Monday, November 21, 2011

Finally!!


We have wonderful news!!!  We are pregnant and expecting a baby in July!  It is still early and we always said we would wait till we were out of that scary stage, but I really can't wait anymore.  Most of you know already anyways so here is the story :).

As you know we went through a failed IVF cycle in June/July of this year.  We originally were not planning to freeze any left over embryos because of the cost, and because we had decided that if the IVF didn't work we would know that we needed to move on and focus all of our efforts on adoption.  But when it came to the final decision while we were in the midst of the procedure, we felt that we should freeze them.  What if IVF worked and we wanted a baby brother or sister later on down the road?  It just felt right so we froze them.

When the cycle didn't work we felt like it would be impossible to ever use those little frozen embryos because of the financial side of things.  We needed to finish paying for the failed cycle before we ever decided to do anything else.  I couldn't even think about spending more.  Well our Heavenly Father is so very mindful of us and knows a better plan that we need to learn to trust in!

A wonderful couple had offered in the past to help us with adoption expenses should we need it.  One day after our failed IVF (a day when I was feeling especially blue) she called to make sure we knew they would still like to help us out.  She mentioned infertility treatments and wanting to even help us with that if we wanted to go that direction.  I informed her of our failed IVF and thats when the light popped on and inspiration hit.  It wasn't coincidence that she thought of me and knew she needed to call me.  It wasn't coincidence that she brought up infertility treatments.  I knew she was a tool in Heavenly Father's hand at that moment and a huge miracle was taking place in our lives.

They made it possible to try our frozen embryos at the right time!   We did the transfer on Oct 29th with these little guys.
I waited agonizingly trying to talk myself out of testing everyday.  Finally 6 days after the transfer I told Doug, "I need to test or I'll go insane!  If it's negative then it's just too early and if it's positive then we will know and I can stop freaking out every day."  I never expected to see a positive only 6 days after the transfer.  I will never forget the crazy emotions I felt as I waited for another negative pregnancy test and it was POSITIVE for the first time in my life!!  Not like - you have to wait a while to see the line show up and wonder if it is positive.  Positive as in the line showed up the moment it got wet and there was no doubt about it positive.  I went running down the stairs laughing, crying and whispering for Doug too look (I would've yelled but I couldn't find my voice)!
 As you can see I was a huge test junkie and couldn't help but test every day until my blood test.  I just wouldn't believe it until I saw that I was still pregnant and the test was still positive!

And now we have a little baby on the way!  We saw it for the first time today!!  It looked like a little blob with a flickering heartbeat and it was the most beautiful little blob that we've ever seen!
It was so amazing to watch it on the screen and it is starting to feel more real now.  We pray each and every day that this sweet baby will grow and be healthy. That no complications will arise and everything will continue to progress.

So for now we are so excited, scared, in shock and overwhelmed with gratitude for this beautiful blessing in our lives.  I am continually amazed by the evidence of our Heavenly Father's hand and plan for us, but I guess I should just get used to it!  I know I will see it many more times throughout my life and that the more I look for it, the more I will see it.  Thank you all for loving prayers and faith in our behalf!  And thank you especially to that special couple who have made this all possible.  There is no way we can ever repay you!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Halloween 2011


We really like to have fun with Halloween! We had another fun murder mystery dinner that was Halloween themed this year.  We enjoyed family, food, costumes, decorations, and quite the macbre story!  Here are a few pictures!





For FHE the week before Halloween we invited Logan over to carve pumpkins.  We have done a lot of patterns in the past.  You know where you trace the picture and then carve?  So we decided to be creative this year and design our own faces.  Logan and Doug were the artists while I helped clean the pumpkins and then roasted the seeds.  We tried regular salted seeds, lemon pepper seeds, and a good harvest spice mix which had cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger in it.  They were all fabulous but I still like the salted the best.  Here are the carving efforts!


Can we take a normal picture?  Yeah right! HA!

For Halloween night Doug and I decided to stay home for the first time and hand out candy to trick or treaters.  We had a yummy pizza and movie (Hocus Pocus - a must!!) party all the while seeing the cute neighborhood kids dressed up!  I even got to see a few of my piano students :)!  I love to see all the fun and creative costumes and find so much joy in just handing out a few pieces of candy haha!  I don't know why but it is my favorite thing about Halloween.  Here's a few pictures of our Halloween night.