Grateful

I pray every day. It is a habit I was able to form during a recent sermon series on developing healthy habits at Vintage Church. I prayed often before, but now I make it a priority that no matter what I am tangled up in or what time constraints I have, I go and talk to the Lord. Some days, I really have to force it; especially on days when we have another setback in the infertility journey. On those days, God is just not my favorite confidant. I don't blame this all on God and I know that this journey has a purpose and that he will make us whole one day. But those days, when I have to pick Kaley up from falling or I have to swallow my own grief, I feel like He’s a Falcons fan. Before you judge me, I think God has big enough shoulders to call Him a Falcons fan. However, even on those days I pray. On those days I choose to only focus on giving thanks for what we have. I can't plead or strike deals with God like when I was a kid. I won't say "God if you give us a baby, I will never say another bad thing." I certainly cannot hold up that bargain, because you know, Falcons fans. So instead, I focus on what God has given us. I mean, clearly ya boy is not going hungry. We have a home, we have each other, but most of all, my prayer of thanksgiving is for you all.

The past 6 months have been a rollercoaster, but the most consistently good thing in our lives has been the overwhelming outpouring of love and support. People that we have never met send messages that they are us, too. That we are not alone in this. We have family around us that uplift us when we are downtrodden. We have one of the most incredible tribes of close friends, dare I say nonblood related family, that are honestly the only thing that has kept us going some days. A group that when we can no longer bear the weight of the burden, they carry it for us. We have had messages from people we have not seen in 20 years, saying they are praying for us and love us. People that we didn't even know remembered us, reaching out and not only offering love and prayer, but financial support, which is something I need to address.

Years ago when I had a pickup truck, Pastor Rob Wilton asked me to help move some furniture someone had donated to the church. He said that it was quite heavy and cumbersome, and frankly, not something I could envision the church needing. His response is something that is so relevant to me right now. He said, "Kirk, NEVER turn someone away from blessing you when they have the chance." The truth was the furniture and the church's need were not relevant, but the donor's opportunity to be a blessing was the point of that trip.

That said, we have had numerous offers to donate money and do GoFundMe. We have side stepped it for a while, but the offers have been more and more persistent. In fact, we’ve had an angel that is still anonymous to us and wishes to stay that way, give us an incredibly generous gift that we are ever thankful for and so blown away by. A great friend from my childhood even sent us some money just so Kaley and I could go have a night together away from it all. We can certainly afford a night on the town, but the intention of those two gifts were so incredibly powerful that it made us understand what true generosity is and that it is ok to allow others to bless you. Yes, we are moving to IVF in the coming months. IVF is an incredibly expensive process. However, there are options available to us that will allow us to continue this pursuit and for that provision we are very grateful. I need each of you to know that we are going to be ok. We can do this, and we are not in dire need. However, we do not want to turn any of you away if you feel led to bless us, but please do not feel obligated to do so. We have allowed Mandi Mueller and Courtney Luquet to set up a GoFundMe in our honor. If you feel led, please use that tool to donate and also know that is the only account we have authorized in our name. (Our donation page can be found HERE, as well as under the RESOURCES tab.)

I need each of you to know now that whether you make a donation or not, those of you who have followed our journey, sent messages of encouragement, and those of you who just prayed, you have absolutely changed our lives for the better. If it were ok to give our baby 500 names, we would name him or her after all of you! We love each and every one of you and pray God's blessings on you always!!!

The Fabres

PS. We will give you guys more updates as they become available. Right now, we are still in a waiting period as we are preparing for IVF. There is ALOT of preparation and homework we are having to do and the game plan we came up with our doctor is to start the actual process this fall, so stay tuned!!