Baby Update: 18 Weeks

Monica is 18 weeks pregnant! Actually it will be 19 weeks this Friday. So far so good! We haven't posted as many updates this time around. For that we apologize. We find ourselves a little more busy this time than last. There's two boys named Jace & Jeriah that steal our attention. :)

We find out next Wednesday, the 25th, what we're having! Obviously Monica wants to have a daughter. She doesn't get very far shopping with 3 males! Lol! She wants a daughter to dress up, take shopping, etc. We honestly won't be upset either way. We love our boys!! Boys are so easy and fun. And they looooove their momma!!! Monica wouldn't be disappointed at all if we have another boy. Of course I'd be ecstatic. We both would like to have a daughter though. As much as dating, and everything else with girls stresses me out and worries me, I would like to have a daddy's girl. So we shall see! Whatever God has planned for us is perfect! 

The boys have been great as well. They're cutting two year molars so they've been a little more whiney than usual and have stuffy noses and coughs. They've turned into little mockingbirds.  Especially Jace. He repeats almost everything we say. I've had fun with it, trying to get him to say harder words. It's so cute listening to him try and say it. Last night we were working on Dr. Pepper. He didn't really say the Dr. part and Pepper came out like "peppest" lol. It's absolutely mind-blowing how smart they are. I'm not just saying that because they're my kids either. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed and Monica went to a small private school, nuff said. Haha! JK, She's smart! They know how to work our phones and Kindle amazingly well. I'm not kidding either. They know how to turn them on, hand them to us and say "lock it", which means they want us to unlock it. They scroll through to find games, they'll open up our pictures and look through them. They watch videos on several different apps I have on my phone for making different kinds of videos. They're baby geniuses!! It's a bit scary. They're gonna know more about computers by the time they start kindergarten than I do. I must say I LOVE being a dad! Best thing that's ever happened to me!

More updates to come! Here's a pic of Monica 18 weeks with the boys on the left, and 18 weeks with this baby on the right. You'll also notice they huge difference in picture quality between an iPhone 4 and iPhone 6, lol. Oh and the little photo bomber. P.S. Mommy's still got it going on!! :)

Bonus Pic: 12 Weeks ultrasound of Baby Parks

Coming July 2015...

That's right... Baby #3 is on the way! At the end of our first IVF cycle, Monica and I had one embryo left over that still looked "gorgeous" as our IVF doctor put it. We decided to freeze it, as we could not live ourselves for throwing away an embryo. We understand that there is a lot of controversy around whether they are babies at this stage in the game or not, but to us it felt so wrong. Almost the same as having a abortion. So we chose to freeze that last, lone embryo for a later time.

Well, that time was this past November. Monica underwent shots to prepare her body to accept the embryo, and at the end of November, we had the transfer. Everything went perfectly smooth. We got our results 2 weeks later that confirmed a positive blood test! Two weeks later, another blood test still confirmed everything was going great. Two weeks after that, we had an ultrasound and saw our little miracle for the first time. We also heard it's little heartbeat. It was just as amazing as hearing the boys' heartbeats and seeing them for the first time. And now look at them.... It truly is miraculous and awe inspiring to witness them growing from microscopic embryos to almost two years of age. God's awesome hand at work indeed.

We're beyond excited and feel extremely blessed! Monica and I both always dreamed of having 3 or more children. The boys already know that mommy has a baby in her tummy. :) We can't wait to post more updates and keep you all posted on this journey!

Here's a post about our first IVF cycle and Monica's thoughts. click here

We've also gotten several questions with this pregnancy and I wanted to take the time to answer a couple.

The first is whether we got pregnant naturally or through IVF?

As I mentioned above, this was a frozen IVF cycle. We cannot have children naturally. This was also not another full IVF cycle. We cannot afford that, lol. It was a frozen cycle, which is about 1/4 the cost of a full cycle. 

The second is what are the chances our boys and this next baby could have CF or be carriers?

They CANNOT have CF. We had Monica genetically tested and she is not a CF carrier. Therefore any children we have CANNOT have CF. However, they will ALL be carriers of the CF gene. Because I have CF the disease, I have both defective CF genes and will pass on one to each of my children. Therefore they will all have one defective gene (from me) and one healthy gene (from Monica) which will make them carriers. What this means for them is that they will have to have their spouses genetically tested to see if they are CF carriers. Then they can decide whether to proceed with having children based on the results. We had to go through Genetic Counseling before going through IVF. It was mandatory by our IVF clinic. They explained all of this to us (which we already knew). It was honestly a difficult decision to make. Knowing my boys and this baby will be carriers of this terrible disease breaks my heart. I don't like to think about it. But we made our decision, and we have two, soon to be three, wonderful miracles from God. 

