announcement photos

On complete spur of the moment, I asked my cousin, Miranda, who is also an awesome photographer, to meet us for a few minutes and grab a few snapshots. We used these photos to tell our close friends and family that weekend. We used the photo and a note similar to the post dated 10/25/12. Miranda did a great job and we will treasure these photos always. 

 

special birthday

I failed to post on "the" day, because I wasn't back in the regular habit of blogging (and I will be back-dating to keep in order)

 

Of course, I didn't fail to personally wish the most special lady a "Happy Birthday."  My mom's birthday was October 27th.  We didn't get to do any celebrating, because she was sick all weekend with a yucky virus.  BUT ... because of Hurricane Sandy and NYC still in recovery mode, my brother is catching a deal-of-a-flight home tomorrow and I'm sure we will be celebrating, celebrating!  :)

 

(thanks, Randa, for the picture)

 

My mom is such a strong, courageous, hard-working, amazing lady!
(and I know she will be a super-duper grandma) 

I admire her for so many reasons!

And I love her a whole bunch!

sharing with our close family

We absolutely could not wait to tell our news!  It was so hard keeping it quiet for just a few days.  After the first blood draw and results, we decided to go ahead and tell our parents and our siblings.  I've always day-dreamed of creative ways to make our announcement. I just didn't feel like a phone call would do the joyful announcement justice. Originally, I wanted a dinner with our close friends and family ... but wasn't sure what "reason" I could use to pull it off, so we changed our plans. We received the phone call with blood test results on Wednesday, September 26th, so after church that night we decided to wait no more.  We stopped at Wal-Mart bought a dress for our dog and I painted the words "Big Sister" on it in the car on the way home.  We grabbed the dog and headed to my mom's. 

 

I called mom and told her that we were in the area and I wanted to show her the pictures of the curtains I wanted her to sew for my living room.  (that was our excuse for stopping in at 9 PM, but I couldn't think of anything better)  I think she was a little supicious of something.  We walked in and I told her that Thumpy had something she wanted to "share."  She was quite surprised, because just the Saturday prior I had told her that I had a "negative" pregnancy test and was pretty depressed about it.  We told her all the details, she grinned from ear to ear, and gave her congratulations.

Next we headed to Chris' parents.  On the way, Chris called to let them know we were on our way to "tell them something."  Needless to say, by the time we arrived, his mom had become frantic about what we had to share face-to-face at 10PM.  (I think she thought one of us was sick, or lost a job, or worse)  Chris told them Thumpy had something to "share."  His mom insisted we share what was so important to merit the visit.  Chris told her to "read the shirt."  She said, "I did, now what do you have to tell me."  By this time, Chris' dad had caught on and said, "her shirt says "she is a big sister!""  Then the tears of joy flowed, we shared the details, and congratulations were given.

We then sent text messages of Thumpy to my brother and Chris' sister.
Sharing the news made it so real and all the more exciting.

our miracle

"For this child I prayed; ..."  I Samuel 1:27

 

After six, long painful years, thousands of dollars, and a gazillion prayers, it is with great joy that we announce our lil' blessing is due to arrive June 2013.

 

"Delight thyself also in the Lord: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Psalm 37:4

 

Earlier this year, after a possible adoption option was presented to us (which fell through obviously), we fervently prayed for direction in our infertility journey.  We did not want to seek adoption or more medical advice, wasting time and resources, if that wasn't God's plan.  At the beginning of August, we felt led to pursue more medical assistance and met with one of the top five reproductive endocrinologists in the nation.  From the very first appointment, Chris and I felt God leading, affirming each step ... sprinkling little signs along the way.  One of our appointments was on September 6th, our 15th dating anniversary.  We endured more tests and procedures   Even with a few "bumps in the road" (that some might find disheartening), our treatment worked the FIRST time; which is not usually the case.  Due to the sometimes conflicting opinions surrounding infertility treatments, we have decided not to discuss the details of our treatment at this time.

 

"He hath made every thing beautiful in His time ..." Ecclesiastes 3:11

 

We are both beyond excited and so thrilled. 

In the past 5 weeks, we have smiled, cried, and laughed.

We waited so long for this and sometimes we can hardly believe it is really true.

Over the past few weeks, we have shared the news with friends and family - which has been so fun!
At just 5 weeks, after the first two blood tests, we decided to share with our close family and friends. It was a difficult decision to share early, but since we had waited so long and were bursting at the seams, we wanted others to share in the wonderful joy even at the possiblity of sharing in grief should something happen later. We waited to share on Facebook until after the ultrasound and hearing the heartbeat.

 

"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."  Matthew 21:22

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your prayers during this long journey.

There were difficult days that I couldn't have made it through without the prayers and words of encouragement.

 

 

return to the blog

I can't believe it has been almost an entire year since I last blogged.  I never really meant to stay away so long.  It just happened.  We've had a lot going on in life, so I don't really regret the break.  I always want to be true about our journey (never fake) and I was fearful of being "too real" on the world-wide-web for all to see and read.  In order to keep those things private that aren't meant for all to know, I retreated and skipped out completely.  I kept a hand-written journal instead.

In the last year, infertility has taken us on a wild, crazy ride ... making our marriage tough, wreaking havoc on our emotions, causing difficulty in our friends/family relationships, straining our wallet, and deepening, yet questioning, our Faith.  But thanks be unto God, we have survived and survived well.  All praise belongs to Him.  God is so good.  And He never, ever fails. 

I want to continue blogging to chronicle our journey and to keep family/friends both far and near informed.  It is sometimes needful and enjoyable to look back and remember the path life has taken us on.  Thankfully, now many of those tough, rough miles are just a memory.