Happiness in a Garage Door!

I know I had posted earlier about watching God work on that list I made of concerns at the end of 2009. Little by little, God checked several things off that list. I wanted to share the pictures of one of these things...my garage door. If you don't recall this amazing story, you can read about it by clicking here. Otherwise, just have a moment of happiness with me....

This was our nasty, old garage door.
I know, you are jealous! :)

The pretty new door!


The whole enchilada. Love it!

Favorite Christmas Moments

I know I am a bit behind, but truly I did not upload my pictures from Christmas until yesterday due to being a bit busy. So, as I flipped through the pictures on my computer, I saw some of my favorites that I thought I would share with you. I already shared two of my favorites with the Perkins' girls and the ones with Doodle and my dad, but I hope you enjoy these too. Doodle and Bean on Christmas Eve.

The Miller Family

My cute parents! Love them!!!

Some people would not like this one, but I think it is hilarious!
All 8 cousins after I took the "Christmas shot" did one crazy one.

My sweet sister and her honey.

(not sure why I don't have a pic of my brother and his wife this year! bad!)

Our Tree
Bean reading the Christmas story to us this year.
Daddy and Doodle. Too cute!

Doodle and her favorite gift: interior design studio kit.
Bean and her "stocking".

Since we just got the new mantel, we hated to hang anything

on it, so we used pillowcases and she thought it was fun! :)
My mother and father-in-law in a rare moment of silliness.

The four "Miller" cousins. All taller than me in one year. :)

A Day to Celebrate!

Some moments, over time, tend to slip your mind. It is amazing how someone who I shared life with years ago can share a story which I do not recall one bit. Makes me feel so bad and so old! :) Then there are those moments in life that you will never forget. For those moments are the ones that change you forever. Today marks one of those days for our family. Twelve years ago today, Matt and I, along with my dad and his mom, walked into a courtroom downtown and stood before a judge to pubicly state what we had already privately done a few months before....
We will love this child as our own forever. Today is Doodle's adoption day.

This is a day we celebrate with Doodle. We want to honor the day we "officially" became a family. While we brought our precious bundle home two days after she was born, we did not get the official gift of being her parents until we had those papers signed from the judge. So January 8 will always be a day that I remember. I remember it all....the feeling the night before of knowing that this baby I was holding would be with us forever. That the precious smile she had would be ours to enjoy for the rest of our lives. I remember sitting in her nursery that night before and weeping tears of joy and some tears of relief. After years of waiting, our baby girl was home and home for good. So, Doodle, this day will always be a day I celebrate with you. You are and will always be my precious little girl. I love you and I am so thankful out of all the mommies in the world, God chose me to be yours. I am forever grateful and know that the best gift is watching you grow into the young lady you are becoming and the strong woman of God you will become. Thank you, God, for giving me the chance to hear the word I wanted to badly in my home, Mommy. Today is a day to celebrate!

In A Flash Of An Eye....

they are all grown up. Over Christmas break, we had the chance to get together with a few of our dearest friends. Truly one of my favorite things to do. One family, the Perkins, have two girls pretty close to the same age distance as ours. The oldest, "Kitty" and the youngest, "Libby" are just the cutest little girls! They are now 51/2 and 3.

The Perkins and Miller Girls!

My girls are so excited to have them over every single time they come. They love these little girls so much. They truly adore having them over to play. And play they did! While the adults all played cards, talked and laughed a lot, the girls all put on play after play for us. Here are a few pictures from their plays:

The story was about a butterfly...notice the "green caterpillar". So clever!

Watching the girls all put on this play, suddenly I had the realization that my girls were so big! One is almost a teen and the other is in her last year in single digits. Yet, I remember so much what my life was like when my girls were the Perkins' girls ages! How did that happen?! Oh, let me reassure you, I love the ages my girls are at now. I rejoice in many parts of the stages they are in now, but for that moment that night, suddenly I realized just how fast time flies by for that little butterfly in the picture use to be my Doodle and the sunglasses diva was my Bean not so long ago. Enjoy every moment of their childhood and cherish those little things that make life so delicious for truly it all goes by in the flash of an eye.

Pure Joy

Doodle loves to tell jokes. She is a funny kid who tries to make others laugh if possible. With this love of laughter, she has found a bossom buddy, my dad, Poppy. Poppy attends Bible Study Fellowship with Matt and the girls as well as most the other grandkids and my mom. On BSF nights, Matt has to stay late and Poppy has brought Doodle home from BSF early since she was in first grade. They had this weekly date alone until Bean started attending evening BSF with them a little over two years ago. During this drive time, Doodle always has a joke for Poppy and he tries to have one for her in return. These little jokes did not start out as funny on her end, trust me. But that did not stop her nor did Poppy let her know that they weren't funny. Over time, her jokes have become funny and she and Poppy share this little bond of jokes.

