Merry Christmas Letter 2025

 Merry Christmas!

From the Merry Family

2025

Merry Christmas, Family and Friends!  

We are so thankful that Jesus came to experience what we experience, understand us and died to pay the ultimate price - making us righteous through his death and resurrection.  I can’t imagine what it felt like to leave the beauty of heaven and come but he did it “for the joy set before him” because he and his Father loved us.  We want to know him more and more.

Jer 9:24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. ”

This has been a year of so many changes for our family, including a new little life coming into the world! Ethan and Maggie are expecting little babyMiriam on January 20th and we are so excited to meet her.  We know they are going to be wonderful parents and recently Molly, Lucie and Iva wer able to go over to their house and help Maggie set up their baby nook. 

Another big change for our family was out the move to the Puyallup/Sumner area. We have been praying for the last couple years about moving for many reasons but the biggest being that the only room on our ground floor for Joseph and Vivien and all their equipment has been the tiny little den. We were wanting more room and privacy for them.

In addition to this Todd has always wanted to move to the country and when Maggie got married and moved to Buckley and kept telling us to hurry up and move down South we started looking in earnest.  The day after the wedding we found Iva on Redfin searching. 

We had several things we were praying for in a new place but the hardest part was finding a home with three living spaces because we wanted space for us, Joseph and Viv and ADU for Grandma Melquist.  A rambler was at the top of our list Joseph and Vivien could go anywhere in the house but ramblers large enough to accommodate a family of 7, not to mention caregivers was hard to find.  We had things we knew that were necessary but there were a couple other things that we prayed for just for fun, like a pool because Todd wanted a “grandkid magnet” and a little acreage. We had a very specific area we were looking in because we wanted to be in the country, but not so far out that we couldn’t get caregivers for Joseph and Vivien. We wanted to be close to Maggie, but also close enough to have the possibility of continuing to attend our church. As you can see, our list was long, mostly because of Joseph and Viv’s needs.

Early in the year we’d already been looking for so long that we were starting to think we needed to just find someplace and just make it work with the basic things we needed and we were getting discouraged because we were even having a hard time finding anything like that.

Then in May when a large rambler, 25 minutes from Maggie and Ethan in 30 minutes from our church popped up, with a large family room that would work for Joseph and Vivien, a DADU for Grandma Melquist with both a pool and acreage, we called our real estate agent immediately and went to look at it the next day and put an offer on it that weekend! The mid-century modern look was the cherry on top for Molly. We told our realtor that after looking for so long we didn't want to lose this one. 

We were praying and waiting to hear what he had to say when Molly opened up Redfin to show it to a friend and noticed that it said pending!  Her heart sank and Todd quickly called our realtor. We found out to our relief there was some miscommunication on the part of the seller and the pending was for us!

We ended up moving in July which made for a busy summer and less hikes and social events, because so much of the time was spent on the house but we were very thankful to God.  Todd remodeled the laundry room off the family room into a full kitchen for Joseph and Vivien and the caregivers and also remodeled the bathroom so that they could have a roll in shower.

It has been a big life change with some bittersweet moments but mostly sweet and we are thankful.

Here’s an update on each of the Merrys, starting with the youngest…

Vivien (11 years old) is now a fifth-grader at her new elementary school in Sumner.  Her teacher has been great and even though we really miss Mr P and Ms Nancy we are thankful that they are learning all about her at her new school and there are a lot of little girls who follow her around and enjoy her.  She is doing well health wise and continuing to give out smiles and giggles. She is so alert at times and so fun.

Joseph (12 years old) is doing a lot better than he was last year at this time. December of last year through March we faced some huge health challenges with having to replace his baclofen pump twice and then find a therapeutic level that his body could handle. He's on a very large dose but doing much better and not needing to have it increase every month.  He is enjoying his new school and new teachers and para educator , but it was so fun to have Mr P, Miss Lena and Miss Nancy from Kennydale come visit for his birthday. He was thrilled to see them.  He's loving going to middle school class on Sundays at church in Renton and has a friend, Noah who helps watch out for him while he is there. Joseph is genuinely sad if he ever has to miss it. We have also found a great church that does Awana on Wednesdays in Orting and he has been enjoying going with his caregiver.  He also went to Seaside, Maggie Lake and Birch Bay this summer. We did a special little vacation just for him with the girls and he loved that as well.

