2009 Yearly Update
Greetings from the Miller family! We’ve been back in Fayetteville for twenty-two years and we’ve been blessed that my practice continues to prosper. I’m still doing a few cases up at Blowing Rock Hospital. My practice is on the web at www.FayPlasticSurgery.com. Our family time continues to be a priority. Our family trips included attending the Presidential Inauguration in Washington DC among millions in the Mall, Spain with Shelby, Thailand to meet Will in December, and multiple trips to Traveler’s Rest in Blowing Rock. Our family web site, www.markmillerfamily.com has all the pictures of our travels.
I hit my 53rd birthday last February and prepared the last 6 months of 2009 for the DisneyWorld Marathon January 10, 2010! Since this is being written in January 2010, I can happily report that Victoria, her boyfriend Colin and I completed the 26.2 mile marathon in ~ 5 and 1/2 hours!!! It was a blast running through the different parks under Cinderella’s Castle through Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. It was cold at 28 degrees with a wind chill of 17 but the exhilaration of finishing made all the effort worth it.
I went down to Ecuador during Spring Break with the high school senior class of Fayetteville Christian in March a on a mission trip to Guayaquil. I’m still on the Board of Trustees of Methodist University and the local Board of First Citizen’s Bank. I was named one of “America’s Top Plastic Surgeons” for two years running by the Consumers’ Research Council of America, an independent Washington, D.C.-based research organization.
Beth & I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary last April 23rd! We try to spend time together and generally eat lunch daily. She has been gracious and tolerant to help out in my office now that I’m solo with a PA. Beth is still involved with various aspects of church life including the annual workteam to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She leaves again January 31st. She still somehow finds time to horseback ride and do yoga. Beth is on the Fayetteville Academy Board of Trustees and Upper School Parent’s Panel. We visited her brother’s family along with her parents in Cincinnati over Thanksgiving. Beth and I are Class of 2012 Co-Chairs of the UNC Parents Council and make several trips to Chapel Hill.
Will (23) graduated UNC-Chapel Hill Phi Beta Kappa in May and continues to thrive. He graduated with a Psychology degree and a minor in Entrepreneurship. He was awarded a Kenan Scholarship and worked in Thailand with the Kenan Institute of Asian Studies on community based tourism over the summer. He then traveled on to China working with Hatsune, a restaurant corporation he had interned with the year before. He finished in Beijing and Shanghai in December and met Beth and me in Bangkok to spend 12 days exploring Thailand. We were able to visit Jenjira, the 8 year old child we sponsor through the Christian’s Childrens Fund. We were blessed to have him come home with us for Christmas. We both left Bangkok within 5 minutes of each other with Will traveling west via London over the Atlantic Ocean route and Beth & I traveling east via Tokyo over the Pacific Ocean arriving in Raleigh within hours of each other!?!?!? Will, who now speaks Chinese, has now been offered a managerial job with Hatsune at their new restaurant opening at the Shanghai Expo 2010, the largest world event in world history! The Expo is expecting 70 million visitors with Will’s sushi restaurant to serve ~ 4,000 customers/day! Check out the websites: en.expo2010.cn and www.hatsunesushi.com. There is also a great video presentation of the Expo at: http://en.expo2010.cn/sr/video/index.htm
Victoria (now 19¾) is now a sophomore at UNC-Chapel Hill. She won a lottery last Spring and went with several class-mates on a road trip to the Final Four in Detroit to watch her Tar Heels bring home the Basketball National Championship! I also went to Detroit with Mike McIntyre for the celebration! She spent the summer in Turkey for a UNC study abroad. She has declared a major in primary education. She also completed the DisneyWorld Marathon running the entire event with her dad…a special treat for me!
Shelby is now 16 and has started to drive! Beth & I took her and a friend on a grand April trip to Spain including Madrid and Barcelona. She was a People to People Ambassador to Australia last summer, even snorkeling along the Great Barrier Reef. She is enjoying her second year at the Fayetteville Academy spending time with her friends. She is still riding horses, dancing, playing soccer, taking art classes and helping out at a local boutique.
Lily, our golden retriever, and our barn cat, Comet, have taken in our latest addition of Toby, our snow-white Maltese. We still have our horse, Sassy, who delivered us a foal named George, as he is so curious. I will be leaving for Lesotho, South Africa with the seniors at Fayetteville Christian School in March. The Miller family are all heading to China this summer of 2010 to visit Will. We may also try to sprinkle in some medical mission trips along the New Year. May you all have a blessed 2010 and please let our paths cross again soon!
Mark, Beth, Will V, Victoria & Shelby