A House For My Kids

Dear Friends,

Hey Ya’ll…man has it ever been hard to keep up with updating this blog…we began clearing and digging the middle of August I think…Greg Dew and Division Two Construction brought out all kinds of heavy equipment to build the driveway, put in the culvert, and dig the house site. I am hoping to get the video clips up on this web site very soon. We are in the process of updating the site.

Then we began with seed and straw…the storm water and erosion control department here in Mt. Juliet asked that we keep the ground stabilized. Our dear friend Jean Canida has been on the job site most everyday and has had her hands on most of the seed and straw. It is awesome to see the difference in the property…it is a rolling field of green now.

Next was the process of tearing up a bunch of that green by digging for the water line, then the sewer line. I just got done on the backhoe digging for the underground electrical conduit from the pole (that MTEMC set halfway back on our property line) to the house. We had to rent a bobcat to clear the property, then to fill in the various ditches, to bring gravel around to various places, to work on the gravel in the driveway. Did I mention gravel? It has taken so much gravel! for the driveway, for the bottom of the ditches, for the concrete slab, and SEVEN loads to go in behind the basement wall after we got the waterproofing done.

Vulcan Materials in Hermitage has graciously given us a special rate for all of our gravel…you know the gravel that we also had to have for the bottom of the pit where the grinder pump goes for our sewer.

That Backhoe that i mentioned earlier…well I have rented one of those several times and then Jeff Brown of Wentworth Plumbing has sent his Backhoe over for us to use. Our friend Jeff Page has let us use his Kabota tractor with a frontend loader and a rake on the back…it has been invaluable for all the misc. stuff on the job.

The water proofing came by way of Gerdau/Ameristeel here in Nashville. Jackie Carter cut us a special rate on that…Thank you Jackie…he probably saved us 2 thousand of what would have been a 4 or 5 thousand dollar affair for materials. It is a special membrane that glues to the block wall down onto the footer.

Oh man the footer has been an education. we had to get an engineered plan for the footer…Thank you Mr. David Cartwright and Mr. Dan Moss. The city required an engineered plan to show the size and depth of the concrete…to show the configuration of steel rebar in the footer, retaining wall and basement wall.

Got the steel from John O Hill Materials in Nashville…they delivered it on pretty short notice. Once we got the steel to the job…it had to be laid in the footer and tied together with wire…we hired a crew of day laborers to help that day because we had to get it all done in order to pour concrete the next day.

For all you investors…BUY CONCRETE! We poured 30 yards in the footer alone at 96 dollars a yard…then we pumped 20 yards in the block walls. Thanks to Pepper’s Pump Truck. Wait til you see the video footage of that! It was amazing to see the boom truck operate overhead to get the concrete to where it needed to be. The owner of that company is a real class act!

We roughed in some plumbing in the basement and then had to bring in more gravel…wheel  barrels full of gravel.

Oh, I can’t forget to mention my good friend James Cozart. He is the block laying guru. They came out and in 3 days time they laid alot of block!!!  The walls are strait, level and built with the utmost care!

Randy Groce electric came out to put up our temporary electric pole and is due out anytime to put the breaker panel in on the house. He is a really good man.

John Fisher is a builder here in Mt. Juliet and he sent me an awesome framing crew. In five and a half days they framed up a little over 2500 square feet of house. It was remarkable to watch. Oh yeah, through all of this, I have not been standing and watching…about the time that I thought I could plan to do some specific task…the crew of the day would show up and would need another bag of mortar, boxes of a particular nail for their nail gun…or we would see some change to make to the windows and I would chase that down with builders first source…or we would realize that we were supposed to double up those engineered I joists where the load bearing wall is and the supply company didn’t send them out…had to run over to Hendersonville on a Saturday to buy extra floor joists from the only company open that day…

Painted the adhesive up on the basement walls to apply the waterproofing membrane and it started raining…had to go again the following week after cleaning off the footer…

Cleaning up the jobsite has been a full time thing! Thank you to Jean Canida, Brent Johnson, Christie Lannom, Jayc Harold, Karis Frieson, Carl Jones, and all of their assorted children. I hope and pray that I am not forgetting someone.

