Catch Up

Things are going so well for our family. We feel so blessed. I trained for the San Antonio marathon and got to participate with my dad. We both did very well. My dad had an awesome first half marathon and I finished the full with a time of 320 and qualified for Boston. The race is full for April so we will have to see what next year has in store for us. We enjoyed a wonderful holiday season. Christmas with Ava this year was so much fun. She was full of excitement and her imagination was going wild. Every gift she opened she would say "It's my very own." It was too cute. We have a tradition to go see a movie on Christmas day so we went and saw Yogi Bear. Do not recommend that movie to anyone. Ava has started taking mothers day out two days a week and just loves it. She is extremely found of her two good friends Jayden and Timoree. It is really nice to say "Ava if you don't mind then you won't be able to go to school." Ava is so very special! She is always talking and singing. She really loves to color and draw. She loves playing with other kids. Hoping we can give her a sibling one of these days. On that note, Justin and I have some new and exciting things going on right now. Have been feeling God leading us towards fostering. We are in the process to foster to adopt. We feel like we could provide a loving home for a child, whether it be permanent or temporary. Please keep us in your prayers as I am sure there will be some difficult times ahead, but we trust God with the plans of our lives and are certain he knows what is best. We are also going to try and get pregnant pretty soon. We have seen another Dr. here locally and have decided to try some new treatment options. I will try to stimulate ovulation by injections and then if all goes well with that we will proceed with insemination. We are optimistic about our chances. But we have learned to trust in God and have peace about whatever outcome we get. We are praying the outcome is a single healthy baby in 9 months. Hope you don't see us on one of those reality shows. We could call it Multiple Merrill's. I feel like the devil has and is trying to cause me suffering, but he can bring it on. I will only cling to Jesus more when I am suffering and through it I have developed a strong relationship and trust in my Father. Not to mention appreciation for my easy going husband and a love for my daughter that overwhelms me. I hope all of my friends and family are doing well. Thankful we can be close to Justin's family. They are such a blessing in our lives. I miss all my family all around this country but makes the time we spend so precious. It is nice to have all this great technology and facebook. Princess Ava at Halloween

Ava's Christmas program for her school.

This summer is going by so fast. We have enjoyed spending time with family and friends. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life. There are times I will start to think I wish I could have another baby and get down about the pregnancy thing but then I am reminded just how lucky I am. So thankful for my great husband. Yes Justin that's right I am talking about you. I know I take you for granted and am so thankful you put up with all my imperfections and love me despite of them. Thank you for supporting me through invitro. Although it was hard at times and we wondered if we were doing the right thing it was the best decision we ever made. Can't imagine our lives without our precious Ava.
Justin and I hope all of our family and friends know how much we love all of you. We treasure every moment we get to spend with all of you. So fortunate to have Justin's family living so close. We always enjoy our birthday get togethers, dinners, trips to the ranch and just being able to see each other as often as we do. We also appreciate all the help all of you give. We can rest easy that Ava has a place to go while I am at work and know she is being taken care of well if we need some time away.

We have also been fortunate to get to spend some time with my family who unfortunately does not live as close. We always enjoy visits from my parents and are thankful they are more frequent since the move to San Antonio. Just goes to show how God can make good come from bad situations. My dad's company shut down and he was left to find a new job. Look how God works. They sold their home in a shaky market and found a job closer to their sweet granddaughter. We all got to spend forth of July at my parents, including my sister and brother-in-law. This was such a wonderful visit and Ava just loved swimming in PaPo and KeKe's pool. She does not quite understand the concept that they live 8 hours away. Sometimes we will be going to dinner and she will say no I want to go to PaPo's house. Love that.

