3 Months... Wow can it be?

Wow, it has been over three months since our exchange student Sonja arrived. She has been such a blessing. The boys love her as do Chris and I. It's hard to believe that we only have a few short months left with her. We have already started to wonder if we will have another student? Really I can't believe we would have one that is as great as she is.

Sonja has made so many friends and is really enjoying "American" life. She is excited that Christmas is around the corner and just lights up with joy as she hears all the traditions our family does. We are looking forward to sharing ours with her and her sharing hers with us. Thanks giving was AWESOME... she has never experienced it and really had a great time eating and visiting with family and friends.

Not only has Sonja brought joy to our life, she has also filled a little bit of a void that I know I feel not having Myah. I can't say it replaces what we have lost, but it is a good distraction. Chris and I are talking about adopting, but the cost is high. We have a few options we are looking in to, but not 100% sure we are ready. Chris is really the one on the fence but, we will continue to pray and see where God leads us.

Please enjoy the attached photos of the kids.

First day of school.... and more

Sorry it has been sooo long since I last updated. So much has been going on. We have added to our family... well at least for the next 10 months. :-) We have a foreign exchange student from Germany. Her name is Sonja she is 15 (will be 16 in December) we LOVE her. She is great with the boys and really has just "fit" right in with our family. She is playing soccer with the JV team at our high school and has made many friends.

Schuyler, Connor, and Logan all went back to school on August 18th. It is strange to have the house empty for 30 minutes before I have to leave for work. Chris is enjoying the peace and quite on his days off with everyone in school. However, he has no excuses now to get the honey do list done. :-)

One of the things we have to do as an exchange family is include Sonja in our family outings. Well... our first official family outing was a camping trip. (IN A TENT) We had a great time, however, waking up to 43 degree temps one morning and having 70 mile an hour winds the next was CRAZY. Chris and I both forgot how nice it is to just set around a fire and not do a thing!!!! I am sure we will do more camping next summer, but I am voting for a camper!

Soccer for the boys is in full swing and we are crazy with practices and games that will be starting this coming Saturday 9/11/10. The crazy thing is we have 4 games every Saturday between now and the end of October. Going to be busy around here. I hate to say it, but I am looking forward to winter months because it is much calmer around the house. But I truly HATE the cold and snow.

I will attach a few pictures and try to get more up from our trip and soccer soon.

Myah - God's little angel and forever in our hearts

Here are a few picture's from Myah's celebration of life... We had a nice day the wind was heavy enough to carry away the balloons. We are hopping we will hear from at least one of them so we know Myah touched more lives then what we have seen. It was a sad day, but also a day of celebration. God gave us this little girl for a brief 30 minutes, but she has forever changed our lives.

We know that God has a plan for us, and for this whole situation. It may take years for us to figure it out, and it may take till we meet our little girl in heaven. However, we are here to carry on and look for the plan God has for us. Myah will grow up in heaven and we will some day meet her when our purpose on earth is complete. It is amazing how God uses these moments to touch lives and we all hope that Myah's will continue to touch lives for many years.

We would also like to thank everyone who is praying for our family, God is working daily in our lives to help mend the brokenness in our hearts. God has truly blessed us with many wonderful people and for you we are grateful.

Getting ready for Myah's celebration of life

Well, tomorrow we say a very public good bye to our beautiful baby girl Myah Lee Miller. She was with us for a very short 30 minutes. However, she saved my life. We have been planning a celebration of life for her now for almost 4 weeks. I needed time to heal, and we wanted to give family and friends time to make plans to attend. We are going to have a short but I am sure beautiful service officiated by our Pastor Randy Newton and right after we will release pink and white balloons in her honor. We are hopping people will find the balloons and respond to an email address or mail back a note. I am sure it is a long shot, but we felt it was the perfect thing to do for such a beautiful angel that touched our lives.

I will update more with photos of the day next week.

I told you to always wear shoes...

So, for the parents out there... how many times have you told your kids they need to wear shoes when they ride their bikes? I know I have said it at least a hundred times. Well, today Schuyler went to a friends house and when the mom dropped him off she says he had a spill on the bike and got some good scrapes. I am like ok, no big deal he is a boy he'll heal.

Well... I go in the house after talking with the mom and Schuyler is in the bathroom screaming. I am thinking ok, what the heck is the issue now? I enter the bathroom with him in tears... What he had done was ride a bike with out shoes, and ended dragging his feet across pavement. almost every toe on both feet are scraped up, not to mention that he literally scraped the nail to the skin on both his big toes. I spent the next 30 minutes calming him down and trying to figure out how to dress these wounds. Along with the conversation of now to you understand why we tell you to ALWAYS wear shoes???

He will heal, but I now understand why my parents were always so adamant about things. Don't' give up on the kids, they will learn some time!

Schuyler's is getting glasses...

So, mom has struck again. I have had glasses since I was 7 years old, and just this past week we found out that Schuyler will be getting glasses as well. We also found out that all three of my boys are color blind.... This too comes from mom! These poor kids are in trouble I think, I can think of quite a few other quirks about me that won't so good for them to inherit. LOL

Here is a picture of Sky in his new glasses.

3 boys... one room

So, as we had been preparing to have an addition to the family we told Logan and Connor that they would need to share a room. They were all good with that. Well when everything happened with Myah and we found out that she would not be coming home with us, but would be in her eternal home with Jesus the boys still insisted they move in together. I am good with this thinking woohoo I get an office! Time to get the computer out of my living room. :-)

Well we found an AWESOME deal on a bunk bed.... we picked it up today along with new mattresses. Chris got them all put together in the temporary room (we still have painting and what not to do in the other rooms) today, we now have 3 boys fighting over who is going to sleep where. I am thinking cool... 3 spare bedrooms in my 5 bedroom house! LOL so they all got into the bunk bed here is the funny part this lasted all of an hour before the all ended up back in their own rooms. Kids... they are just so funny to watch!

My first blog

I know I have Face Book and email, but that is not always conducive to true updates on our family. So, I figured I would step further into the world of the Internet and start up a blog.

Chris and I are busy raising our three boys... Schuyler (11), Connor (8), and Logan (4). We recently said hello and good bye to a beautiful baby girl Myah. Due to complications with my pregnancy the Dr's were forced to deliver Myah at 21 weeks gestation. As most of you well know there was no possible way for her to survive. We know that she sacrificed her life to save mine so I would still be here for her three older brothers. The Dr made it very clear that if we were able to keep going even 2 or 3 more weeks when Myah would be viable I would not have made it off the operating table. God was watching over me through this, and he continues to give me strength to make it through this trial.

In future blogs, I will update you on our celebration we are having June 12th for Myah's life. Also updates on how my three beautiful boys are doing. Summer is going by fast, and I am looking forward to spending time with my family.

I praise God daily that I am alive, and that I need to continue to look to him for strength.