About Rebekah (updated 10/1/21)

I was born in Provo, Utah and am the oldest of six children. My family moved around a lot while I was growing up, but I claim Pennsylvania as home since my parents still live there.

Growing up, I remember noisy dinners around the table, where we’d all be laughing and goofy. I have lots of memories around our holiday traditions – making sugar cookies, Christmas morning breakfast, corned beef and Darby O’Gill, Easter baskets, and homemade ice cream. I also remember taco and root beer Friday nights when I was old enough to babysit while my parents went out.

I studied at Brigham Young University and graduated with a degree in Marriage, Family, and Human Development. I had wanted to become a nurse midwife, but BYU's nursing program's prerequisites kicked my trash! And now I'm extra grateful for my degree. It definitely comes in handy as a stay at home mom!

I love being a mom!! It was a dream of mine that I wasn't certain would come true for a very long time. So now, even when there are tough moments, I can look back on my 12 years of waiting and feel very, very grateful to be a mom.

I also love reading, chocolate, Harry Potter, cruising, baking, couch nights with friends, taking walks and bike rides with Daniel and Brian, family movie night, Mexican food, my sisters (and my brothers, too!), date nights, BYU football, and Survivor.

 

It's super awkward to write about myself, so I asked Brian to write a little bit for me:

Rebekah is amazing, and people say that often because it is easy to see. She is a good friend and she has LOTS of them.  She loves to bake (and she is good at it). She loves to read stories - she needs to read the same way most people need to drink water. She is great with kids and kids LOVE HER.  She is an awesome big sister - her family is always turning to her for advice and support. She is FUN, and she likes dogs. She is faithful. She loves the gospel and she has deep roots in it. She is bold and has proven time and time again that she will stand by my side as we take big business risks - but she never worries about our future. Never. And that has been amazing.

A few random, fun facts about me:

• I used to play the violin! (I kind of still do, but only for Daniel)
• I was a bird trainer and worked with all kinds of exotic birds at Bush Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia.
• I have a Harry Potter collection with wands, candy, and other memorabilia
• My favorite book is "To Kill a Mocking Bird"
• I do the bookkeeping for all of Brian's companies; I even went back to college to take a few classes just so I could keep up!
• My favorite season is fall - cooling temperatures, college football, baking, and all the holidays that are coming make it the best season of the year. When we finished our basement, we even themed it around fall. It's super cozy down there!

About Brian (updated 10/1/21)

Brian was born in Oklahoma and is the youngest of 4 children. His parents and siblings all still live in the town he was born in! He had a great childhood - his parents encouraged his creativity and ingenuity, and that has led to all of the amazing things he's done in his life.

Brian is a magician!! He became interested in magic at a young age and would take tricks apart and create new ones often. He started doing birthday parties and ribbon cuttings when he was quite young.

After his mission to Brazil, while he was in college, he started to make a living off of magic and he has never looked back! He began creating new, original magic effects and selling them to other magicians around the world.

After he sold his company, he wrote a book teaching educators how to incorporate magic into their lessons. Currently, he and his business partner have developed a curriculum that teaches social skills to children in the form of magic lessons - and it's fantastic! He has created a close-knit, supportive, optimistic family of presenters and they are all determined to make the world a better place.

Brian loves roller coasters, mini-golf, J-Dawgs hot dogs, arcades, water parks, traveling, rice krispie treats, Enya, family snuggle time, cruising, BYU football, and Survivor. His main ambition in life is to leave the world a better place than he found it.

As a husband, he has always done his best to put my needs before his own. He wants me to be happy and he shows that through his words and actions. From building a bookcase out of cardboard and filling it with new books I would love, to making sure there are flowers whenever he goes out of town, he is full of ideas, surprises, and love. The nine years we were married before Daniel was born would have been a lot darker without Brian at my side.

Brian is a fantastic father! Especially for Daniel. Brian's own creativity and drive put him in a position to foster Daniel's amazing and intrinsic creativity. He is constantly working on projects with, and for, Daniel. He is affectionate and kind. He tells the best stories! He and Daniel are Burger King buddies (cheeseburgers for life!) and Daniel wants to be just like Brian when he grows up. ♥

A few random, fun facts about Brian:

• He produced a variety show in Las Vegas, NV - "The Worst Show in Vegas"
• He has run several successful Kickstarter projects (the Different Deck was my favorite!)
• He served a mission for our church in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, for two years and speaks Portuguese.
• He created SOMETHING with our good friend, John Reid.
• He got a scholarship to Brigham Young University and graduated with his degree in Marketing and Advertising
• He never has dreams that he can fly! How weird is that??

