Baby Molina

It is official...we are excpecting one little Molina! We are so excited and blessed to have this little miracle on the way. This last year has been crazy but the IVF process was really the icing on top of the crazy cake.

Yet, we feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to go through the IVF process but we know that our little sweetpea is nothing short of a miraculous gift from the Lord. Our little sweetpea is six weeks and five days today and this is a shot from the sonogram that was done three days ago. It was a great surprise to see our little blessing and an even greater treat to see the heartbeat! This week we have undergone a ton of test and everything has come back excellent.

We are ecstatic about this blessing of upcoming parenthood. I am having all the general symptoms of early pregnancy. This week I have welcomed the blessing of morning sickness all throughout the day. It may sound crazy but every feeling of uncomfortableness I am praising the Lord for as the Lord has truly given us the desire of our heart. I also started walking a little bit for some exercise which has been wonderful. Exercise is my release and I am praying that the Lord will allow me to be cleared for more than walking by the end of the first trimester. Until then I will be driving my dog crazy as she wants to walk faster than me at turtle speed.

God is so good! Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Ordinary People- Extraordinary God

Praise the Lord for His provision in so many ways over the last thirteen days. The preparation for IVF went smoothly and the Lord truly blessed the process. Charokee and I grew closer through the injections and frequent doctors visits. This time has been a tremendous blessing to our marriage and has grown us both closer to the Lord as we depend on His grace.

Today was both of our retrievals. The surgeries went well and we presently have eleven eggs/sperm that have been united. Tomorrow we will find out how many of the eggs have fertilized to become embroyos. It is so awesome to know that the Lord is in control and He knows how many will fertilize and develop over the next five days to the implantation date.

It is a miracle that we have made it this far in the IVF process with the doctors original prognosis. We have faith that the Lord will bless the desires of our heart. It truly is a testimony that we are ordinary people that serve an extraordinary God.

We are still alive!

So here we are approximately a year after our last blog update. It is so hard to believe that a year has gone by so fast. We have had a lots of crazy things transpire over the year in which we were blogless but I will pick up with where we are at this present time.

Charokee and I just celebrated our six year anniversary. We had always said, we wanted to wait until we had been married five years before we wanted to start a family. Well, after five years rolled by and we started praying for a baby. We were surprised that after months of trying we had not been able to conceive. Charokee and I went to see the doctor and proceeded with visits to the endocrinologist in our area. Through months of prayer and testing it was revealed what our fertility issue was that was hendering our ability to conceive naturally. God's hand of provision and strength had been upon us throughout this process and He had given us every measure of faith and encouragement that He knew we needed.

The Lord opened the door for us to enter into an Invetrofertilization cycle in August of this year. We have been astounded by God's faithfulness to provide for our every need throughout this process and we believe that He is going to bless our faith as a mustard seed as we embark on this IVF journey over the next month. It is our purpose in witting this blog to be transparent with those that we love about the circumstances in our life at the present as well as to glorify God as He has been so good to us throughout this last years experience. We pray that this experience for us will be a light to those around us going through similar situations or just as a testimony of provision. We covet your prayers as well that the Lord will continue to be merciful to us and a Psalms 37:4 say, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart".

We will be updating daily throughout this journey that starts tomorrow July 22, 2010.

Blessings!

New Places...

So there have been lots of new places and new faces for us here in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We are really excited to be here and working to get all settled in as fast as we can, as we do not have much initial time here together. The Lord has blessed us so richly in the last few weeks it is hard to know where to start.

We have had an amazing time moving into our new house. For the last five years we have talked and dreamed of owning our first home and now it is has become a reality. It has been a blast getting into our new house that is very quickly becoming a cozy little home. There have been many projects and lots of boxes being unpacked at the Molina's over the last few weeks. But we have survived, grown wiser, stronger and closer together in the midst of home ownership bliss. With all of that being said, we are here, settled, and ready for friends and family to visit.

Another new place for us is our new home church. We are so excited that the Lord has led us to a great church here in Fayetteville. While overseas we often prayed that the Lord would prepare a church home for us stateside and of course he has been more than faithful. Village Baptist is a great church with a passion for Christ and meeting the spiritual growth needs of all generations and populations. Here we have found a great small group study that is full of other military couples. This is truly a blessing for us as there are other couples(especially wives) that are going through similiar life circumstances to encourage one another.

