Funny thing happened today

Back after a long drive!

Lovin' the color! Back to dark!

My dear friend Brittany helped me dye my hair today. Only trouble is, that I forgot the other (full) bottle of developer back at home, a good 20 minute drive, each way, from her home. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time on the road, with dye-ing hair up in clips, with my scalp feeling like I was getting a heat treatment done. :)

We had a good laugh and needed photos to prove the humor of our day.

Thank you, Brittany! I love it!

Glowing

I was asked today if I was pregnant. I answered that I was not. The person who asked me, said, "Are you sure, because you have this glow about you?"

I giggled, reassured her that indeed, I was not pregnant. I then answered that the reason I had that glow was because of the anticipation of the arrival of our little Owen.

It's so funny, I thought about it later, and maybe I am glowing. The glow that pregnant women get is a glow, a delight in their little one coming. A joy in the preparations. An anticipation for the time to come and the duties ahead.

I delight in the fact that Owen is coming. And thus, explains my glow. :)

George's Disneyland Birthday

Owen Part 2

Take a moment to read Cheston's part 2 on his post about Owen's name:
www.antitheticallife.blogspot.com

Hair

The cutie with her new beautiful "do"

The damage

Stoked to give it away

FREE!

The beautiful before picture

Today I went to Amy's house and gave her a little trim. Ok, I guess when I say trim, I mean 10 inches to give to "Locks of Love" and another 6 inches "for fun". All I have to say is that I have never seen a person be more thankful and happy for a haircut than my precious friend. It was fun, we had great fellowship, and I took my usual 2 hours to do it. :) Enjoy the pictures. And....don't be hatin' on me for taking that beautiful hair. It's for a good cause. :)

Chet's blog post

Just read it. My cheeks are wet from tears flowing freely down my face.

http://www.antitheticallife.blogspot.com/

Meet Owen Baxter

Owen laying his face on his hand (a side view)

Straight view of his handsome face

My personal favorite: he is tucking his little hand up under his cheek.

Nothing has compared to what we experienced today. We met our son.

We drove to Santa Barbara with his birth Mom, bless her heart for traveling all the way out here, then spending half the day riding in the truck with us! We had a lovely time together, and anticipated seeing Owen.

We headed to "My First Peekaboo" in Santa Barbara. This ultrasound place has been amazing the entire time. It's owned and run by a husband and wife team, and they bent over backwards to make our experience amazing. I will recommend them to everyone.

We went in, and were able to spend about an hour on the ultrasound machine, searching for our lil' O. It was indescribable watching the images on the big screen in front of us, watching Owen move around inside his Mommy. The still shots we got of him were incredible. The details astounding.

The live shots/movie made me cry. I cried quietly as I watched him move around and as I studied the shape of his face and his beautiful little hands. I prayed for him. I prayed for his lovely birth Mom. We love her so much. She is such a gift and blessing to us. She has brought us a joy that we cannot even describe from the depths of our souls.

He smiled. He really did. I have 116 pictures of him to show for it. I'll take it easy on you guys and only show enough to put you to sleep. :) Just kidding, here are my top three.

May you read this verse with a different insight:

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
Psalm 139:13-16

Newest Construction

Whew!

I haven't posted for two reasons:

1.  Chet and I got hit by some weird bug and have been pretty sick (yet still functioning) for almost a week now.  It's a weird cold that leaves you pretty exhausted and laid up with uncontrollable coughing fits!

2.  We have been under serious construction.  You won't believe how much we have done in such little time!  (I again say "we" when in essence it's mostly Chet's work.  I just paint.)

I have found a few very large things to be of great comfort in this past week.

1.  The price of clothing.  You can find anything for good prices if you look.  Target has great clearance racks for kids/baby clothing.  But let me tell you, there is nothing like "junk storing".  Allie introduced me to the crazy world of finding Baby Gap, Old Navy, Gymboree clothes for under $5 a piece.  Some pieces are 50 cents.  Some 1.50.  I am encouraged because....for the price of two outfits at Gap Outlet, I bought Owen about 25 outfits!  He has such cute little surfer clothes!  Now all I need to do is buy a few cute baby sized hangers!:)

2.  The amount of construction we have accomplished in such a short time has only been from the Lord.  He has provided an immense amount of help from friends and family.   

3.  The excitement and joy that people are sharing with us as we await Owen's arrival is indescribable and overwhelming.  I got picked up by a lady at Chet's work, she was hugging me so hard the other day.

We are overwhelmed and grateful and humbled by all of this.

Owen's Eyes

So I got online to show my Dad some really neat websites about seeing where the baby is at in development. You just plug in the due date and up pops information about what is usually going on during that week. I was absolutely excited and blown away to read what is going on with little Owen right now!

Your baby's systems continue to mature during pregnancy week 27 and your little one even starts accumulating some weight in the upcoming weeks.

Up until between the 27th and 28th weeks of pregnancy your baby's eyelids are fused together. After this week or next they will open. The retina or the light sensitive portion of the eye typically starts maturing at about 27 weeks of pregnancy. The layers that form in the retina will allow your baby's eyes to receive light and transmit the information it is receiving to the brain to form images. This basic process is referred to as 'sight'. Imagine that, at 27 weeks pregnant your baby is a tiny, seeing human being!

I sat back, encouraged and amazed by the beauty of the development happening. Our little Owen is receiving sight. His little eyes are being opened and his retina is being formed and matured.

This causes me to pray for his development, that the Lord will truly shape him in the womb, but moreso, I thought about how to pray for him spiritually. I pray that his spiritual eyes will truly be opened. As his eyes are receiving sight, my prayer is that God will help him to receive sight in the spiritual sense referring to the Gospel. I pray that he will know Christ, cherish Him more than anything on this earth, and that Psalm 73:25 will truly be the cry of his heart and soul:

"Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and on earth I desire none besides Thee."

Our Recent Construction

We have been neck deep in construction, construction, construction! It is with joy that we work dilligently ( I say 'we'--I mostly mean Chet--who works tirelessly at the little room...) We couldn't do it without the bulging Hervey muscles of George, Steve and Cheston. May I not leave out Susie and my Mom, Susie who single-handedly cleaned and organized our garage (which the poor thing helps us do every 4 months) and my Mom who helped me move out of our old room into the guest room!!!!!! My Dad also played a HUGE part in the demolition of the room. It puts us in kind of a temporary sleeping-in-our-bed-on-the-floor- and-everything-is-in-storage stage, but we love it! There is a reason for it, and what joy it brings to our hearts! Enjoy the pics of our mild, yet joyous chaos!

Chet's sermon

I wasn't able to post it earlier, but now it is on our church website.  I am not sure you can download it, but you can listen to it on the computer.

It was about 2 Corinthians 1..."Making Sense of Suffering"

Praise God for the faithful delivery of His Word.

http://www.fccoxnard.org/sermons.php