We are so blessed to have Brian as a husband and father!! I can't wait for one more kiddo to find out just how much fun it is to have Brian as a Daddy. ♥♥

About Our Family (updated 10/1/21)

From left to right: Rebekah (41), Daniel (7), Brian (42)

We are the Souths! We are a family of three, hoping to become a family of four through the miracle of adoption

We'd like you to get to know us a little, so here we go!

We love to travel, snuggle, watch movies, eat donuts, take our dog, Mel, on walks, cheer for the BYU football team, play with friends, build with LEGOS, sing songs, ride bikes, and just be together.

We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and have a firm faith that God's hand is guiding our family, especially as we build it. We all love Jesus and know that He loves us, too.

Our family is 19 years old. Brian and I met when we were freshmen in college at Brigham Young University.

We dated until he left to serve his mission for our church in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. 

When he came home two years later, we broke up for nine months, then went on a random date and were engaged one month later and married four months after that!

We lived in Williamsburg, VA, for the first few months of our marriage and worked together at Bush Gardens. Brian performed a magic show (he's a magician) and I worked in the bird show.

We bought our first home in 2005, planning to only be there for 3 years, 5 years at the most.

But we're still here!! And it's been 16 years. How crazy is that?? We love it here. The house looks different now, of course, and the basement is finished which is awesome. And our neighborhood is the best so we just haven't found any reason to leave!

Brian and I tried to start our family in 2005, and in 2009 we were told we were not going to be able to do that on our own. In 2011, we applied for adoption. In 2013 we met our son's birth mom, and Daniel was born in 2014. After many years of praying, hoping, crying, searching, and wanting, we were finally a family of 3.

Daniel has been such a joy and a blessing to our family! His birth parents gave us the most amazing gift when they chose adoption, and they chose us to be his parents. I will write more about Daniel's adoption story later, because it deserves its own chapter.

We have a ton a family traditions and things that make us, US!

On the first snowfall of the year, Daniel and I make "snowball cookies" and drink hot chocolate. We have a "tree decorating party" after Thanksgiving with lots of special treats

and Brian makes me a gold ornament every year for the Christmas tree. We have an "Emerson Christmas" whenever Christmas falls on a Sunday and we make all the gifts we give to each other (Santa still comes, though). We don't celebrate Valentine's Day as a couple, but we do celebrate a special love day on the 24th of every month, including February. I like to get Daniel a Valentine, though. :) This year's was a dragon fruit and donuts for breakfast.

Clearly Daniel's not too sure about the taste of that dragon fruit, lol!

We always make homemade ice cream on the 4th of July and watch the amazing firework show that our neighborhood puts on.

Brian (and now Daniel, too) decorates the house for Halloween every year and it can be quite the scene.

We also have a black cat that comes and brings us donuts on Halloween morning. And we have pumpkin pizza and brain jello for lunch and chili for dinner. Always. :)

Another thing that makes us unique is that Brian works from home. So we get to see him a lot and he and Daniel get to spend lots of time together, building things out of cardboard and creating LEGO masterpieces or just snuggling.

We also travel a lot. Brian and I have been on 19 cruises together in our 18 years of marriage and Daniel has been on 3 of those with us!

We are season passholders at SeaWorld San Diego and go as often as we can. We love to be on the beach so we try to get to a beach whenever we get the chance! We visit family in the Midwest and East Coast as often as we can. We had a trip to Brazil scheduled for 2020, but that trip was cancelled because of the pandemic. We'll still go when we can!!

We are a dog family. I'll do a chapter on that, too, but there have been two important dogs in our family, both with names that mean things in Portuguese.

Puga (means "flea" in Portuguese)

Mel (means "honey" in Portuguese)

I will highlight each member of our family in entries to come, as well as Daniel's adoption story. But I hope this gives you a good feel for our family! We love each other very much and have a happy, full life together; we just need one more addition to make us complete!