Well, it has been a summer of transition. We thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement along the way. The road of change has not ended as we find ourselves seperated again and facing new experiences and challenges in our new individual places while still unified together at heart. We will keep you posted as usual but we leave you with some pictures.

Team Molina Runs for the Kids...

Things are going great here on the coast! This week has been pretty relaxing for the two of us. We wanted to let you know of a great opportunity to give to a really awesome childrens hospital here in Virginia.

Most of you guys think we are crazy for running as much as we do and well you maybe right. None the less, on June 13th we will be running the 2009 CHKD Run Walk for the Kids. The Children of the Kings Daughters provides care for thousands of children in Virginia everyday and plays a role in making their lives better through advance medical treatments. As many of you know children's medical needs are an especially important issue for us because of Melany's little sister Roxanne who passed away in 2000. Our team goal is $150 dollars, so please consider helping us reach this goal for the kids. The link below will take you to our fundraising site. Thanks!

http://www.active.com/donate/09runwalkforthekids/cmolina5

On the move again...

Hey there...we've missed you guys!

We are on the move again! This time down the east coast we go. Just to give you a little update on the past few weeks with us. As of Tuesday of last week we completed our residency in Petersburg, VA. After a long Memorial day weekend together enjoying our loft and Richmond the movers came to pack us out and off we drove to good ole Hampton Roads. Upon arrival we checked into our lovely hotel room in which we will reside for the next month. We are in the area because Charokee is finishing up the remainder of his course at Ft Eustis before we head to Ft Bragg. This is a great opportunity for the two of us to relax a little bit and enjoy some quality time together. The time for this couldn't be more opportunistic because this is the month of our five year anniversary...YEAH! It has been fun for us to be back in an area that we lived in four years ago. We have enjoyed checking out old favorites and exploring new places. It is great to be back on the coast and we have already been to the beach!

On the homefront...lots has transpired since our last post. I will give it to you in a nutshell, we found a house, terminated a contract, found another house and will be closing in two weeks. The home buying process has been bittersweet to say the least. We are certain that this comes as no surprise to anyone who has ever purchased a home. The process has been slightly compounded by the fact that we are not in the area we are purchasing the home. Most importantly we feel so blessed to have found the perfect first home for our family.

Well, that is where we are and what we are up too! We will stay in touch and let you know what is new in our world.

God is so good...

Hey There!

God is always so good and we just wanted to start by highlighting this reality in our life! Though we know we serve an awesome God. For some reason we never cease to be amazed by God's faithfulness to lead and guide our paths. This is the praise on our hearts as we share what all has been going on with us.

Mel's parents came for a visit over Easter weekend. It was great to have my mom and dad in our new place and be able to show them around the area in which we live. Every Easter we get together and have some kind of adventure. So this year we headed to Washington D.C.! As a family we covered just about every attraction the city has to offer. Charokee and I really enjoyed seeing all of these again with mom and dad. An extra special highlight was that we had the opportunity to attend a sunrise service at Arlington National cemetery. This was a sureal and moving experience to celebrate the life and resurection of our Saviour in a place of honor for the men and women of our country that have served so selflessly. We are so glad that mom and dad were able to visit and super excited that they will be meeting us in North Carolina next weekend for Mother's Day!

That brings us to the big news about where we are heading to next. Our new home of residence will be in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We are really excited about this rapidly upcoming move. Ft. Bragg was our second choice but the reality is that we wanted to be where the Lord wanted to send us. This assignment is a huge answer to prayer in the direction the Lord wants to take our family and Char's career. This is his dream job and even better he is headed to a special school in July to prepare him for this assignment. So with that being said we are heading to Fayetteville this weekend to look for a house. Yes, finally we are going to have the opportunity to purchase our first home. We are so pumped and terrified all at the same time. Since we will be moving out of our loft at the end of May we are hoping to find a place rather quickly. We know it is all in the Lord's hands, as He has opened and closed many doors to direct us to this point on our journey. We will keep you posted on the outcome of the house hunting trip. We intend to purchase a home large enough for many guest to come and visit. So we look forward to seeing you soon in North Carolina!