Papa & Grammy come to visit

We had a GREAT time with Papa & Grammy who came last weekend to share in our baptism festivities. My father, as a present to Mateo, helped Matt to frame the deck in front of our house. And Grammy taught me that Mateo could tolerate way more than I imagined in the way of foods. He likes peeled grapes (cut in half) the best so far!

We picked them up on Friday morning early...here's the first lesson we learned--we had to borrow Matt's mom's mini-van because neither of our cars could fit four adults and a car seat!! Thanks to camo pajamas from Robin Renaldo in St. Maries, we were easy to spot at Portland International Airport.

After a breakfast at Shari's near the airport to avoid Friday morning traffic, we were off to Silverton to check out the new sites. Dad's first surprise was the new paint job on our house...it's a deep red, with chocolate brown accents, that people either love (this includes Matt & Sarah) or haven't warmed up to (this includes Matt's mom & some of our friends!)

First came the initial consult on plans, and the two pictures of the men in my life show who was really running the show. Mateo is teething and so Papa got some first hand experience with the power of those teeth.

The boys worked diligently and by early Saturday afternoon, they had it framed up. The building inspecter has to come and we have ordered the decking & railing to finish it...but Papa promises to come back next spring to help with the stair project--I believe Mateo has more to do with the visit, but we will take all the help we can get.

Friday night, we feasted at MamaNona's house--in grand Itailian style. Then on Saturday, we had a BBQ with our parents, Mateo's God family, Sarah's friends Melissa & Ryan, and Sarah's cousin on her mom's side-Ann & Steve Carter from Seattle. It was a great time to mix & mingle while passing the baby around!

The picture of the three ladies is Sarah's mom Cathy, Matt's Mom Louise, and Sarah's cousin Ann - Courtesy of fledgling photographer and "God-sister" Maggie.

The story of the shirts that Matt & Mateo are wearing is for computer geeks--v1.0 (version 1.0 is the original of an application-the one with all the bugs in it!!) v2.0 is the next generation upgraded version. These were a birthday present from our friends the Fronza's...the dad of which is a bigger MAC Computer geek than Matt!

And Mateo loves to fly--that's the position Matt has him in...if you are lucky enough to have hands big enough to get around his thighs!

The final picture is us with my parents...our steps make a decent setting for family pictures...if we could only get Mateo to look at the camera with Dad sitting next to him!

Anyway, we had a great time with Grammy & Papa and we miss them already. Lucky for us that we will get to spend Christmas with them...it will be a good thing for the three grandsons to be together in St. Maries.

Guess that's enough for now. All our love...The Millers

10 days without Internet

So I know that many of you are still checking the blog on a regular basis, because I have gotten calls about why there are not new pictures up yet...well as strange as this may seem given that we don't live in a developing world country, we have been without internet at our house for 10 days and the internet gods from Charter aren't due to come until next Tuesday to assess the situation. Amazing!!

But enough bad news, we are settling in perfectly! Mateo is adjusting wonderfully to his new surroundings. We were able to baptize him last Sunday (as per the original schedule) and he got passed around to all our friends and even without a nap, he did not result to melt-down mode. One of our friends commented about how bonded he was to us, because he was happy being passed around--but whenever he saw Matt or I--he would hold out his arms to us. It is amazing to feel that kind of love.

The pictures attached to this entry include my best friend from high school--Melissa Chilson and her beau Ryan holding Mateo at the pre-baptism dinner the night before. Then we have Mateo's Godfather, Josiah Kelley anointing him with the sign of the cross just as Mass was beginning on Sunday. The next picture is his "God-Family", aptly named by soon to be five year old "god-sister" Maggie Kelley, along with "god-sister" Lily Kelley, and "god-mom" Shannon Kelley (sporting "god-sibling to be named in late November--aka K3"). There is a picture of our priest, Fr. William, doing the actual baptising with water...Mateo had been sleeping until that very moment, and he didn't even scream to be awakened by cold water. That's certainly a god moment in our books. And finally, in our parish, we close mass with a blessing on the priest...this time, he invited us up, and the parish blessed us in our new family. To feel such a part of a community, and so surrounded by the love of God and family and friends...is a day I will never forget!

My parents came from North Idaho for a visit, but that gets an entry of its own, so we can show off more pictures...I'm typing that one next.

Hope all is well...love from Oregon!! Sarah & Matt & Mateo

How wonderful it is to come home...

Hi,

As I sit here writing, Matt is with Mateo on our living room floor experiencing new toys and the joy of carpet. As some of you know, crawling is not encouraged in Guatemala (probably related to the state of floors there--tile or concrete)...so Mateo wasn't crawling when we picked him up. But it has only taken two days on the living room carpet for him to begin to get the gist of it.

He's settling in well here. MamaNona & Mateo's Godmother Shannon Kelley picked us up at the airport on Wednesday night...little man did a great job flying, considering the journey took more than 20 hours from the time we woke up in the hotel in Guatemala to the time we set our feet outside our home in Oregon. Much to our surprise, when Shannon pulled into our driveway, about 30 of our closest friends were bundled up (it was raining) on our porch to welcome us home. What a joyous time to know that our friends would make such an effort to make us feel loved. They hugged and kissed us and then packed up and headed home. The beautiful banner they made still hangs proudly outside our door. To be filled with such love at the end of a long journey was simply magnificent.

Mateo met Max & Emma on Wednesday night...they have been remarkably tolerant of his cat aquainting...he pets by grabbing hair as Matt & I try to encourage "Suave" or "soft"...they must just be desparate for human love...we'll see how long that lasts.

