To all of you who are keeping up with us and our blog, we are so excited about what we are doing! I’m sure all of you know that by now though. We are still waiting to hear from the Cade Foundation! It is day 11, and as we are now down to crunch time my nerves are on edge wondering what we will hear. (I suppose this is a normal feeling, and just shows that I am human!) I’m sure that in some ways that feeling will remain until we know, but strange as it may sound I also have peace in knowing that all of this is in the Lord’s hands. I hope we don’t bore anyone by posting pictures each day! I thought this would be a fun idea as we are filled with anticipation. IF we receive the grant we will only be left with raising a little less than $1,300.

On the 12th day of countdowns….. We are still excited and praying!

Waiting and Praying!

I just thought I would give everyone a heads up. On October 15th we will find out if we will receive the grant from the Cade Foundation! We are excited to see what will happen, but I suppose we are also a little apprehensive at the same time. We are trying to not get our hopes up, but I have to be honest and say it’s a little (lot) hard not to. I have to say if this is the way to learn patience, I haven’t been the biggest fan! While I have to say this has not always been the easiest path we know this is the one He has laid out for us. I pray that someday, maybe, somehow, these events in our lives will help mold us into what HE wants us to be, and we will be able to be a blessing and help to some other family facing this same difficulty. In the mean time LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!! Hopefully in two weeks I will be sharing a post that says we are Maryland bound. 🙂

Tomorrow, July 1, 2013 marks one month that the grant papers were due. There was so much paper work involved! We worked very hard for several weeks trying to make sure we had everything exactly the way it had to be. We had to fill out all the paper work they required plus all the other information they needed. This list consisted of a copy of our marriage license, copies of the past 3 months pay stubs, a copy of last year’s 1040, a 4×6 photo of us, and copies of our birth certificates. (For this we were a little unsure of what to send for mine. Due to the fact I was born oversees, I have 3 different birth certificates. So… to be sure we did the right thing we sent a copy of all three)! 😉 We also had to have copies of all my medical records from my doctor, and a letter written by my doctor saying basically that we do have infertility problems, and should be counted eligible to receive this grant. All of that had to be in a signed and sealed envelope from the doctor. Included in the paperwork that we had to fill out was two copies for a treatment budget. (This was a list we had to make of how the money would be spent if we did receive the grant.) There were two copies of our monthly household budget, and a personal statement written by each of us stating why we wanted to do IVF, why we felt we would make good parents. etc. (Basically self promoting ourselves… Neither of us were comfortable with this, but had no choice.) These are just some of the things we went through to get these papers ready to be sent in.

As a way of memorializing this special occasion I took this picture of Jonathan on May 27, 2013. We mailed the grant papers on the following day. It was quite a relief to be done with it all, and know that we had gotten it sent in on time. However, at the same time we were very nervous for the next several days while we anxiously waited to receive an email from The Cade Foundation. This was a pretty big deal to us! Some of you may be wondering why. Well… as part of the application process we also had to fill out some information online and pay a donation fee of $50. At that point we found out that if our paper work was in any way in-complete we would not be considered for the grant. It stated that if everything was correct that we would receive an email saying that they had received our paper work. That email came 12 days later on June 10, 2013! I know that is not a long time, but we felt as if we were waiting on pins and needles! We were beyond thrilled when we received that email! It was at that point that we had a small feeling of satisfaction in knowing that everything we had just spent weeks laboring over was in fact what it needed to be. Now though… we have come to another waiting period. We are of course hoping we will receive this grant, but we also know that like us there are so many others who are waiting as well to know what will happen. We are very excited and I have to say that October 15, 2013 can’t get here fast enough! 😉

P.S. I also have to say that while the amount of money that is needed was somewhat overwhelming to us, we’ve always known that The Lord would supply the need for what we were doing. He’s always supplied our needs before and why would He lead us in a way that He would not provide for us now?! I heard a saying many years ago: Where God guides, He provides! I KNOW this to be true.

While we knew that we would receive support from our family and friends, we did not expect the response to be quite like this! To see The Lord work these past few months for us has been amazing! There are no words to describe how overwhelming it has been. In a little over seven months we have received 6,540. dollars.  Our total need is 14,030.00, and the amount we applied for is 6,090.00. We are hoping to be able to save another $1,500.00 between now and January 2014.

Thank you to everyone who has given to us to help with the expenses, and also thank you for all the prayers that are being said, and most of all thank you to Our Lord for His many blessings! God is good… ALL the time!