Thank you for reading!! Please feel free to ask any questions you may have and be sure to follow along!

Thankful Thursday: Meeting our boys

Tomorrow is the day! The day we've been waiting for, praying for and dreaming of for around 4 years! For any of you reading this without knowing much about us, Monica and I had to go through in vitro fertilization (abbreviated IVF) to have children. 98% of men with CF have either a complete blockage of or lack of the vas deferens in their reproductive system. This means no sperm can make their way out of the body without being extracted by way of surgery. Monica and I both knew this before we got married and knew there could be a possibility we would never have children of our own.I won't go into all the details, but through IVF we were blessed enough to become pregnant with twin boys! Tomorrow we get to meet them! To see the beginning of our journey here's an older post about how it all started, click here.

It really is a dream come true! It's so surreal just thinking about it. Our lives are about to drastically change. We're about to experience one of the greatest miracles of all!

For this Thankful Thursday, we both say we are thankful that tomorrow we meet our boys! I will get to hold my sons in my arms tomorrow! Jeremy and Monica will become Father and Mother to two beautiful sons. It will by far be the greatest day of our lives up until now!

I will do my best to post some pics and an update as soon as possible!

For now I will leave you with some pics of our finished nursery! Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers! We both are so excited to introduce our boys to you!

Nursery Progress

We we will officially be 26 weeks pregnant with our twin boys this Friday! It is going by so fast! It seems like just yesterday we got our box in the mail with all the meds to start the process. I remember every little step we took. From being in Florida and starting the birth control pills (it's part of the IVF process, I know it sounds weird), to taking the first shot, going in for our retrieval and waiting for that phone call to see how many little embryos we would have.

I remember the transfer. They brought us a picture of the two embroys they would put into Monica's womb. Sitting next to Monica holding her hand and watching the ultrasound screen, we saw the two little flashes of white come out of the needle. Our babies were now officially in their mother's womb! Finally recieving the news we had been praying for years to hear, that Monica was pregnant! It has all gone so fast and we have soaked up every second of it. I wouldn't change it for the world. Enough reminiscing though. On to the real topic of this post, the nursery.

Our progress is... well..... non-existent as you will see by the photos below. People keep asking us if we have it done and seemed amazed when we say no. I guess it is getting close so we'll have to get crackin! I wanted to post some photos of it before so when we finish it you can see the drastic transformation that will have taken place. I also threw in some prelim pics of our nursery bedding and such.

Monica got a sewing machine for Christmas and her mom is a very good seamstress. We decided to make our own blankets, bumper pads, crib skirts, and the thing that goes at the top of the curtains. It is all so expensive and we would have to buy two of most of it. So far we have spent around $50 and we shouldn't have to spend anymore than that. That will include two quilts, two bumper pads, two crib skirts and two curtain things. For all this stuff at most stores it was going to cost between $300-400 dollars. That's craziness on a budget like ours! Hope you enjoy the pics! I am going to start working on it soon! :)

12 Weeks Pregnant

As of Friday the 12th, Monica is officially 12 weeks pregnant! #12onthe12th! (That was supposed to be a joke by imitating the #12in12, which is hoping that the STL Cardinals win their 12th World Series ring in 2012.) Her check up went great! No ultrasound, but they did doppler two heartbeats around 160. Everything is looking great!

Here's a couple pics showing the size of our little movers. When we were at the state fair this year, a booth was handing out little replicas of a 12 week baby. Pretty astonishing how developed they already are in there.

