In His own time ... is finally here!

The long awaited time has come, we are officially parents! No more psyche gotchas, no more just kidding pranks from life, our adoption was approved in the courts of Ethiopia on December 23th, 2009. We are the happy (ecstatic, lucky, etc. fill in your own exciting verbs, whatever) parents of two siblings, an almost 5 year old boy and a 3 year old girl, by the name of Mamush and Kefelech. We will be keeping their Ethiopian names as their middle name, along with one of our choosing, so their new names will be Zachariah Mamush Miller (the almost 5 year old boy) and Olivia Kefelech Miller (the 3 year old girl). We are tentatively picking them up during the first week in February, so we only have four weeks to prepare since until now we could not be sure what ages and gender we would be getting so things will be crazy insane for the this next month getting everything ready we are supposed accomplish.

I've been told to inform everyone that Shiloa, Raylene's sister, will be planning to hold a kids shower on Saturday, January 16th, 2010. So if you think you'll be in the La Verkin, UT area around that time put a note on your calendar. All friends and family are invited and we will do our best to get everyone an invitation but odds are we will miss a few so just give a heads up by emailing kids.shower@millermoments.net. Patrick's cell at 435.767.1235 or Shiloa's cell at 435.669.8555

Lastly, we will be back posting the events that lead to this point of the yo-yo ride over the next week or two.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a very Happy New Year!

P.S. Here are some additional photos of them. media.millermoments.net

Tuscan, Arizona

We just got back from spending a wonderful relaxing 4 days in Tuscan, AZ.

On the drive down we made a short detour to visit the Mesa, AZ Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This tradition was initiated by Raylene when we were first married, which is to visit any near by Temples while we are traveling and we have always enjoyed it a great deal. After spending some time inside and touring the grounds (temple photos) we continued on to Oro Valley, AZ where we would be staying and checked into our room at Worldmark Rancho Vistoso resort.

After spending 9 hours in the car and 2 hours at the temple we were well ... exhausted! So we threw the clothes somewhere in the closet and sat down to eat dinner and just slow down for the evening.

Friday was spent in total relaxed veggitation state within our cool air conditioned room, we did not want to run around and sweat ourselves into oblivion just yet. We did however eat some good food, Raylene got her TLC and Food Network fix, and Patrick re-read a book from one of his favorite book series, Misborn The Well of Ascension. We also made a run to the grocery store for some necessities, ice cream being one of them. :)

Saturday, we went the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where me met a hawk, investigated scores of reptiles, crawled through a mini-underground cave, saw a mountain lion,
oogled at rattle snakes (well Patrick did at least), meet some iguanas, and enjoyed seeing a host of other desert creatures and desert life: turtles, tarantulas, a glow in the dark scorpion, desert flowers and vegetation, dinosaur fossils, many brilliantly colored minerals, a bobcat, an ocelot, some prairie dogs, some Mexican wolves, two beavers, and coati.

The only sad part was the otter's were a no-show in their exhibit :( . We did take bunch of photos at the museum as well and you can view those here.

Sunday came and we checked out and then drove home. We had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves.

Homestudy Update

With the carpet installed and the baseboards touched up, I was more than ready to move everything back into the house. I figured it out today, it has been over 5 months since we have been fully unpacked - It was really starting to get old! Last night, with the help of my family, we moved most of it back. Some days when I start a project, I don't want to stop until it is completely finished, last night was one of those nights. It was a good thing too, because we got a call after 10:00pm from our social worker stating he was able to set up our walk-through appointment for tomorrow morning (today). I was so glad that the house was already back together. We knew that when we moved we would have to get an update and with a referral once again in hand, it was something that we couldn't put off. We were glad that we could schedule the meeting for 6:30am, since we had planned to leave on vacation to Tuscan about that time. The whole process took about 20 minutes and cost us an additional $150, even though we had already paid the $200 fee. Our agency has it in writing that we would not be charge more than $50 for travel, but then the visit was subcontracted out and that social worker had the additional charge. We will definitely be talking to WIAA and try to get this staightened out. It seems that everywhere we turn lately there is another fee, but I keep trying to remind myself that it will all be worth it to get our kids home. We were able to leave on vacation just an hour later than planned and are one more step closer to having all our paperwork in order.

