New Family Photos

Hello All,

I will continue to admit that I am the least active blogger out on the web, life just continues to keep us busy with the normal daily grind. But I promised I would post some updated photos and I always try to keep my promises. Those can be found here in our media gallery.

I am still working two jobs and Raylene still manages things at home. The kids will be starting school soon; Zach will be attending Kindergarten and Livy will be going to Pre-School, both are very excited. They seem to make friends well enough at church and have been invited to a couple of birthday parties already. We are all still making adjustments and getting settled. The kids have come along way in accepting the drastic changes in their lives, but honestly 6 months far too short of a time to expect them, or us, to adjust completely.

Despite growing pains we still manage to have moments of fun and laughter. Just a few weeks ago at the La Verkin City Pioneer Day Celebration Zach asked Raylene if he could have one of the candies he had gathered from candy cannon. She handed him one and he says, 'No the wrapper.' A little confused and curious, Raylene complies with his request. He calls out thanks as he runs back to the adults handing out candy to the children, and then returns with another payload and giggling to his hearts content. It turns out the children were being rewarded with more candy if they picked up trash. So barely five years old and already Zach has demonstrated his cunning and intelligence.

There was something Livy did this weekend that made Raylene and laugh and for the life of me I can't remember right now. So when I do I'll post an update.

Hope this finds you all well! Sincerely, the Millers.            

On the brite side

We have been home for about three months now and things are doing better than when we first arrived home. We are all beginning to adjust and perhaps even find our own little groove. Putting the kids to bed is not perfect but is infinitely better than when we first started out. Last night I was even able to put the kids to sleep by myself! Shocking isn't it, amazing how much our goals change once we have kids.

So far Saturdays are Raylene's day off, usually, so I attempt to perform an approximation of my parental duties by feeding, bathing, playing with, and generally keeping Raylene from completely going insane from the total lack of adult conversation or those awful toxic playdough fumes, I am not quite sure which it is. Actually, Raylene tells me that I do a good job the kids seems to like having me around so I think it is safe to say I am not a terrible father or husband.

We all still have our good and bad moments, and most always still glad be together! :) Here are some more photos of the kids I posted on our photo gallery.

A Break from the Screaming - Almost

Today was the 1st semi-good day in over a week, which is good because yesterday was the WORST day thus far, by a whole lot - wow! The fact that we all lived through it is really amazing. The major meltdowns didn't happen today until this evening and now both kids are mostly asleep, which means that I can soon follow. Yippee... :0) I will be trying to get our photo files moved to my computer so that I can post a few. That is my goal for this week, along with unpacking our suitcases! I know, lofty goals indeed as is has been an entire week since we have been home :0)

We made it back!

(This is a repeat post from Face Book)

Hello all! Yes, we are back and we have our kids with us :0) We got home at midnight on Tuesday. The trip to Awassa to meet the children's uncle was amazing although we really missed the kids. We got back from Awassa Sunday afternoon and the kids started acting out a bit. Monday was THE WORST day ever!!! Our little girl would scream at the top of her lungs and kick and cry for hours on end. Then Mamush would act out because we would be trying to calm Kefelech down and he would feel left out.

The trip home was the longest day of my life - both figuratively and literally. With the 10 hour time change our day was 34 hours and more than 30 of those hours were spent getting home. Kefelech continued to have massive meltdowns, but never got to the screaming at the top of her lungs. It was such a hard day. Our first day home (Wednesday) the kids continued to act out and I began to worry that this was the true norm for them. I was so exhausted. Mom came over so I could at least shower and for support. I don't know who flipped the switch on the kids, but it wasn't fun at all.

Luckily yesterday (Thursday) we have began to see glimpses and longer periods of the awesome kids we first meet - I think that we all might make it through this transition. :0) They love all the food that we have given them here, so far, and are in absolute love with play-dough. They spent 2.5 hours playing with it yesterday morning and wanted to play with it for almost another 2 hours in the afternoon.

I don't have much time to post at the moment, as the kids still haven't fully adjusted to our time zone, but we are getting closer. We are doing so much better than the previous 3 days of "Oh my goodness, What have we done?" The kids were back to giggling and being cute!! Yippee -

I will be adding posts with more details about our trip as time allows and of course adding pictures. But for now, I am going to head off to bed!

Monday's Text

"We have boarded our plane and so far we have had only small melt downs from Kafee and a little whining from Mamush, lame no water rule. Keep praying. Thanks."

Thier plane departed at about 2:00 a.m. Poor family... a first plane ride in the middle of the night!