OUR FAMILY STORY: Meet the Millers

[Music] [Music] hey everyone welcome to our channel we are the Millers I'm Amanda and this is my husband Steven okay and we are just getting started on YouTube and I know a lot of you guys don't really know us and don't know our family history and how we all came together so we wanted to kind of share a story with you guys and let you get to know us a little bit better we met in high school we were highschool sweethearts I was a senior she was a sophomore I went to the cafeteria one day and I saw her across the room and I was like oh my goodness gracious and so I asked a friend of mine hey who is that and and he was like oh that's Amanda she's awesome and I was like sweet I'm gonna go meet her so I went up to her sat down next to her I said hey I'm Steven I just like that too I'm like who is this guy so we started dating problems our first date and fast forward a little bit we got married pretty much as soon as she graduated high school so so we didn't necessarily plan on starting a family immediately but God had other plans we were so young and not prepared in any way that's for sure but we knew that this little baby was a blessing from God and so we joyfully welcomed her into our lives and it put us on the path to Parenthood and we looking back it was a very joyful time in our lives in so many ways she she's such a beautiful joyful child and that's our daughter our first daughter Reese she's 14 years old so full of life and just amazing such a beautiful soul and just has such a special place in our hearts and she's musically gifted like Steven she takes after him in that and just very mature for her age very responsible I'm so witty and so she keeps us laughing non-stop a couple years later we welcomed our second daughter Kyra who's 12 now and she is just like our total social butterfly so outgoing so entrepreneurial so creative she's got an easel in her room she's painting she wants to bake she wants to start a business start a bakery she's so musical she's always singing at the top of her lungs which I love big personality and yeah it's such a joy so when our girls were seven and five we decided to look into the possibility of foster care or adoption for our family and we actually went through the foster care training here in Texas and then immediately took a job out of state and so we either needed to redo all of that training for the state of Missouri or just go ahead and adopt and so we were praying about it and talking to a lot of different people calling agencies and asking questions and really everything just seemed to be pointing towards Ethiopia and so we put our application in for a specific agency and we knew that we wanted to adopt from the waiting child list which waiting children are considered harder to place so like sibling groups older children kids with special needs that kind of thing and we really had a heart for kids who were already waiting for a family and so we started that process and immediately I mean within a few weeks I think saw our boys profile on the waiting we trialed list and so we really strongly felt like we were supposed to adopt them and it was a pretty quick process for us I think less than a year's start to finish before we were in Ethiopia getting our boys and that was such an amazing time for us because we fell in love with our boys you know and Ethiopia in general I mean just know it's such a beautiful country beautiful culture and people the coffee everything it was just amazing and so we really enjoyed having a few weeks in Ethiopia with our boys getting to know them and we plan to go back someday when they're a little bit older we're already talking about taking trips back with them and and we love to watch the videos of our time there and the boys remember a little bit because they were three and five when we adopted them so our older son Jude especially will remember some of that and we have such a sweet conversations just talking about those first you know a few days and weeks meeting them you know there are so many firsts for them even though there were three and five because they had spent such a considerable amount of time in an orphanage and so when we brought them home they were such curious and excited little boys like bats were like yes waterparks yeah I don't think they had actually had a bath in a traditional bathtub until we brought them to our hotel and they were actually very afraid to get in at first but we showed them the bubbles and then you're able to Santa Claus beers yes and it was hours and hours in the bathtub so sweet and even on the plane ride home we recognized that they didn't know what ice was and when we got into the States they were given a little cup of apple juice with ice in it and we were watching our boys they were staring at their cups and you could tell they were curious about something we're like thinking what is so interesting about this cup of apple juice with ice in it and after a minute he sticks his hand in the cup and he's like pulling out the ice and then he recognizes that it's cold and he's like oh my goodness this child does not know it is and there was so many funny and sweet moments like that just getting to know our boys and it was such an exciting and joyful time for us so we named our oldest son Jude sorrowful and sorrowful is his Ethiopian name and it comes from the word serif or angel and he is easily the most compliant and easygoing kid yeah kind of sends him up like he's name fits him yeah very much so and he's also one of the most compassionate kids that I've ever known what compassionate people in general and we saw that from the very beginning and just how he would take care of his little brother and was just so kind and so easygoing one of my favorite memories of him when we met him we were in our hotel room getting ready to go to dinner one night and Stephen had put a handful of change on the counter and he