Then…

As many of you know, Jonathan and I have been taking care of this little guy. His name is Dane and he will be 8 months old on May 2nd. He is a sweetheart and we are having the time of our lives taking care of him! He is such a little blessing in our home and he is such a very good baby.

He has been with us for almost a month total. Only going home for about 3 days during that time so we’ve had him more than we haven’t. When we first got him he had been quite sick with a nasty cold so we spent a lot of time dosing out antibiotics, baby tylenol, and sitting by the nebulizer for breathing treatments, and tons of snuggle time. 😉

Along with all that he has been teething and working pretty hard on his first two bottom teeth. Poor little guy… He got hit hard with a double whammy! He has one tooth that has popped through and I fully expect to see the second one just anytime. He is doing so good and it seems like everyday we see him do something new and different.

In the morning when he first wakes up and you go in to get him, as soon as he sees you he always gives a big smile. When he wakes up we usually put him in the bed with us for a little morning snuggle time and we have fun laughing at his giggles, and jabbering!

He loves sitting in his bouncy seat, loves his swing, loves playing in the floor with toys, he loves his booster seat and eating baby food! Sometimes I think we both wear more than he actually eats, but that’s ok too. 😉 He loves bath time now which is awesome cause when we first got him he was terrified of getting a bath and screamed the whole way through it. He loves his paci and is quite attached to it. When he is sleepy he loves to have a blanket on his face to sleep and usually pulls it all the way over his head. (Be advised… if you try to pull it off before he is fully asleep he doesn’t appreciate it to much.) 😉 He loves the cartoons Special Agent OSO and Handy Manny. In fact.. loves them so much that I have woke up through the night to feed him and realize I’m singing the theme song from those cartoons. 😛 I love sitting in the floor with him, playing with his toys and trying to read him books while he tries to eat it. Of course… everything he gets his hands on tends to go straight to his mouth. It won’t be long until he starts crawling and keeping us on our toes more and more everyday!

He even seems to like our dog, Max! However, Max doesn’t always share the love. Instead I think he gets a little jealous. When this picture was taken, Dane wasn’t feeling too good so Max crawled up close to him and I decided since it was such a rare moment and so cute I just had to have a picture. Max is VERY good with kids and has never once tried to bite or even growl at anyone. Even when Dane grabbed a handful of fur and yanked real hard Max still did nothing but let out a little whimper. LOL I quickly released him and before I could do anything to stop him, Max respond with a good slurp to the side of Dane’s face! YUCK 😛 (Thank goodness for baby wipes)

Peaceful sleeper!

When we first got Dane I borrowed a pack-n-play from Jonathan’s Mom for him to sleep in. I was in a thrift store one day looking for some other things and came across a baby cradle. I have always loved the wooden cradles and thought that someday if the Lord blessed us with our own children that I would love to have one for our baby! While I was in the store I was on the phone with my Mom and when I saw the cradle I mentioned that I would love to have it but couldn’t afford it. She told me to see if he would drop the price to which he gladly did! I told my Mom and she drove to where I was, loaded it up, and delivered it to my house! I was so excited and I was just beside myself that I finally got to have one and Dane loves his new little bed!

The best part about this story though is that my Mom had recieved some inheritance money from my Grandma so this cradle was purchased by my Mom in honor of my Grandma! If she were still here she would have loved doing this so I’m so thankful for how she is a part of our lives and still giving just as she always did!

Now…

Dane is almost 2 1/2 years old now. He’s definitely not the baby we’re waiting to see crawl or take his first steps any more. Instead, he’s a very active toddler! While he has always had a pretty laid back attitude to anything that is going on around him, he is also into everything! More and more lately he seems to have found one speed.. RUN!

He is a sweet boy who still loves to give cuddles, hugs and kisses. He is a Mommy’s boy and Daddy’s boy depending on what he wants at the moment. 😉 He has become a  little bit of a picky eater since he stopped eating baby food and we’ve jokingly said that we might be raising a vegitarian but little by little he is growing to like more things and while I’ve not had a green bean thrown back at me in a while he still hates them! lol

He can’t stand to get his hands dirty… Yes, he is a boy and a quirky one at that! 😉 He loves playing outside and will sit and play in the dirt for a long time but as soon as he realizes he is dirty he always comes running and says “Mommy, dirt off!” This has carried over into meal time as well so he won’t hardly pick up foods that would make his hands messy. Instead he has recently gotten very proficient with utensils!

He loves bath time still and usually if he cries now it’s because we make him get out! He is still a happy little guy in the morning and has always been an early riser! He is always ready to offer a big smile and a good morning hug. He still loves his blanket and paci. (We are slowly trying to break the paci but it’s not going too well). He started cutting 2 year molars a while back and those things have been boogers to say the least!

Dane LOVES church, he enjoys Sunday school, singing those sweet little songs, learning Bible stories, learning to pray. While it’s all very simple, it is very basic truths that are being instilled in his heart at an early age. He loves family devotions every night and loves praying and listening as Daddy reads from the Bible.

