Three months later...

Does anyone still read this, or am I just trying to hear myself talk? It has been three months since we last posted anything, and I thought, with all the recent changes, what better time to restart this. So what have we been up to since late June? Well…

… we live in Seattle and are expecting our fourth very soon!

Maybe you should have some filler, if you’re at all interested that is. Let’s see, I guess I should go back to where things started getting interesting, in early July. On July 5, because of a work slow down, I (Chris) was forced to go back to southern WA to provide for the family. As the time came for me to leave, that afternoon in fact, Mataya (and the rest of us) had a sort of melt down. For six years, since I was hired by the railroad, I have spent most of my railroad time away, mostly in southern WA. Well that reality finally caught up to us, as it typically does to Shawna and me when I leave, but the difference between this time and previous times was that we saw the genuine pain in Matty’s eyes as I was getting ready to leave. I was planning on leaving in the middle of the night, after the kids went to bed. That night, Matty couldn’t, wouldn’t is more like an appropriate word, go to sleep. We kept her in our bed where she stayed up crying and told me that she wouldn’t go to sleep because that meant that I was leaving. That hit Shawna and I like a ton of bricks, there was so much hurt there. We stayed up well past 1am at a loss of what to do. For so long we have talked about moving close to a terminal where I can work year round. But it always ended there, at talk. We tried to put the talk into action several years ago, but fell short after tried very little (we put our house on the market for five months before pulling it and deciding to deal with the situation). So this was the time, time to put family first, and stop worrying about possessions like the house.

The next few weeks flew by as we prepared for the upcoming move. We first had to decide where, we chose Seattle. Next was when, we decided to immediately. Finally was how, and we decided to just go for it. The last week of August found us with the house completely boxed up, everything in the garage waiting for the moving truck, and us happily on our way to Seattle, as a family, together. We found a place within a week, came back to Klamath a week later, and moved in to the new house in mid August. What about our things and the house in Klamath Falls? We rented a U-Haul, loaded our stuff, and some good friends of ours who wanted to rent our house, moved their stuff in. It was truly incredible how things fell into place with such an ease that stress was very minimal.

So here we are, 15 miles south of Seattle in Tacoma/Federal Way. We are in a nice house owned by an Air Force pilot who was relocated to another area. Our time has been spent on relearning the area. Shawna and I lived up here while I was on active duty over six years ago and left just after Matty was born. We have been integrating well and like it here. We found a great church, enrolled the kids in Awana, started this year’s home-school curriculum, and are expecting number four in a few weeks! We have decided to home-birth, if it so works out, and found an awesome midwife. Shawna has been incredible through all of this radical change, and knows nothing of complaining (which at over 8 months pregnant is expected but is non-existent). The kids and I are truly blessed to have her run our home. I may lead it, but she makes it function.

Of course, with how quickly and easily everything fell into place, there have been struggles. Our struggles with saying goodbye to our friends and family and the life we have grown accustomed to have of course left us with feelings of sadness. But through all the myriad of emotions these past few months, we are discovering something else. We came here wanting to be close to each other and to avoid long separation, but what we are finding is even more than that, something more exhilarating, something more special, and it took us the huge culture shock of moving to open our eyes to it.

June 25th Update...

Hello family and friends. Just a quick update to let you all know how great we are doing (and to post some overdue pics!). We have been keeping very busy. Chris still juggles work, full time school, and lots of yard work. Shawna is getting BIG! She had an appointment with her midwife and she is actually measuring larger than the norm for how far along she is. Awesome! Twins? Big news in Matty's world, she made the Basin Swim team! At six she is the youngest swimmer on the team. She just loves the water. Katie has been doing really good at swimming as well as she takes lessons 4 times a week now. Joy has been daddy's (and momma's) little girl. She is getting bigger but still looks so tiny to us! She is full of smiles and loves to imitate her older sisters and LOVES to dance. She is such a doll.

The biggest news recently was the injury of our beautiful three year old niece. Jana (my sister's daughter) suffered a head injury from getting kicked in the head by a horse and was airlifted to Doernbecher's Childrens Hospital in Portland. We packed up and drove up there to be near her and to help the Morgan's with whatever they needed. Jana underwent overnight surgery and to the doctors amazement, there was no permanent damage. She did receive some metal plates and a gnarly scar from the injury, but praise God, for it is only He that can provide such miracles. The Morgan's have shown an incredible trust in God, and we are so happy and thankful for them.

