David and Alissa Meyer

Hi everyone!  Wow, it’s been a while since we posted anything on the blog… I guess Facebook has really taken over ;)  We just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and pray that God is glorified in this season.  We are doing well here in NJ, just living each day at a time and enjoying our little Alivia Joy… what a blessing it is to be privileged with the responsibility to raise up a child!  We are so grateful for so much in our lives.  Hope all is well with our family and friends, enjoy this season celebrating Christ’s birth!  <3

Here are a few recent pictures!  She is already starting to crawl backwards… she even gets half her body underneath the couch - impressive!

Hi everyone!  We can’t believe Alivia is already turning 6 months old!  She is doing great, by God’s grace she has been such a healthy and happy baby :)  Here are a few recent pictures…

Hello everyone!  We can’t believe how time flies… our little baby is 2 months old already!  She is such a joy ~ growing so much every day.  We are so blessed by God to have a healthy baby girl and constantly thank Him for His grace!  We are still in northern New Jersey just about to move into our own place - we’ll try to post pictures more often, but for now here are some shots of Alivia (taken within the past 2 months).  Love and blessings to you all ~~  the Meyers

Alissa and I proudly introduce the newest member of our family: Alivia Joy Meyer!!  She was 8 lbs, 5 oz at birth (3.7 kg) and 20 1/2 inches (52 cm). We would love to share more pics with everyone but we are too busy changing diapers.  Newborns are really good at eating, sleeping and pooping. Alivia seems to be doing one of the three at all times…

The birth was a phenomenal experience.  God’s grace was evident throughout.  Alissa stayed on top of her contractions and was amazingly focused as expected. It was especially rewarding to see the nurses rally behind Alissa and her desire to finish without the epidural. At first, they thought she was crazy wanting to deliver without the intervention.  But once they realized her concentration and determination levels, they soon started to root for her. After about 1 hour of pushing, VWALLAH!  There she was!!!

Also, our doctor said it had been more than 18 months since someone came in with an idea of what they wanted with their birth experience.  Our 3 page birth plan was executed with compelling, God-annointed fidelity.  We were prepared to be flexible and to expect the unexpected as thousands of variables were at play, but praise the Lord for His grace in allowing it all to go as smooth as it did. SDG!! I’m a dad now. Wow.

Our transition back to the US of A has been a good one.  We have been splitting the time between family in Ramsey and Sea Girt (NJ) as we are gearing up for the birth of our baby daughter.  We have had only one ultrasound (apparently the babies don’t like the wand) and the operator said the view was similar to that of a naked baby sitting on a glass coffee table. No “baby tennis ball” between the legs so all signs point to a little girl. Wooohooo!!!!

I spent the Memorial Day holiday on our annual “Garippa Family Campout” which has been a yearly event for men on my mom’s side of the family since the mid-1960’s.  This year we had about 35 men and boys, with my nephew Jude being the youngest at age 3.  (Timmy brought Jude up for the day on Sunday).  This year’s campout was up at Swartswood State Park in Sparta. Beautiful, quiet spot.  It was great to fellowship and see everybody, many cousins and uncles I haven’t seen in about 5 years.

Our family threw a baby shower for Alissa last weekend, which judging by all the baby clothes and baby paraphernalia, was a huge success. 

Hey everyone! Blessings from China! I just wanted to post a recent pic of the lil’ bump… here I am at my friend’s apartment pointing at our location in China, haha. We are so thankful that we have been blessed with this gift, L willing, arriving in a little over 3 months! We are planning on heading back in May to prepare for the birth. We are excited about what He is doing in our lives, and are asking for guidance for our near future. Thanks so much for all of your support, we have amazing friends and family!!! See you all soon!

Hello friends and family - we hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating this special day! What a wonderful time to pause and remember the start of a life that would forever change ours… We are headed home to the States to see our friends and families in about 2 weeks! We are SO excited and can hardly wait

David and I started a “Meyer family tradition” of designing home-made Christmas cards for each other. We both enjoy heartfelt words with a little creative flair, so we were pretty excited about this new idea! So even though there’s nothing like being home for the holidays, we managed to have a pretty good time regardless…

Christmas was a special time opening them at dinner and really reflecting about the true meaning of Christmas, and what blessings have been poured into our lives so far… especially our latest “blessing” of a little Meyer, scheduled to arrive this summer! We are thankful for the opportunities we have had to live cross-cultural and really look forward to what lies ahead… Blessings to you in the year 2008!

Hello everyone! We just returned from a little trip to a local city in Henan province, Deng Feng, a few hours away. Deng Feng is the home of Shaolin Temple, a well-known tourist attraction, where one can watch many locals perform “gong fu” or “kung fu” as we call it David was told that this city also had a pretty mountain and other sites to visit, so he decided to plan a “surprise” camping trip for a few days! It was a lot of fun, especially because our sole mode of transportation was our new motorbike! Don’t worry, we had helmets the whole time The first week in October is a nationally recognized holiday in China, so most people are off of work and are travelling to the tourist-friendly hot spots - as you can imagine, most of the big cities are packed!! So our trip proved to be fun and relaxing where we were able to stay out of lots of crowds. Here are a few pics from our trip…

the new bike!

cruisin’

our little friend we met on the way there…

near our camping spot… (lots of fog that day)

you can’t go camping without a campfire… yes, we’re dirty!

We miss everyone back in the States and can’t wait to see you in January!! Love and Blessings!

Hello everyone! We are in Thailand, getting some rest and relaxation… it has been great! We have been blessed to spend some time at a friends’ place in Phuket, which has been beautiful… we have really enjoyed this time together where we are able to slow down, and just enjoy His beautiful creation! We will head back to China on July 30th and will post more once we get settled back at Sias… he are some pics for now:

David shooting some hoops in the backyard… can’t complain, huh?!?

Going out to get some Mexican food for our 6 month anniversary!

Beautiful Thailand beaches…

Blessings to you all!!