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!

Sunday's Text

"Returned from Awasa today, all safe together. Get trans-visa tomorrow and finish packing. Very glad to be traveling home soon! Kids are still great!"

Saturday's Text

"Both met the kids' uncle today, he is a wonderful man, glad could meet him. Also saw lots of countriside on trip and Lake Awasa evening."

Friday's Text

"Traditional meal was good. Traveling to Awasa tomorrow."

For those of you who don't know Awasa is the city where Zach and Livy were first placed in the orphanage. If there is any chance of meeting any relatives of the kids, to get information and ask questions, this is the one and only chance.

Thursday's Text

(There was no text on Wednesday) "Sorry I fell aspleep last night. K (Olivia Kefelech) slept better and so did we. Starting to see more of thier personalities and talking. They are so good and such a joy always."

Tuesday's Text

"Day 2- Mamush: can tie his shoes, trace most of the alphabet correctly, get dressed, say the alphabet, fold his clothes, match sets for go-fish, smiles a lot. Kefelech: helpful, made the bed, get dressed, loves to draw and copy brother, 1st real laugh, tiny and talks, can write about half the alphabet correctly, cute. They called us Mommy and Daddy today, looked for us when time to go, are restless wiggling sleepers, eat well, talking more, and are absolutely wonderful! LOVE"

Monday's Text

"Today was amazing and so tiring. The kids are absolutely wonderful! K (Olivia Kefelech) doesn't like onions and is so smart. M (Zachariah Mamush) is ticklish and got car sick."

1 day down, only about 4745 days till they are 18 years old

I am just kidding, right now we are really enjoying this time with Mamush and Kefelech. It was the most exciting day in my life next to our wedding day! Just FYI, Internet connection will be intermittent so we may or may not be able to post regularly.

So Children's Hope International (CHI) picked us up at Melkham House around 9:30 am local time and it was about 15min driving to reach House of Hope (HOH) and then we were shown into a room on the second floor with couches, chairs and what not, basically the equivalent of the torturous hospital waiting room, 10 min later one of the nannies walked in with the kids. Neither one of them knew who to look for ( we found out later the photo book, stuffed animal, and toy caddies made for them never arrived so they have never seen us until today. ), once they were pointed in the right direction it was hugs and picture taking city. I wish I could write more however time is limited. Overall it was the awesomest day ever, life is good when you are thirty years old and it is OK to play with the big wheels!

P.S. Ethiopia is 3+hrs ahead of greenwitch time, 10+hrs ahead of Utah.

The latest from Raylene and Patrick

Hey everyone... This is Shiloa (Raylene's sister) The happy parents asked me to post the texts and emails they send to us here on their blog so that everyone can enjoy this week with them. Just so you all know, Ethiopia is 10 hours ahead.

On Saturday morning (Saturday at 9:00 p.m. for them) we received an email that they were at the guest house (where they will be staying). The trip was long but they arrived with no problems. I also got this text from Raylene, "We are 10 hours ahead. All is great. Can't wait to see it in daylight. We should get a bit of sleep. I sent a message to Mom. Saw a fruit stand. Love it so far."

Yesterday (Sunday) we received a text as well... "Today we were just lazy. Slept well, ate pizza at Green View. Loved hot shower. Nervous & excited about tomorrow, seems surreal. Patrick's phone not working. Love"

Then later that evening my mother got this email... "We just got the Internet to work! I wanted to write a quick note to say hello. Everything is going well and we will see the kids in less than 12 hours! This is so exciting and wonderful and completely nerve racking at the same time. Hope that the cats aren't giving you too much trouble - thanks so much for all that everyone has done to help and support us in getting here. This is truly amazing. I will try to write again tomorrow when I hope to have so much more to tell. Take care, I am going to bed now!
~ Raylene Miller, mommy to 2 :0)"

By now they are with their children... Hooray!!!!

I'll try to keep their blog updated. ~Shiloa

Final Updated Photos

Raylene was bouncing at 6am this morning, not a normal occurrence in our home, but that is only because in 24hrs we will be boarding the plane to leave for Ethiopia to bring our kids home. In addition to that, she also received the last of the updated photos of our kids. This next week should be a whole lot of fun!

Investing for the future

Travel Immunizations $363.00

Lodging while in-country $942.00
Plane tickets for Ethiopia $4,960.00

Seeing our children's faces for the first time ... Priceless!

One Week and counting

In one week we will be somewhere in the air between Las Vegas and Chicago on our way to Ethiopia!!! So much to get done and yet the time can't come soon enough! So exciting :0)

Pictures and Updates

Thanks to some other traveling parents with CHI we received these new photos last night! They are so precious and we can't wait to hold them and love on them. We love that Livy Kefelech is smiling in these. They are so beyond konjo (Amharic: beautiful / handsome)!

We also got an email from our adoption consultant with their updated heights and weights. They are actually shorter in this round of measurements, which really isn't all that uncommon. We have been told that sometimes they are measured with shoes on, the kids can be wiggly, standing on uneven ground, you name it. They are definitely gaining weight, which is great!

Zachariah Mamush

At Referral (11/10/2009)
16 kg - 113 cm
(35.3 lb - 44.5 in)

Now (1/12/2010)
19 kg - 108 cm
(41.9 lb - 42.5 in)


Olivia Kefelech

At Referral (11/10/2009)
15 kg - 105 cm
(33 lb - 41.4 in)

Now (1/12/2010)
16 kg - 103 cm
(35.3 lb - 40.5 in)

We had a travel call with our agency this morning and we should find out our official VISA date tomorrow! Which means we should be able to buy our tickets and finalize and the last minute travel arrangements very soon!