Merry Christmas!
From the Merry Family
2024
Merry Christmas, Family and Friends! We hope this letter finds you and yours happy and well. We are thankful for this season to reflect on God’s goodness to us, rest and enjoyable time together.
“For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9:6
I think we can all agree this has been a year of ups and downs. While we have all had some challenges in 2024, we still have much to be thankful for. Our responses to life’s challenges determines more about us than the challenges themselves.
Probably the highlight of everyone’s year was Ethan and Maggie’s wedding. Though Maggie was younger than we had expected when she got married, we saw God’s hand on the whole process. We’ve known Ethan since he was about 10 years old and the older he got and the more we got to know him, the happier we became about having him as a son in law. Their youth did give us pause but when they talked about wanting to marry, we made a list of some things we wanted to see happen first in their lives, and we were so thankful for the way they honored us by going through and accomplishing the things we asked before they got married. They have a beautiful story of God doing some surprising things to show both of them his will for them to be together. Feel free to ask about it because we love to tell it.
Their wedding was deeply emotional for everyone in the family. The way that you can feel both deep sadness and great joy is beyond explanation. As the day of the wedding moved closer, there were tears from just about every member in the family. Even Joseph, using his eye gaze device said, “Maggie come here” in the last few days before the wedding. He proceeded to use his eyes to flip the camera around and take a selfie of the two of them. Maggie even took some time off work the week of the wedding, just to come home and be with us.
At the rehearsal when Maggie’s choice of “I love you Lord” was played as she walked down the aisle, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room. When she first played this song for me (Molly) it meant so much to me that her desire was to honor and glorify God even as she walked down the aisle.
For both Todd and I it was honestly one of the happiest days of our lives, being so deeply fulfilling watching our girl love and serve God with all of her heart, marry the man she’d been hoping for for a long time and have so much fun in the process. I love how God is a God of celebration and happiness. Jesus was both a “man of sorrows” and “anointed with joy above his companions”. There were some tears and angst leading up to Maggie and Ethan’s relationship and to see God fulfill our dreams and Maggie’s at the same time was just deeply joyous. We love Ethan and his family and so many people rejoiced over their union. We were truly overflowing with thanks and praise to God for what he had done.
We are thankful for what God did through this and have fallen into a new rhythm and new normal in which Maggie is not home, but thankful we usually see her several times a week. Todd has instituted Sunday afternoons as an open invitation for us all to spend time eating and being together and we take advantage of it often. I have loved watching how each one of our kids values time all together as a family even more than they did before.
Here’s an update on the Merry fam, starting with the shortest…
Vivien (10 years old) is now a fourth-grader at Kennydale Elementary (same school Todd went to as a kid). Vivien continues to grow more aware of the world around her and has even started to help with dressing herself. She gets stronger daily. Her health has been really good and she has finally started to put on some healthy weight thanks to one of the caregivers tweaking her food. Vivien also has an amazing paraeducator at school who genuinely cares well for her and loves to see her thrive. Vivien is also blessed with some wonderful caregivers who do so much for her at home..jpg)
Joseph (11 years old) As I (Todd) write this, I’m here with Joseph at Seattle Children's. He’s had some problems with his baclofen pump and is scheduled for surgery in two days. As always, he has a good attitude and charms the nurses with his smiles. Joseph has done especially well in communicating through his eye-gaze machine. He has demonstrated how alert he is to his surroundings. His biggest joy is hanging out with his siblings. They love him so well and you can tell he loves to be in the center of the activity. Joseph also has an amazing paraeducator at school who has patiently helped him along with his health ups and downs. Joseph has also started his second year at AWANA and loves it. His friend and caregiver Catie does amazing work with him in helping him memorize the verses and play games every Wednesday. He and Todd have also joined the greeting team at our church. He has his own nametag and lanyard and he hands out smiles and fist bumps to those coming into church. He also got to go to Disneyland for his birthday this year and even conquered Space Mountain!
Lucie (14 years old) has officially started high school! She has stepped into the Rhetoric program at co-op and has really done well. The workload is much heavier than she had been used to, but she has risen to the occasion well. Our social girl especially loves the group of friends she has found there. She also enjoys discipleship groups at church. Lucie is practicing her future parenting skills on her dog “Sophie”, who can be found following Lucie around the house. Lucie loves being in the nursery with the babies each week and church. Her babysitting enterprise is growing and she is a natural with young kids and babies. Lucie is a giver and is looking for any jobs to help pay off her Christmas gifts! She is also really enjoying taking voice lessons from a wonderful worship leader at our church and has written some poems and songs. She is also involved in American Heritage Girls and has earned lots of badges this year, working on service projects and personal goals.
Silas (17 years old) is officially a senior at Bellevue College (Running Start). Silas has done well with his studies but is looking forward to being done next Spring. He is an entrepreneur at heart and is always thinking through a new money-making idea. Earlier this year Ethan and Maggie started a Bible study at their house and Silas enjoys helping lead and facilitate along with some of their other friends. The study has grown since they began and has become a weekly event that many look forward to. It has been awesome to see Silas’ spiritual growth and love for God’s word. He’s a smart man and has a heart to show God’s love to others. Silas has also been working at Backflows Northwest (with his sister and brother-in-law) and loves it! He is still very involved in pro-life work weekly. He is still very interested in evangelism as well. He can also be found at his piano and computer composing new songs and putting arrangements together.
Maggie and Ethan were married on April 26th. What a beautiful event! This was an emotional event for us all (I Todd especially - lots of ugly crying). Their ceremony had so much depth, spiritual fervor and joy. The dancing afterward was epic! The happy couple are doing well. They both work full-time at Backflows Northwest (such a great company). Ethan completed the volunteer fire academy at Buckley FD and has just completed EMT class as well. He is testing with as many fire departments as he can and looks forward to starting his career in the near future. Thankfully, we still get to see a lot of M&E and enjoy the weekly Bible study at their house. They are both very involved in pro-life work and usually Maggie is able to volunteer weekly.
Thank you for taking the time to “catch up” with us. We love getting your letters and hearing updates from you all.
Blessings to your family,
The Merrys
(wedding photos by The Juliet)
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