We feel like we have the best friends anyone could ask for. Enjoyed seeing our great friends Todd and Heather as their visits are few and far between since Todd has decided to serve our country. We are so proud to have them as friends and could not ask for a better man to be protecting this wonderful country we live in. We look forward to the day when they can move back and we can BBQ on the weekends. Even miss Todd and Justin acting like dorks and embarrassing me. I have been truly blessed with the best girl friend with my friend Nikah. She has been my friend since middle school and as the years go by we just seem to get closer. Her and her husband, who is also a great friend to us, are expecting their first child in August. We have enjoyed the visits we have had with them and look forward to meeting Brynne. We spent this last weekend at their home in Lubbock celebrating Nikah's 30th bday. Everytime we pull out we always say how much we enjoy the time we spend with them. They are amazing people. Well just wanted our friends and family to know we love you and want to strive to make the most of the time we get to spend together. We have heard lately that the most important thing to our wonderful Lord is to love God and love people. We are going to strive to do better at these two things this year. Sometimes it is really hard for Justin and I to put God and others before ourselves but we will continue to learn from mistakes and try harder each day.

As for Ava, she is now 3 years old. She had her birthday a few weekends ago. Hard to believe she is already 3. We tried mothers day out for 5 weeks but just wasn't right for Ava. We will try something else in a few months and pray she enjoys it. She is always making us laugh with her non stop talking and wide vocabulary. We really think she is a prodigy child. Now if she could just conquer pooping in the potty. Justin and I know that our infertility was a blessing in disguise. It made us better parents and appreciate all the little things that you can take for granted. Ava is our miracle and we are so thankful to have been chosen to be her parents.

Justin and I are enjoying our new home. We have really enjoyed the few things we have done to it and are thankful we did not have to tear down wallpaper and all that fun stuff. We are still praying about Gods plans for our family and just feel at peace with what we have. Gods timing is always perfect and we know he will let us know what is right for our family. We are considering our options and excited about what the future holds. We are also dreaming of the beach as we do every year about this time. Thinking about taking a few days to enjoy what we love and some time to appreciate each other. Sorry this is so long. Hope I did not bore you. Enjoy the summer that Jesus died so you could have. I stole that from Joyce Meyer.

I know I am so far behind on my blog. Can't seem to find enough hours in the day. Well God has once again been great to our family. We were blessed with a new home and have been here for about a month. It was all in Gods timing and worked out better than we could have imagined. Ava is getting so big. I am overwhelmed with love for that little girl. She is such a talker. She could seriously carry on a conversation for hours. I am sure every parent thinks this, but I am positive that she is the smartest little kid I know. Not to mention she got her mothers outstanding looks. Just kidding she looks just like her good looking Dad. My parents are visiting for the weekend and we always enjoy having them. Ava gets so excited to see her Keke and Papa. I am so thankful for the blessings God has given to me. It seems like we were excited to hear Ava say her first word just the other day, now she is a non stop jabber box. We are still praying about expanding our family. Know God has a plan for us and can't wait to see what he has in store. Excited for the summer. We are such warm weather people. If only Amarillo had and ocean. Hope everyone enjoys their summer with their family. Just have to say THANKS SOO MUCH GOD YOU ARE GREAT!!

Our Little Artist

Well not much new going on here. We have not had any offers on our house yet, but hoping that will change once the weather is warmer. Ava continues to bring us so much joy. She is really into drawing and coloring. All she ever draws is circles. We have had some trouble with her coloring on furniture, walls, and herself. Last night she came out of her room and said "look at me mommy." Guess she thought she could use her markers on her face like makeup. She had it everywhere. Justin seemed to think she did a good job tracing her lips. Hoping she will get Justin's creativity and be a great artist like him. Everyday it seems as someone is telling me how much she looks like me or how she is a little Melissa. I sure she some of Justin in her though. We have had a few rough weeks of strep throat and ear infections but hoping that is behind us now. Well like I said we really don't have much going on here. Maybe I will have some news of a new home in an upcoming blog. Guess it will happen in Gods time.