After a few days and when Jana was ok, we packed up the van and started our journey back home. The only problem was, it didn't start. Our van finally decided it was time to not provide us with a means of transportation anymore, stranding us 300 miles from home. But luckily we were at my parents house in Portland, so we had a place to stay, and were in an ideal spot to get a deal on a vehicle. I had the van towed to a shop (where it cost over $600 to repair, OUCH), we will sell it to try and recoup the repairs plus a little. Anyone want a 1991 Dodge Caravan? We knew the van wouldn't last us forever (it had 200,000 miles on it) but we hoped it would get us through the summer. Luckily we were somewhat prepared for this (research wise) and got a Honda Odyssey. That got us home, very comfortably!

So as you can see, life has been great. The warm weather finally arrived, the garden is doing great (if only I could grow veggies and fruit like I apparently can weeds), and we have spent a lot of time outdoors. We thank God everyday for the beautiful life we have. Thanks for checking on us, and here's some pics!

The happiest parents in the world!


Daddy and Joy.


Our three beautiful girls (that's facepaint from the picnic we were at, not a satanic tattoo)!

Finally, Nice Weather!

Hello all. We hope you are having a beautiful day. It's sunny and supposed to be in the high 60's today and closer to the 80's for the weekend (I refuse to look at tomorrow's strong chance for showers and only in the low-50's, but at least it aint snowing!). We are so excited for this awesome weather and have been getting a lot of outdoor tasks accomplished! For starters, we got our garden weed free, the compost tilled in, and the starts, well, started. Our list of fruits and veggies are growing this year as we strive to be more self sufficient and organic. Chris is going to build a raised vegetable garden today so we can have some more space (maybe a couple of them). We also ordered a bunch of rock to spread around the flower bed and somehow in between ordering 2-3" colored river rock and the actual delivery, it got translated to 2-6" river rock. So in short, we have about 4 yards of 2-6" river rock dumped on the side of the house. Oops. We decided to roll with it and started spreading that, it is definitely not what we were wanting but is actually looking pretty decent and hopefully the raised gardens will add some more depth and break up the river bed look a bit. Talk about a $250 mistake, and it's not one you can easily fix (mainly for two reasons, (one) to try and shovel that stuff to return it is impossible and (two), we don't think the van or subaru could handle 4 yards of 2-6" rock! Chris needs another truck...) It was dumped because of a mis-communication between Chris and the nursery, and oh well, it still looks good. We also planted a couple himrod grapes and are trying to get another variety as well. Chris still has a lot of researching to do before we finally decide what to do and how to grow them. Oh the joys of gardening.

Chris has been keeping busy at the railroad and has just completed his spring term at OSU (and is SO VERY happy to have that done, especially the trig class that has been a thorn in his side). He resigned from the police department a few weeks ago because of personal reasons and to devote more energy to our family. He is knee-deep in summer term at Moody Bible Institute and is enjoying the challenge of Old Testament Survey and The Church and its Doctrine as courses this term. Shawna is getting HUGE (maybe twins? hehe). The midwife says she has been moving right on track. We had an ultra-sound scheduled a while back but canceled the appointment and have yet to reschedule it. We're not the least bit concerned with finding out what the baby is anyway until birth anyway. Matty, Katie, and Joy have been awesome, also enjoying the nice days outside. They are back in swimming lessons (well, except for Joy) and are loving that twice a week. Hopefully this summer we can enjoy some water recreation like boating with Grampa Joe and Nana in California.

Of course struggles exist in any family and Chris' family has had some major setbacks the past few months, so please pray for them for help in their dealing with recent tragic events. And always remember to praise God, for although we may have NO idea what His plan is for us, that it is His plan and He is in control of all things, who are we to question what He allows? Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Well not to end in a sad tone, but that is about it. We will upload some pictures soon and get them posted in a bit (later today) and you can see how fast our kiddos are growing. We hope all is well in your family, you are in our thoughts always. We love each and every one of you (and there's not a thing you can do about it!). Take care and God bless.

-The Myron Family

4th Annual Myron Fam Garden

Greetings Friends!

The family trip to Mountain Valley Gardens in the springtime is always real exciting! We delight ourselves in seeing what new varieties/veggies/fruits we can try as well as picking up some of our favorites. We spent the morning dawdling around in the rain as we strolled slowly in search for our yummy food at the nursery.

