The Baby Gardner, Gifts All things Baby
Now, y'all know I Love all things creative and unique! A very good friend of mine creates this adorable vintage style charm bracelets in several different designs. One of her most recent is of a vintage PANDA!! We are ALL about the Panda!! She even creates Mother Daughter matching charm bracelets! I wish some of her creative juices would rub off on me!



Also, check out the website below. If you like all things vintage baby you will be in heaven! Different artists create their designs especially for the web site! It's a must see:

http://www.thebabygardner.com/productpages/jewelry/jwpandamombrclt.html

Who Wears it Best?
Devil Dawg - Halloween Costume 2008

Matt and I found a cool website for Halloween costumes. This year we decided that not only will the dawgs get to play dress up, but we both will too (more on our costumes a little closer to the big BOO-day)! And, with Halloween soon approaching, we forced the Chi's to try on this years Halloween costume~ to see who wears it best...

Nacho seems to be enjoying himself and even appears to get into character...

Penny is humiliated & doesn't want to play with such evil forces...

Sierra doesn't seem to mind, which is good because it certainly fits her better (sorry Nacho). And, she manages to look Noble in her other wise humiliating get-up.

Another Layout for you... again, our trip to NYC. Here we are in Central Park

Patience & Fortitude

This past weekend I was able to spend some time with friends at a local scrapbook store. Here is one of the Layouts I completed of our NYC trip. These Lions sit outside the NYC Library guarding the stairs. And, though their names have changed through the years currently the names "Patience & Fortitude" have stuck (named by the Mayor)

Three, Two, One, Contacts!

This self portrait was taken to show off my EYES!! Look Ma, no glasses!! And, check out my long lustrous hair! :) Which is much longer than it look in the picture. My hair goes all the way down to my ankles (just kidding). Now, if I can just find a long term solution to covering my gray! HA!

Most men would be jealous of Matt's cucumber! (He MADE me say that!, LOL) Every day Matt goes out to our garden patch to water and check the veggies. Somehow he overlooked this big daddy of a cucumber!

If you like this, you should see his tomatoes!
And, don't get me started about his peppers!!

Fight Club Bruises

As most of you know, the past two months Matt has been taking classes in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Three days a week he leaves the comfort of our air conditioned home to participate in an organized "fight club" (as I like to call it). When he comes home we go through our "bruise check" ritual. We joke that if there isn't a new bruise he isn't training hard enough. Behold, one of the latest additions to his collection:

It's a Beaut!!

Again, today we are sharing our third ornament in Baby E's collection. This one puts us up-to-date on our ornament messages. We are very excited to check out the 2008 Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments! I'm sure there will be more than a few that will speak to us for the perfect addition to her/ his collection (only one for her/ him, and the rest for us, LOL)

Christmas 2007

“China, Joy to the World”

We have shared with our Friends and Family this ornament tradition we are starting for you. And, this is the VERY first ornament gift to you from Mommy’s Best Friend~ Connie. Just like everyone else, she can’t wait to meet you! Because she is so dear to us we want you to call her Auntie Connie. Auntie Connie has been Mommy’s confidant through the adoption process. And, she knows how important you are to us! She told me that when she saw this set she just HAD to get it for you. Thank you Auntie Connie! PS: We liked the ornament so much we bought one for our Christmas tree too!

Continuing with yesterday's subject, this ornament is the 2007 (ornament #2) ornament in "Baby E"'s collection.

Christmas 2007

“Great Getaways”

A little over a year has passed from our LID and we are still waiting on your referral from China. Every day we pray for you & your birth families health. We know that God is knitting you in your birth Mother’s womb especially with us in mind to be your Forever Family/ Mommy & Daddy. The next step for us will be to pack our bags to pick you up and bring you home. We still are not sure when that day will be. However, that doesn’t keep us from thinking of you and dreaming of you in our arms. This ornament seemed very appropriate. Our suitcases look EXACTLY like this years ornament!!