Poppy (my dad) telling Doodle a joke. I love the way she is looking at him.

Over Christmas, I was able to snap this picture of them sharing a joke or two. After looking at the pics on my computer, I was touched. What a special moment to have with your grandpa. To know he finds in you pure joy. I knew that kind of love from my grandpas and I am so grateful to get to see it first hand with them.

Doodle and Poppy enjoying a good laugh at one of their jokes.

A Man, A Shovel and A Moment with God

You know there are not many times I am speechless. Today was one of those days. As the girls and I were sitting by the fire reading about Joshua and the Israelites for history today, Doodle yelled, "Someone's in our driveway!". Now those of you who know Doodle understand that when I say she yelled, I mean she yelled. :) Anyway, I turned to look and saw a man I did not recognize standing by our garage. I noticed he has a snow shovel and after that he got busy shoveling our driveway. I was stunned!

After thinking about it for a minute, I realized the man was our neighbor's son. He has lived with her for the past year or two but I have never been officially introduced and certainly all bundled up, it was hard to tell who was out there. So I opened the door and thanked him and asked him if he needed some helpers. He said, and I quote,

"No ma'am. I didn't think anyone was home. I wanted to do this for the Dr. since he has given me so much dental care for free. I did it last year too and I just want to do this for him."

My jaw hit the ground I am sure. After that encounter, I made him some hot cocoa and sent our oldest out to give him the drink and ask one more time if he wanted helpers. Again, he said he did not want anything from us, just wanted to thank Matt. So I started praying for this man.

When he finished, he brought the mail up to the door and rang the bell. I answered and he asked if I was Mrs. Miller and I assured him I was. He said he was sorry that he interrupted our day but he thought no one was home and just wanted to help out the Dr. because he has helped him so much. I thanked him and reassured him that he did not interrupt our day. I told him that Matt enjoys serving others and what he said next stunned me, " You guys do good mission work. Thank you!"

Do you know how weird it is to watch someone serve you in this way and to be listening to someone talk like that about your family? I am so use to getting up and helping out that it felt like I was being lazy or something but what a blessing this man gave my husband. And truly for this man, what a blessing he got in doing so. I just know that God was pleased with his heart in this moment. Also, what a moment for my girls to hear this man honor their daddy in this way. Truly one of those moments you just can't set up on your own. It was amazing. Only God could arrange such a divine meeting.

As for my girls, well, let's just say that they got to see first hand what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ for others. I wonder who we can go bless tomorrow?!

New Year...New Goals!

As I posted earlier in December, we spend some of our Christmas morning writing down and sharing things we want to give to Jesus this year. We put those things in a pretty little box that hangs on the tree. That is such a special, sweet part of the day for all four of us.

This year, we were reading through some of the old things we had "given" to Jesus and we noticed a slight trend in a few of our gifts. It seems we are really good at thinking of things we should give to Jesus and not so good at actually giving them to Him! So that got me to thinking. (must add the words of my sweet friend Pooh Bear....think, think, think) Anyway, what do we need to do to make those gifts a reality this year so we don't see the same things written down again? Then it hit me...goals! We need to do more than just write it down, pray about and think about it for a bit. We need to do all that but then set up goals to helps us reach these desires. So we spent New Years Day setting up our new goals for the year in hopes to honor the gifts we have given Jesus this year. I must say, I was humbled by my girls lists. We had them come up with ways to make their gift happen and they so did that over and beyond my expectations. I will not share their goals as I feel they are theirs to share with whom they choose, but I feel I need to share mine so I will have others helping me stay accountable to this goal in my life. So, the following are my gifts to Jesus and my goals to make those gifts a reality:

1. Honor God through my time, talents and treasures. How?
~turn off the tv, computer and phone. If I have not had my quiet time, done my study etc, they do not turn on.
~give more money to the missions we support and tithe in abundance
~ serve God when He calls me to the ministry He desires me to serve

2. Care for those He has place in my care with a cheerful heart. How?
~ again, by studying His Word each morning and spending time in prayer, I am able to do just that. When I wait to get up when they are up and start my day at the same time, I am spent by noon. :)

~consider the "mundane" chores a blessing with each load of laundry I fold, each dish I dry, each toilet I clean for it is not those things I am doing it for. I need to remember that with each of those things, my heart should be focused on the blessing of having a family to care for and having the gift of clothes to wash, dishes to clean and toilets to scrub for there are people who have none of that including the family and would give their right arm to trade places.

3. Care for His temple...(AKA my body!) How?
~ exercise 3-4 times per week.
~ lose weight

4. Love Him with all of my mind, heart, soul. How?
~Memorize 20 new scriptures to bring to mind and hold me accountable to 'what is true'.
~ spend time with him...we love those we spend time with!

5. Pray....talk to Him! How?
~ easy....PRAY daily, weekly, hourly....moment by moment.
~ keep a prayer journal and note answered prayers