Ok so I know it has been soo long since my last post. Sorry Jen. I will try to do better. I am sure a lot has gone on since my last post but could not tell you everything. My SIL and her family have a new addition to there family. They welcomed Miss Sydney about one month ago. She is a little over three and so very cute and sweet. We love her so much and are so happy for their family. Our sweet little Ava was a flower girl again. She was in our friend Nisha's wedding in December. She did an outstanding job. Threw the petals all the way down the isle. With a prize of m&m's awaiting her. I have been working 3 days a week for Dr. McCarty and love it. He is a wonderful Dr. and great Christian man to work for. We got to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving in San Antonio with my parents, sister and her husband. We took Ava to Sea World. I had great fun shopping with my mom and sister. For those of you who get to do that with the girls in your family, don't take it for granted. I can't tell you how many days I wish I could just go have lunch with my mom and sister. There are those days when I am spent and could use my mom around. It has been nice since they moved a little closer. They were here for a short visit over New Years. We of course had a great time. Ava just adores KeKe and Papoo. Something else we are excited for is we recently put our house for sale. We are looking for something a little bigger and newer. I had about a day where I was worried if I could find another house I liked as well. That soon ended after we went and looked at a few. Now I am excited and anxious to sell. I am trying to be patient and just pray that the right person would buy our home and we would find the right home for us. Gods timing is always the best. I have come to learn that the hard way. I have found that I say I may trust in God's timing but am not always patient enough to wait for it. Now I am working on just giving it all to him and loving the plan he has for me. On that note, we have decided to do that with expanding our family. We have no plans to do any sort of fertility. I have a strong faith that even though I have had soooo much trouble in the baby making department anything is possible through Him. I love our Lord soo very much and know he has a better plan for my life than I do. Hoping to be a better person than the year before and just enjoy this wonderful life God has blessed me with. Justin and I feel so lucky to have such great family and friends. Guess if you are always complaining about what you don't have you miss out on all they great things you have already. God sacrificied his wonderful son Jesus so I could have a shot at this life and I plan on making the most of it and focusing my eyes toward Him. Hope everyone enjoys 2010.

Summer Fun

Well summer went by so fast as it always does. We recently got to visit some of our good friends in Lubbock. We stayed with our friends Nikah and BJ in their beautiful new home. Nikah is one of those true friends who are few and far between. Ava absolutely loves Nikah, BJ, and their little dog Jasmine. We also got to see our friends Jackie and Michael Prichard and their newest member, Jaxen. He is a sweet little guy and I now offically have baby fever. I also had the priveledge of keeping my niece and nephew on Thursdays. Today was our last Thursday since they will be starting school next week. We had a great last day together. We played outside with the neighborhood kids. Then we went to jump and jive for some more fun. Came home had lunch then we headed to Cold Stone for a yummy treat. Ava can't get enough of Philip and Ash. I can see why too. They are great kids and great cousins. They do nothing more than brighten our day. We will miss seeing them on Thursdays. We will be heading to Jamaica on Monday so the next post will be of Justin and I laying on the beach drinking rum and soaking up the sun. We have had a rough year and are really looking forward to this trip. We will of course be missing little Ava but know she wi will be in good hands and having a great time.

Not So Terrible Two's

So Ava turned two on Thursday. She is soo much fun right now. She says the funniest things and is just the sweetest little thing ever. Now I know every mother thinks this but I think it would be hard to argue the fact that she is just absolutely gorgeous. Justin and I are in some trouble with her. We had her big birthday party last night. It was so much fun. We enjoyed being with friends and family. The kids had fun whacking the Elmo pinata and getting all the candy. Ava got so many nice gifts including many bracelets which she had to wear all night long. She looked like Madonna when she was the material girl. She wore all the bracelets around her ankles out to lunch today. My parents got to come in town again from San Antonio. We always love having them here. Justin and I have been blessed with wonderful family and friends. My parents stayed with Ava after the party and Justin and I got to enjoy a night out with friends. We rarely get to do that and had such a great time. My dad and I competed in a 5k this weekend. I was rather proud of myself. I had a personal record completing in 17 minutes and 8 seconds. Although I do think the course was not organized well and may have been a little short. Either way I finished second in the girls and first in my age. Just came in a few seconds behind a 16 year old girl. I was proud of my dad, as this was his first race. I hope he participates in more. I am contemplating a marathon in the near future. Not ready to commit just yet. Justin and I are counting down the weeks until Jamaica. Just 5 more to go. I am so excited but am so sad to leave Ava. I know she will have a great time while we are gone, but I will miss her dearly. Well thank God for these last two wonderful years I have had with my precious daughter. Hoping for many more to come. God is just so amazing and I am so thankful for the wonderful family he has blessed me with that I so don't deserve. He sacrificed his precious son so a sinful girl like me could enjoy eternity with my daughter in heaven one day. Oh how he loves me.