Dear Friends,
Merry Christmas!
We had a full year and are grateful for where God has us right
now. Too busy, but happy
and enjoying what He has for us.
Some Highlights of the Year:
January started out with a wonderful vacation to California for our
anniversary. Because of
Todd’s paramedic training we didn’t get to celebrate our 10th anniversary in 2011 so we celebrated
in 2012. We had a wonderful
time traveling down the Central California coast visiting Mendocino and
beautiful, Carmel. Todd
was wondering if they need paramedics in Carmel?! The kids had a great time
with all the Grandparents. In
March, Todd got to go hear one of his favorite pastors, Matt Chandler speak at
Mars Hill. Spring brought a
trip to Pomeroy to visit Gran and the cousins and a trip to the Sandpiper with
the kids to enjoy the ocean. Molly
also got to be at her friend Andrea’s birth to welcome baby Benjamin into the
world. We also took a quick
visit to Oregon as Molly’s great Aunt Mildred passed away at over 100 years
old. It was good to
remember her life and see relatives we had not seen for a while. In June we went to Seaside, Oregon
with Todd’s Dad and Linda and we all had a blast. Because of Iva’s birth, we did most of
our vacationing early on and had a quieter summer than normal. Although right before she arrived, the
kids got a week of Vacation Bible School, which they loved. After a couple of days of contractions
that started and stopped, Iva arrived on Molly’s Grandma Dorothy’s birthday,
thus her full name ended up being Iva Jo Dorothy Merry! With her came lots of friends’ babies
too- several in the same week! She
will be blessed with friends her age. Fall brought the Puyallup Fair, school
starting up again and a fun field trip to Leavenworth to see a Civil War
Re-enactment, as well as a wonderful ladies retreat at
church. In
November our good friend Mary Esvelt passed away and we were able to celebrate
her life at a beautiful memorial service. Now Christmas is upon us and we are
looking forward to what God has planned for us in the year ahead.
Todd: has been busy with homeschooling Maggie and Silas. He loves his time with them – seeing
them grow and learning right alongside them. Over the spring, he taught Chemistry
for Maggie’s class at Co-op, which was a lot of fun. There’s nothing like making smoke
bombs and blowing things up with a group of 5, 6 and 7 year-olds. He loves his job at King County Medic
One. Every day is different
and always presents with opportunity to care for people and learn more about
medicine. In February, Todd began leading our Community Group
(through Mars Hill Church), which meets at our house. It’s been such a blessing being part
of this group and seeing God at work in the lives of our friends. The group has grown to the point where
we are ready to replicate in January.
Molly: Sometimes life seems almost too full with helping Todd
home-school and keeping up with 3 adorable kids, nursing a sweet baby and a
very full schedule with friends, family and Community Group at Mars Hill. There are moments I feel like I
am working harder than I’ve ever worked in my life, but after what I went
through a couple years ago I love it! I
feel grateful to be able to do what I do and I realize that health and sleep is
something I will never take for granted again. I’m so glad to be sleeping well and in
a better spot health wise. I
honestly don’t have time for many hobbies right now, but I still love
photographing the kids, journaling about what Jesus has done in my life,
reading, writing and especially date nights and vacations! Someday I will sing, act, teach, write
more, play volleyball, ultimate Frisbee and travel the world but I honestly
love my life right now and am so grateful. I can’t believe how much I am enjoying
Iva too. I feel so blessed
and grateful for my husband, my babies, home, friends and family and
JESUS!
Maggie: Maggie
is 8. She has a love for
Jesus, love for life, is always coming up with creative play ideas and wants to
try everything. She is a
good leader and is great at helping take care of Iva and Lucie. She is very into crafts, drawing,
horses, cooking and too many other things to mention. She is reading well, taking piano
lessons and has her first recital coming up. She loves to leave special notes
around for Mommy and to spend time with all the Grandparents and her many
friends. She took a ballet
class this year and is looking forward to tap in the coming year.
