Merry Christmas Letter 2017!

Merry Christmas from the Merrys!

Christmas 2017

Friends and Family,

We hope this letter finds you and those you love enjoying this beautiful time of year.  We’re thankful to have you in our lives and are grateful this season of reflection and giving thanks.

Isaiah 11:1-2 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.  And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.”  Truly, Jesus is the reason for all we have and are thankful for.  We’re reminded even more this time of year of the life and joy only He can bring.

This year has been one of new adventures and challenges for us.  A few years ago, we never would have seen ourselves on the path we are walking. Many of you know that we are in the process of adopting a sweet little boy with cerebral palsy named Joseph from Uganda.  We won’t write out all the details here as we have been chronicling the story on this blog (click here to read) but we are excited to see how God is going to bring this about.  We don’t have a set timeline but we are hoping that we will be able to bring him home in a year or so.  Thank you for standing by us, loving and supporting us in this.  

We had a wonderful but busy 2017 with lots of activities and events.  In February we were thrilled to take an epic family trip to CA with the Grandparents and got to do Disneyland and the amusement park circuit, as well as spend some time down in Oceanside at the beach.   In April we received a visit from Edith Lukawbe who runs Home of Hope, a home for children with special needs in Uganda.  We will be adopting Joseph from this home and it was so good  to meet her.  We enjoyed some time in Seaside for the 4^th and a trip to Maggie Lake in August.  Todd spent some time with Silas camping and Molly took the girls to Whistler for a few days.  

Then in September Todd and Maggie took an incredible journey to do medical mission work in Uganda and meet Joseph for the first time.  It was an emotional, amazing, life changing time. They also got to meet sweet Brenda, a girl that we have sponsored in Uganda for some years. November brought Edith back again for a visit and a fundraiser for Home of Hope.  Now we are looking forward to the holidays and in January, of 2018 Molly will be headed to Uganda to meet Joseph for the first time as well as spend a few days in Europe.

Throughout the year we have been active at church and school with Awana, Upwards Basketball, piano, Bible Study and HIS co-op.  The girls have just started gymnastics and are loving it.  All 4 of the oldest kids attend co-op which makes homeschooling a challenge, but we are grateful for the wonderful Betsie Hovater who helps tutor the kids and keep us on track!

Here’s a brief summary of each in our clan….

Vivien (3) – In September, Viv turned three years old!  This meant she graduated out of the “Birth-to-three” program and began attending pre-school for all of her therapy.  She attends four days a week and has been doing so well.  We really appreciate the hard work her teachers put into Vivien’s teaching and play time.  We’ve seen areas of growth already!  They have some excellent goals for her future development and are eager to give her all the opportunities they can.

Iva (5) – Iva has started her kindergarten work at our co-op and is doing so well.  She loves the time in class with other kids.  She’s proving to be our most early reader and has a natural love for snuggling up on the couch with a book.  Nobody can make the whole family laugh like Iva, with her one-liners and running commentary.  Her easy-going personality (most of the time) helps everyone to get along.

Lucie (7) – Lucie Joy’s name has come to mean “Happy Sunshine”.  Her sensitive nature and quiet observation have proven to be one of her greatest strengths.  Lucie loves to play pretend games with Iva and bring animation to any doll.  Lucie had her first year as a cheer leader in the Upward League and looks forward to starting again in January.  She is doing well in school and seems to genuinely love doing good work.

Silas (10) – Silas continues to grow in his engineering abilities.  He is regularly building Lego devices such as vending machines and safe boxes.  He’s taught himself to solder and loves to “re-build” toys and appliances from the thrift store.  The workbench looks like one from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when he is done.  Silas has also proven to be a natural musician and is regularly coming up with new tunes on the piano.  He has excelled at Upwards Basketball and looks forward to more in January of next year.  He has a dry sense of humor and can often be found teasing or even pranking his mama and sisters!

Maggie(13) – This past year, Maggie and Todd were able to spend a couple weeks on a medical mission trip to Uganda.  This was the opportunity of a lifetime for both her and Todd.  Their time serving together brought memories that will last a long time.  Maggie rose to the occasion several times on the trip as she faced some challenges. They so much enjoyed the others on the team and are looking forward to returning in 2018!  Maggie’s creativity continues to grow, as she crafts, draws and paints every moment she can.

Molly – One of Molly’s favorite things to do is travel and she got a lot of opportunities for short and long trips this year.  She is both looking forward to and nervous about her upcoming trip to Uganda to meet Joseph.  Since she has to fly through Europe she will have the opportunity to meeting a friend over there and exploring for a few days.  She loves regular date nites with Todd a couple times a month.  She is involved in driving kids around, homeschooling, housecleaning, bill paying, and many more things that have to happen to keep life running smoothly with 7.  She stays active jogging at Coulon park 3 days a week, and helps lead a Women of the Word Bible study at her church.  She writes and blogs when she can steal a few moments.  This year there has been months of adoption paperwork added to her “writing”.  She’d been warned about adoption “paperwork pregnanicies” but she knows it will all be worth it in the end.

Todd – The highlight of the year was the trip with Maggie to Uganda.  He loved every moment of their time together, the people they served with and the lives of those they helped.  He felt like it was some of the most gratifying work he’s ever been part of.  Todd loves his job at KCM1 and is thankful for the opportunities he’s given every day to help those in need.  He does lesson planning and homeschooling with the help of Betsie, Molly and the Grandmas.  He continues to serve on the board of HIS co-op and has also enjoyed putting together a board and obtaining a 501c3 status that enables us to give Home of Hope an American branch.

Joseph –  Joseph lives at Home of Hope due to his Cerebral Palsy.  We believe that Joseph is around 3 years old as he was left there as a baby.  While not yet legally part of the family, Joseph’s adoption is steadily progressing forward.  Most of the work required stateside has been complete, we are just needing to jump through some hoops with the Ugandan government.  Joseph has become a regular part of our family discussions and planning and we love the pictures that Edith sends us of him.  When Todd met him he was able to get a little feel for some of his challenges.  He is well taken care of at Home of Hope but at the same time we are looking forward to seeing what can be done for him medically in the US.

Books – Todd enjoyed a few books over the year.  Some of the highlights were "Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters" by Meg Meeker, "Sacred Parenting" by Gary Thomas, "Peace Child" by Don Richardson and "A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards" by George Marsden.   But his favorite book of the year was "How We Love" by Milan and Kay Yerkovich.  Such an insightful book on marriage and parenting!

Molly also enjoyed “How We Love”.  She spent quite a bit of time reading books on adoption and attachment, including “The Connected Child”.  She enjoyed “Through a Man’s Eyes” and “For Parent’s Only” by Shaunti Feldhann, Unstoppable by Christine Caine, Killing Kryptonite by John Bevere, Raising Boys, by Steve Biddulph, The Insanity of Obedience by Nik Ripkin and How’s Your Soul, by Judah Smith,

As we look forward to 2018 we have been praying about and evaluating how to de-busy our life.   We know that some of that will come naturally after adopting Joseph but at the same time, we are trying to be intentional about enjoying each other and not making life too crazy.  We have begun date nights with the kids individually to make sure we are spending some on-on-one time with them and we want to be careful to guard our Sabbaths and enjoy just being.

Remembering that the reason Jesus came is to make a way for us to have a relationship with Him that we could not otherwise have, we want to be intentional about our relationship with Him and our loved ones as well as loving those that He came to save!  We are so grateful that He was born.  May 2018 bring to you enriched relationships with Him and with others!

Merry Christmas!