The above mentioned crew also were part of moving rock…you know…the rock that I rented the Bobcat again (but this time with the Jack Hammer attachment) to break up the rock out of the footer and various ditches…all of that rock went down to the bottom of the ravine and has created an incredible river bottom look…from the culvert pipe to the other side of the property.

Dale Insulation gave us a great deal on shooting the expaning foam on the inside of the framing. This is just a quarter of an inch layer to seal up everything and will raise the R factor on the regular insulation.

So many have offered to help…it is a real challenge to coordinate it all…Cappi Gibbs is helping with that and so much more…

I really need to get to the business of booking churches for next year…

Kent Heckman is working on creating a short DVD press kit if you will…a commercial that shows where we began and now we’re headed with all of this. God has called us through all of this to go out and be a witness to His redeeming power! To tell how through faith in Jesus Christ, He can take the ‘Years that the locusts have eaten and make them new’

How He can make everything worth something really good in our lives for His glory!

There is still so much to tell…I have to get Jeff’s tractor back to him…and then go to a funeral. Avonnia Alter’s Dad…Dan Ross…passed away this past weekend…I have the priviledge of sing ‘The Work of a Carpenter’ at the funeralhe was a really good man…built hundred’s of houses in his life…never printed up a business card…he was what the bible referred to as one of the ‘Men of reknown’…an artisan who worked with his hands. People waited for a year and a half at times to get him to build their house. Thank you Lord for a man like Dan Ross!

We love each of you and Thank you for being here. Stay tuned!

gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

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Dear Friends,

This past week was one that we will never forget! The Inspirational Country Music Awards Show was incredible…Tammy Cochran sang ‘Loving You’ with me and was so awesome! The framers got done with framing, including the porch and getting the windows in. All of this is surreal. The kids are doing great! They are loving the house. Two stories on top of a basement…we will have no trouble filling it!

Soon, I will publish the list of businesses that are helping us to build this thing.

Many of you have asked how you can help…first of all send me an e-mail that I can use to complete my list of those who want to help. Next, once we get the HVAC, electrical, plumbing, insulation and drywall in…then we can do things like prepaint the trim…paint the walls…fill in with gravel next to the basement…there is always clean up…caulking…light fixtures/ceiling fans to put together…etc. I will do my best to get the word out in a timely manner. The organization of it all is a full time job.

I have to help get the kids in bed…

please let us know that you are here. Call me if you have any questions…please continue to pray for us, keep us in mind  to get into a church somewhere so we can tell of God’s mercy in our lives, tell your friends about our cause so that they will come to the website…

God is the great redeemer and He is making all of this worth something! This is so much bigger than us and a house. God has used this little thing to touch people’s lives and to direct our lives toward helping other special needs families! God is good! All the time!

Love you all!

gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

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Dear Friends,

Please forgive me for not updating in so long. I cannot even update too much right now…but we have broken ground! The driveway is built…the place for the house is dug…the footer is dug and poured…we hope to have the block layer come on Tuesday. There is more to tell now than ever and less time than ever to tell it. We are under way with building some new stuff for the web site also…that is part of the reason why I have not updated in so long. I was not able to log in. We are praying that God will provide a few churches within a couple, three or four hours away that we can go and share our testimony on weekends while we build. In the next couple of days, I will take the time to tell you all of the miraculous thing that has happened, that has allowed us to begin building. Please…I am trying to get a clear picture of how many there are of you that come to check on us here at the blog. Would you please e-mail us at gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com and let us know next time you pay us a visit?

We are forging ahead and the mission to set up the non-profit to help other special needs families is more in focus than ever. First…we are building this house and God has gone before us in so many ways. Thanks again for visiting…do you know about the Inspirational Country Music Awards show on Oct. 16th?  Did you know that I will get to sing with Tammy Cochran on the show? Also nominated for Male Vocalist and Songwriter of the Year! Did you know that we are full time music ministry now and traveling out to churches to share about God’s amazing Grace and Mercy in our lives!

I have to get to the property and do a few more things before it gets dark…stay tuned for the full story of God’s incredible provision to build ahouseformykids.com!

God Bless!

gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

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Dear Friends!

There is always so much to tell! Sometimes that is what keeps me from updating here. It takes time to sit down and update…these days, there is just not much of that thing called time. I really don’t know what I used to sit around and do!