Dane loves anything that rolls… trucks, cars, trains, balls… and apparently you can’t have too many! 😉 He also loves many other things. Planes, dinosaurs, animals, books, puzzles, eating crayons and play-dough (like most 2 year olds), He celebrated his 2nd birthday with a Toy Story themed party and we all had a blast.

All in all Dane is our AWESOME little guy and he is a good little boy! I’m so thankful and grateful for this wonderful and special blessing God has given us!

On Wednesday Jonathan and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary. WOW!! It is so hard for me to believe its been that long. It still feels like it was just yesterday that I walked the aisle and joined hands with him to say our vows. Vows that meant we would spend a lifetime together. What a blessing from God!

Jonathan is a wonderful husband and truly is my best friend. Some may say “mushy, mushy” but I say “I hope the honeymoon never ends” in that we will still be just as crazy about each other in another 20 years as we were when we first started dating.

Don’t get me wrong… I know we live in a real world where its not always gonna be a bed of roses, but I also believe that if we trust the Lord and keep Him the center of our home that our marriage will always be blessed! I love everything about our life and our home together and I’m looking forward to the rest of forever together as Mr. & Mrs. Snow!

If you have it to give today please share in our celebration and help us get a little closer to our goal! I know we say it all the time but we so appreciate all that y’all have given so far to help us. Thank you as well for praying for us! God bless you today!

That’s right… today is my birthday and I feel so blessed beyond measure. I was feeling a little down about not being 20 something anymore, but its the inevitable so there’s no point in being upset over something that is just a number. God has blessed me with another year and for that I am very grateful!

I also feel so blessed by all the love and support y’all have continued to show toward us in helping support us not only financially but through many prayers and encouraging words. As of right now we still need $4,990 to meet our goal. If you have it to give today please help us!

I can’t wait until the day I get to celebrate birthdays with the special little one God has planned for us! 😀

We are so close to reaching $9,000. All we need is $65 to reach that goal. We are so thankful for the money we have received so far from so many wonderful people. We know that without all of you there is no way we would be where we are! Thank you for being a part of our journey and helping us so much financially.

Please keep praying for us. We need those prayers so much as we do still have a little way to go to reach our final goal of $14,030. If you have it to give today please help us get closer to this goal of $9,000!

Nothing fancy today… Just one simple truth… Prayer changes things.

I hope that as we continue to pray for this desire of ours to be met that you will be praying for us too, and if you have it to give today we would very much appreciate it. It may not seem like much but $5.00 can go a long way today!

And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. Exodus 14:13

God gave Israel a great promise that day. They saw what He could do. I’m thankful this verse still holds true today for us too if we will just believe it.

This verse has been on my mind again for the past few days. It comes from a Sunday School lesson that Jonathan did in our class last summer. He actually was not teaching on this verse but it was one that he skimmed over in part of his lesson, but it jumped out at me that day. I can’t even remember what his lesson was about because I was so fixed on this verse.

During that time I was going through a struggle over being scared and a little overwhelmed of doing IVF. Honestly… I don’t know where that came from because when we first made the decision to do IVF I was just very excited and anxious. Throughout the past year there have been some times that were still a little hard but for the most part it’s just been exciting to see the Lord working for us. He has taken what was impossible and made it possible for us to do this. As I thought about this the other day this verse came back to me again and I couldn’t help but thank the Lord for His unending faithfulness.

The part of this verse that stood out to me so much was  “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day.” I was so scared that what if we do all this… raising the money, the process we will go through leading up to IVF, and then the procedure itself and then it doesn’t work! I was scared of becoming bitter, of failing Him after everything that He has done for us, of ruining my testimony, and still not having a child of our own. All these things that kept me so upset, I realized I didn’t have to if I would just stop trusting in my own self and trust the Lord like He wanted me to. I realized the risk that is involved here, but I’ve also seen what God can do when we just trust… I discovered that day that what I really knew all along, that I don’t have to be afraid of all those things because He is gonna take care of us. His way is best and so if we do all these things and it doesn’t work then He has a reason for it and a better plan in mind. It was then that I was able to just focus on what is ahead and be excited about it. I have peace in knowing that I can just be still and see what HE will do!

I promised myself when we started all of this that I would always tell what He has done for us to anyone that wanted to hear about it. He’s done too much and been too good to keep silent about it! I’m so thankful to be His child. I honestly can’t imagine my life without Him in it. He didn’t have to give me peace through this verse that day, but He knew what I needed and He took care of it. There are so many promises in His Word for us. This just happened to be the one I needed for that day. And since He cannot tell a lie, it is through promises like this that I’m learning I can lean on Him. What a wonderful God we serve!

Please continue to pray for us! We ARE very excited. Seeing how far we have come… I can’t be anything else but excited. We are not done yet though so we are asking that if you have it to give please help us. It may not seem like much to some but $5.00 goes a long way. I don’t know if y’all really know how much of a blessing it has been to us. So many that have helped us financially and to all those that are praying for us. We are SO grateful. May the Lord bless you all in return for what you’ve done for us!