Hi! We are the Hebdon’s – Brandon, Megan and Turner! We admire your courage for considering adoption and we are thrilled that you would consider allowing us to welcome your baby into our lives.  We hope this blog helps you to get to know us better!

About Us

We met in college and knew right after our first official date that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. After meeting at the beginning of the semester, we were engaged and married by the end of it. We were so excited to start sharing our lives and adventures together.  We finished college and walked at graduation hand in hand. Brandon got his degrees in Construction Management and Architectural Technologies and Megan received a degree in Political Science.  After graduation Brandon was offered a job in Southern California where we have lived ever since – and we LOVE IT!  We have been married for over eleven years now and still love being on this journey together. We were so excited to welcome our son, Turner, to our family in April of 2014.

Living in Southern California is wonderful because its relaxed pace makes it easy to spend a lot of time as a family doing things we love. The gorgeous weather here allows us to have fun doing all things outdoors – backyard bbq’s, swimming, hiking, camping, beach days, water parks, riding bikes, running, playing at the park and hanging out with friends.  We live a healthy active lifestyle and try to get outside and explore all the beaches and mountains that Southern California has to offer. It has been fun to include Turner in these activities with us and watch him having so much fun exploring. We have done a couple of family running events including a 3 mile bubble run where you run through various colors of bubbles and we recently ran in a local charity event to raise money for children. Turner loved participating in the races with us and enjoyed “going fast” in the stroller.

Megan at the SB County Sheriff Mud Run

Turner and Megan looking at sand crabs at the beach in Santa Monica

Brandon and Megan at Pyramid Lake for a weekend camping trip with friends

Brandon and Turner after the Bubble Run

Megan and Brandon after the Color Run in San Diego

We love swimming and frequently go to the beach or the pool and jacuzzi in the community where we live.  We also get season passes to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor every summer and spend a lot of time enjoying the waterslides and lazy rivers. It is only a ten-minute drive from our house so we go there two to three times a week. Our kids will have no choice but to be little fishes because we love being in the water!  Saturday trips to the beach are an easy 45-minute drive and it’s fun to play in the sand and waves and soak up the sun. We also love riding bikes at the park and Megan loves to set up play dates with other mom’s with children so that there are always a lot of friends around.

When we are at home we love to spend time relaxing in the backyard, cooking yummy food, playing games, and watching our favorite movies. We are definitely “foodies” at heart and love to try out new foods and restaurants. Sometimes we even try to duplicate the recipes at home and have gotten pretty close to perfection with some of our favorites!

We want our home to be full of love, fun, and laughter. On Friday nights we have family night where we make homemade pizzas and watch a movie.  We have collected all the Disney classics and have loved watching Turner fall in love with all of our favorite Disney movies. Fun family traditions are important to us and we can’t wait to make more as our family grows!

We both have eight siblings and love spending time with our large extended family. We want our children to know and love their huge family and we will always make time for trips to see them. We have family reunions for each side of our family and we usually go for four to five days at a time. The trips are filled with lots of fun family activities and a lot of playing with all the cousins.  Last year we went rope swinging into a huge pond and had a “fair” with different booths that each family put on. It is always a lot of fun.  Our families were so excited for us to adopt Turner and we know they will feel the same way about each of the children that come into our home. 

Megan's 2016 Family Reunion

 

Brandon's 2015 Family Reunion

The photo booth at the "Fair" for Brandon's Families 2015 Reunion

About Brandon from Megan’s perspective

I would describe Brandon as a wonderful husband and friend who is very loyal, giving and talented. He is quick to help people with any need that may arise and is happy to do it. Brandon is always striving to be a better father and husband and frequently asks what he can do to be better. He makes sure to schedule time to take me on dates each month and does his best to make me feel special whenever possible. Brandon grew up working on his family’s farm, and as a result he is a really really hard worker and knows how to fix just about anything! Brandon is also an amazing carpenter and very creative. He can look at a piece of furniture in the store and then come home and duplicate it!  He has become so good at building that people have started requesting that he make furniture for their homes as well!  He also just started a new project which is to restore an old 1961 Shasta camper so that our family can have lots of camping adventures!. Another fun thing that I love is Brandon’s ability to sing. He is an amazing singer and has performed with various men’s choirs and was in the Washington State Choir when he was in High School. We enjoy rocking out in the car and always have music on when we are at home.

Brandon is the best father I have ever seen and takes his role as a father very seriously. As soon as he gets home from work he showers us both with kisses and hugs and makes us feel so special. Turner get’s so excited when he see’s his daddy that he starts dancing and smiling and screaming; it’s so much fun to watch. Brandon has taken Saturday’s and Sunday’s and made them “Daddy Days” and spends as much time as he can playing with Turner and doing everything he can to make Turner feel loved. He teaches him how to play new games, they make up new songs, work on their animal sounds, jump on the trampoline, and play as much as possible. Brandon calls Turner his “Best Buddy” and truly adores being a father.