Anyway, enough of that…the kids are waiting for me and so I must again be brief. Thank you again for checking on us! We love you right back. We are headed out tonight to Oklahoma to sing at a Gospel Barn in Colgate, Ok.  Then we make our way to Lubbock, Texas for two Sundays worth of Churches to sing and share our testimony. We are mad busy in the office filling orders, organizing our business paperwork, doing taxes, getting it all together for the bank as we try to get an approval on a construction loan. Once we get that approval, we will have a small list of things to carry to the city to get the actual building permit to start construction. We are so close! Construction loan approval is the only real hurdle to jump at this point. Should not have any problems getting approved…but there is so much work to do to get it done. Letters to write, taxes to do and show, letters to get from others, and so much more. CD sales are what God sent to us to get to this point. We know that He hasn’t brought us to here for no reason. We are optimistic and excited about things.

I believe that my last blog was about Sean’s hospital stay as I had to take the other children to Texas with me. Well to make it short…God brought some pieces of the puzzle our way after Sean had to go through a Bronchoscopy. We then had a waiting time where we figured out that Sean’s stomach was not emptying out properly and on time and also that the Zantac was causing his appetite to not be what it should be. Once those things were addressed…Sean started eating like a horse and has not let up yet! Are you ready for this?….He gained 6 pounds in a week and a half!!! It is a miracle! He ate 3 6 ounce steaks a day for several days in between snickers bars and anything else we could throw at him. All this while at the hospital! Toward the end of the two week stay…( remember now…I am in Texas in a Winnebago with the other three kids…just soaking up the Sun and eating Bon-Bons! While Diane is working herself to the bones at the hospital with Sean. No TV…no nurses to help…laundry and dishes to wash everyday there in the hospital room…treatments to do 3 times a day since she had no help from nurses…I am being fecitious! I drove and drove and drove…the whole time yelling back at the 3 kids with me to pick that stuff up off of the floor! Grace, stop hitting your sister! Jeffrey, have you and Grace done the vest? Katie, put down that Sharpie! Yes I know you’re all hungry! We’ll get there when we get there! So go use the bathroom if you have to use the bathroom… we’re in an Winnebago for crying out loud! Can I say how much I missed my wife!!) the doctors came in to talk about what all would happen with the feeding tube…wait a minute! We don’t need no stinking feeding tube! Sean is not the same patient that he was when we got here! They agreed and they sent us home. Me and the other 3 got home the same day and we had a real time of rejoicing!!

Here’s a side note…ain’t it amazing how we get back to our own ways after the flood is gone? God showed us so much mercy, Grace, provision, favor and a miracle or two! Once the emergency was over…it was back to business as usual.

‘OK God…Thanks. I got it from here. Ever done that? Seems after a short time that I got back to things as if He hadn’t done a thing for us! Remember the story of Jesus…how just one of the lepers that Jesus healed, came back to give Him glory and honor out of the many in that same group? ( I should stop and look this story up and tell you how many ) Ain’t it something when Jesus speaks specifically to a certain situation…when we find ourselves in that very place.
‘I write this as part confession and encouragement.  Remember that God pays just as much attention to Monday morning as He does Sunday morning! He insists on being the center of our lives when we have money in the bank just the same as when we have nothing and are crying out to Him!  He is so gracious and merciful! He forgives me for failing time and time again. Aren’t you glad that He is always at work in our lives! He has something for each of us to do. A work that each of us is suited for and gifted with for His good purpose. Are you ready?  No…probably not…I’m not…but He makes up all the difference for my shortcomings. Are you ready? Don’t matter…just tell Him that you are willing…He’ll make you ready!

Oh yeah…I got nominated again in the top 10 for the 14th Annual Inspirational Country Music Awards.

Nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year! and for Songwriter of the Year! The show will be aired on The TBN Network!

and they asked me to sing on the awards show with Tammy Cochran!!!   Can you say…Greg, you’re dieting aren’t you?