Silas: Silas is a thoughtful, energetic, responsible almost 6
year old. He loves music
and instruments and we are pretty sure he will be leading worship at church
someday or starting his own band! He
is also almost always upside down and is a strong little man who has learned
how to stand on his head already and is looking forward to a gymnastics class
next year. He took on
mutton bustin’ at the Puyallup fair and did great. He thrived in T-ball this summer as
well. He is
thoughtful and asks lots of questions about Jesus and decided on his own that
he wanted to be baptized. We
are excited for him to be baptized and Iva dedicated on the 23rd of this month.
Lucie: Lucie is an adorable, happy, sensitive little almost 3
year-old. She is definitely
the cuddliest of all of our children always wanting to “hold you”. She pays more attention to her baby
dolls than Maggie ever did and it is so fun to see her little personality
develop. She gives everyone
hugs. She and Silas pretty
much vie for the title of “class clown” in the family, and she gives him a run
for his money for sure – always goofing off and trying to make us laugh with
her crazy faces.
Iva: We are
enjoying Iva so much. She
is sleeping well, and very happy, giving huge grins and giggles to
everyone. She is more of a
mommy’s girl than any of our previous babies which secretly delight’s Mommy’s
heart. She has had some
skin issues that we haven’t experienced before, so we are learning all sorts of
things about how to deal with this, but despite getting an infection on her
skin, colds and having baby acne – she is the happiest little girl. You’d never know from her mood that
she was having any problems. She
makes us happy too!
Mars Hill: In April of 2013 we will celebrate 2 years at Mars
Hill Church. We love our
Community Group, hosting ladies studies and just being involved and soaking up
all the good teaching here. We
love serving and it feels like we have been there forever. The sermon series we are
currently in is, “He made
us family” and we heartily concur. We
miss the wonderful people at Trinity and City Church but we love connecting
with them when and where we can as well.
Marriage: We
enjoyed our anniversary trip to CA, as we mentioned earlier but we also loved
going through our Pastor Mark Driscoll’s book, “Real Marriage” with our
community group and as a couple. We
shared about this last year in our letter, but as Pastor Mark preached through
the series early this year, our take away was sort of a no brainer - but something we’ve enjoyed
the whole year through. We
really feel like God has helped us to enjoy our friendship with one another
more than we ever have. Sometimes
the husband, wife and parenting “responsibilities” crowd out friendship. We take the passages of Scripture to
husbands or wives and try so hard to obey them – and completely forget that all
of the passages of Scripture about friendship apply to marriage as well. Focusing on this has been wonderful
for our marriage. As CS
Lewis says, “Duty is a crutch for love”. Sometimes we can be so focused on our
duties that we don’t even realize that they can become a crutch for us and
become unhealthy. Love
comes when we enjoy each other and have fun together. It’s been wonderful to make this a
priority. (I know I
know…duh! – but it really has been great!)
We love hearing from Jesus and growing in Him. We have been thinking a lot about the
gospel, making it the center of our lives and what it really means, – Good
news! Good news – no
condemnation! Good news –
we are free from guilt and shame for sin! Good news – we’ve been given
grace! Good news – Jesus
loves us! Good news – when
we focus on what Jesus did for us, rather than what we do for Him,
righteousness follows, and sin decreases not the other way around! We have been looking a lot at how the
Gospel is central to everything we do and everything we are. What Jesus has done for us has become
more of the focus and it is so great. We feel a new energy in serving and
excitement in blessing Him. We
are still learning and asking God about how to make the gospel central
practically and are loving the journey.
So …. Good
news! Jesus came in the
most vulnerable package possible – a baby - and He did it for you. He grew, died, rose again and took our sins so we can be righteous and have a relationship with God.
Enjoy
celebrating what He has done.
We love you all. Have
a wonderful Christmas!
Love,
Todd, Molly, Maggie, Silas, Lucie and Iva
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