Laying It Down

We are slowly but surely making this house a place we are pleased to call home. Today the installers came by around 9:00 am and were done just after lunch time. So something to consider when purchasing new carpet for your home is how thick your current carpet is versus how thick your new will be. We decided to go with a slightly thinner carpet and it did not occur to us until after the new one was installed that we should have painted the base boards while the floor was bare, so now there is a slight color change along the bottom edge of the base boards where the old carpet covered them up and we need to paint them with the newer high gloss white that we put on just prior to moving in. Actually hind sight being 20/20, had I known that we were going to replace the carpet I would have ripped it out before moving in painted the base boards, and then installed the carpet before bringing in all the furniture.

Oh well, it looks great and everyone in the family loves the new fresh carpet smell and the color matches the walls much better. Even the cats have placed their seal of approval on the latest remodeling changes. Raylene's parents and sister came over to help vacuum up the new carpet fuzzys and touch up the base boards before moving the furniture back in place. All in all we are very pleased with the new carpet and also very glad to have our home back. I never realized how critical carpet is to making a house feel like home. Have you ever tried to relax in a house that doesn't have any carpet? I guess the furniture being packed in the garage also had something to do with it, but if I had the choice between carpet and furniture I would take the carpet. Needless to say we spent the weekend with Raylene's family because there was nothing inviting about hanging around our house once the carpet was gone.

The Dogs Move Out

One of great things about purchasing a foreclosure home is the renovation. We have noticed several signs of previous pets in the home, one of those has been moldy smell of dogs in the carpet with the primary location being the first room on the right as you enter the hallway as well as some other areas. We have tried all the major solutions, vacuuming (lots), shampooing (lots), and different order absorbing resources, the dogs refuse to vacate the premises. Well, it is time we start playing hard ball, using force. We removed the carpet.

Friday night Raylene's parents and sister, surprise surprise, came over help us move the furniture and things off the carpeted areas and into the garage. Saturday morning, our Home Teachers came over to help with the destruction and Raylene's family once again came over to help and we finished it all in much less than two hours, including taking the carpet and pad to the dump. Now every room the house echos very well and some time Monday morning the installers will be here with our brand new carpet!

So little by little our home looks nicer and nicer and I grow more and more in IOU debt. ;)

We Officially Say, Yes! ... Round Two

Here we go again, hopeful and ready to bring home two children and welcome them into our lives forever. We gladly signed the papers again and eagerly printed off pictures to carry with us to show anyone who was interested. We received the referral on Monday and spent all week trying to gather additional information. Normally, one would contact a pediatrician and have them review the medical documents that come with the referral. Since we moved I tried using our old family doctor because they would already have us on file and we had not moved our records yet, but he took all week to say yeah or nay on helping us and then turned us down indicating we should find someone else; thanks, but no thanks. Anyway, there actually was nothing on the children's records to give much concern so we went ahead and signed the papers today, since we have to give a response within a week according to policy and mailed them off to our agency Children's Hope International (CHI).

We are not out of the fire yet, but we are one step closer, the next step is a scheduled court date in the Ethiopian courts which could be several weeks before we have a time frame. So don't hold your breath, besides nobody looks very good when they are blue; except maybe Smurfette!

Scrapbooking

Mom, Shi and I have spent the last 4 days scrapbooking and having fun. As a belated graduation celebration, us girls went up to Midway, UT and had a wonderful relaxing time. Those of you who know us well can imagine how full the Durango was with all of our supplies. We could seriously open up a supply store with all of it - but what can I say - we love it. Midway is a beautiful town up in the mountains, it was green and we had rain off and on the whole time there! We all decided to work on our Hawaii trip that we took to Oahu 2 years ago (yes, we are really behind) and didn't get as much done as we had hoped, but we did have a really good time and ate yummy food. I also spent a lot of time stareing at the beautiful faces of our children-to-be, so beyond adorable. All in all, this has been a wonderful week.

