One More Day!

I absolutely CANNOT believe that TOMORROW is the day that we finally find out YES or no!!! The past two weeks have crawled along nice and slowly...but overall it hasn't been too terribly bad. We've found things to do around the house, been out to lunch with some friends, enjoyed visits from family, and had some time just to spend the two of us! I am SO EXCITED about tomorrow, but really and truly I can't believe that it's actually here. This whole process has been WAY different than I ever thought. I'll never forget a friend of mine telling me before we started that she couldn't wait for us to experience this because it was "a neat experience." I literally thought she was crazy! I found myself thinking how in the world is in-vitro going to be neat? It's going to be painful and hard and this is NOT at all the way I had planned to have children. How could this ever be neat???

I have to admit...I was completely wrong! This experience has been AMAZING! It has been completely different than anything I ever thought it would be. I really had this idea of IVF in my head being only about having babies. And ultimately...that is the goal...BUT in-vitro has definitely been an avenue for God to do AMAZING things in our lives. He has been working on our hearts this entire time and this journey has truly been a BLESSING to us through everything.

We have been blessed:

By people praying for us throughout every step
By family and friends who encourage us and love on us daily
By my group of "prayer ladies" who would stop during the day and pray for my daily needs
By people who blessed us financially
By people who have been through this before and were willing to share their hearts w/us
By an amazing staff of doctors and nurses who have cared for us and treated our needs
By people who brought us dinner and visited
By a God who has never once left our side or forsaken us
By an incredible sense of peace and calmness through this ENTIRE journey
By family who have felt my every pain and cried every tear with us
By a renewing of our FAITH in our amazing God!

God has used this struggle of infertility to work on my heart and I can honestly say I would not give that up for anything in this world. It has been a HARD five and a half years and there have been so many times where I was beaten and low. There were times where I thought I couldn't go on....that I would simply never be able to have children on my own. But God has truly lifted me up through this process and I am so thankful that He has not given up on us yet! And I am so thankful for all of you who have been a part of these blessings! We could not be where we are today without the love and support of our sweet friends and family!

This in-vitro cycle started for us on June 22nd. Since I love numbers...I thought I would look back on the past 4 weeks...simply by numbers! Since June 22nd we have been through...

4 trips back and forth to San Antonio
5 nights in the hotel
26 shots in my stomach
7 rounds of bloodwork
5 ultrasounds
10 eggs retrieved
5 fertilized embryos
16 pills after the retrieval
2 amazing 8A embryos transfered
15 shots in my backside
9 hormones patches
2 precious frozen embryos
an INFINITE # of prayers

All of this has led us to this point in which we hope is the beginning of our precious family! God is good! And He is faithful! We pray that this is the time He has decided to bless our lives with children! We ask that you pray for us one more time as we anxiously await the testing tomorrow. I am suprisingly calm...as I have been this entire time...which I attribute solely to the prayers of so many for peace. Of course I am ready to know, but I can wait one more day!

A couple of people have asked if I was going to take home pregnancy tests to see if I was already pregnant. My personal experience with home tests has always been so negative! I would take those tests with so much eagerness and hopefulness in the beginning and then be so disappointed. Derek began to hate having to buy them b/c I would just cry and cry. Knowing that they are testing me on Friday, regardless of my at-home results...I decided I would much rather have to take one test instead of several. That way I have no false hope or feel no uneccessary pain before the actual test! For me...it's better this way! Sorry for any of you who were hoping for an early result!

As far as tomorrow goes, I will have my blood test done early in the morning. We have no way of knowing what time the results will be in. I PROMISE that I will update the blog at SOME point tomorrow, but I will not promise what time that will be. I am asking for a little bit of patience during this process tomorrow on your part because I know so many of you have been through this journey with us and are dying to know the result! We are dying for you to know as well, but need some time to process the information and share with our families before we announce it here! We are so blessed to have this many people care about us and for us and our precious babies! Thank you for your support and love and please pray for us over the next two days!

"When we trust our lives to the hand and pen of an unseen but ever-present God, He will write our lives into His story and every last one of them will turn out to be a great read. With a grand ending."
                                                                                        -Beth Moore-