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.

Check out Matt's profile on this blog regarding his book:

http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2008/02/jedimasterquizb.php

Matt has been in high demand recently for the fans of the movie series! He has been interviewed by several fan sites. Check back with us and we will link his interviews on our blog.

May The Force by we you!!