Oh and a quick update on the movement front. We still can't feel them from the outside, but yesterday evening, towards the end of our pastors sermon, they were moving around a lot. Monica said there was definitely no doubt then it was them. They must have enjoyed the sermon. :)

Thankful Thursday: No more secrets & more energy

It's Thankful Thursday time! There's always a ton of things we could find in our everyday lives to be thankful for! We like to take this time each week to mention some of them that stand out to us. It seems that here lately, one of us has been doing these solo. Today will be no different. My poor pregnant wifey has been working full time hours for a long time now. She's still in her first trimester and has just been so exhausted lately. She never complains about it, but I can tell. She has another cake to do for this weekend, that she found out yesterday has to be done tonight! We thought the party was in town and the cake was needed for saturday afternoon. Turns out the party is out of town (3 hours away) and needed by friday. She has to send it with a family member early tomorrow morning. Tuesday night we spent with family for her dad's birthday and last night we had church, where we both teach classes. So my poor sweetheart will be up all night working away. Now you are informed. :)

Here's my Thankful Thursday list:

I'm thankful for no more secrets! It was so hard keeping the news of our twin pregnancy from everybody! Not just because we were anxious to tell people, but also trying to keep the ones we did tell from telling everyone. Now it's public knowledge and we don't have to hide it! It's wonderful! In case you were wondering why we would have waited, our main concern was making sure we were far enough along to know everything was gonna be alright.

Many women who go through IVF lose embryos before the first trimester is over. We had several people tell us it was terrible to think like that, but it's a very real reality. We told our families when we were 8 weeks. We wanted to wait longer, but the excitement was overwhelming! We didn't want to wait to tell everyone else, but thought it was the smart decision as so much is at stake in the first 12 weeks. I mainly was looking out for Monica. The odds of a live birth are not the best, and miscarriages happen often. We personally know couples who lost one of the two embryos, as well as couples who lost both. I've also heard from others who have gone through in vitro that having to "relive" the pain of people asking about it, and having to give bad news was terrible. I did not want that for Monica. That's why we were waiting til closer to 12 weeks to announce it. Thankfully, those worries are gone, and there has been nothing but good news!

Monica goes back tomorrow for her 12 week appointment! WHOO-HOO!!! I can't wait! Unfortunately I have to work and can't go, but I can't wait to see the pics of my babies!

I'm also thankful for more energy! Since I have been running 4 times a week with this training program, I have had tons more energy! I am sleeping better, and am so full of energy! In fact, last thursday and tonight, I am going to run (3.5 miles tonight) and do sprints after and go straight to a double header softball game! It's awesome and I love it!

So what are you thankful for?! Let us know! There's always something..... Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!!!

Moving for the First Time

September 28, 2012

10 Weeks

 

 

We saw them move for the first time today!! It was incredible! It was our first appointment at Monica's regular OB. Up until now we had been going to the IVF clinic. It was quite a bit different too. At the IVF clinic there was virtually no wait time. They got you in and out quickly. We have been ruined! :) We had to wait almost an hour before going back to a room. Only to have the OB pop in to say she couldn't see us because she had scheduled a procedure at the same time as our appointment. So we had to wait for the NP to come. Then wait to hear if they wanted an ultrasound. They "misplaced" her chart, so they did not know we were having twins, lol! There was a lot of waiting and unknowns.

 

Once we said "twins" they decided to do an ultrasound. The appointment up until ultrasound time was a little disappointing and worrisome for me (Jeremy). I am a very organized person and the IVF office was really on top of everything and extremely organized. I'm hoping it was just an "off" day at their office. I know those do occur from time to time. Once we got to the ultrasound room all the frustrations were immediately gone. It was time to see our babies again!

 

Although it had only been 2 weeks, it seemed like forever ago that we had seen our babies. She did the heartbeats first. It was a huge sigh of relief for both of us. In the back of our minds we both had been a little nervous that one or both may be lost. I know it's terrible to say or think, but it's a reality that many people face. Monica had been dealing with some nausea from 6-8 weeks, but from 8-10 it had pretty much gone away. This made us both think something was wrong, although neither of us said anything to the other until after this appointment. BUT, both heartbeats were there and beating away at around 170 bpm. They both measured exactly at 10 weeks in size and everything looked perfect!

 

After the heartbeats and measuring we got to just watch for a while. They were moving like crazy! Baby A seems to be pretty cramped, while Baby B has all kinds of room to chillax. It may just be me, but Baby B seemed more relaxed even though it was still moving. Baby A, on the other hand, was bebopping all over! Those arms and legs were a moving! Seemed like it was trying to push B out of the way for some more room. :) They're already fighting, lol. Now to find a way to whoop them..... :)

 

It truly was amazing! Monica and I both looked at her belly wondering if it was real. You wouldn't have known anything was going on at all from the outside. On the inside was a different story! They were either fighting or getting jiggy with it to the beat of mommy's heart! Can't wait to see what they look like next!!!!

Her next appointment is this Friday, October 12! We'll keep you posted!

 

 

1 week later. His way.. not mine!