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

-Becky

Meet Cole & Ross Slaven

These two boys are from a family that has been visiting our church some. We decided to take care of these boys for a while due to their family needing some help. We have had them for a week so far, and we will have them for a couple more weeks if things go according to plan. I know that is not a long time, but we are praying that for the time that we do have them we can have some kind of positive impact on their lives. Please help us pray for these precious boys, and please pray for us as well. While we are waiting for God’s timing in our lives for our own children, we want to help these boys as much as we can. Even if it is for a very short time.

Cole (pictured to the right) is the oldest. He turned eight a couple weeks ago. He is the out-going one. I’m pretty sure he would talk to a post and not mind that it won’t talk back! He LOVES basketball, video games (with a passion), and Little Caesars Pepperoni Pizza. It could be that these three are his greatest survival needs. 😉 j/k

Seriously though.. Cole is in first grade. He was not ready to advance to second grade at the beginning of the 2012/2013 school year. He is doing much better now though, and has been on the honor roll for the past 6 weeks and improving in every subject. He cannot pronounce his “R’s” quite yet, but for now that is ok because it is really cute and he will learn given time. I wish I could type out how he says “girls” it makes me smile every time!

He is talkative, very bright, and full of questions. He is (most of the time) very well mannered, but like most boys his age does tend to have a slight case of selective hearing at times. 😉  He has a beautiful smile, a big laugh, bright eyes, and a way about him that will steal your heart in just a second. He gives hugs and kisses constantly, and I am told “I Love You” more times in one day than I could possibly count. I love every one that I receive and he seems to love getting them back. He is precious, and so full of love.

Ross (to the left) is six. He is more quiet and shy, but once given a few seconds to get used to you would gladly give you a hug in a minute!

He LOVES football, and video games as well. While he seems to have a wider range of things he will eat he is still a little on the picky side when it comes to food. I’m pretty sure both of them wouldn’t eat a vegetable if their life depended on it!

He loves wrapping his arms around my leg and holding on for dear life while all I can do is manage to inch my foot along. This of course makes him laugh all the more! He loves to play “Come Catch Me.” and will run until I am about ready to hit the floor, but he is still raring to go. He loves being tickled and has the sweetest giggle.

He is also in first grade, but is a very young first grader. He can read but is a little slow with it. He is learning to count to 120. He gets a little stumped at times and leaves numbers out but given time and maturity will master that before long I’m sure. He tends to get frustrated with himself a little more quickly if he messes up, but with encouragement seems to get a second wind and wants to try again.

He has the biggest smile that makes his eyes disappear. He loves to crawl up in your lap just to snuggle. He will stop whatever he is doing to find you just to say “I love you” then off he is again to whatever he was doing. He too gives an abundance of hugs and kisses everyday, and I love you’s all the time.

We got each of them a new Bible for Valentine’s Day as well as some candy, and little toys. But anyway… These are the first Bibles they have ever had and they LOVE them! They both are always asking questions about what something says, or what something means or sometimes they will even just sit and turn the pages. Earlier today I asked them if they knew what the red words were for? They didn’t know so we told them those were the words that Jesus said. To this Cole said “Man, God sure did have a lot to say!” They seem to enjoy Sunday School and Church, but don’t understand why they have to sit still for so long! It’s sad that its so foreign to them, but I am hoping and praying that in time they will come to understand just how much Jesus loves them, and that they will be saved. I hope and pray that we will be a light to them and our home will always show God’s love!

We have only had them for a week, but just in that amount of time I’ve come to love them so much. They have so much to give and just want someone to show the same back to them. Again I ask that you please help us pray for these precious boys!

Just thought I’d share an extra special surprise…

A couple weeks ago at church a lady came to me and asked how things were going with the puzzles. I told her we had two put together and working on the third, but it was giving us some problems. We have made some more progress on it but it is slow going.

Then I realized what she was meaning was how much had we raised so far. I told her that we had just made another deposit and that had put us up to $460. She inquired as to giving through the website that you can only buy 10 pieces. To make a long story short we found out that some money had been given through our blog that we were not aware of. When Jonathan set up the Paypal account he had it set to send us both an email when something was given and who gave it just the same as we receive emails when a comment is made on a post we’ve done. Anyway though… To our surprise we had $270 dollars in our Paypal account that we knew nothing about. This makes us have a new total of $780. What a special blessing! Thanks SO much to everyone who is giving and most of all for your constant prayers.

-Becky