After the fear of frost has finally (and hopefully!) passed, we've managed to plant all of our veggies as well as some fruits! In addition to planting our usual stuff (tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, carrots, sweet peas, zucchini, cantaloupe, watermelon, corn, squash, chilies, peppers, and cucumbers), we ventured into areas we haven't tried before. Trying out some artichoke, kohlrabi, onions and celery. We also planted a Honeycrisp apple tree and a couple grape trees. We shall see how successful we are in this endeavor! The raspberries, blueberries and strawberries are already coming in and the kids are getting so excited about the harvest on those little treats!

We ask the Lord for His blessing and success in this year's garden and for a bountiful harvest. Expect to receive many of these delicious goodies as we know we might have an overabundance and look forward to sharing with our friends and family. We tried many different varieties of some of our usual stuff (that we hadn't tried before) so we look forward to seeing what we receive.

If only we were allowed to have chickens in this neighborhood!! Anyone know any free-range chicken farmers in the Klamath Basin??
God Bless!!! Psalm 85:11-12

May 23... already?

Good morning everyone. Has it really been nearly three weeks since we last posted? Where is the time going? How 'bout a little run down on the fam...

Chris has been doing good. He has not been working a lot at the railroad, which is fine right now because he gets paid whether he's working or not! Of course, when it's time for BNSF Railway to trim the fat, it doesn't look so good when a lot of employees are sitting at home collecting guarantee, and position cuts are always a fear since Chris is low on the seniority totem pole. Almost six years with the railroad and still low on seniority, at least here in Klamath Falls. What a strange terminal. Of course if we transfer up north to Portland or Seattle he would do quite well, but we like it here in quiet ol Kalamity Falls. He is still with the Air National Guard, in fact, he just completed a week of annual training last week. He's due for reenlistment in a few months and is still unsure on if he wants to continue or end his military career at the 10 year mark. As far as his position with the police department, he resigned last week for personal reasons. It was a hard decision, but it felt like the time to let it go had arrived. College continues to weigh him down like a ton of bricks, and not because of his procrastination or anything! :) He never went past Algebra or Geometry in high school (breezed by on the California state minimums for public ed!) and is trying to figure out this calculus stuff. He is still attending Oregon State University and finds it's a little difficult to communicate with classmates that are generally 12 years younger then he is, but he's managing. Tomorrow he will start a one year Certificate of Biblical Studies program with Moody Bible Institute's Distance Education program. He is really looking forward to studying the bible in depth, but also fearing double the coursework for the next year attending two schools at the same time!

Enough about him, how about Shawna?!? She is FANTASTIC. She finally kicked most of that morning sickness that plagued her morning and night. She is feeling much better and can still manage three ornery kids with the best of em. And oh boy is she starting to show. Her belly is sticking out something fierce! We have enjoyed feeling the baby at nights moving around. Her ultrasound appointment is next week, although we won't find out what he/she is until birth. The growing consensus is that it's a boy. Both Chris and Shawna (as well as Matty and Katie) think it's a boy. But then again, three girls will do that to ya. She continues to be an awesome wife and mother and recently finished Matty's home schooling for the summer. Of course being the great mother and teacher she is, she is still keeping Matty on her toes with daily flashcards of states/capitals, presidents, countries, landmarks, and of course bible study. Matty is smarter now at six than Chris was at 16 (ok, 29), pretty awesome.

I guess that also pretty much sums up Matty. She has really buckled down on learning and is excited to see dad working on graphing like she is (dad is working on trigonometric functions and Matty is graphing dimes/nickels/pennies, but it's all the same and she is so excited!). She is so smart and beautiful and is sure to give daddy a nervous breakdown in about 7-10 years.

Katie, dear sweet Katie. She is also doing wonderful. Still giving mom and dad some attitude, but still so sweet and loving. She is a fireball and we couldn't imagine it any other way. Our little free-spirited hippy has also been doing some school and can proudly write her name. In fact, we found our calendar on our desk with her name spelled at the bottom, and every square box for each day of the month had a big K (not the discount chain store) in it. It was so cute. She is also doing much better with Joy, she still relishes being bigger from time to time, but she is also a lot more patient with her and plays with her often. She is VERY excited to start swimming lessons (again) next week. Shawna just bought her a 4T (she's only three) swimsuit and it is almost too small. She is so tall, but skinny as a rail!

