For many christians, today is a day set aside to remember the birth of Jesus Christ. For others, it is simply a wonderful time of year when families enjoy the day, present each other gifts and celebrate the "season". And still others, though strong in their faith, it means nothing. And what about me? Wow - that is quite the question. Growing up, Christmas was the most exciting time of year for me. There was something special about it. There was somethng about seeing that little baby lying in that manager in nativity scenes that put a wonder in me. YOu see, by the time I was 8 or 9 or so, we stopped attending church. Oh, I don't think that it was a willful thing, I think life grabbed ahold of our family. I think that activities pulled us away. I have some very strong memories of things that went on in church. I remember singing, sunday school classes, running around at the church, mom cooking in the kitchen, the pastor, and the CHristmas eve services. There was a time when that was very real.. at least us attending church. But like I said, life grabbed ahold... long before I understood much about Jesus Christ. So as I grew up, maybe because of my young memories, maybe because of the Holy Spirit quickening me... that little baby that I saw in the nativity scenes captured me. And though our attendance at church tapered off, our attendance at EAster and Christmas never did. So, I am thankful for the celebration of Christmas. I know that God used those tender moments to soften my heart. My love for Christmas, all the decorations, the excitement, the presents, the family get togethers.. that was definitely what I loved... but it was also a time when that baby was brought to my eyes again. That precious little baby, that wonder, that little one that made me look at him every year... and despite the life that I was living or my lack of knowledge or attention to God... that little baby made me know that there was more. I am confident that the celebration of Christmas was a time when God was planting many seeds and preparing me for salvation.

And even though, now, I am a believer in Jesus Christ, now that He is my savior and I understand the meaning of that little baby lying in a manger, I thank God for the season this year. Because this year, I have struggled with remembering Jesus Christ and living a life that is Holy. Just as when I was a little girl and the activities of life took us away from church, it seems as if the chaos of my life right now has taken me away from God. This year, I have battled with my walk with the Lord. But God is faithful. His word promises that he will never let go of me. He has held onto me despite the many times I have seemed to let go of Him. And as this season has approached, I have truly longed for the stories of Jesus Christ and the songs that sing of Him. But this time, it is not the awe and wonder of who this little baby is and what that baby might mean to me... no, this time, the meaning of that little baby seems to be giving me the drink of water that my parched soul has needed. Hearing of the birth of Jesus Christ, seeing the nativity scenes, hearing the "Christmas story", being reminded over and over of who Jesus Christ is has been a welcomed and needed "salve" to my soul.

So this year, I rejoice in Jesus Christ, the baby and the man.. the savior of my soul. I rejoice in His forgiveness and His payment of my sins. I rejoice that there is nothing that I can do that can cause me to lose my adoption into His family. I praise God for His son and how He chose to sacrifice Him for me.

Ri's giggle

Wow - one of the things I enjoy most in life is listening to Ri giggle. It is contagious. He is so precious! Tonight we came home from a long day of swimming (Erin's swim meet). The kids were exhausted. Ri had taken only a 20 minute nap (he is a power napper usually). There was a HUGE box sitting in our garage. Mark let the kids open it and inside were lots and lots of presents for the kids. Their Aunt and Uncle and cousins had sent them presents for Christmas. The little ones quickly took them all out... but were much more fascinated by the packing peanuts. We let the kids thoroughly enjoy every minute of the peanut playtime. It was a mess to clean... but oh so much fun!! And hearing Ri's giggle made it all worth the mess. They cracked me up!




Our little guy loves to come up with new things to do with markers. One of his favorite things to play with is markers. You should see the beautiful creations on our walls, chairs, floors, documents, mail, refrigerator, walls (oh did I say that one already?:) ) The worse part is that he is a master at finding permanent markers, ugh!

After we adopted Elizabeth, I put together a movie for her, but it was 45 minutes long and there was no way of my sharing with everyone. I wanted to redo hers so that i could share some, but I thought I had lost it. Once I did Ri's, I really wanted to do another for Elizabeth. I just recently found it. Yeah. But, then I had an idea to make a video of both of the kids special moments. So.. here it is. It is 10 minutes long. If you do take the time to watch it and you notice it to stop and then go again, then just wait for it to completely upload. I didn't have any problems when I viewed it, but sometimes I have had problems with other videos.

With all the snow that we have had recently and with the temperatures rising, it was almost a perfect day for making "Frosty the Snowman". Elizabeth watched Frosty the other day and since has decided that she "loves Frosty". So.. we went and made one. It was alot of fun. Below is a little video of Elizabeth working hard on the snowman's head.... and a sample of our little "destroyer". MOST of the time, he isn't meaning to destroy. Sometimes he does it just to make Elizabeth mad. I think this was one of those times that he was getting just the right reaction out of her.


I have a video of Ri's response to my stopping him from destroying her snowball... but it was 42 seconds long and I cant figure out how to edit it all.

Well it was a very cold day and we were out in it.. the whole family. By the look on Ri's face, he isn't all that happy to be there!

This was a very precious moment. It was a little past nap time and we were letting Ri stay up a little because he was sitting with his big brother. When we came downstairs to check on him, this is what we saw. His little feet are resting on Sam's lap. Too cute!


Grandpa and Ri have discovered something pretty fascinating.. don't you wish you knew what it was? I think it is a horse that was sitting on a shelf at a restaurant we went to on Saturday.


This precious little girl was united with her family yesterday in China. Her name is Zoe. Her parents began the process over 3 years ago. In fact, the day that we adopted Elizabeth, her parents dossier was logged into China. The wait has become so long... but I would venture to say that at this moment in time, her parents will screamed that the wait is well worth it! It has been wonderful to watch her mom's faith in God and the glory she has given Him through this journey.