We are thrilled to see God continue to bless this thing that He gave us to do. Please go to the hyperlink…sign up for membership in The CCMA and hopefully you’ll be in time to get a ballot to vote for The ICM Awards. ( This is strictly for what the publicity will do for our cause…you understand. )

Hey, I gotta go…there’s still a bunch to tell…Sean is sitting here telling me he’s hungry again. Pray for us and Kroger!

gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

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Hey, I am not getting booked into churches unless someone that the pastor knows calls him up and says…’it’s OK…he’s with me’    Please be in prayer about recommending us to a pastor to come to a church near you to tell of God’s grace in our lives and sing a few songs. The kids are now singing ‘The Lighthouse’ in 3 part harmony! The love offerings are how God is providing for the rent and light bill while CD sales go to the house fund! Big church, small church…it does not matter. God is the one who provides! Thanks! Remember to tell a friend about this cause and web site…

Thank You Patrick Thomas and Devon O’Day for your support on Country Spirit that you can hear on WSIX here in Nashville on Sunday mornings 7 to 9 AM.

Thanks to Big D and Bubba and Patrick Thomas for re-airing the interview from last year…we sold a bunch of CDs last week because of it!

Thanks to Les Butler and Salem Communications for playing our songs on The Old Country Church and Front Porch Fellowship! Both of them are syndicated programs playing all over the place!

Thanks to Rich Miller for playing ‘Loving You’ on The Powersource Top 20. Syndicated on over 90 stations across the US. This song is so special to us…and to have so many hear it with Tammy Cochran singing with me on it…Do you see how God has drastically changed our lives through ‘The Work of a Carpenter’?

Dear friends,

Sean has lost alot of weight in the last several months and Diane and I kept thinking that we could get him fattened up. Last Thursday, we were scheduled to leave town to sing at a few churches in Texas. That morning we had to go for a checkup and the doctors felt like the best thing to do was admit Sean because of his respitory numbers still being down and because of his weight loss. They are gonna put in a feeding tube and do a bronchoscopy to help clear his lung of excess mucus. They will also take a look at the reflux situation while they are in there and put in a port for easier access for IV antibiotics. He has had so many PICC lines that it is getting harder to put one in. I am in Texas still with Jeffrey, Katie and Grace. Some of the most precious friends here are helping with them. I am singing in Waxahachie this Sunday morning at the Cowboy Church of Ellis County and then Sunday and Monday night in Liberty Hill at the Cowboy Church of Williamson County. I will also be near Texarkana the following Wednesday night with our friends Richard and Bonnie Webb. I will be trying to stop in at American Standard HVAC in Tyler, Texas to talk with them about their help with their fitration system. Please pray for Sean and Diane as they do the hard work at Vanderbilt Hospital. God is providing all of our needs out here as we are beginning to go out to share these songs and our testimony. Please give me a call if your Pastor would have us come to your Church or any other gathering for that matter. Thanks and God Bless!

We are waiting on Construction Loan Approval!!

gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

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Sean is in the hospital getting IV antibiotics again…this time we’ve found out that we are battling a resistant form of Staph. This is serious…please join us in prayer…Thanks!

gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

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Dear Friends,

Thanks again for checking back…I know that it has been a while since I’ve posted…and it is late now and I won’t be able to tell all there is to tell. First, I need to say that we have already gotten in a hand full of orders for the new duet project…’Try A Little kindness’. Please accept my apologies that we have not filled those orders yet. Two things happened…first, I miscommunicated to our fantastic web site guy about when we were ready to install the ‘buy’ button for that CD…the other thing is that we ran into a last minute snafu on the project that has delayed printing. Please contact me if you have any questions about your order. It should not be much longer than another couple of weeks.

There is so much to tell…I simply don’t have it in me to sit here and type it all correctly. It is almost 11 PM and we have church in the morning. No…I am not whining…but stop to think about what all has to happen to get the four little ones bathed, fed and dressed for church…OK…need I say more? For those of you that know me…it’s quite enough to get me ready and out the door on time…on time being the real issue…

Please go to horsentack.com and consider signing up for an incredible effort on our behalf. Also please tell your friends and family about it. It is really an amazing undertaking and our friends the Holmes are amazing people.

We just got back from Marion, Illinois where we got to be on a show called Rejoice on the TCT Network. Melanie Walker was key in setting that up…her and her husband were so gracious while we were there…the people running and hosting the show treated us like royalty. They are the real deal.