Our Adoption Referral

According to Garfield, Monday's are the worst day of the week, today was an exception to that rule. Early this morning I received a call while at work from our adoption case worker and Raylene was already conferenced in on the call. The call as you can tell from the post's title was for an adoption referral! We are very happy to be moving forward after our most recent mishap, however I think this time I'll wait a little longer before shouting it to the world just in case something goes awry which is a reality in life.

Last time I think I jinxed the whole thing by sharing too much information before it was permissible, so this time I am trying not to goof up the process by giving a little information as possible.

I believe I can divulge the basics, it is a referral for two children, a girl and a boy with ages of about 5 and 3 years respectively. Honestly, that is what I was hoping for because although I would have taken any combination, I felt that I wanted a boy and a girl with out any specific age. The reason being that I didn't know how long it would be before we could adopt again so I wanted to enjoy having both sides of the child gender spectrum. Seriously there are experiences that are unique to each and I want to have them all. So call me a bit selfish for wanting to have my cake and eat it too. ;)

Surprise Guest

We had a phone call from an unexpected person on Thursday evening. Dad Novikoff was visiting his parents up in Provo and wanted to come and visit us Friday.! Even though we now live in La Verkin and it is a 4 hour trip (instead of the 2 hours to Logan) he still came! I can't tell you how excited we were to see him again.

For those of you who are unlucky enough not to know him, Dad loves to work on projects. Friday we rented a rug doctor to see if we could get rid of the last stains in the living room and the awful smell in the spare room. We also went out to eat Mexican for lunch and for dinner Dad made us a 6 pound meat loaf that was absolutely delicious. The meat loaf was served with his wonderful mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. Later that night we went to Dairy Queen for a late snack and then drove up towards Zion Canyon and star gazed from the Mustang convertible before calling it a night.

It was such a packed day full of fun, work, reminiscing and making new memories. He had to leave early Saturday morning, hence the hug while still in my pajamas. Such a great man - and we are so lucky to be able to call him Dad!

One More Room Down

I never thought that unpacking into a larger house would take so long. I seem to remember our last move taking me about one and a half weeks to get everything unpacked. We must have collected A LOT more stuff in the past 3 and a half years! Also this home has a more open floor plan and much less built in storage (except for the wonderful garage which I haven't even begun to organize). So, it is taking a bit longer to unpack because I have to be rather creative with each and every item in order to find a place for it. Last night I finally had the office ~95% complete. This morning it was all done, vacuumed and everything! That now makes a total of 4 rooms done, the office, kitchen, living room, and master bedroom. Now what to tackle? Dinning room, main bath, guest room, or the nightmare craft room? Dinning room wins - I think that I will mostly just have to move all the stuff off the table and into the garage (another nightmare project) and pick up all the tools and empty boxes lingering around. Good luck to me!

Adrienne's Big Day

My sister-in-law, Adrienne, graduated today - Yippee! She is truly amazing. This year she has been working full time, going to school, and is pregnant with their first child. Wow - I'm tired just thinking about it. She is so awesome and Jerry is one lucky fellow, as are the rest of us. Congratulations - We are so proud of you!

P.S. Don't you think she looks great in the nursing hat - I know that I couldn't pull it off so well, but she looks wonderful.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Two Down and so Many More to go

I'm slowly making progress on unpacking the house. I have mostly finished the kitchen and today I finished the living room. Shiloa and mom got me started on it last night, but now it's done. It is so nice having a place to sit down and relax. I have missed having our "dinner and a movie" time. It is beginning to feel like our home more and more each day. I'm hoping the rest of the house unpacks a bit quicker.