Some of you may remember that in 2006 we decided to start our own Christmas Ornament collection for Baby Emma/Emmit (not really Emmit, we just can't decide what name if it's a boy and Emmit rhymes with Emma). Inside each ornament we will write a little message to her/him. And, we finally got around writing the messages for the last 3 ornaments. Here is a pic of her first ornament and the message is below:

Christmas 2006

“Holiday Mail”

This year Daddy and I have been very busy preparing all the paperwork necessary to start our family with you! We decided in November 2005 that we would proceed with your adoption in Jan/Feb 06. In January we researched agencies and February we signed the application and began the arduous, yet exciting, adoption paper trail. We are so very excited to receive our “Log in date” (LID) from China (September 18, 2006). That is the date that China received our paperwork and logged it into their system. We are OFFICIAL “Parents in waiting”. When we saw the mail box ornament we both KNEW it would be the very first ornament in your collection! We are anxiously awaiting your referral from China!! USPS and FEDX have been very active on our behalf (delivering and mailing all our paper work pieces). We LOVE you so much!

The Number Eight & 8/8/08!!

I found this article on yahoo news and found it interesting. Then, read to the bottom to see our thoughts on this!! Exciting news!!

BEIJING (Reuters) - August 8 promises to be a lucky day for Liu Chuan who is getting married and has a ticket for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Liu and his bride will join thousands of Chinese couples queuing at the marriage registry on Friday, an auspicious day for weddings and births because of the number 8, which symbolizes wealth in Chinese.

August 8 is also China's big day, when the Olympic Games open in Beijing. Organizers added an extra eight for good measure by scheduling the opening ceremony for 8 p.m. "Chinese are partial to the number 8, and Friday is three 8s in a row - the eighth day of the eighth month, 2008. Also, we picked it because of the Olympics," said Liu, a Beijing resident. "I got a ticket for the opening ceremony that night, but it was only possible to get one, so I will go to the Bird's Nest (stadium) and my fiancee will watch it on TV at home."

So many couples are planning to tie the knot on August 8 that Beijing's marriage registries set up an online service for couples to file paperwork in advance and speed up the process. An estimated 9,000 couples in Beijing alone will get their marriage certificates that day.

"Whenever you get here, you will have to wait. The bureau opens at 8.30 in the morning and some people will come a lot earlier than that to get in line," said a staff member at the Tongzhou registry, on the outskirts of Beijing, which has booked 500 appointments for Friday.

But despite the flood of weddings, many banquet halls are facing a drought of bookings. Many Chinese get their certificate and hold their banquets on separate days, and August 8 is usually a popular day to hold banquets.

However, most couples will delay the banquet for another day to avoid being upstaged by the opening ceremony, which will feature thousands of performers and extravagant fireworks.

"We thought about holding the banquet that night, but we figured it was inconvenient," Liu said.

"Since it overlapped with the opening ceremony, most guests probably wouldn't have the time or the interest to come to our celebration."

Couples are also worried that transportation could be snarled up on Friday, when about 100 world leaders attend the opening ceremony, said manager Kang of Jinri Jiari Seafood City, where the banquet room is empty on Friday night but fully booked on Saturday and most weekends through October."

Okay, so back to our adoption, I can't help but think about this... we expect our referral possibly Late 2009- early 2010. So, with this insight on 8/8/8 is it possible... could we... hmm.... okay, I don't want to say the words because it seems so disrespectful. So, let me just put the pieces together for you and let you figure out what I'm thinking here...8/8/8 + 9 months = May 2009 + 10 month old (age we expect to receive) baby Emma= December 09-March 2010!! Oh my! Is it possible? Baby Emma is soon to have a beating heart?? WOW!

The Art of Chi War

The Tale of 3 Chihuahuas.
Bonus stories: Hootie & The blowfish Hair; Laundry day

Late afternoon, Sierra was chompin' down on a chewy while Nacho breathed over her shoulder, not letting that chewy out of his sight- he vowed, at all cost, HE would soon be savoring the delicious treat. Nacho quietly declares, "It will be MINE"

Penny, always the innocent bystander, takes no particular side and wants nothing to do with it.
She thinks to her self, "I am not here, you do not see me."

"Huh (?) What's goin' on? I can't hear anything over my jaw jackin'. Where did everyone go?Why are the lights out? I can't seeeeeeeeee.....

VICTORY IS MINE, declares Nacho! My stealthy ninja ways have served me well.

The End

Bonus story #1
Hootie & The Blowfish Hair
Julia getting ready for the Chastain Park Hootie & The blowfish concert Friday night.
The Bigger the Better.

But, I promise I didn't leave the house with that "Texas Hair".