was looking at he was very curious and Stephen saw that he was really curious and so he went over and he picked up that change and put it in Jude's hand and he said you do you want to hold this this can be yours and Jude was beaming you could tell he was so proud he put it in his pocket and you know he had money that was his and he was just he was so excited and then we got in the van to go to the restaurant and it's really common in Ethiopia when you're stopped at a light for people to start knocking on your windows and begging for money there's so much poverty there and so as we're stopped at this light our van is like surrounded by children and women with babies on their backs knocking and begging for money or food and Judith sitting on Steven's lap and he looks out the window at this woman with a baby on her back and he looks at me makes eye contact with me and then he reaches into his pocket and he pulls out the change that Stephen had caught in him and he pushed open the window to the van and he handed it to the woman and said something in Amharic which is his native tongue and then he looked back at us and just laid his head on Steven's shoulder and right then and there we knew there is something so remarkable about this child and we've seen it every day since that we just sometimes sit around and wonder you know what is this kid gonna be when he grows up because he is such a remarkable person and so kind-hearted and compassionate and I just know that God has such big plans for him and for his future Liam Ezreal is our 10 year old and ezreal comes from Israel but he is a leader man he's a fighter he knows exactly what he wants very competitive yeah just like a little glimpse in his personality I his body doesn't create it doesn't produce a specific growth hormone that he needs to grow the way he's supposed to and so his endocrinologist has him on a specific shot of grow hormones every day and so Liam just kind of loads it up just I'm not throwing away my shot himself his own shot everything he's fearless he's really serious he's like he's like samuel l.jackson in that the new King Kong movie where he's like looking up at that hundred some-odd foot monster and just like yo you and me let's do this like he's fearless he's strong he loves being able to lead out and show that he's capable and it's awesome yeah and if there's ever like a spider or something nasty in the house I call Liam and he just is so like happy to take care of it me I got this and he's also a really good big brother because you was the youngest for a couple of years in our family and when we told him he was gonna be a big brother he was so so excited I think to have little ones underneath him that he could take care of and that he could maybe bossed around a little bit but he is he's such a sweet big brother and yeah just a really sweet kid I think he's gonna be the CEO someday probably so I would think of that effect so a couple years after we bring our boys home from Ethiopia life is good things are going really well and we decided to try for one more baby she comes up to me she's like hey is it crazy that I want and I was like no you're freaking awesome Wow like of course let's go for it yeah and so we thought it would be a pretty easy process because it was a very easy process for us to have both of our girls and that was not the case this time I started having so many different health issues that we just couldn't pinpoint I was going to doctor after doctor and just couldn't get a diagnosis and I felt like my body was slowly shutting down on me I was so exhausted all the time anxiety depression getting sick easily starting to have tons and tons of dental issues when I had never had any dental issues before and we just couldn't figure out what was going on and then I ended up having a couple of miscarriages as well and actually one was right but the night before his birthday and I I spent that the day of his birthday in bed crying I just couldn't even function it was a really heartbreaking time for us the second Christmas the second one was over Christmas break as well and so that year was a hard year for our family we call it the year from hell yeah we did because we just we were seeking for answers and just crying out to the Lord and just couldn't couldn't understand what why this was happening and why we're going through this I ended up going to a holistic doctor at the beginning of 2013 and I remember sitting in her office and just crying and telling her all the things that we've been going through and all of my health issues and just basically asking her what's wrong with me and she was able to pinpoint in that first meeting what was going on which was incredible I have a condition called MTHFR which is where your body doesn't properly absorb B vitamins and especially over time as you age or if you've had a couple of babies your body is really depleted of B vitamins and so you see issues like miscarriages depression anxiety chronic fatigue and so that was really amazing that I was able to get those answers and in that meeting she also said I think you also might be pregnant right now so take these B vitamins that I could you know my body could absorb properly and go home and take a pregnancy test which was really terrifying for me because I had had several miscarriages and so I just been diagnosed with this new thing I didn't know how that would affect it and so I went home and I took my B vitamins and then I I took a pregnancy test and it was positive and that is our Ethan we call him hurricane Ethan he's four years old and he is so mischievous yeah so into everything but like the sweetest yes waitis kid and so like affectionate yeah he's always the first one up in the mornings and he comes and climbs in bed with me and just snuggles and hugs me and he's such a sweet little boy which is really good for him because we've been in trouble it's why he's always destroying