Moving Day - Again

We officially moved into our new house today. We were up late shampooing the carpets last night but went to bed before we finished. I couldn't sleep, so I got up at 4am and went over to the house to finish up. Mom came around 5 and we had it done pretty quickly. I discovered that the guest room really smells (like wet dog and urine), I'm hoping that it goes away as it dries. It will be so very nice to unpack and actually feel like I live in my own home. Hopefully it won't take to long to get all settled in.

Welcome Home

After living with Raylene's cousins, Eldon and Bonnie Darrington, in Logan for a month and a half, and then living with Raylene's sister, Shiloa, for another month, I can again sleep in my own bed. This weekend we moved everything we had packed in our 20'x10'x10' (LxWxH) storage unit into our house, now we can change our mantra from "I believe I have one of those, but it is in storage" to "I believe I have one of those, but it is in a box somewhere".

Everything took about 3 hours to move into our new home with the help of Raylene's parents, her sister, and about fourteen members from our ward. We couldn't have done it without everyone's help.

Shiloa Graduates!!

Shiloa is now officially a school teacher! I know that she has worked so hard to get here and am so proud of her. Although I wouldn't say that I loved sitting through the graduation, it was worth it to watch her walk through the "D." Yippee for Shiloa!!!!! And a big Huzzah for the 4th grade students she will be teaching at Hurricane Elementary School this fall. They are so lucky and they don't even know it yet! My little sister is all grown up. Congratulations on being the first of us three kids to get a Bachelor Degree. You so totally rock!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Nasty, Grodiness

Grody: repulsive; disgusting; nauseating.


This a word that I haven't used since the 80's, but no other word comes close to describing how dirty and disgusting cleaning this house has been. I have worn out more rags than I can count scrubbing these walls. The rag becomes so dirty, so quickly, that I don't dare not scrub an area for fear that the paint won't stick or that it will seep into my belongings and make all of them dirty too. As bad as the walls, closets, and cabinets have been (and don't even ask about the oven - did anyone ever clean that thing) the carpets have been by far the worst. We vacuumed and vacuumed and then did it some more. We ended up killing my vacuum and broke the belt on Shiloa's. Luckily mom also had a vacuum and it survived the ordeal intact. A moment of silence for the vacuums that gave their all.

This is a picture of the lovely grodiness that Shiloa got out of the office with 10 passes of one room with the vacuum and I had already done the room once or twice. The bagless vacuum would fill up at least half way each time, not really lessening with each pass. We eventually had to say that it was good enough and just shampoo it from there. We are hoping that it will be good enough to delay recarpeting the house for a few more years. With some strategical placing of furniture and a few turns of a blind eye to numerous stains, it just might work. Here's to hoping that the grodiness is down to a livable amount.

Painting, Painting, Painting, ...

So when you get down to it, when you paint a whole house - it takes a lot of work. I can't imagine having to do this without all the help that we have had from my family. And all the trim work - wow. It seems like it will never end. Mom has been a painting ninja with her awesome roller. I have been prepping in the corners and around the edges. The kitchen has been my least favorite to paint
because you have to be so careful going around all of the cabinets. I do love the colors that Patrick and I picked out. The house seems much more inviting and warm. The color before was a slight off white with some time of cool purple/blue tinge which always left me feeling chilled. That might be a desirable trait in a place that is so hot in the summer, but not how I want people to be greeted when they enter our home. I can't wait until we are finished because I am really tired of painting - and it is going to look wonderful!

Guess Who Is 29?

Jerry!!!!

Jerry is my all-time favorite brother! Okay, forget that he is my only brother, he is still awesome! Today is his 29th birthday and we were able to get together at a park and have a BBQ. He and Adrienne, his wife, are expecting their first baby, a little boy, in October. It is hard for me to imagine that Jerry will soon becoming a dad and what a lucky little boy he will be!

The food was delish and it was fun watching Ozzy (the newest edition to Jerry's family). That dog dotes on Jerry and follows him everywhere. Ozzy would begin to whimper if he couldn't at least have Jerry within his eyesight. Crazy - but it appears the feelings are mutual!