Bonus story #2
Laundry Day

A little help goes a long way... Penny helping Daddy fold Laundry

How does your garden grow? We are just glad ours is! hehehehe... the wet weather is much appreciated this year (for more than the obvious reason)! We are so proud of our little garden!

Tonight we "harvested" our first cucumber and two green tomatoes! Yummy! Guess what we had with dinner tonight?(shouldn't be too hard of a question) ~ FRIED GREEN TOMATOES and sliced cucumbers on our spinach salad! Did it taste soooooo good because we grew it? possibly! Delicious!

Here is a pic of our little gold patch of lush green vegi's!

It's not a huge spot, but it's grow'n quickly! check out all the tomatoes waiting to turn red!!
And, here's our cucumber plant. There are A LOT of yellow flowers!! We are going to be overloaded with cucumbers VERY soon!

Hello friends and family! Julia here, just wanted to post a few layouts that I created this past weekend. I promise, I did take pictures of more than just food! :P

I cornered Matt to choose one fave FOOD layout of the three I put together this weekend... and this particular layout was Matt's favorite because he says, "the pictures make me hungry".

The journaling on the LO says: "Foodies, Our mission, on our four day trip, was to eat as much NYC food as possible. And, we did! From the street vendors outside Bryant Park: gyro, hot dogs, pretzels & sugar cashews. A bagel in "The Village": The deli had a myriad of cream cheese choices (I had cucumber cream cheese, Matt had plain). In Times Square we stepped into a pizza place where Matt had a slice of pepperoni pizza & I had a ham and cheese calzone. Everything was delicious!"

My favorite FOOD layout, from my efforts this weekend, is the one below. Journaling reads: "Serendipity. A few years ago, I saw an Oprah show about the "Frozen Hot Chocolate" dessert at the NYC restaurant "Serendipity". I made a mental note to visit it if I ever made it to NYC. At the end of the day, of our last day, we were exhausted but decided to hunt it down! The food was fresh & delicious. I had a potpie and Matt had fried chicken. Unfortunately the dessert did not impress us as much. It tasted like an iced frozen Wendy's Frosty!!"

Even though we were disappointed in the FAMOUS "Frozen Hot Chocolate" at Serendipity I love this LO because finding the restaurant after years of wanting to go was a dream come true. And, to me that was what mattered most.

The Dark Knight, Batman!! Matt and I went to a matinee at the NEW Hamilton Mill movie theatre! The theatre chairs were so relaxing, if the movie had not been as good as it was it would have been very easy to fall asleep! The Chairs rock, and I mean that literally!! Okay, so back to the movie... by far the best acting by any actor, in my humble opinion, by Heath Ledger! Yes, I do mean best acting EVER!! His character, the Joker, stole the movie! The movie, though a bit long, is a must see!

Creative Juices are flowing! ~ Julia here, I've been inspired by creative craft bloggers and have been playing again over my craft table! I've forgotten how it feels to have creative energy and am experiencing somewhat of a crafting high! :) (Or, maybe it's from the pain meds the Doc gave me for the holes in the bottom of my foot, lol~ either way I'm lovin' it!)

Sometime soon, based on my pitifully foot, we have plans to visit our local Blueberry farm! It better be sooner than later because Blueberry season will be coming to an end soon. All this talk about buy locally has us thinking. We searched out local farmers markets (which are in full swing) and expect to visit one early Saturday morning! Also, we planted a small itty bitty plot of vegi's!! Tomatoes, red peppers, green peppers & cucumbers... all of which are blooming!!! We will have to share pics of our little garden at some point. Luckily we have been blessed with lots of rain for a green sturdy garden!!

Support your neighborhood farmer, Buy Locally!!

Is there such a thing as bliss in a bottle? I think so. For me, it's a Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino - chilled & over ice! Luck for me Sam's Club sells these in BULK! I have been known to send Matt on a run to Sam's solely to replenish my stash!!

Because of the calories I limit myself to one a day. And, my day is not complete with out this sweet indulgence (no joke)! I have enjoyed them for so long that when I open one, breaking the pressure seal, little Chihuahua Penny hears to "POP" and comes running for a taste! Seriously cute!

Matt has convinced me to save the $$ and create my own recipe of this delicious beverage. After many a-failed trys I think I have come up with something good enough to fill my morning cold coffee fix. Using my Cuisinart iced cappuccino maker to make the espresso, I use 2 scoops of ground coffee grounds (when I'm indulging I'll use Starbucks- other wise Maxwell house tastes just as good)& 2 cups of water. Once brewed I add 2 heaping spoon fulls of sugar and chocolate quick mix. Top off with 2 cups of soy milk. Yum, Yum! Penny even likes it!