The company Brandon works for is very family friendly and allows him to adjust his schedule so that he can spend as much time with his family as possible. He works for a construction management firm in downtown Los Angeles and loves his job. Because of his flexible career we get to enjoy family dinner together every night and lots of family time before bed. We also make a point to have lunch with Brandon at work once a month and it has become one of our new favorite traditions.

A true family man, Brandon always puts us first and we love to spend time with him. He loves to laugh and joke and most of our friends would describe him as a big fun kid that everyone enjoys being around. 

About Megan from Brandon’s perspective

Megan is great! She is intelligent and thoughtful, and has found her calling in life as a mother. She has experienced and expressed more joy having a child in our home than she had even hoped for.

It took five years before we were placed with our son and during that time Megan had a very successful career in marketing and management for a local municipality. After bringing Turner home from the hospital, Megan was so in love with being a mom that she knew she didn’t want to continue her career. She decided to stay home, be a full time wife and mother, and looks forward to having more children. She does a great job making sure our home is filled with lot’s of love and of laughter.

Both friends and acquaintances all enjoy her company for her genuine interest in them. In every place that we have lived, Megan has made friends easily and we are still in contact with many of these friends today. She has made new friends through community basketball and volleyball teams that she recently joined as well as through a book club that she started for women in our church. She also participates in a “Mommy and Me” hiking group to make sure she has lots of outdoor play time with Turner and other mom’s.

Community involvement and charity work is very important to Megan. She is a great role model and has worked with young women’s organizations where the girls look up to her because of her ability to listen when they just need to talk.  She just completed a project to raise $500 dollars for “love bags” for kids in foster care and is starting a new project to raise money to buy and build bikes for kids in need.  Megan continually strives to become the best that she can be and is truly a blessing for our family and community.

One of my favorite things about Megan is that she is a lot of fun to be around. We love to laugh and joke around together and I just love to spend time with her. She has a way about her that dissolves stress. It really helps me to leave work at work and get the most out of our family time.

Our little family of three means the world to her. Megan and I have often discussed this feeling and how it has grown even stronger since Turner has joined us. Her ability to love and nurture Turner is not only impressive, but it has created a bond within our family that cannot be broken. She is selfless and giving, and willingly focuses her attention on caring for her family and provides all the love that I could hope for.

There is nobody that I admire more than Megan.

What we hope to offer a Child

Like all parents we want out kids to feel loved and valued. Our goal is to raise our kids to know that family is the most important thing and we hope they consider their brothers and sisters their best friends. We plan on making as many fun family memories as possible so that our children build strong bonds around their shared experiences. Some of the things we plan on doing with our family is spending time outdoors – camping, fishing, hiking, inner tubing, white water rafting, and exploring new fun places. We also love sports and can’t wait to see what sports and hobbies interest them. It is important to us to travel and show our children that there are many different types of people and different cultures and that we can appreciate all of them. We want to have a lot of family traditions and build on the ones that we already have.  There is no shortage of hugs and kisses in our home and we hope our children always know how much we cherish them!

Education is also very important to us and we spend a lot of time teaching, but we try to do it in fun ways like singing songs, going to the zoo and learning animal sounds as we see the animals or reading books each night before bed. Megan takes Turner to the library a couple of times a week to pick out new books as well as to a singing and dancing class. Our hope is that each of our children will attend college and have a career in something that they love.  As a couple, we have made a commitment that if our children work hard to get the grades to go to college then we will help them cover their expenses so they can go. We have big dreams for our son and future children and enjoy watching our kids learn and grow.

Our Thoughts on Adoption

Because our son was adopted, we know how amazing and miraculous adoption can be. We are very open to discussing what level of openness you might want to have, and we know that each situation is different and each individual will have different needs. With our current birth mom we enjoy sending her letters and pictures and having yearly visits. She also sends Turner cards and gifts for birthdays and holidays – and that has been a lot of fun.  One thing that we loved is that our birth mom sent Turner books and wrote him letters in the inside cover and we read those to him often so that he knows how much she loves him. It is important to us that our children know that they were placed for adoption because they were loved, and we want them to know how special and important their birth mom is to us. Adoption will not be a secret in our family. Our kids will be aware from an early age that they came into our family in a very special way through a very special person.

If you are interested in learning more about our family please reach out to us at Meghebdon@gmail.com

With love,

Megan, Brandon & Turner