Marlin Miller

What do the Amish, little ones with special needs, two nonprofits, four adoptions, two one-room schoolhouses from the 1800’s and a monthly print magazine have to do with homesteading? It is the story of Plain Values magazine and much more. My name is Marlin Miller and for the next while, I will share our bits of our story. Who knows, maybe we can keep the conversation going with some encouragement and an observation or two about the homesteading life. Lisa and I met in high school and our families became best friends. It wasn’t until years later we began dating and got married three years later. After being married for several years and walking the infertility road, we both felt it was time to answer the calling on our hearts to adopt. It was during that time our prayers changed from "please bring us children" to “please bring us the children who need us the most and equip us to meet their needs.” And He did. We adopted all four of our children. Our oldest son was almost four years old when he was placed with us and is on the Autism spectrum. He is now an adult and no longer lives at home. Our three younger children all have Down syndrome. Our youngest son has Mosaic Down syndrome. While we did not set out to adopt children with special needs we cannot imagine our lives any other way and are so grateful for the way the Lord heard our prayers and filled our home with much joyful noise! Inside these last fifteen years and a few moves, we have rooted ourselves deeply on our little homestead. Our chickens, goats, pigs, and Bassett hounds roam the pastures with alone guinea fowl begging anyone they see to come scratch a belly. Well, maybe not the hens. Our gardens and orchard have grown and keep our pantry filled. Lisa (a teacher by trade) has homeschooled our crew lo these many years. We enjoy the simple things in this life as we look forward to the next.