For both Joseph and Vivien we have missed their old caregivers but are thankful for Miss Lana staying on and three other new caregivers who work hard and love them well. They have both transitioned into their new schools without too much difficulty and love spending time with family and friends. 

Iva at 13 continues to voraciously devour her books and especially loves the fantasy genre. She is always happy to go to her horse lessons in Maple Valley and is also joining Molly and Lucie at American Heritage Girls this year and has made some friends there and at co-op. She also continues to write copiousl.  You can find her with a Chromebook typing away anytime she can. She is also turning into quite the cook and likes to experiment with recipes. For her birthday this year she wanted a book and coffee trip so we headed to Vancouver for a couple days and she was delighted to try a cat cafe, another new coffee shop and spend hours reading. She also continues to want to help babies and mamas and goes with Molly weekly to abortion clinics to offer resources to moms and tell them about Jesus if she can with Tiny Heartbeat Ministries.

Lucie (15 years old) is our social butterfly and wants to have friends over as much as possible. She continues to love co-op and works hard to get good grades. She also is involved in American Heritage Girls and enjoys her friendships there. She is turning 16 in February and looking forward to getting her license and a job, possibly at a nearby daycare that she will be interviewing for in January. She misses the sweet kids she used to babysit when we lived in Renton. You can find her hanging out with her dog Sophie and loves caring for her. She also helps care for Joseph and Vivien when Iva and Molly volunteer with THM and loves to help them.

Silas (18 years old) is working hard and doing online school through Northwest College in Kirkland. He is also working several days a week at Backflows Northwest and loves his job there. He has been doing a worship internship at a nearby church through Northwest College and has played piano for Sunday services both for his internship as well as at Highlands He also continues to help lead a Bible Study that Maggie and Ethan often hold at their house on Friday nights, and loves to study. He and Todd and Ethan also completed a marathon this fall.

Maggie and Ethan celebrated their first year of marriage in April this year and in May told us they were going to be parents! We are thrilled as were they and we're looking forward to meeting our new little granddaughter Miriam in January.  Maggie has continued to work at Backflows Northwest but recently had her last day in preparation for the upcoming birth.  

Ethan continues to work at Backflows Northwest while testing at various fire departments. He also leads the Bible Study at their house and both he and Maggie have enjoyed getting involved with their new church nearby where they recently became members making great friendships and attending the young adults group. He and Silas and Todd completed a marathon this fall.

Molly still loves traveling as often as possible though summer brought a hiatus because so much time was spent on the move. She continues to teach history with her BFF to their class of 4th and 5th graders at co-op. They also enjoy leading discipleship groups at Highlands together and American Heritage Girls Pioneers and Patriots which Lucy and Iva both attend. Molly’s love for teenagers and 20 somethings is still going strong. As her kids are getting older she loves hanging out with all of her kids friends doing some mentoring and between all the kids, hosting a lot of events at the new house Still running three days a week, hiking, writing and spending time with her mom friends as much as she possibly can. 

Todd has had a really busy year, between remodeling our original house to get it ready to rent, getting our house ready to rent and also remodeling and doing projects on the new house. He is definitely not bored. He continues to work at King County Medic One, and volunteer on the board of Home of Hope. He also taught some of the volunteers at THM about disaster preparation. He and Joseph still enjoy greeting at church on occasion and enjoy making others smile. He also completed a marathon this September with Ethan and Silas, which was definitely a highlight of the year.

Todd and Molly are celebrating 25 years next year and have already started the celebrations by a getaway a couple weeks ago to Puerto Vallarta. Instead of doing one long trip together they are taking several short trips to spread it out and also be available to be around to meet baby Miriam! They want to do a big celebration next summer so look for that invitation.

If you have made it this far, congratulations!  Thank you for taking the time to “catch up” with us.  We love getting your letters and hearing updates from you all. We are so thankful for all that God has done for us this year.

Blessings to your family,

The Merrys