Matt here. Wanted to post a couple of pics from my first running of the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th. It was a lot of fun. Even that early in the morning, though, the humidity was INSANE. Plus, the course was reworked this year and the finish was UPHILL. Oh well. I survived it. That is the important thing.

Adoption Update...

The stork has landed at our agency! Referrals for families whose dossiers were logged in on January 23, 2006. The CCAA has not released a cutoff date yet, but as soon as they do, I will let you know. Of the referrals, they were all girls! The children ranged in age from 6 months to 18 months. The children in this referral group are from the following Provinces: Hunan and Chongqing . Congratulations to these families!

We have been meaning to scan & share this NY Circle Line picture since we returned home from NY... we enjoyed our 3 hour tour (didn't see Gilligan anywhere)

Happy 40th Birthday Figgy!!

Julia just returned from Biloxi where a few friends celebrated Connie's
arrival into her 40's! Cheers!!

Adoption Update:
This month, the CCAA completed the matching process for families with dossiers registered through January 20, 2006. Great Wall Beijing has confirmed that the CCAA has completed the review of dossiers registered through January 31, 2007.

More pictures of our trip to NY:
Second Day of trip: We rode the red double Decker bus tour around the Downtown Loop. Part of the tour went by Ground Zero. We were told that when 911 occurred there were many memorials around the city. However, this is one of the only ones left. Apparently the painted tile store no longer exists but the memorial was left untouched.

Ground Zero is still really only a construction site. We over heard a local NY'er telling some tourists that many people come down to visit the site and are shocked to find there is no official true memorial marking the site. However, we were told there was a building in front of the construction site housing a memorial of pictures, etc.

On our second day we also visited: Greenwich Village "The Village", China Town, Little Italy, Times Square, Central Park, SOHO... it was a long tiring day~ we saw quite a bit in 8 hours!
Julia in Central Park- most places we walked hid the skyline- the only thing indicating NY city was near was the sound of the cars honking! Matt GEO Caching in Central Park

We have returned from our FABULOUS visit to The Big Apple! Thank you Elaine and Mario for being such wonderful Hosts! Matt and I were exhausted from all the site seeing in Manhattan. Here are a few pictures of our trip...

Day one: we spent the morning on The Circle Line Cruise- enjoying the 3 hour cruise around Manhattan. Most of the sites were with in the first hour and a half. Here is Lady Liberty, one of our favorites...

It was a bit windy and we both got a little sun! Here we are near the end of the cruise with the NW side of Manhattan behind us. Matt's Pink Floyd shirt appears to have come alive!!

The Lions outside of the NY Public Library.
The Lions were named by the Mayor:
Lion Fortitude & Matt Lion Patience & Julia

Finally, On our Third day we were on a subway headed toward SOHO and we were stoped by Jack Nicholson who welcomed us to New York and asked where we were visiting from! Okay, so we know this picture is not actually Jack in the flesh, but rather a poster outside of the movie rentals. But, we HAD to take a pic to remeber Jack and how nice he was to us!

We will post more pictures of our trip over the next few days. Hope y'all are all doing well! TTYS

Adoption Update:

"The current status for dossiers registered with the China Center of Adoption Affairs is detailed. This month, the CCAA completed the matching process for families with dossiers registered through January 12, 2006. It has been confirmed that the CCAA has completed the review of dossiers registered through January 31, 2007. We hope to receive our next batch of referrals in early June."

Reminder: our LID is September 18, 2006 and we are watching for the matching dates to get closer and closer to our LID- currently CCAA has completed LID through Jan 12, 06. And, we expect to hear the next matching batch in early June.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080505/hl_afp/chinahealthenterovirus_080505144747

Some very scary news... "BEIJING (AFP) - A deadly viral outbreak that preys on children has appeared in Olympic host city Beijing, and the number of infections in China has grown to more than 9,000, state media reported Monday."

ADOPTION UPDATE:

The stork has landed! Our agency received referrals for families whose dossiers were logged in on January 12, 2006. The CCAA has not released a cutoff date yet, but as soon as they do, I will let you know. Of the referrals, our agency received- they were all girls! The children ranged in age from 6 1/2 months to 36 months. The children in this referral group are from the following Provinces: Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Guangxi . Congratulations to these families!