Here's a post Monica wrote about what she was feeling/thinking. We had intended to document all our thoughts and feelings in drafts and post them later, but this is the only one that made it. If you missed our post with our IVF Journey video click here to watch it.

Welp, today is officially one week after our embryo transfer. For the most part it has been pretty uneventful. Monday was the transfer, Tuesday and Wednesday I mostly just layed around watching movies and surfing the internet (my doctor told me to be a couch potato and take it easy), Thursday we went to the MO State Fair (which was a blast and a nice break from being cooped up inside the days before), and Friday, Saturday, Sunday I was back to work. Now here it is Monday again. It is Crazy how fast one week has already flown by! Deep down I knew I couldn't "knock" them out of there, but my actions said otherwise. HA! In the beginning of the week I was walking around like I was already 9 months pregnant, not wanting to bend over, or twist, or make any swift movements. I didn't even want to sneeze or laugh hard. Jeremy put America's Funniest Video's on and I remember thinking, "What is he thinking? Has he forgotten the embryos are in there? I can't be laughing! I'm gonna knock em' out of there!" HAHA! I quickly dismissed the silliness of my thoughts!

Through out the week I've had several people ask me if I feel "different" or if I "feel" pregnant. The answer is no... and no. Which is understanding considering if I am pregnant I am only 1 week. Most people don't even find out they are pregnant until WEEKS after that. Do I hope that I am pregnant?... UMM YEAH!! Do I think that I am pregnant?......... hmmm.......... hmmmm.........Yes, yes I do! Now you could say, "Well of course you think you are pregnant, you have hope that you are." And that is truth. But, I really do think that I am pregnant, like deep in my heart. God has given both of us such an amazing calm through all of this. Before we even started the in vitro process, Jeremy has always had a peace about it... more so than me. But once we started, it was like God miraculously took away any fear I had and He replaced it with what I can only describe as "peace that passes understanding." Peace that only HE can give, such a calm that I have never experienced in my life.

Once we started getting deep into the stimulating shots, and my ovaries began to get swollen, I stopped running. I went jogging for only one mile a couple days before my egg retrieval, but that has been my last true physical activity. I decided today that I was going to slowly ease back into it. I went to my jogging trail prepared to walk 2 miles, 3 tops. I kept praying as I was walking that God would give me guidance and that I wouldn't overdo it! I ended up doing the whole loop, 5 miles. I had been used to jogging it in under 45 minutes, so it took me an hour and 15 minutes to walk it, but I feel Great!! I listened to the worship songs on my ipod and prayed for our baby/babies. It was so good for me to get outside and spend that time with God! Britt Nicole's song "Have Your Way" struck such a chord with my heart! The whole song is my prayer, but the line where she says, "...and I'll trust you God with where I am, and believe that you will have your way, just have your way, just have your way..." is so true of where I am. I am fully aware that there is a possibility that this may not work.... that I may not be pregnant.... and that if this doesn't work it will be heartbreaking.... but, if that is God's way, God's Will, I will be ok! We will make it through! My prayer is God's will be done in our lives.... NO.MATTER.WHAT!!

IVF Journey

Here's a video of our IVF journey from start to 6 weeks pregnant!

Thankful Thursday: Clouds & CF

Wait CF?! Is he nuts? Why did he put CF in there as something he's Thankful for? Well, I'll get to that. Right now it's time to open up our Thankful Thursday by asking you to think about all the wonderful things you have to be thankful for! Some days may be harder than others to be thankful, but there is always something. Today, believe it or not was one of those days for me. Here we go folks, Thankful Thursday!

Jeremy's List:

Today was a rough day. It seemed like all my chips were down. Not the whole day, but the majority of it. The day actually started off awesome! I was off today, but Monica had to work. I got up early with her and we ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast with each other. After I slept a little more (it was my day off ya know) I finished up some stuff that needed to be done for church, and it all went really smooth and I was done around 11am! Can you say Suuweeet! I had the whole rest of the day to get other stuff done and relax. Or so I thought. Haha!

