Merry Christmas...The Power of Prayer...

Merry Christmas!

i hope that everyone is enjoying their Christmas! i just love this time of year, especially all the good food and spending time with our families. this Christmas has become very special for clay and i.

for those of you that know me personally or have read my blog you that my struggle with infertility has been a roller-coaster ride of emotions for me and my husband. for the last 2+ years clay and i have prayed for the chance to become parents. when we were told back in september by our doctor that we only had 3 tries with follistim injections and iui's i must admit we were scared to death. we knew that if we did not get pregnant within those 3 tries our journey with infertility treatments was over. our next option on the list was ivf and we knew that was something we could not afford.

when i started my treatments on november 13th, clay and i made the decision to begin praying together everyday for the first time. please know that during the last 2 years we've prayed as individuals but we've never prayed together. our prayers were always for God's will, not ours and we truly believed that with all of our hearts. i remember the day we had our iui and as we waited for the nurse we prayed in that room for God to be with us and to keep His hands upon us. that was such an emotional day for me.
clay and i have remained faithful in praying together since that day and i am happy to announce... on decemeber 9th i took a test and...

this is truly a MIRACLE from God! everyday clay and i prayed that when i got pregnant God would receive all the glory and He has. words cannot express how excited we are. there have been so many tears shed over the last two weeks. we shared the news with our families today and what a Christmas gift it was for them.

this is somewhat a bittersweet time for me. my heart is breaking in sharing my news because so many of you are still waiting for your turn. i want you to know that clay and i have prayed for each one of you since that day and will continue to pray for you and the MIRACLE that our God will do for you.

Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind. Proverbs 3:5

i want to thank each and every person that has prayed for clay and i. this journey has been long and we have felt each and every prayer the whole way. i hope to thank each one of you in person one day. you all mean the world to us.

For this child I have prayed, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. 1 Samuel 1:27

Christmas Card 2008!

i'm a little late with my card but i wanted to join in on faith's christmas card carousel!

i love sending and receiving christmas cards! it seems that my list gets longer and longer every year. next year i need to try and be more creative and think about making my own.

Sending you

Much Love

this holiday season.

Merry Christmas!
Clay & Jennifer

It's About Time!

well it's about time i post some of my christmas pics. i just realized that christmas is less than a week away and i haven't posted any pics yet. i hope it's not to late:) i didn't go crazy this year with all the decorations, probably because i was so ticked off that my christmas tree (which i've only had for a year) has a short in the wire and 4 of the branches lights blink off and on about every two minutes. oh and i almost forgot...there are 3 branches where the lights don't even come on (needless to say i had to turn the tree around so no one could see the unlit part). soooo disappointing:(

please don't be alarmed...i know my living room is painted blue. (another blog for another day)!!


this is my favorite ornament. i bought it our gift shop at work. it's the last one they had left. i wish i had a few more like him to decorate on the the tree.

It's Your Last Chance... Don't Miss It...

hey there everyone...it's your last chance to get in on lianna's Amazon Kindle Chip-In Giveaway!! the deadline is tomorrow december 20th @ 10:00am eastern time. all the proceeds will help lianna and her husband with their 3rd IVF. so far this giveaway alone has raised over $700:) God is so GOOD!! you better hurry. time is running out!!

Gardendale Christmas 2008

if you are in the birmingham area i would like to invite you to the Gardendale Christmas program. this is one of the many churches in the birmingham area that puts on a wonderful program. i am so blessed to be apart of this church and to have the opportunity to go and see other Christmas programs put on by other area churches. this year i'm hoping to get a chance to see the Highlands Christmas. i hear it's going to be awesome!

i hope everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit and if you're like me you still have some shopping to do:)

Christmas Door Tour

my blogger friend lianna is hosting a Christmas door tour and i thought i would share my pic.


you can't tell, but when i took this picture it was dark outside. i don't know why it looks so bright!! i'm not to wild about my camera. maybe santa will bring me a new one this year:) i had a few more pics that i wanted to post but they didn't turn out that great.

my favorite thing about the porch is my new porch trees. my friend stephanie called me a couple of weeks ago and told me she found these nice, cheap, and already pre-lit trees and they came two in a box. the price...$40.00 (not that bad)!! i went out that same day and purchased them. but i must admit they are SO top heavy and every time the wind blows they come crashing down, oh well, there still cute:)

i hope to post some of my tree within the next couple of days:)

Tires+Victoria's Secret+Fireproof+Sushi = Date Night

for the first time in what seems like forever the hubs and i got a chance yesterday to have a date night. now if you can tell by the title of my post we had a few other things on the list to do before we could have our date and since we live 30 minutes north of b'ham i thought it would be a great idea to run a few errands beforehand.

first things first, we had to go and purchase two new tires for the truck. we've been driving with the spare on for about a month (the hubs ran over a nail in the road:) and finally saved up the money for the purchase. i must say i was quite surprised at the cost. last week when the hubs called around the lowest estimate we could get was $350. so when the guy told us it would only cost us $200 i was ecstatic!! thanks to my awesome father-in-law for finding this gold mine:)


so after the tire purchase we needed to kill some time before the movie started and i thought we could stop by Victoria's Secret (sorry mary) and i could pick out the rest of my sister-in-laws Christmas. that's two more people checked off my list!!


since it was still at the theater (not to mention i've been dying to see it) we decided to see Fireproof. and can i just say that EVERY married couple NEEDS to go and see this movie if you haven't already. i can honestly say that we came away from this movie wanting to be better for one another. the struggles we have gone thru over the last two years has grown us as a couple, but this movie showed me the real meaning of love!! i really hope you get a chance to watch it:)


the last stop on our list was FOOD!! we can never make decisions on were to eat, so we did what every other married couple would do in this situation, we played Paper Rock Scissors. the winner: Surin West. we ordered soup and sushi and it was wonderful and topped off a great date night.

TGIM...

Thank Goodness It's Monday...finally my week is over at work and i get the next seven days off!! praise God for 7 on 7 off!!! now i get to start to putting up Christmas decorations (while listening to Christmas music), start on Christmas cards, and catch up on my DVR. that sure seems like a lot to do in only a week, but i think i can manage. maybe i can get the hubby to help me out:) tomorrow i'm hoping to take a break from all the decorating to go out with some of the girls from work and see Four Christmases. i hear it's really funny. i'll try and post some pics later when i get all the decorations up.

oh i forgot to mention...please go and check out lianna's blog. she is giving away some of her Christmas cards and tags (i have to tell you that are soooo cute) and she's having a Christmas door tour. i hope everyone can join in!!