Miller Plus One

I've let a whole month and a half slip by without a blog post.  As I've said before, I mainly blog for me, to remember things later that were happening today.  But I guess that goes to show how committed I am!  Since last time, I turned 40.  Yep.  The big 4-0.  But let me go on record as saying that, at least for right now, I'm doing ok with it.  No major meltdowns, breakdowns, or tantrums.  Just lots of celebrating with many old friends and some new ones.  Several family members came into town and there have been at least three separate celebrating times!  I always tell Justin that I celebrate the entire month of August...it's my birthday month.  I've always liked my birthday, so why should 40 be any different?  For my gift, my parents, Justin, Amber Joy and I are going to Disney World in January!  It was even on my cake..."Happy Birthday, Steph.  We're going to Disney World!"  I just can't wait any longer to ta...

I can't begin to tell you how in love with this picture I am!  It was taken just last Sunday at our church's cookout.  We see that little smirk on her face quite a lot these days.  And she is becoming more confident, funny, and just plain spunky every single day.  Truly, this is my daughter.  Those who know me know that I'm not overly 'girly,' (though I like pink) and I would rather be comfortable than stylish.  I wanted you to see this photo as I address a very serious matter in this blog post.  This is how Amber Joy looks on most days.  A cute little shirt, shorts, tennis shoes, hearing aids, and that dream face.  We live in a medium-sized town in middle Tennessee and since I'm blessed to be able to stay at home, we do anything but.  We are on the go a lot!  Our town has a cool hands-on kids museum, some fabulous playground/parks, greenways for walking, two nice community centers with indoor and outdoor pools, and libraries wit...

Hey y'all!  I finally figured out that for many years, I misspelled the word "y'all."  I always put the apostrophe after the "a."  So now, I use the word all the time.  And my iphone has even stopped trying to auto-correct me when I type the word in a text.  ;) Anyway, we've been through some more changes in the Miller house lately and since I use my blog mainly as a journal for me, I thought it was time to take a minute to document.  In April, we moved into our new house in Murfreesboro.  It's beautiful and we feel so fortunate to have it.  It appraised for more than we paid, so it's got built-in equity.  Justin and I have talked a lot about some kind of mission work in the future, so re-sale on our home should be fantastic.  Amber Joy is almost two and a half.  So hard to believe!  She's growing, learning, talking, running, jumping, laughing, whining, and eating lots of pasta and rice.  She now refers to herself as "...

I think I may have mentioned the book "A Mother for Choco" in another blog.  Do you have it for your kiddos? I would highly recommend it.  I found it at our old church's consignment sale last year and we've read it to Amber Joy since the day she came home.  I'm going to quote parts of the book here and then tell you what Amber Joy does nowadays when I read her the book (which lately has been every night):   "No matter where Choco searched, he couldn't find a mother who looked just like him." Amber Joy strokes the picture of Choco and says, " ok, Choco, ok ."  *melt my heart* "Choco was so sad he started to cry.  'Mommy, mommy! I need a mommy!' Mrs. Bear came running to see what was the matter.  As she listened to Choco's story, she sighed.  'Oh dear. If you had a mommy, what would she do?'" Amber Joy looks up at me and shakes her head, furrows her brow, and says, "no."  *call me biased,...

Isaiah 43:19 (The Message)  "Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands." I have been completely moved by verses like this one lately.  Something new.  Something brand new.  Justin and I have been searching for what comes next for our family over the past six months.  In September, we moved in with my parents in their home in Murfreesboro.  It turned out to be a Providential move, since my dad had two falls and two knee surgeries in the time we've lived here.  But now, it's time for us to move on.  We miss having a place to call our own.  We miss being "just the three of us."  We decided to stay in Murfreesboro, since Justin gets to work from home three days a week and works in Franklin the other two days.  We were looking at existing h...

  (from last January) It is December 21 and one year ago on the 29th, we boarded the first of four planes that would take us to this sweet and fiesty little girl!  I absolutely can.not.believe it's been nearly a year.  We will celebrate our family day on December 31...that's the day she was placed in our arms and we became forever a family.  We are super excited to celebrate Christmas this year, well, I almost wasn't...let me tell you about it. Remembering is a strange thing.  I've been pretty emotional this Christmas season so far, just thinking a lot about where we were this time last year and how sad we were that we would not have our girl home for Christmas.  It was all I could think about.  Literally.  I had even concocted a plan that I would fly to Taiwan and stay there until all the court stuff was worked out so I could be with her. I just could not wait to get my hands on her.  We had known about Amber Joy and seen photos ...

I have talked before about how I feel somewhat ill-prepared to be a mom.  I suppose all of us do.  Or maybe we feel ill-prepared for whatever comes our way in this life.  It would actually be easy for me to accuse someone else for not preparing me for what I need to know: my parents, pastors, teachers, etc.  But the truth is, that is going down a road that is dangerous (the blame game).  And as much as I feel I don't know, there are so many things that I DID learn while I was growing up.  This week, Justin and I have had some interesting discussions about what it is that keeps us from doing what we feel we need to do, when we need to do it.  We have talked a lot about how we trade one "if only" for another...what do I mean?  For me, it's been a range from "if only I were thinner" or "if only I had a Master's Degree" and "if only I had more money."  I may achieve one thing I wanted for myself, only to find I've traded that 'i...