What a journey this has been… and it’s only the beginning! 

I spoke with Dan from Warren Retrievers about these diabetic alert dogs, got my email packet of info on February 17 and a month later we had our $1,000 down payment and were on the official waiting list.

We have been working hard ever since!

We’ve sold chocolate, popcorn and bracelets as many days as we could spare for hours and hours. Jeremiah and Shiloh have gone business to business selling together as a team, working for every dollar. They have had to deal with rejection, with people ignoring them, with comments that were less than caring, and have had to count change quickly and correctly. They have worked harder than many adults and have done it all with grace.

We’ve participated in “bagging-for-tips” at Winn-Dixie where our family and friends bagged groceries all day.

We were also blessed with a Cici’s day fundraiser that went great.

We have been allowed to set up a table outside of Breaux Mart to sell chocolate, popcorn and bracelets and have been blown away by the amazing support of the community and our dear friends.

Every opportunity we have had to spread the word we get out there and work hard from sun up to sun down.

We are so thankful to Capital One in LaPlace for throwing a bake sale for us and supporting us so lovingly.

I am so proud of Jeremiah and how well he has done in his news interviews. Not only does he want a d.a.d., he wants to spread the word for other families to know about these lifesaving dogs.

We have worked extremely hard preparing for our benefit night and are very thankful to all the people who have helped us, donated to us, volunteered with us, and especially prayed for and encouraged us. We have learned so much about true friendships, old and new.

It’s also been so exciting to open the paper, twice, and read our story in the paper!

Shiloh and I blessed Jeremiah with our own fundraiser “Pamper for a Pup” and had a sweet time with our girl-friends and representatives from Premiere Jewelry, Pampered Chef, Scentsy, and Mary Kay.

Only God could have orchestrated all the opportunities we have had to speak with and meet so many people who have rallied behind us, including Councilwoman Wendy Bennedetto and all the networking meetings we have been allowed to attend.

Jeremiah has given speeches and given out the business cards he made to BNI, B2B, Rotary, the City Council, a golf tournament and more. He has grown so much through this experience and is a great public speaker.

He even had a proclamation given at the St. Charles parish city council meeting that June 2nd is now “Jeremiah’s Diabetic Alert Dog Day”! Can you tell we’re excited?

Of course, our biggest and most wonderful fundraiser that we had been looking forward to for months was our benefit night. We were so blessed to have so many people come out to support Jeremiah and our whole family. We had a live and silent auction, fun entertainment from Sid Bardfield, food mostly donated from 10 different companies, all at Ormond Plantation which was absolutely gorgeous. We had a great turnout and it was a success.

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that has supported Jeremiah in getting his own diabetic alert dog. I have cherished your support, your emails, phone calls, prayers, encouragement, help, and care for our family. I will never be able to say thank you enough.

Unfortunately, we have also been sadly disappointed in friends who don’t agree with us getting Jeremiah a d.a.d. and our fundraising efforts that came along with that. It’s beyond heartbreaking for our whole family and truly devastating.

But God. We know that we are doing what is best for our son and for our family and we have had confirmation after confirmation from the Lord that this is what is best. We have worked very hard to be above reproach in everything we have done and and are blessed to have an amazing, trustworthy and supportive group of people surrounding us now. Thank you friends.

So where are we in our fundraising?

Not only did we reach our everest of a goal of $20,000 but we flew right past it to $25,428. We also received many gift cards to Petsmart that we are so thankful for. 

Only God. Only, only God could have made this happen, and in less than 4 months of fundraising.

We are now ready to accept our very own diabetic alert dog thanks to all of you! Of course, we are still on the waiting list which means it will be at least October before we receive our d.a.d. but knowing he or she is coming is enough for us. We can’t wait to welcome our d.a.d. into our family and embrace the extra security it will bring.

What will we do with the extra money?

All extra money will still absolutely go to our d.a.d. There are extra expenses like trainer travel expenses that go beyond what is originally covered, service dog vests, a phone that a service dog can use, life insurance, health insurance, veterinarian care and more. God has cared for us over and abundantly and we are so very thankful.

Jeremiah and I had also been talking and praying for a little while now about how we could be a blessing to someone else. We met another New Orleans family a couple of months ago that has a little girl, Megan, who is Jeremiah’s age who also has type 1 diabetes. They decided a couple of weeks ago to also start fundraising for a d.a.d. but were not on the official waiting list. We felt led by God to bless this family in their efforts to get on the waiting list and get a jump start on their fundraising. Through your generosity we were able to pay their down payment and get them on their way to having their own lifesaving dog as well. Thank you for allowing God to work through us to bless this family.

Thank you for allowing God to work through you to bless us.

We are blessed. Very, very blessed.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.