Yen Can Cook

...or at least I can! When we had our house inspected, we were informed that the digital display on the oven would not even turn on, and therefore didn't work. Patrick and dad looked at the price of a new one, which was pricey ($400) or a refurbished one ($180ish). Since the guy that they needed to talk to about the refurbished one was on vacation, dad decided to open up the circuit board and take a look. He found a thermo.....something that looked blown. So he ordered 4 new ones for under $1. When the parts came in he pulled out his soldering iron and went to work. I can now cook - the display came right up and all is well!!!! I know you are all jealous, but back off, he's my dad (okay, I might share if you're really nice). I love it when I don't have to spend more money - today is a good day.

As a side note, this oven was the most disgustingly dirty thing. Even though it has an automatic oven cleaner setting on it, I don't think that it was ever used. My mom and I literally had to use a plastic putty knife to peel many layers off the bottom. Anyone what some "fruit leather?" There is also a grease trap underneath that was filled and overflowing onto the floor. Yikes - In a moment of extreme brilliancy I started cleaning it almost immediately, before we even knew if the oven could be fixed. I am so happy that the oven now works and all the hard work will be worth it.

No Court Date, No Girls

We have been waiting the last three weeks for our court date to be scheduled. When we received a call from the adoption director yesterday, we were afraid something was wrong, but we never imagined this. It had just come to light, through the girls talking with the nannies, that they are not sisters, and they are not orphans. The families were hoping to give the girls a better life and falsified the documentation at the orphanage (as far as can be determined). We are so very heartbroken. Words cannot express our devastation.

Please know that we have complete confidence in CHI and admire their high dedication to ethics. We know that they were deceived as well and they are trying to determine an even higher standard to ensure this does not happen again. In the meantime, we are back on the waiting list. Last week, in the weekly update, families were notified that the wait for siblings could be up to 16 months. We hope and pray that we don't have to wait another 10 months and will try to continue to have faith in God's timing - but honestly, right now, it is hard.

Holes

One of the first things that we have to tackle in the house is to fix all the holes in the drywall. There are several small ones throughout the house, many behind the door knobs. Then there is the hole by the front door that looks like it was kicked and a huge one in the laundry area, we think because of water damage. The hole by the door just needs to be textured now. In the laundry area, the plumbing is almost fixed (thanks, Dad) and then we (and I really mean Patrick here) can get on with the dry walling. And I must insert here that when Dad and I were cleaning up the floor that there was an overwhelming odor of wet dog - Yuck. I hope that we got it all up for good, but I'm not overly optimistic, I will probably need to bleach the whole floor at some point.
We have been looking at paint colors and think that we will be going with some warm beige tones. Slowly but surly we have been making progress, I can't wait until we get to move in!

Shopping!

This is the bedding set that we ordered for our girls today. Now that we actually know who our children are going to be, it is time to shop! The first thing that Raylene wants to do is to get the girls bedroom ready so that we can take pictures. We are able to send them a photo book so they will be able to see the house and their room before they come home. Raylene has already spent many hours the past few days looking at different bedding sets online (the actual shopping excursion last Saturday didn't prove fruitful). After much deliberation a choice has been made that both of us are really happy with ... we really hope that the girls like it too! We found the sets on sale and we were able to get free shipping, which makes it all the sweeter. Once the bedding has arrived, we will be able to pick out a paint color for the bedroom. Oh, let the fun begin!

Last Day!

Today is Patrick's last day of work at Utah State University. I am so glad that we will be living in the same house again, it has been a long 6 weeks! He still has his part-time telecommuting job with Instaproofs, and we are still on the lookout for the elusive full time employment. Life really has a way of being completely unpredictable. We need to find something that offers group insurance so that our girls will be covered. I sometimes become discouraged about the job situation, as it is not good to be looking in this economy, but I try to continue to have faith that this is where we are supposed to be and therefore something will work out. On a much better note - Patrick will be here, to stay, tonight!!!!!!