Joy, our little "cocoa-bear" is doing great. In fact Shawna and I were looking at pictures of her from Ethiopia and it dawned on us how the past two months has changed her. She is so lively now, she is thinning out (in a good way) and her eyes are so much more alive. Her skin even looks much better. She is happy most of the day and loves mixing her time with playing in the play kitchen making food for the family to just hanging out near mom and dad. We celebrated her two year birthday on May 11. Shawna made a brownie cake (all organic of course!) in the shape of Ethiopia. We had a good time. Food time is better. She has learned to use utensils quite well and although we work with her, she still inhales food and then looks around at everyone else eating and is surely thinking, "well that's not fair, they still have food!" We have definitely made some vast improvements, but some days are still a little rough, especially around food time. She still falls into a trance whenever we're making or eating food. It is a work in progress.

Let's switch gears here. As far as bonding, it has been... good. I hold at great. There were awesome improvements during the first week of bringing her home, so much that I don't think mom and dad quite caught up. Sometimes it's so difficult to have a toddler who you know very little about, throw in the fact that she can't speak and is learning to communicate with you through any means necessary (generally fussing), and it's a recipe for frustration for everyone involved. Everyone is doing great, don't get me wrong, but there's still something there, a gap of communication and trust. To be honest, the author of this blog (we'll call him Dhris to keep his anonymity) wondered if he was moving backwards with her. A lot of prayer later and he realized it was he that had some disconnect with her. Sometimes it's hard to look at her and say, she is my daughter. She looks nothing like us, she acts nothing like us, so what makes us love each other? Well my friends and family, although obvious to most, sometimes it's oblivious to those involved, and Chris... I mean Dhris, realized it's the love of God through him that he needs to show, the rest will follow. Ok, switching to the more direct first person for the conclusion here. I look at Matty and Katie and see products of me. They are mine, from me, since the day they were conceived. And when I look at Joy, I see a beautiful girl, but do I really see her as mine. The paperwork says so, but does my heart? Sadly I realized that I allowed the paperwork to be the overall say here. I had to get my heart involved, truly involved. If God can love us as his adopted children through Christ, then surely I can love this little girl whom He blessed to us. I have always loved her, ever since I first saw her picture eight months ago, but the genuine love of a father to a daughter, that close bond, that is what I've been working on, and I am happy to say I think the connection is growing so much more since realizing it. It will take some time no doubt, but that's one thing we have, we'll learn from each other, I have faith.

Okay, there you have it, a little insight to the heartache of adopting a toddler from the father's perspective. Now to change back to semi-third person with sarcasm. Adoption is not this bliss of ecstatically charged happiness. It takes work, commitment, and more patience than people have, hence the fallback from time to time. But it is definitely worth every difficult moment, every moment of pain, frustration, anger. Just to see a glimpse, a sparkle, a minuscule amount of the love God must have for us is breathtaking, who am I that He loves me so much? Who am I that Christ Jesus, his son, died for me? Have you ever asked yourself that?

So what else has the family been up to? Well, nothing and everything. We have been so very busy. The kids start swim lessons again at the Y next week. They are really looking forward to that. It's been too long since they've been in the water. We're also ramping up for summer and plan to do some very fun things. We will definitely plan on a lot of camping, a lot of picnicking, and whatever else that may come up. The past two summers Chris has spent half of the summer away with the military (2008 was Alaska, and 2009 was Idaho), so we are due some good times in the hot weather.

We are also getting the garden ready for the year and will plan to blog its progress. We have had one since building this house in 2006, but I think with our renewed energy and awareness of food, we plan to maximize its use. The weeds are pulled, the compost is spread and Chris will till it in this week. This area is a little strange, weather wise. Chris spent two days in the backyard getting it ready for the season, and as he finished spreading the compost, it decided to snow. What the heck, aren't we almost in June? The past couple of mornings has been well below freezing (in fact it's 22 degrees right now) but the forecast looks promising. We will get our organic starts from a nursery we trust and plan to get them into the ground towards the end of the week, and if needed use some floating row covers to protect from another unusual cold snap.

Well that's enough for now. It's nearly time to start getting ready for church. We love you all, thanks for being patient with us. Sometimes it's easy to forget to post even a quick update. I would love to post some pictures, but am on the laptop and all the good pictures are on the other computer. You can always check them out on Facebook but I will try to work at getting some on here. Take care and God Bless!

