loving Father. I thank God almost daily that He adopted ME.

After the concert, I got to meet SCC! We hugged, took a picture, he looked at the Selah pictures and then he autographed a paper for Selah!!!!  I was sooo nervous, so I didn't talk with him much. But, I got what I needed. LOL

We are very passionate for orphans and adoption, so it was just an amazing night for us!

What a Day!

Today was a GREAT day!  We had a fun-filled Saturday. It started with a Kickball Tournament at our church to raise money for the Romanian Mission Trip. It was a blast and my team won!!! My Mom watched the boys for us, so we could concentrate on the game. :)

We picked the boys up and went swimming at the YMCA. Shane is trying to "re-teach" Gage how to swim and he is scared. But, we know that he won't be scared too much longer. He is our wild child. Seth remembered everything from last year's swimming lessons. So, he was swimming under water from one point to another. One down, one to go..... LOL

Then we went home for naps and I spent some QUALITY time with God. I knew He would restore my sadness and turn it into praise, once I spent that time with Him. He is Faithful like that!

We took the boys out on the 4-wheeler. Don't get all panicked- you safety fanatics! We have a remote that completely controls the 4-wheeler, including a button that completely shuts off the entire thing. PLUS, you can set the speed to no more than 5 mph. Its actually pretty safe. Anyway, you have to let boys do boy things- so I am learning! :)

Mommy and Daddy had their turn on the ATV too. :)

We ended the day with haircuts, bath, and bed. WHEW- what a Saturday, huh?!?!?

It was a great day with my precious family (minus one family member, of course)!

please pray for us and our sweet daughter...... We do know that God's timing is perfect, but it sure is hard, I will not lie.

Fridays

Fridays are the hardest days for me. Every Friday, I get down if we haven't heard any news in our hopes to bring our daughter home.

But, today, is especially hard. Harder than any other Friday. I don't know why. I have been asking myself that all day. I have been crying on and off all day and I can't seem to stop. I am questioning God and getting a little irritated with Him. I don't want to, but its emotions I can't prevent today. 

I know that in the evening of sorrow, comes joy in the morning. I am sure I will feel better tomorrow. 

That Man

We were driving in the car yesterday in a "not so good" area of town, when a man in a wheelchair (who was obviously either VERY poor or homeless) crossed in the middle of the intersection. Seth gasped and said, "Mommy look at him!" (he said it in such a way that showed he had never seen anyone who looked like that before). Then Seth said, "Mommy why does he look like that?".... I told him that his legs are hurting and he can't walk so he has to sit in that chair. We then prayed for this man right there and then. And then that was it. No more did that man come up at anytime last night.

Well, this morning, Seth came up to me (out of the blue) and said that he wanted to pray again for "that man"......Seth had such a sadness in his voice and on his face that it was evident this man was really weighing on his little 4 yr old heart! We prayed. We prayed for his legs and we prayed that he would come to know our Jesus.

This got me thinking......I wonder if God meant for us to have more of that kind of innocent compassion, but somewhere along the way we "grew up" and grew less concerned, less compassionate, more practical, more safety conscience, and more prideful. 

Matthew 18:3-4  "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Shane and I want to show Seth, Gage, and Selah that WE DO CARE for the poor, orphaned, widowed, aliens. Why? Because our Lord does and if HE cares for them, then so should we! We don't need to be afraid, because fear is from the enemy.

God used my son, Seth, to teach his Mama a valuable lesson yesterday! How cool is that?!?!

Adventures

I just HAD to post these pictures because they are SO darn cute! This is Seth and Gage, without shirts (because "Daddy doesn't wear a shirt"), and telling me they NEEEEEEEED a bag for their "adventure".  Ok- so this is one of my ultimate favorite parts of being a Mommy- the pretend "adventures" they go on----together. I watch them go on these "adventures" and use their imagination and the best part is just watching them do it as brothers. They pretend that danger has swept in and one will save the other, like a SuperHero. They pretend that a monster is getting them and they run. They gather items to collect (we have quite the collection of some very mysterious items).

On this particular day, their "adventure" consisted of collecting leaves from the neighbor's garden, of course. 

Enjoy!