Uncle Joe pics

Uncle Joe playing with a toy...doesn't he look like he is teaching Mateo something important?

Who taught my kid to be such a ham?

Three generations of LaPlante's...pretty cool for Papa!

It was great to see Joe before he headed back to WestPoint to finish out his 2nd year. We are SO PROUD of him. He is an incredible adult, and he is going to make a great Army dude.

Mateo giving Uncle Joe bye-bye hugs. We sure miss him. Hope to see him this summer!!

Easter pics

Tia LaLa overseeing the hunting of eggs into the yellow bucket of the new trike!

So the nose scar is courtesy of a face plant at the Oregon Garden. The helmet is from Nona to go with the trike that the Easter Bunny brought.

Sarah's co-worker Oscar is a new friend. He joined us for dinner at Nona's.

Uncle Dan doesn't fit on the trike...his knees are too big for the pedals!!

Nona overseeing the egg hunting. Thanks for a magnificent Easter Nona!!

Finally some pictures...

I am literally dozing off as I type this...but I wanted to finally get some pictures up...these are from an Easter egg hunt at the Oregon Garden with our Goddaughter, Maddie Broyhill. The egg hunt lasted less than 2 minutes, but the Garden was quite enjoyable. Better than on Easter when it POURED down rain. We're off to North Idaho this weekend to see Papa...looking forward to it!!

More ceremony photos

Greg Murphy should get an award for this photo...it's like looking into Mateo's soul!!

Buford has taken to wearing clothes, and kissing Mateo...I'm not sure who has more fun!

Shaking hands with the judge...

Hanging out with Nona & Angela Murphy...you can see Cousin Matt in the background.

Why is it that we can't manage to get all three of us smiling & looking at the camera at the same time?

Yesterday, we also went to Catholic Charities for our intake interview to begin a 2nd adoption process. Our intention this time is to adopt a child from Oregon state foster care. Our first assignment is to each answer 127 questions in essay format. They certainly don't make it easy.

It is amazing to be finishing one process (finally) and starting a second one. The objective is to get all our paperwork done prior to leaving for Italy...the social worker will write it up while we are away, and then we will begin to look at waiting children when we get home. No telling when the right fit will happen, but for now we are interested in either gender, less than Mateo's age.

We're off to Boise this weekend to hang out with Rachel's family. Here's to mellowing out time...

All our love, Sarah & Matt & Mateo

William Aquino Miller becomes Mateo William Miller officially

Hi friends!! Today was a big day for us. We went to court at 1:30 this afternoon to have our re-adoption hearing for Mateo. Here are some photos that our friend Michael (who is a Seminarian at Mount Angel Abbey with Sarah's cousin Matt Olson) took. We have more pictures to post that our friend Greg Murphy took, but this was all I could manage tonight. I'm sleepy.

This is the judge telling us all about how adoption is the only time he gets to make everyone happy (he is normally a probate judge...and someone always leaves that courtroom upset).

This is us trying to get Mateo to listen to the Judge....

The judge signing the actual decree of adoption & name change.

Shaking hands with us...Mateo preferred the High Five method...

Sitting in the judge's chair when it was all over.

More photos tomorrow (or in a day or two...whenever I get around to it)!

Love from the Millers...Sarah, Matt & officially Mateo

North Idaho Pics

For those of you who check my sister's blog, these will be a duplicate, but I thought others of you would like to see them...from Rachel's most recent trip to North Idaho. This is Papa's new shop.

Matt's Birthday

So last Monday night, we celebrated Matt's 46th birthday.
Nona cooked a feast (as usual)...broiled scallops, rice, asparagus, and brussel sprouts.
But the piece de resistance was the Sunshine cake for dessert.

Mateo has mastered candle blowing...and he always wants to help now.
I think Nona has been using those plastic flowers as accessories since Matt was Mateo's age!!

Mateo's smile just melts my heart...and his laugh warms my soul!!

Dan admires one of Matt's presents (a corded Dremel)...the cordless one he got for our wedding five years ago has finally kicked the battery bucket.

Mateo is such a big helper....the only problem is when Mama wants to save the paper...
then he might not be such a big helper!!

This coming week has lots in store for us. On Wednesday, we will start our morning at Catholic Charities having our entrance interview to begin a second adoption process officially. And at 1:30, we will be in a Marion County Courthouse seeing a judge to finalize our re-adoption of Mateo. The re-adoption accomplishes two things: we can change his name from William A. Miller (which is what all of our Guatemalan paperwork says) to Mateo William Miller, and it will allow for an Oregon Vital Statistics Birth Certificate (that lists us as parents and says he was born in Guatemala). That way when we try to sign him up for little league or something, his birth certificate will look like every other kids. We're taking friends to take pictures, so we'll try to post some on Wednesday night.

Looking forward to Boise Book Club next weekend...and cousin play time.

Hugs from Oregon, Sarah