See about a week or so ago, the fridge in our kitchen started to kind of go out. It's not keeping things cold. It's set to be at 36 degrees F, and is usually above 50 degrees F, which doesn't work for storing milk, or any food for that matter. No biggie, we have a fridge in the basement that Monica's grandma gave us for her to use for her cakes. We had been keeping our milk and other perishables in it. I noticed 2 nights ago that when I went to get milk, it had a nice 1 inch thick layer of nastiness on the top of it, lol! No bueno!So it was obvious that it was beginning to fail too. My goal for the day was to find a fridge! We had bought the one in the kitchen from a store that takes several new, damaged fridges and makes one whole new one and sells them cheaper. It's only been 3 years and has been nothing but problems for us. I spent about 4 hours driving all over St. Louis pricing and looking at fridges. Anyway, Let's cut this short so I can get to the thankful part of this story shall we?

Half way through the day my "Check Engine" light came on and I noticed my oil pressure gauge was tanking. I just changed the oil last month, and could smell the oil burning as I was driving. Monica's car has been going through a quart of oil every 2-3 weeks. And I had absolutely no luck finding a fridge that wouldn't cost us at least $1,000. On my way home today, all these things were going through my mind and I was beginning to stress. Wondering how we were going to afford to buy a fridge, fix both cars, put new tires on her car (which it desperately needs) and continue to save for IVF and hopes of a baby. I had gotten just plum aggravated. I was driving down the highway almost to our exit, in my stink of a mood, when a cloud caught my eye. It sounds silly, I know, but it was beautiful. It was one of the big fluffy, cotton candy looking ones. The sun was lighting up all the puffs, and it was just beautiful!

At that moment, I realized how thankful I was, and blessed I am, to be alive. If there's anything CF has taught me, it is to be thankful for every day. CF has taught me a lot of things. Hopefully some day I'll sit down and write some of them out. I realized that I had not been thankful for this day and had let my worries and frustrations get the best of me. I realize that CF did not actually teach me to be thankful for every day, that was God. CF was just the mechanism he used to get through this thick skull of mine. God has always provided for every need of ours and given us many wants along the way too. I don't know why I even worry sometimes. :)

So what's the point to this whole drawn out story? I'm thankful for God's reminders. Reminders that He will throw your way every now and again to remind you of all the many many things I have been blessed with. A beautiful, loving wife, the woman of my dreams. A beautiful home that I can call mine, or ours rather. An awesome supportive family, a job, and good health, all things considering. I guess this post should be addressed to God. Thank you Lord, for the little reminders in life that you throw my way.

Kind of a heavy sobering post I know. It's what I was thankful for today. SO! On a brighter note, what are you thankful for? It's there.... you may have to dig a little deep some days, but you'll find it! Just keep looking!

Thankful Thursday: Six Flags and Meal Passes

HEY HEY! It's Thankful Thursday! This week will just be me unfortunately. :( I know you're all sad. Monica is making a cake for a friend's birthday that is tomorrow. She worked today and tomorrow and I'm taking her out for her birthday tomorrow night with some of our friends. Tomorrow is Monica's birthday! So make sure and drop her a comment on facebook, make her feel good and loved! Poor wifey has been busy lately! Anywho, here's my list:

I'm thankful for nearby entertainment! We live 20 minutes away from Six Flags St. Louis. It has been really nice living that close to a theme park! A lot of people say it's nothing special and they don't know why anyone would want to go there, but I for one love theme parks and am grateful we live so close to one! Monica and I get season passes every year. We can go whenever we want and not have to pay for anything. We pack lunches and the day costs us nothing except the gas there and back, and we can spend all day at the water park, and riding rides! It's definitely worth it! Especially since we're trying to save money for IVF and paying off debt. Really it helps us keep from spending as much money on entertainment during the summer. This week we had the fortune of having a day off together. Rarely do we ever have the same days off, and she works every saturday. It was awesome to have the day off together! We went to Six Flags with Monica's mom, sister, and her sister's friend and spent all day at the water park! It was awesome! Fun to ride the slides and other water rides, and we rented tubes and went around and around and around the lazy river being lazy! Definitely a good stress reliever!

This year Six Flags decided to try a new idea for a meal plan calling it a Meal Pass. One of the cities they decided to do a test launch in happens to be St. Louis! In years past, that is the one thing we would spend money on.... food. I get hungry! We would pack lunches, but I'm not big on packed lunches. I'm not much of a sandwich and fruit for lunch kinda guy. I like heavy food! I would gladly eat the sandwich and whatever else we packed, but sometimes my hunger would get the best of me and we'd have to buy a $10-12 chicken strips and fries meal. Which is outrageous for what you get. This year we saw the new Meal Pass and opted to buy it. It's $50 and includes lunch and dinner everyday! We've already used it 6 times! It's more than paid for itself, and has been awesome! I hope they keep it around!