everything ever Adams it's like on accident one of my favorite stories about him I can laugh at it now but what about money at the time um you know Steven had bought me my favorite pint of ice cream haagen-dazs dark chocolate ice cream and one afternoon I went and I opened the freezer and I realized it was not in the freezer and I'm looking around I'm thinking oh no I didn't eat that ice cream where did it go and it wasn't until a couple of hours later right before Stevie walk in the door I hear that the dryer is going I had not been doing laundry so I was like what is going on here so I go into the laundry room and the dryer is brown inside and I had opened it up and he had been drying my chocolate ice cream for a couple of hours honestly Steven walked in as I opened that door and I was like on the verge of tears and you didn't even I don't think I even said anything you just said I'll clean it up just about to cry oh my goodness but he and he didn't mean anything but he just was curious like what will happen if I put ice cream in the dryer you know and that it's just how his little mind works he's a mellowed quite a bit as he's gotten a little older he'll be turning five this is October which is crazy because I still think of him as like a little toddler but yeah he's growing up quickly a couple years ago Ethan's three we really start asking the question like hey are we done dude we've got room in our house we got room in our hearts we've even got room for one more in our car I like what do we want to do mm-hmm yeah we just started really praying about it and I think that we knew when we adopted the boys we knew we would adopt again someday and because when you go and see the need it really does something in your heart and so we had been talking about that as a possibility for our family again for quite a while and so we were talking to various friends and really just felt drawn towards China we knew we wanted our family to be diverse and reflect God's love for all people and so we decided to move forward with the China adoption program it was also one of the few adoption programs that allow families with five children at the time to adopt and so we were looking at the special needs program we were really educating ourselves on what it would look like for our family to adopt an older child or special-needs child and so doing a lot of research and a lot of Prayer and we put in our application with an agency and we saw Penelope on the waiting child list and it was like we the moment you see her picture we were just like that's that's her that's our daughter you just really can't explain it I don't know how it happens but God just really confirmed it in our hearts that we were supposed to adopt this precious little girl and she's 12 years old and we actually met her on her 12th birthday yeah and a person in person and it was really incredible she is a very driven and strong-willed girl and she knows how to take care of herself yeah which is a really good thing for a child who's growing up without parents you to be able to protect yourself and so I think she's gonna be a lawyer or something when she grows up because she knows how to get things done yeah and she actually gave us a contract when we met her you know there's a lot of fear that goes into older child adoption and so many unknowns these kids they know that they're leaving everything behind and choosing to join a new family and you know if you are over the age of 10 in China you have to sign that you want to be adopted and so we had been skyping with Penelope and letting her get to know us our agency had been setting that up and so that was going really well and I felt like that was breaking down a lot of barriers and just the fear of the unknown gonna show her around the house show her her bedroom show her show her the bike we got her yeah yeah I thought I think that was really really good but I think there is still so much fear because you really are leaving everything behind and choosing to you know take that leap of faith and join a new family and so yeah when we met her she had a contract for us that we would not cut her off from talking to people back in China and that she would be able to Skype with some of them foster family and friends occasionally and that we would promise to someday take her back to China and we had already been talking about those things that we wanted to do that for her and help her to be connected to her culture and retain her original language of Mandarin and you know she spent her first 12 years in China and so that's something we really wanted to be careful to honor and so she's been home almost a year now and we have already started talking about taking her back in the next year or so and I think it's gonna be really really special because we didn't get to see her hometown we met her in the capital of her province that's where you go and you meet the children you're going to adopt and so we didn't get to see her hometown or her school and she wanted to show us around and let us see everything and so let us meet all her friends yeah and and she's bonded so well at this point and so I think it's really an exciting time for us because we're able to start talking about going back and meeting friends of hers and seeing her school and where she grew up and her foster mother we talk with her occasionally online and she is really excited to welcome us there and wants to host us and make this huge elaborate meal and so apparently she's a really good cook yes it's really really how the families are knitted together and just this just this connection in this love that is there it's it's really beautiful and our art it's really fun to see her personality really coming out more and more like yeah she's really smart and really funny yeah and any time we see her get in a room with people who speak Mandarin whoever she's talking to is just constantly rolling on the floor like she's