The Organic Oregonians

Good afternoon everyone! That is if you haven't completely abandoned our blog since I haven't posted anything in a looooong time. We are doing great. Daddy-Bear has been balancing his time between the railroad, the police department, the airbase, and college. Momma-Bear is starting to show her cute little tummy which has started to announce itself very well. Unfortunately she still fights with nausea in the evenings, but her and the Bear-Cub are healthy. We have officially laid to rest the idea of finding out the gender before birth. We are currently contemplating names for both. Matty-Bear continues to excel in her studies and violin as well as help Momma-Bear with some chores and daily tasks. Katie-Bear continues to be our Bi-Polar-Bear (get it, ok... lame and insensitive, I apologize). She is actually doing very well, still loves to fight with us though. She is spunky as ever and has started some school. Joy-Bear is doing wonderful. Her favorite hobby is still eating and although mealtimes can still be a challenge and an apparent emotional roller coaster for her, she is doing much better. She has learned to know when enough is enough for the most part (generally we have to tell her which she doesn't always like). When she fusses, Momma-Bear will calmly say, "Go to your room," and off little Joy-Bear will go to finish her fit. She comes out moments later after she's done crying and that's that. We deal with it and move on, hopefully learning from the experience.

Ok, enough animal annotations for our names. Like I said, we all have been doing very well and keeping very busy. We have had a life changing movement in our family however, one for the better. I'll start by saying it began with our neighbor who let us watch "Food Inc." If you've seen it, you know where I'm going, if you haven't, then watch it.

The documentary essentially explores how food has become the money maker it is, and how we (as a society) have altered (destroyed) it. It dives into dilemmas we face such as nutrition and health, and what is really in our foods and the impact our "new" foods have on us and the environment.

Now before I go on, don't worry family and friends, we haven't joined a cult or anything.

What he have done is opened our eyes to what we eat as a family. We took the basic piece of the film (which like any documentary may contain inaccuracies) and researched the issue ourselves. What we found has forever changed us for the better. I don't believe we were ever ignorant, just... well, maybe a little ignorant. We knew some of the stuff we ate was bad, we just either didn't care or were too lazy to look into it a little more, or probably a little of both. Well the fact is we feel strongly about this and decided to do something about it as a family. For the past couple weeks we have not replenished our stock of "normal" groceries, but after researching, have instead replenished the items with a more healthy choice, organic. Shawna has really been spearheading our efforts as the shopper and has been integral part of our changing dynamics. We have sworn off the norm of genetically altered foods and foods that have been treated with pesticides instead opting for the usually smaller but better organic items.

To supplement our new change, we also had a reality check of how much we eat. We have drastically cut back (well, at least me since I can eat like a hog) on our food intake eating not only healthier, but lighter. We are changing from unnatural fatty foods to natural fatty foods and are truly enjoying our food, not letting it enjoy us.

"But the government wouldn't let us eat anything bad, so why bother paying more for organic?" Yeah, the government's all over it, trust them, they'll take care of you... Yeah there was a little sarcasm in my response. I don't trust the government for my personal well being, but instead of getting into politics, let's get into facts. I've even read the pesticide companies say something to the effect of "there had not been any evidence in our product harming humans..." May I add a "yet" at the end? Seriously though, it's a poison, safe or not.

"But organic is so much more for the same product." Yes organic is more for a lot of items, but are they really the same product? Instead of a genetically modified, poison filled apple, I pay for a... well, an apple, the way God intended. Because organic foods aren't harvested on a massive scale from fields owned by the likes of Kraft or another conglomerate, and because they are more labor intensive (no pesticides or herbicides after all), the farmers who farm organic charge more to earn a living. Fair enough in my book, pay more for a healthier real food while supporting local "small" farmers.

I could go on forever. There is a lot of debate and not everyone will agree on this issue, but it's something that both Shawna and I have both taken seriously. We have never taken on an issue in our lives (other than what we live for, God) so seriously. This is something that we are finding a deep passion for and although still a little naive, continuing to learn about. This may be a honeymoon period for our new found way of eating and living, but something that I am confident will stay with us.

What does all this mean? Are we now food snobs that won't be able to eat out or at other people's homes? Definitely not! It's just a household change of the way we live. Sure we will eat healthy foods at home, but we will still go out from time to time and when we do go out, we will opt for healthier alternatives and avoid the fast food. And when we're over at other people's homes for dinner, we will graciously and gratefully eat any meal they provide for us (yes, even my mom's frozen pretzels and taquitos!). We will just do everything we can to limit our intake of unnatural foods. We can only hope to be 100% organic, but reality is that not everyone is, so we cannot be either, at least away from our home.

If you're family or friend, don't fret, we've not changed! We are still the same annoying family that you know and love. If you feel like we do, great, if you don't, don't bother to argue with us. This is my blog after all. ;) Start your own if you want to voice your opinion. Just teasing. Whether it's beneficial or not is a personal choice and we have drawn the line on where we now stand.

We love you all! Talk to you soon!