Hello Ethiopia! We are the Millers

We received an e-mail telling us that CHI has received our referral acceptance packet today. They are now informing our Ethiopian representative and coordinator! Our dossier will next go through more entities for approval before our case goes to court in country. We are told that the process usually takes about 8 weeks. During that time the dossier will be translated, authenticated, reviewed by the MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs) and a summary report written. We probably won't find out our court day for several weeks. It is amazing how things are just moving along. Every day is one day closer to meeting our girls. We can't wait to be able to post their pictures so that you can all see how precious they are.

No Longer Homeless

Today we had a successful closing on our home! Yay!!! Now the real work begins. Drywall, electrical wiring, painting, repairs, and LOTS of cleaning, but it is worth it! Our home is a 4BR, 2BA and we already have the girls' room picked out. Raylene's favorite feature is the kitchen - nice and big. Patrick's favorite is the wide 2 car garage. Once we get the inside ready we will have to get an updated home study which we will hand carry with us to Ethiopia. It seems like there is always one more thing to get done! But really, that is a blessing because the time just keeps flying by and we are beginning to think that we will be throwing things in our suitcases as we rush out the door to catch our plane in a few months. When we get the house ready we will start on the yard, it needs more grass and less weeds! We should be getting the keys tomorrow and then it will feel more real. Patrick will be driving back to Logan for his final 4 days working at the University of Utah. We are both looking forward to being able to live in the same house after being separated for almost 7 weeks. We are so very grateful to Raylene's sister, Shiloa, for letting up live in her craft room during the move and while we fix up the house - she is amazing!

We Offically say "YES!!!"

The two beautiful girls that we have been falling more and more in love with everyday are going to be ours! As if any of you doubted, we offically signed the acceptance paperwork today! I still can't believe how fast this is all happening, but I'm sure we will be ready in time. Can you believe it, we have two daughters who are waiting for us in Ethiopia!

On another note, our house that was supposed to be closing today, didn't happen. We are now rescheduled for "sometime" on Monday. Patrick will have to take another day off work and we won't be able to start on any of the projects we had hoped to do this weekend. I have to say that working with the adoption world has made me a little more flexible (not to say that I like it that way or that I enjoy it any better). Here's to praying for good things to happen on Monday.

THE CALL !!!!!! - The Other Side

We decided to share our own experience on this event because it is so significant.

Early Monday afternoon I received a call on my cell phone from an unknown caller id, I usually let them go to voice mail but we were close to finishing up the sale on our new home and I was expecting some calls from potential employers. I recognized Erin's voice from our Adoption Agency and thought, "Now that is odd, we have all of our paper work done. Why would they be calling me?" We exchanged typical greetings and then Erin said, "Can you hold on while I conference Raylene in?" My stomach hit the floor at the same time my heart jumped. This was it! The Call! Now I can not speak from experience what it is like to have my wife go through the stages of pregnancy and then after all the waiting receive a call at work where the caller says, "She's going into labor!" Raylene has joked a couple of times in saying that we are paper pregnant. Anyway, I think that is about how I felt at that moment. Raylene came on the phone about 2 minutes later and when Erin announced the news, Raylene fell apart with giddiness as Erin informed us that we had a referral for two girls ages 5 and 3-1/2 years old. A couple minutes later we received the email with their photos and profiles.

I was useless and un-productive at work for the rest of the day. I went around telling everyone in my office and called my family to share the good news. I finally just took the rest of the afternoon off. On the way home I picked up a bottle of Martinelli's Apple Cider and a half gallon of Dryer's Ice Cream to celebrate with the Darrington's (Raylene's cousins whom I was staying with), I was still in Logan, UT while Raylene was in LaVerkin, UT staying with her sister Shiloa.

I was excited and terrified at the same time because we have been working toward this for about two years and it was finally going to happen, however we still had not closed the sale on our new home, which needed a little more than TLC, and I did not have a job yet in Southern Utah where we were going to live. I do have a temporary job but that won't take care of us in the long run. So to say I was a bit stressed is an understatement. Despite the craziness of it all, it was the happiest day of my life next to our wedding day and I know the day we first meet them will be right up there with the other two, probably even better!