Lastly I'll just add once again how grateful I am for my wife! I truly believe that God makes soulmates for one another and Monica is most definitely mine! I absolutely LOVE being married to her! She's the best thing to ever happen to me! I agree with a common statement Ronnie makes, that I have no idea how I got my wife! I've been asked that by people at work and all over. lol! She's amazing and I love her to death!

If you have an awesome spouse that you love to death, or something you're thankful for, leave me a comment! I'd love to read them!

Thankful Thursday: Music, Generosity, Swimming Pools

It's Thankful Thursday!! Yes, Thursday this time, not Monday. You get a double dose of thankfulness this week! Lucky you! As I say each and every week, there are so many things we can be thankful for! I can look around me everywhere and find different things to be thankful for! Without making you wait in anticipation any further, here's our lists!

Monica's List:

I am thankful for Christian music. We both love music! Most always there is music being played at our house. I'm mainly a worship music kind of girl but I also like Christian contemporary. God speaks to me through it a lot! When I'm scared, anxious, worried... a song comes on about God's peace and plans for my life. When I'm discouraged or sad, a song comes on about the joy of the Lord.... and so on. So of course it puts me in a better mood and focuses my thoughts on things of Heaven. (Colossians 3:2) Thank you Jesus for stooping down daily to show me that you love ME!!! Nothing in this world could make me feel more special!!

I am thankful for the generosity of others! I am amazed by those who have given us financial gifts for our "baby fund" in hopes of having a baby! It brings me to tears thinking of the generosity of others! Even people who hardly know us! To all of you we say THANK YOU, from the bottom of our hearts! You will never know how much it means to us! We love you all!!

Jeremy's List:

I'm thankful for Netflix and America's Funniest Videos! Monica and I don't have cable or anything, so we do a lot of streaming Netflix through my Xbox. One of our favorite things to watch is America's Funniest Videos! I love to hear my wife laugh! It's one of the best things ever! I torment her often by tickling her to the point of losing her breath laughing so hard. Not so that she can feel like me and lose her breath a lot, but to hear her laugh really really hard! I'm just kidding, I don't ever lose my breath, just trying to make a funny! :) Every time we watch AFV we end up crying laughing at something! It puts you in a great mood to laugh really hard, and we love it!

I'm thankful for swimming pools! Or should I say friends and family with swimming pools! Our friends have a pool with an awesome 3 tier deck attached. We have spent almost every saturday, sometimes friday and saturday, at their house swimming. We tease them about ruining our open invitation to their house by coming over every weekend, but I LOVE to swim! To me there's nothing like swimming on a scorching summer day! I love to feel the warmth of the sun beating against my skin, and then jumping into a cool refreshing pool to cool down! Makes you want to go swimming now doesn't it! Does me! I guess that about does it for now. I'll be heading to our friend's house tomorrow night now to swim! Catch ya on the flip side! Oh, by the way, what are you thankful for?! I know there's something! Post it so we can see what you all are thankful for! Adios!

Thankful Thursday: Amazing wife, family and AC

Hey it's Thankful Thursday time again! I really enjoy doing these. I always look forward to Thanksgiving every year, so I can tell people all the things I'm thankful for. Honestly, there is a lot one can be thankful for! This is a brilliant way to share those things all year round! So here's our list of what we're thankful for! What are you thankful for?! I know I ask this every time, but it's not just a rhetorical question, we would love to hear from you!

Jeremy's list:

I'm thankful for a hard-working dedicated wife! Monica and I both work full time. She is considered part time but requests to work full time hours. I wanted her to switch to part time, while she was taking a few classes and because we were doing fine financially with her only working part time. She however wants to work full time! For now anyways. We are hoping to do IVF soon, which costs a cool $19K. She has been working so hard at work, and doing cakes on the side to help us save the money to do IVF. Out of the total $19,000 we only need $8,500 more to have saved up all the money we'll need!!! We can't take complete credit for that however. We have some amazing people in our lives and received 2 gifts from some incredible people totalling $3,500! In the process of saving for IVF, we also have been trying to get completely out of debt, minus our house. In the past 2 years we have paid off $15,100 of debt, which included a few hundred on credit cards, both of our cars, and 2 of our 4 student loans! We are extremely proud of this feat, but more so I'm amazed at my wife! She has not wavered from our goal. We have taken one extravagant trip as a reward for doing so well, but other than that, she has not wanted to buy anything. She's used to nice stuff (she's spoiled) but she's not high maintenance and has been so humble and goal-oriented when it has come to our finances. I'm really impressed and amazed. When I first found out about The Total Money Makeover from a friend, I thought "Oh man, don't know if Monica will go for this." She jumped on board and it has been awesome what we've accomplished, through the many blessings from God of course! :)

