I've been wanting to publish a newsletter for a long time. Family and Fatherhood has been a emphasis in my life. I worked in the printing industry and in the graphic design field for quite a while, and I've wanted to use that knowledge to help families. However, it wasn't until early January when my business slowed down and my wife challenged me, that I was able to focus and see God directing me this way.

We have a wonderful group of people surrounding us here is northeast Ohio. Many of them will be contributing to this effort. And even if this newsletter never reaches far beyond the souls who are nearby, I thought it would be a blessing to those who I live and fellowship with to get some consistent teachings and encouragements through this paper.

Our family consists of me (Jesse), my wife (Nelli), my oldest daughter (Alicia), my oldest son (Caleb), my son (Joshua), my youngest daughter (Lydia) and my youngest son (Josiah). All of our kids are so different and provide so much joy. I get asked often, "When are you going to stop having kids?" and sometimes I respond: "When they start duplicating personalities." We homeschool our children and operate two home-based businesses. My wife designs and makes clothes for women and I am a photographer/graphic designer. We have a close life together. We are literally together 95% of the week.

As a family we enjoy riding bikes, watching good thought-provoking videos (mostly documentaries), travelling and meeting with our friends and their kids. We are part of a house church type fellowship that consists of about 12 other families, most of which have several kids themselves. If we all get together at once, the kids far outnumber the adults. We are originally from Missoula, Montana but have lived just outside of Cleveland for about 4 years.

In the future, we will try to use this section to tell you about our day-to-day life and the lives of families around us.