I must admit, one of the best parts of coming home-which I am sure our Guatemala friends Dan & Paula or Kevin & Nikki will agree with, is sleeping in our own bed. La Casa Grande, the hotel in Guatemala City had magnificent staff who loved us and our baby...but the beds left a bit to be desired. Never have I been more of a believer in the Tempurpedic than now. Mateo joins us in a co-sleeper (basically a three sided play & pack) so that we are all together from the time he goes to bed until the time he wakes up. We will eventually transition him to his crib in his room, but for now it is nice to have him close.

MamaNona came for a visit and she likes to teach Mateo songs in Italian...at this rate, we should have a linguist by the time he actually utters some words. We've also been working on getting him acclimated to baby food whose first ingredient is not sugar. He always makes a nasty face to start, but most of the time we can get him to get things down after a couple of bites.

Guess that's the update for now. Papa & Grammy Cathy are coming next weekend to meet Mateo and for his baptism. We are looking forward to their visit.

All our love...calls will follow soon...we promise! Love, Sarah & boys

Headed Home

Wow. I´m here in our local internet cafe sending our last entry from Guatemala and someone else asked if I knew english and could I help translate one of his e-mails into Spanish. Actually did it too.
So this IS the last entry form Guatemala. I just picked up Mateo´s passport from the embassy with a visa to enter the US. About noon pacific time tomorrow, we´ll pass through customs in Dallas and he´ll offically become a US citizen, plus his adoption will be recognized by the US Govt. The only thing now standing in our way is the enormous packing job we´ll need tackle before leaving for the airport. It´ll be the longest travel day of Mateo´s life, but fortunately, we don´t think there´ll be a single flight of over 3 hours, so we can stretch our legs on the concourses.
We´re wondering just what the new ´liguid/gel -era´security will be like at the Guatemala City airport. We´re guessing that either it will be as iffy as we saw on our last return - or that authorities here will have gotten the TSA requirements for US-bound flights and be over-enforcing them. Just in case, I´ve printed here the TSA web pages ( in english and spanish ) which point out that infant formula, baby food, gel-filled teethers and essential non-prescription meds (please let us take the baby anbesol and daiper-rash cream!) ARE allowed. Lotsa luck.
The pictures above are our latest, favorite family pic, some great smiles we caught in his stroller, and his latest bath. Sarah was delighted to see his appreciation for duckies. When we get back, we hope to get a picture with the whole collection!

We´re looking forward to seeing you all during the coming weeks! We´ll let Sarah Fronza 873-1173(our local ´visit coordintor´) know when we´ve settled so you´ll be able to know good times to stop by, and we´ll keep all of you out of town-ers up to date about when we´ll be ready to travel for visits. We´ll also be sure to keep up the blog until all of you have met our incredible son. Of course, we´ll see you local Silvertonians this Sunday at mass. We´re certain Mateo will fit right in at the 10:30 at St. Paul´s. We went with him one Sunday to the Cathedral here in Guatemala City. He was perfectly still and quiet until the priest got up to speak. Then he decided the homily must be a dialogue......

-Matt

Independence Day in Antigua

So more cool sites from Guatemala. We trekked around Antigua yesterday in honor of Independence Day. Saw some old churches...and had a picture taken outside San Francesco...we always stop at St. Francis churches to light a candle for Matt's dad (whose name was Francis in case you didn't know). This church also had a nave honoring St. Clare and so I lit a candle in honor of my Aunt Julie's first profession of vows at the St. Clare Monastery in Minneapolis. She and the other sisters there have prayed long and hard on our behalf...and we are grateful to have the chance to say a prayer of thanksgiving for their interventions.

The picture of Matt holding Mateo with Matt's Australian Walkabout Rain Hat on was while we were witnessing the parade in honor of Independence Day. By the way, my dad would be proud...some teenage boys took Matt's Mountain View Contruction hat out of the coche (baby stroller) and Matt chased them down with Mateo in arms to get it back, saying "No one steals Mike LaPlante's hat under my watch!!"

Mateo has to be the only kid who can fall asleep standing less than two feet from a drum line that was parading through the city. Our Band Teacher friend Frank Petrik would hang his head in shame, I am afraid (but on the plus side, we got some great video of it to show him when we get home!!)

And we spent some time at one of our favorite hangouts in Antigua...the Rainbow Reading Room. It has good food, a used bookstore where you can rent books (they lost a ton of money on me this week!!), and nice atmosphere...it also had a great happy hour, so last night, Matt & I imbibed in honor of missing Oktoberfest in Mt. Angel this week. Oh, here's hoping that will be the last time we have that experience (missing O'Fest, that is!!) We're counting on our friends to eat & drink to compensate for our absence.

Much to our surprise, we finally got to see the top of one of the volcanos...it has been such crappy weather here, you would have thought it was Oregon in January...but yesterday, the sun came out and we were able to take the picture of the volcano nearest to where we were staying. When we come back to show Mateo around in four or five years, we will make sure to take a tour to the top so he can see real lava flow.

Before we leave tomorrow, we will attend Mass in one of the restored Cathedrals in Antigua...to give thanks to God for our many blessings...our friends...our family...our son...and the many people who have loved him here in Guatemala...and the many people at home who will continue to shower him with love!

Anyway, enough for now...we have to go pack for the first stage of our journey home (to Guatemala City tomorrow). Thanks to everyone who has taken time to email us...or post comments on the blog. Your notes have made the days when we really miss home seem a little bit brighter.

All our love...We THREE Millers