That leads me to my next point. I'm thankful for Mike Romero and Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover! Mike is a high school buddy that lives in Denver, CO. He introduced me to the Total Money Makeover about 4 months after we were married. There are all kinds of finance books out there, but the Total Money Makeover works for us. We love it! It has helped us establish a written budget we write and stick to every month and has been the reason behind being able to save for IVF and get rid of so much debt! A big thanks to Mike and his wife Katie, who are expecting YAY, for helping us get started with the makeover! I highly recommend the book to all who would like to take control of their finances but need a little help. That's my thankful list! And now..... heeeeeeeeeeeerrreeee's Monica's!!!!

Monica's List:

I'm thankful for such a Great church family! The support system that we have really helps Jeremy and I to keep our positive attitudes. I never have to wonder if there is someone praying for Jeremy and I. We have many prayer warriors at our church who take the time to let us know they care and are praying. And I KNOW that when they ask, "How is Jeremy doing? I've been praying for him." they REALLY GENUINELY care and are in fact going to God on his behalf. That is so humbling! I couldn't ask for a better church family, and that's exactly what they are to us, our family! Part of that family are our great pastors Arlie and Treva! These are two of the most wonderful people you will ever meet! I could get chocked up just thinking about how much they mean to us! They are always there to encourage and teach us in our faith, visit when Jeremy is in the hospital, fellowship with us, and simply be a listening ear when needed. We love you Arlie, Treva, and our church family at Friendship Assembly of God! You are all AWESOME!!

I am thankful for warm weather! Jeremy and I LOVE summer! We love being outside and for the most part don't mind the extreme heat! Some of the things we look forward to in the summer: vacations, canoe trips, six flags/hurricane harbor, swimming, barbecues, going to the lake, evening bonfires, being tan ;) and so much more.... I could just keep going! I'm just so happy it's summer! (Can you tell?!) ;) On that note, we are off to Six Flags now......... YEAH!!! Enjoy your summer everybody!!! I know we're going to!

I am also thankful for AC! HAHA! While I love the heat, there are definitely times where I enjoy walking into my nice cold house... like right after I just ran my 5 mile trail in 90 degree weather..... yeah, the AC is pretty awesome then! We are a very spoiled nation and I am thankful that I was born an American with all of our modern conveniences! I am so blessed!! Thank you God!

What's to come!!

What's up guys! I'm posting again!! I can just sense everyone's excitement! Monica said the blog is really boring right now and I need to post something again to keep everyone's interest. Let me just say we have been overwhelmed by the success of this thing so far! The number of people checking it out and commenting on facebook are crazy! Very cool indeed!

I figured I'd just give an idea of what's to come in the future, things I'm looking forward to posting someday. First, I want to get my treatment schedule on here. What meds I take and how often and what kinds of therapy I do and how often. Let me clarify one thing while I'm at it too, I am not in any way shape or form looking for sympathy or pity. Anything I post is to help educate people and to connect with the CF community. I am not one for pity parties. I don't like to whine or listen to whining, so please don't confuse anything I/we post on here as anything other than what it is. Just a post to educate, inform, and for people to enjoy! We want this blog to be as fun and crazy as we are!! WHOO-HOO!!!

I'd also like to post my PFT history. PFT's are Pulmonary Function Tests. These test measure the volume of air you can move in and out of your lungs. The main one we are concerned with as CFer's is the FEV1. This measures how much air you can forcefully blow out in 1 second. It directly correlates with how "blocked up" your lungs are with mucous. Over time with CF the lungs fill up more and more and the number drops. So, it's a way to track the progression of the disease and tell when it's time for a "tune-up" which is another thing I'd like to cover someday. Routine hospital admissions are called "tune-ups" by us CFer's.

Monica and I at some point will be going through IVF (in vitro fertilization), which we will post on here for all to follow our journey through! Which hopefully will result in some babies! :) So there's a lot to come here on A Walk in the Parks with 65 Roses!

Is there anything anyone would like to see posted?! Leave a comment and let us know!