We then traveled to Lexington, Tn. to Kent Heckman’s marriage to the lovely Miss Amy. Kent is the talented young man who put together the video on the front page of our web site. We were so excited to be there…I got to sing ‘Be Thou My Vision’ for the occasion. We hope and pray for the very best for Kent and Amy. Great job, brother Jonathan Gardner… performing his first wedding ceremony!

I gotta go…Diane just called me to help with the remaining duties at putting the kids to bed…yes…we got in late and still had an hour and a half of treatments to do.

God Bless you all.

gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

Dear Friends,

We are at Vanderbilt…we all got sick with the crud while in Florida 2 weeks ago. We were there for a Pastor’s conference that I was scheduled to sing for. Sean has pneumonia, and Jeffrey needed a leg up. We have all been on antibiotics of one kind or another and still not out of the woods. Looks as though Sean will be in Vanderbilt for another week…Jeffrey came home with a PICC line for IV antibiotics. Girls are doing better. I am at Vandy with Sean, while Diane has the others. I have not worked at all through this and am sitting here just knowing that God is the one who will provide. Needless to say…my faith is being tried right about now…but I do believe that it is at times like this, that God uses to grow us. ‘What the enemy means for evil…our God will use for good’

We need to move again…this little house is just too suspect anymore… with us having a recurring pneumonia, I have my doubts about the crawl space. Long story, but I do have doubts.

Please pray for us! We need God’s provision. I am totally laying all that we have and need…at His feet!

There is an event to benefit our cause at Charlie Daniels Park in Mt. Juliet…April 26th. Please e-mail us if you can help. God Bless you all!

gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

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Dear Friends,

I still marvel at the favor that god has given us with all of you! Thanks again for checking in on us! There is so much going on…we are featured in this month’s AtHome Tennessee Magazine! Great article that they did on us! CMT Loaded has clips up of the ICM Awards show up and you can see a very rattled looking Greg McDougal presenting an award…and also the two categories that our project was nominated for… Inspirational Country Music Album of the Year Award and New Artist of the Year Award. You can also look up Star Country Angels Network Charity Online Auction. They are donating this years proceeds to our cause! Please take a look and even contact Estella Pan and let her know how much we appreciate what she’s doing! GAC even posted a blurb about it on their website yesterday! How Cool is that?! I went by GAC offices today to tell them Thank You for that and met a bunch of really great people! I did that while I was downtown to take a few corrections to the surveyor…Crawford Land Surveyors here in Nashville…great people!…hopefully that will be all of the new hoops that the city has us jump through to get the building permit!

I am finding a need for a higher level of organization…in the AtHome magazine article, they quoted me as saying that I am the CEO of 3 or 4 corporations…what I meant by that is…I FEEL like the CEO of 4 corporations with all that there is to do the to move house stuff forward, Home Repair business stuff each day to make a paycheck, and then of course all that there is for a Daddy and Husband to do each day at our house. And now that God has raised the Non profit aspect of all of this and now we are going out to churches to play, sing and tell our story…Are you tired just reading this? I am NOT a multi tasker! And so I am really challenged to fit it all in to a weeks time…

I am praying about and keeping my ears open for an internship program where a student could help us with address and e-mail entry and perhaps some of the marketing stuff. We need someone who is able to do some of the computer stuff that we are so unable to do. Just a thought…trying to take this to the next level! We want to be prepared as an organization. To be more effective in the work that we believe God has set us aside for. All of this while we are desperate to get the house started and finished for our kids!

There may be a pretty big event coming up in February. Might have a big concert here in Mt. Juliet to help us in our cause. I will let you know. I just posted a thing on My Space…google gregmcdougal is a challenge that I have sent out! Corny, I know! But have I mentioned how shameless that I am in my endeavor? If we have a lot of people google gregmcdougal, then it could help with our ratings. That would go a long way in making our case to corporate America when we are trying to get them to help with the Non-profit! Hopefully will also help send alot of traffic to the website to buy CDs! Be sure that you tell your friends and family to google gregmcdougal! Might have some bumper stickers made up!

Also need to get some T shirts made up! Any one interested in a T shirt?

God Bless!

gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com

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