Our LID is September 18, 2006. Atleast CCAA is finally in our year. Though it is taking them a very long time to make it through January we are excited they are progressing closer and closer to our LID. We estimate we may hear our referral Summer 09. Of course, we keep our fingers and toes crossed that it will happen sooner- anything is possible when God is in control! Please keep us and Baby Miller in your prayers! We thank each of you for following our journey!

Wow. We just got the news that Vietnam has stopped ALL US adoptions in response to a report the US government filed which alleged widespread baby-selling, corruption, and fraud in their adoption practices. We had, at one point, considered dropping China and switching to Vietnam. Thank God we stayed put. It's a long road to Beijing, but we will get there. Our hearts go out to those folks who are in the Vietnamese adoption process who must now be wondering, "now what?"

http://news.yahoo.com:80/s/ap/20080428/ap_on_re_as/vietnam_us_adoption

Nope, no new news... just pictures of every day life here at Casa de' Miller! ;)

Sierra fell asleep in Daddy's lap this afternoon
~ all her glory was showing~
Buddha Belly included!

Here is a picture that The Melting Pot staff took of us during Julia's Birthday Dinner. As usual, the food was DELICIOUS!

Adoption update:

This month The current status for dossiers registered with the China Center of Adoption Affairs - - CCAA has completed the matching process for families with dossiers registered through January 9, 2006. Also, it has been confirmed that the CCAA has completed the review of dossiers registered through December 31, 2006.

We've been FORKED!!
We woke up to 306 plastic forks in the front lawn! Our first inclination was we were vandalized by teenagers... Matt grudgingly went out side to begin the clean up...

..Quickly he came back in and said,"There's another element to this forking! Your "friends" left a sign for you"...

Thanks to Connie, Tracey, Crystal R., Amy & Crystal H. Julia was Birthday FORKED last night!!!

Girls, do you know what they say about payback??!
OH, IT'S ON!!!

Nothing new to share on the adoption. But, I would like to share a story that seems quite appropriate. I hope you will take the time to read a little story about an Ant and the Contact Lens: a true story

Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens . "Great", she thought. "Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry."
She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there.

She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth."

She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me."

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?"

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!

The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You."

I think it would do all of us some good to say, "God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will."

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Yes, I do love GOD. He is my source of existence and my Savior. He keeps me functioning each and every day Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him....I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=4PcL6-mjRNk
Nacho wants one of these for Christmas this year~! Check it out!

I received this today from my Father-in-Law and thought I should share it. The message certainly gives us peace in our adoption journey.

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that He had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that He not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"
He smiled at her and answered,
"Oh, that's easy," "When I see my image in it."

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

This is Matt. I came home from work today and had a large package waiting for me from Lucasfilm. They sent me a resin statue of Darth Maul, my favorite new character from the Star Wars prequel trilogy. I had mentioned in the interview that I loved the look and presence of Maul and they sent me this beautiful work of art in the pictures here. Very cool. This whole experience the last few weeks has been pretty amazing!

Referral Update:

We recently received news that CCAA (Chinese Center Adoption Affairs) referral cutoff date for this month is January 4, 2006. (Finally in OUR LID year!!)

of the referrals our agency received, they were all girls and one set of twins! The children ranged in age from 6 1/2 month to 8 1/2 months. Also, the children in this referral group are from the following Provinces: Jiangxi and Hunan. Congratulations to these families!

http://www.starwars.com/community/news/family/f20080303/index.html

The official fan site interview is up... check M out!

March First
============

march v. To proceed directly and purposefully. To progress steadily onward;
advance. To be arranged in an orderly fashion that suggests steady,
rhythmical progression.


Giving advice is easy. Giving really good advice is harder.
Providing an example is hardest but is usually the most effective way of
influencing both youth and adults. After all, adults are simply older
youths who were influenced by someone's example early in life.

Our walk or march through life is the greatest teacher that we will provide
for others. Even Paul in the Bible said, "Follow my example, as I follow
the example of Christ."
(1 Cor 11:1 NIV)

Today is the beginning of the month of March.

Perhaps today should also be the beginning of a new walk.
A walk of direction and purpose. A walk worthy to follow.

March first.

Then advise.