Hello, we are brand new parents to our precious son, Vincent. I am Janelle, a stay at home mom, focusing on raising and taking care of Vincent. And I am Raymond, her husband and the sole pastor at our local Lutheran church (Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod) on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Only a few minutes after Vincent was born last November, the nurses noticed that he was having some trouble breathing so they took him in to monitor him closely. About an hour later he was checked into the NICU. He was there for four days as his lungs developed and Raymond and I took turns staying with him through the nights.

We initially received two NICU bills in December. We do not have insurance nor do we qualify for medicaid. God bless them, our church was very gracious to us and paid for one of these bill; the hospital took the other one back to review it. This last week we received that reevaluated bill which had increased a small amount.

Since Vincent was discharged from the NICU with a clean bill of health for his lungs, we have had a few other medical concerns for him. Thank God, neither of them has turned out to be serious so far, but the expense of having him monitored has strained our finances, though we have managed to pay for each appointment as it came up. However, because of our positions as homemaker and pastor, and these other medical costs, the NICU bill is hitting us very hard. Any help you feel you can offer will be greatly appreciated, especially if you could pray for the continued well being of our son. Thank you! And God bless you!

Janelle, Raymond, and Vincent

(update): Thank you all for your generosity, you are all a great blessing to us (sorry for how long it has taken me to update).

Vincent continues to be a happy and healthy baby. His latest examination shows nothing severely concerning. The issue the doctors were keeping an eye on has not gotten worse, part of it even had improved enough to be no concern at all (this as of about two months ago).

God has further blessed us with another child. We found out at the end of May that Janelle is pregnant again.