Friday's Funny~tea party at CDM

zoo day!

This past Wednesday, Havers and I squeezed in a quick trip to the Peoria Zoo with our dear friends, the Baners :)  Haven loved being with Reese & Elle and missed having Graham along :) 

It was the first day the baby tiger cubs were allowed to be viewed by the public so those 4 little darlings were pretty cute to see!

 

 the little tiger cub & his mommy

After lunch at BWW in E. Peoria, we headed across the parking lot to get...

 

...I'll let you guess!?

 

ISU Retreat 2012

This past weekend we traveled to with our ISU college students up to Northern Bay Resort near Arkdale, WI.  We felt honored to be asked & enjoyed the time spent hearing students' hearts, studies, concerns, praises, voices in song & their love of the Lord...it was a good revival time for Arlan and I as well.
Haven, of course, came along and LOVED the attention the college kids and her new friends showed her...she is MUCH too spoiled and was quite the 2.5 year old all the way home with very little sleep catching up with her!

ISU group-we love you all & are prayerful for your next semester!

[warning---we have a large group so there are LOTS of pictures!]

adoption update

Many of you have asked [thank you!] about our adoption status & I've been dormant in posting because, well, I was waiting for something to post :)...we have completed the paper chase portion [for now] of our process & have just mailed it off to our agency in Texas for them to look over & send to their Ugandan lawyers to start the match/referral process.  Their aren't many families in our agency Uganda program so that allows my heart to hope excitedly & expectantly...but the realization that foreign countries & placement are a "you just never know" thing, makes me realize we will need to patient.  The referral process will take approximately 6-12 months with travel occurring within 1-2 months after that...trust me, when a referral comes & we accept, I will post!!!

For those of you who have been praying the last 1-2 weeks specifically, we thank you...it seems like about 3.5 months of paperwork is a long time when in fact it is a bit quicker than the average 3-6 months it takes to usually compile the necessary birth/marriage/criminal/home study/medical records needed. State clearances, re-registering by our agency, the state's typo mistake with Arlan's social security number...well, it just adds to the waiting...and the waiting apparently [according to my friend Megan] is going to make me stronger :)

So we now will place our timing, our travels...our little Miller daughter into God's most impeccable time table.
Thank you for your prayers!

 

Friday's Funny ~ young Democrats

Okay, so our mother-in-law may disown us, but it was way TOO tempting!!!
I'll blame Theresa :)

surprise #2

Getting a few girls together for Holly's birthday seems easy...

BUT keeping it a surprise for someone who LOVES to know what's going on is a bit more tricky...we were able to pull it off with the help of her hubby Kent and some great friends-thanks ladies for celebrating a fun night out for our good friend Holly!

 the birthday party: Kent, Holly, Kristy, Tami, me, Kristin (her Mom), Heather & Taryn

 Kristy's owl cupcakes-very yummy!

 the birthday girl & her husband!