NOw that I have figured out how to do this video stuff... I uploaded a video of Ri's gotcha day moment. It isn't perfect, but it does give you a feel for our precious first moment with him. It is about 5 minutes long.

Well, I have finally figured out how to post a video clip for everyone to actually see the kids in action. Here is a very simple clip of Ri saying hello.


Here is another 10 second clip of a new game that Sam invented for Ri last night. Hope you can watch it.

Have I mentioned lately how blessed Mark and I are? Sometimes, I have to pinch myself to make sure that I am not dreaming. For all the times that I get overwhelmed in frustrated, there are far more times I am in awe of my children and who God is forming them to be. This weekend was one of those memorable moments that I will cherish forever.

The kids have been through so much since we have chosen to adopt our two littlest. They truly are amazing. They have willingly sacrificed doing many things that their friends are able to do. They have sacrificed their own money, camps, mission trips, cool "toys", going to movies, an abundance of food around the house to pick from, brand name clothes, .. and less time with mom and dad, a very stressed and grumpy mom (and sometimes dad), mom helping out with homework, homemade meals all the time, mom and dad being at every activity... well.. I could go on and on. The coolest part of it all is that these 4 kids have willingly and happily done it. I can count on one hand the number of times any of them have mentioned a negative word about the choice to sacrifice. In fact, they often suggest the sacrifice long before we have to ask them too. I can't think of too many teenagers who would be so joyful about it.

I think, though, that they have seen the joy and the rewards of their choices. They all 4 still light up when they see both of the little ones. They drop their book bags and run and pick them up and play ... I mean, really play with them! Oh, there are certainly times when it is a burden for them, but mostly, they do it out of pure love. And their love isn't just for these 2 precious children; it is for their mom and dad too. It amazes me.

Anyways... Mark has wanted desperately to do something special for them just to say thank you for how precious they have been. We have finally been able to do something a little special for them and say "thanks". We took them to Mansfield and just spent a day focusing a little one them. We gave them each money to be able to shop. They chose to pick one child and buy them something. It was fun to watch them try to figure out what "their child" wanted. They worked as teams trying to find the best gift they could with the money they were given. It will be fun to see them give it to each other. We also took them out to lunch. It has been a long time since we have gone somewhere nice as a family. It really was a nice day.

The kids enjoyed the special treatment. But take a look at this.....



After a long day of shopping and having fun, the kids snuck behind our backs and bought food to make Mark and I dinner. This picture is of our 2 boys, dressed and ready to serve. Emily and Erin took charge of the kitchen duties, assigning each of the boys to certain tasks. They built a fire, turned off the lights, set a fancy table cloth on our old table, placed Emily's china place mats (from her hope chest), lit a candle and then escorted us to our romantic dinner. The girls had formal gowns as they came to help serve. Emily made coffee (perfectly) and served it to us in her beautiful tea set that she had bought (again, for her hope chest) in China. They served us an incredible fruit smoothie (a hit with the little ones), a wonderful chicken Alfredo dish, a beautiful arrangement of mixed vegetables, mashed potato's and gravy and water with fresh lemon. It was better then any restaurant meal I have ever had!! I wish that I had had the sense to snap some pictures of our wonderful waiters and waitresses! And after a beautiful meal, they cleaned the kitchen so that we wouldn't have to. So, to end a perfect evening, we served them ice cream sundays and floats.

Again.. we are truly blessed!


After the hard snow fall, Mark became a horse and towed the little ones around in the sled. It took Ri a long time to get use to being in the sled. He bucked it at first, but soon got use to it.
Ri even got brave enough to run his hand in the snow.. so much so that his glove kept falling off.

I know this isn't much of a picture, but I wanted you to see his hair. I tried and tried to comb it down, but had no success. It was right after his bath. I have a feeling the shampoo never got rinsed out. What a wild man!

This one just cracks me up!

It has been a wonderful "Gotcha day" for Elizabeth! She absolutely loves snow and absolutely loves hanging out with her big brothers and sisters. Today, on the 2nd anniversary of "gotcha day", she got both! The kids woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow and a free day off school. It is so fun to watch my older children see it all through the eyes of Elizabeth and Ri. They coudn't wait to get the kids dressed in snowsuits and take them out and play! They were most excited for Ri since this is his very first snowfall. But.. I don't think he was near as excited (you can tell that when you see his pictures!)

Today brings back an amazing amount of emotions. 2 years ago, we 'gave birth" to our daughter, Elizabeth. It was a type of birth that we had never experienced before. That moment brought 16 months of anticipation, prayer, and excitment to a completion as well as a beginning. As a family, we had prayed for this precious, tiny little girl. We had spent 16 months preparing to bring her into our home. We had no idea what to expect, what to feel, what to do... but in that one moment, Qian Jia Ke became our beautiful daughter/sister forever; and she gained her forever family. Qian Jia Ke became Elizabeth Qian Jia Ke Lee Miller on December 5th, 2005... oh what a beautiful day that was!

I think it could take me hours to type all that I would like to type about this beautiful little girl, but I do not have hours nor do you have the time to read it. Simply put... She is a priceless treasure. Giving birth to our little girl was just as precious as giving birth to Emily, Erin, Sam and Jacob. God just chose to bring Elizabeth into our family in a very different and special way. And this time, we were able to enjoy the birth as a family. The kids were as much a part of her "birth" as Mark and I. It was somethng that I will forever be grateful.

This little bundle of joy opened my eyes to a world that I had never seen before. SHe has shown me God in ways I never imagined. She has changed our lives forever. So, today I take a moment to remember a moment that I will never forget and will always treasure.

Elizabeth... I love you, my sweet, precious, baby girl!




This is the moment I "gave birth" to our daughter. It is the first moment I held her, the first moment we looked into each other's eyes. This is a precious memory for me!