THE CALL !!!!!!

I can't believe it - We are going to be the parents of two beautiful Ethiopian daughters! We got the call today! They are 5 & 3-1/2 years old and absolutely perfect. I am so very excited, words cannot express what I feel, I'm still in shock! We got our call from our adoption consultant, Erin Seigel, at 1:45pm. I was busy at work when the call came. Needless to say, I didn't get any more done the rest of the day! When I saw the (314) area code on my cell phone, I was worried that something was wrong with our paperwork, or that Erin was just calling to get an update on our house situation. As soon as she asked me to hold on for just a second while she got Patrick on the line, I knew it was our referral. My heart started pounding out of my chest and I could hardly breathe. WOW! So very unexpected and so very wonderful. I keep staring at their photos and still can't believe it.

This has taken us completely by surprise! Next Monday would have been our six month mark, about half way there or so we thought. There are many couples with our agency who have been waiting over nine months for a 'singleton' and most of the sibling referral families have waited for at least 10-12 months. I figured that I would start getting anxious around the 10 month mark and that I had plenty of time to finish up on some projects and learn some Amharic. Nope - it's crunch time!

We won't be able to post pictures of the girls until we pass court in Ethiopia, however, we would be happy to share them with anyone that wants to stop by and visit. hint, hint

Home Inspection

Today I got to meet with our home inspector - Frank Ross. He seemed to have done a very thorough job and we now have a very long to-do list. As I look at all the things that we will have to do, several right away so that we can update our adoption homestudy, I am thankful that we didn't go with one of the other more intense fixer-uppers that we looked at. One of the joys of home ownership is making it your own, one of the not so grand things is owning all of the problems! However we are optimistic that we will be able to handle most of the repairs on our own (by this I mean with Dad's help!). The house should be closing in about a week, 3/27. We will keep up updated on the progress.

Spring Break

Shiloa had Spring Break and wanted to do something fun. I was lucky enough to be invited to go along. We left for Mesquite, NV on Monday where Shiloa had a free 2 night stay at the Virgin River Hotel and Casino. We met one of Shiloa's friends, Britney and had lunch and then watched "New in Town." It was really cute and we had a lot of fun. Afterward we went back to the hotel and watched ... more movies! We also worked on stringing beads and watch bands. We ate snacks and had a really fun time. Britney had to go back home that evening.

On Tuesday, Mom and Dad met us at the hotel and we all went to the Lost City Museum which offers a reconstructed Anasazi building that is open to visitors. It was interesting learning about their culture and way of life. We also had a picnic on the grounds before heading farther south to the Valley of Fire. I know that we live in Red Rock country, but this area is really beautiful. We went on several small hikes and saw some amazing rock formations. I think that my favorite was Elephant Rock but it was all so beautiful. I kept thinking to myself that it was such good weather - in the middle of March and we were out hiking in jeans and a t-shirt. Poor Patrick was up in Logan enduring the cold and shoveling the snow - I am going to love living down here again. I can't wait to be able to come back here with Patrick and have another fabulous day. That night we went out to dinner for Chinese - Yum! After Mom and Dad left, Shi and I ... watched more movies and did more beading!

Thursday was a bit of a lazy day, ... we watched movies and beaded! Overall, we had so much fun and relaxed. I recommend taking few days like this every week (if only)! Here are some more pictures from our day in Valley of Fire.

Snowy Moving Day

No one would try to pick Valentine's Day as the day you ask for help to load up your moving truck, but that is the way it happened none the less. And as luck would have it, we also had rain and snow. I really am not going to miss that about Logan one little bit! I can't tell you how grateful I was for everyone that showed up to help out - I was truly amazed and humbled, once again, by the goodness of people. The truck was load (full to the brim - next time we move I'm afraid we will have to get His and Her trucks - it just won't fit once we add kids!) and the house cleaned and scrubbed. I did make the comment that if we are supposed to have food storage, we should ever be inspired to move. Yikes! I can see why so many people end up leaving it behind when they move. I'm sure it will come in handy but it sure is a pain to move.