a joke her man and it's really fun to watch her interact with people mm-hmm and she's very close with our girls and our girls had such a great time in China because we took our whole family if you haven't seen our adoption video we had that up and you can watch that but our girls especially they won and they're gonna come back with us as well when we go see her foster family and where she grew up in China and they have talked about you know wanting to live in China someday because they think is so incredible and had such an amazing time when we were there and so it's funny at night sometimes we're tucking the girls in bed and they'll be talking about you know when we grow up maybe sometimes you know we'll live in China half of the year and half the year and it's just so so interesting to see just how close they are and how bonded they are and and Kure can actually sing in chinese so maybe that'll do it somehow yeah yeah that means she's learning a lot of Chinese she's yeah she's teaching us and it's really just so so sweet but we didn't adopt just one kid from China if you've seen our adoption video you know that we adopted two kids on a case-by-case basis China will allow some families to adopt two children concurrently and so after really praying about it we felt like if both our agency and China approved us to bring home two kids that that would pretty much be the sign that we needed yeah and so we got that approval a couple months after we applied and we're really overjoyed and we saw Lincoln's profile with our agency for special-needs children he had a stroke as a baby and so we were really educating ourselves on his special need he has left side him Aplysia which means so the right side of his brain was where the stroke happened and so the left side of his body is weaker so he's in physical therapy occupational therapy and he'll be I'm doing speech therapy as well but what we didn't know is we we had an MRI done for him a couple of months ago just to see a closer you know image of his brain and the damage that had been done by the stroke and he was diagnosed with a condition called moyamoya which is a really rare brain disease where your blood vessels don't give adequate blood supply to your brain mm-hmm and that is why he had the stroke and actually it was one large stroke and a couple of smaller strokes on the other side and so we have been talking with a surgeon here actually in California that is the best of the best there's only a couple of doctors in the country that really performed this surgery and everyone that we've talked to has said you need to see this doctor in California and so we are actually preparing for brain surgery for Lincoln in the next couple of months I think in mid-september is the date that they just gave us and so we're really hopeful for him yes you know he is just such a warrior like he really is all his doctors have been amazed given the condition of his brain how much he's been able to develop how far along he really is he's just the most joyful happy kid he's got a contagious laugh that just makes every off you just want to squeeze him I mean those cheeks but she and we always wheeze his cheeks all your siblings are squeezed his cheeks a little bit but yeah we are so hopeful for him and the the surgery actually is really provides a lot of hope for his future because if the surgery is successful which with this doctor and almost always is he will have no real restraints on his future they said that you should be able to develop normally you know most kids with this condition they learn to walk they learn to talk and all the things that typical kids do just add a little bit of a later timeline and so instead of you know walking at one-year-old it might be three or four or five and so that's part of the reason why we're doing physical therapy because that can really help him in a lot of ways but we are so hopeful for him and just so thankful for him thankful that he's a part of our family he is such a blessing and such a joy and so yeah I feel like at this point you know a lot of people ask us are you done are you gonna adopt again and we don't have any plans to grow a family at this point I think our hands are pretty full you know seven kids is a lot and medical issues were working through and all of that but we don't ever want to say never because you know we want to leave leave room for the Lord to do something if he would have us do it but at this point we don't have any current plans to adopt again but just so thankful for each of our kiddos they're just all them beautiful wonderful kids and I just yeah I'm just so thankful for the family that God's given us [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] so that is our family's story and how we really came to be it's a lot it is a lot but you know we get a lot of questions about our family and like the diversity of our family and you know that was really intentional on our part because we do want our family to be a visual representation of God's love for all people in all cultures and so we feel very very blessed to be able to celebrate multiple cultures in our home and to be able to keep our kids connected to their culture and eventually take them back to Ethiopia and China we feel very blessed to be able to celebrate with them and so we are new to YouTube here and definitely still amateurs but we're havin a lot of fun that's for sure and so thank you for following along with us we'd love it if you would subscribe and keep watching and are just so thankful that you are following along so thanks guys thanks guys [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: THE MILLER FAM

Views: 2,482,457

Rating: 4.9727883 out of 5

Keywords: China Adoption, Ethiopia Adoption, Travel, Parenting, Food, Routine, Adoption, Ethiopia, Moving, China, Family Vlog

Id: 2u68pdXjpZs

Length: 31min 39sec (1899 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 30 2018