Becky and I have been having a fun time keeping this little guy named Zidane. He’s our great-nephew, and at 7 months old, he’s a barrel of fun! He does decently through the night, but does usually wake up once or twice wanting some attention. When he wakes up in the morning and it’s light outside, he’s most always the happiest little guy in the world.

While we love keeping him or any of our other nephews, it’s a double-edged sword for us. The other side of it is that our hearts ache to have one of our own someday. Prayerfully, we’re very optimistic in that we’re following, to the best of our ability, God’s will. Financially, we’re making great progress with all of your help. It’s another $5 Friday, so we’re asking that you pass the word along for everyone who can to help us out if they can at all. And please, continue to pray for us!

Hey everybody. It’s the first week of April and we’re already seeing those April showers. Earlier in the week I started working on getting the garden ready to plant..these showers make it hard for the ground to dry up enough to do anything with it, so I took advantage of it while I could.

Friday has made its way to us again, so we’re asking you to spread the word, asking folks to give if they are able, and especially pray for us. We’re so thankful for how much you’ve given – the Lord has used you all in a great way!

Hello everyone! Last weekend we reached $9,000! That leaves us with $5,030 to go to reach our goal. I’d like to say another great big thank you to those who have given to us to help us financially on this journey! While we still have a ways to go, we are so encouraged by your giving, and especially by your prayers.

Please help us get the word out! You’ve all been such a blessing to us already, our prayer is that God will bless you many times over what you’ve done for us.

At our church (Fellowship Baptist in Wartburg), we have youth meetings every other Thursday night. We use this as a time to get the young people together and try to be an encouragement to each other in the Lord. I bring a Bible lesson, and then we take some time for fun and games, and usually have a few snacks.

Ever since we were married, Becky and I have loved working with young people. I believe it is something God has put into our hearts, and I believe it ties in very closely with our desire to have our own children.

Please continue to pray with us and for us. Please help us get the word out. We’re getting close to $9,000 raised now, leaving us with just over $5,000 left to go.

It seems like just a couple of weeks ago I was talking about how much snow we got, and how rare that is the past few years. Oh wait, it was just a couple of weeks ago. Since then, we’ve gotten a good taste of Spring with temperatures in the 60’s, daffodils and tiger lilies popping up out of the ground, and thoughts of getting things ready to start some outdoor projects. I love Spring, warm weather, and being able to get outside and do stuff, even if it is blistering hot.

I look forward to the day that I can go outside and build a swing set for my growing child. I look forward to the day I can teach him or her to fish and catch lightning bugs. You know, all that warm weather stuff you always liked doing when you were a kid.

As we continue to pray about God having His way in all this, and Him getting the glory in it all, I can’t help but imagine life with a little one of our own. This warm weather has made those thoughts stronger and more vivid.

Please help us pray, and please help us financially if you’re at all able – $5 goes a long way!

Maybe we should have been a little more specific in what type of ‘Snow’ we’ve been praying for! Wednesday night into Thursday morning, we got 7 inches of snow (the white powdery stuff) – the most we’ve seen all at once in years. Of course we’ve had a few other smaller snow accumulations this winter, but none like this.

It’s funny to see Facebook comments on some of the ‘shares’ we’ve gotten – people saying they’ve had enough snow, or they’re ready for spring, or other similar comments. While I totally agree (I can tolerate 90-100 degrees way better than 25 degrees!), I can’t help but chuckle about it all.

As you share this (and thank you so much to those who do!), please encourage others to read about our story and to give just $5 if they have the ability. Thank you for praying for us…and don’t forget to pray for the right kind of snow! 🙂

Well, maybe it’s not quite so snowy any more, but we had a decent snow here earlier this week while we had 3 of our nephews. They were dying to get out and play in the snow, so Becky went and dug out a couple of sleds to play around with. Maybe there wasn’t quite enough to sled with, but they had a lot of fun anyway.

Today we’re seeing only the second day that we’ll get above freezing temperatures. I’m ready!

While we’re trying to stay warm and cozy in the house during all this cold, spending time with our nephews, we continue to imagine and be excited about one day having our own child to get out in the snow with, teach, love and raise. We’re getting closer to reaching our financial need to do our IVF procedure, but we’re still not quite there.

Anything that you could give would be so greatly appreciated, and will help us get closer to meeting our goal. As always, we appreciate your prayers as well. Without God’s hand in all of this, it would never succeed.

Happy Friday to everyone! Here in East Tennessee we saw some record lows this week. It was the lowest temperature I’ve ever seen – we hit -3 on Tuesday morning! But we’re on a warming trend now, and are supposed to see temperatures in the 50’s tomorrow.

While cold weather brings some beautiful scenes, I’m personally ready for some warmer weather. I’ll have to be patient, though – I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of the cold weather.

Until then, we’re still raising money to have an IVF procedure. We are excited about what the Lord has done for us through your generosity and prayers! We also have some other exciting things we are working on, so stay tuned for those!

In the meantime, if you’re able, we would most sincerely appreciate your help by buying a puzzle piece for just $5. When bought, it is numbered and we keep a record of your name so that someday we can show our child just how many people God used to help bring him or her into this world.

Thank you again for your generosity, and for your prayers!

God has sure been good to us this past year! He’s always good! With your help and generosity, we’ve raised nearly 2/3 of the cost of IVF, making leaps and bounds toward our goal.

Sadly, insurance in Tennessee still will not cover infertility treatments, so we’ll need to continue to raise the money for the procedure, which we hope to have complete in the next few months. With your help, we can meet our goal!

As of today, we have 1,086 puzzle pieces to sell to meet our goal. If this post could reach 1,086 people, and each bought just one piece, we’d be at our goal! Please share this with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or any other social media outlet you use. Encourage them to share as well. I know we can get it in front of 1,086 sets of eyes. If we can do that, then just $5 will go a long way!

As always, we covet your prayers as well. Without God’s help, leadership and guidance, this is all for nothing.

It’s a sunny (but cold) Friday here in East Tennessee! I know God knows what we need, but I was certainly ready for all the rain to end!

Becky has been selling bracelets, and we had a Tupperware fundraiser done for us by a friend of ours. That has brought a significant increase in our funds, but we’ve still got a long way to go. Along with the bracelets and Tupperware, we’ve sold one whole puzzle, and 589 pieces of a 2nd puzzle. Here are a few numbers to help make a picture of where we’re at, and where we need to be:

• Total raised: $8,465
• Total need: $14,030
• Still to raise: $5,565

There are 411 pieces left in the second puzzle. At $5 a piece, that would bring $2,055, bringing the total up to $10,520, leaving only $3,510 to go!

We want to say thank you again to all those who have bought puzzle pieces, bracelets or Tupperware – you can see here how much it has helped! We especially want to thank you for praying for us!