We received a call saying that the closing on the house might happen on Wednesday instead of Tuesday. Mom and I were going to wait around the house doing mostly nothing on Monday and leave with Patrick on Tuesday after the signing. We were not willing to wait around for 2 full days with nothing to do, so we left on Sunday, with plenty of time for Patrick to get back for the signing. Mom was an angel and took Katana in her cat carrier, I took Musaka with me, and Patrick got to drive the beast of a truck. Mom discovered that Katana travels better with audio books - she will meow up a storm over music or silence, but does better - not great - with books. A kitty after my own heart! We arrived without incident and packed it all into storage - once again with amazing help from the ward. Now onto finding a home. In the meantime, Patrick will be staying with our cousins, Bonnie and Eldon, up in Logan and I will be living with my sister, Shiloa, down here in LaVerkin. Please, oh please, let this time pass quickly.

Four Months and Counting

Today we have been on the official waiting list for four months. It is really hard to believe that so much time has passed already. We had been told, and expected, this wait to seem like it goes on forever. The magic recipe must be to have a house guest, visit family out of state, plan a big anniversary trip, and decide to move. There hasn't been much time left for worrying about when "the day" will come. Here's to hoping the next 6 or so months pass just as quickly. There has been a lot of referrals over the last few weeks (at least 15) and it is so good to hear about the happy families who receive them, it will soon be our turn. We have moved along on the waiting list, as we are now #48 - who knows, maybe it will happen sooner than we think! Since we still have all of the moving to do, I'm sure the next two months or so will be gone before we know it.

6 Years - and still in love!

We decided for our 6th wedding anniversary that we would take a trip to "Where Dreams Come True". We have great hopes for many good and hoped for dreams coming true this year. We were able to stay a few miles from the park and really relax. Overall there were not many crowds, except for the day that we went to Disney's Hollywood Studio. Raylene really enjoyed all the animals at Animal Kingdom and Patrick loved Expedition Everest. The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire trip, stayed in the 80's and we had to pull out the sunscreen. It was such a wonderful change from all the snow, it was hard to go back.

We were also able to go to a session at the LDS Orlando Florida temple. This has been a hobby of Raylene's lately, while on vacation, to go to the temple if there is one nearby ('nearby' is a rather relative term sometimes). As always, it was peaceful and beautiful. We both noticed that the populous was much more diverse than back home, and though it would be wonderful to live in such an area, we would really miss being close to family. So on with the move from Logan, but not to the east coast.

It's Going, Going, Gone

We can't believe it! We met with our Realtor, Byron Hernandez, on Thursday evening. He brought someone over to look at it on Friday (we went out for a movie date). They requested to look again on Sunday. Tuesday we had an offer, we countered and it was accepted today! We are moving to ..... ? But we will be out of the house by February 17th. Yikes! There is so much to get packed and we are leaving next week for our week long anniversary trip to Florida. We still haven't decided where we are moving, it has only been week! Guess it is time to get busy.

We are going to move - Just don't know where!

We have been talking, and we really feel that we need to move out of Logan. Our original plan has always been to stay here for a year after we bring our children home and then move. However, after more research and praying, we feel that it would not be good on the kids to move them again so soon after moving them from their country. We would also like to be closer to family, to have more support and for the kids to get to interact more with the extended family. Neither of us is complaining about leaving the snow behind either! Patrick complained that he would not find a better job environment with as good friends, but it was not enough to keep us from moving. This is a huge change for us but we feel it is right, so we will continue to have faith and move forward.

The housing market has not been the best and we know of several families with their homes for sale, some that have been on the market for over a year. We are hopeful that we will be able to sell the house by summertime. With that hope goes a hope that the job Patrick will be looking for, will be willing to wait for the house to sell. We are considering the St. George area, Las Vegas, and Provo (in that order). In the meantime, we will do a few repairs and clean in order to meet with a Realtor this week.