Tomatoes Preaching

On Saturday, after working my shift at the Crown Realty booth at the Cider Mill, my mom and I took the kids on the Miami County Farm Tour.  We stopped at a delightful little farm (Metcalf & 327th) - Foxfire Farm and picked strawberries and bought (8!!!) tomato plants.

Saturday evening McKenzie broke out with a terrible rash and her knees & elbows were swollen and hot to the touch.  At first, I thought maybe she'd had an allergic reaction to the strawberries - although she's eaten them many times before and these are organic, pesticide free, so I couldn't imagine these would be worse than any others she's had.  In fact, they were so incredibly delicious and perfect!  Sunday (Mother's Day), we went to the walk-in clinic at our family practice (College Park Family) and found out she had strep!  24 hours of antibiotics and steroids later, she was back to her normal cheery crazy self.

So, long story short, my 8 beautiful tomato plants sat in my dark garage for 2 days.  They were wilty and browning.  Cut off from sunlight & water, they were dying quickly.  Monday evening, the kids and I got them planted, watered from our rain barrel, and they instantly perked up.  2 days later, they are really thriving.  They smell so wonderful and we can't wait to pick some beautiful tomatoes!

All of this has gotten me thinking.  Reminding me how much my life is like those tomato plants.  One day disconnected from God's Word and prayer connection with Him, and I am worse off than these little plants.  Wilted.  Worn out.  Unable to produce fruit.  Thankfully, it just takes time in His life-giving presence to perk right up.  Thankful for that truth!

When I Don't Understand...

I'll just let this song speak for me today...  I don't really have any words better than this.

Another negative pregnancy test today.  I don't understand why God doesn't bless my friends Adam & Natalie with a baby.  I don't understand why they have 6 babies in heaven.  I don't understand how He could ignore thousands of prayers for this.  I don't understand why His answer appears to be no.  I don't understand why it's so hard for good people to have babies.  I don't understand miscarriages.  I don't understand infertility.  I don't understand cancer.  I don't understand heartache and broken dreams.  I don't understand this fallen world.

... but I will choose you God!

Gun Shy Confidence {6dp5dt}

Feeling anxious today.  I hate the waiting period.  I'm just crying out to God to make this surrogacy attempt successful.  My God can make dry bones live, can make all things new, and can certainly do this!

Our last go-round I was SOOOOOOOOOO confident, so this time I'm very gun shy, but still cautiously optimistic and trusting God, because what else can I do?  I faithfully did my bed rest, I have avoided lifting over 10 lbs (much to Kenzie's dismay), and have been eating eggs, avocado, black beans, & salmon + drinking whole milk!  It's in His hands now.

Today is 6dp5dt (6 days past 5-day embryo transfer).  If you spend too much time on surrogacy and IVF blogs you will become fluent in crazy abbreviations and also a little crazy!  I shared this last time, but here's a look at what's going on with these 2 little embryo-babies!

5-Day Transfer

Days Past Transfer (DPT)	Embryo Development
One	The blastocyst begins to hatch out of its shell
Two	The blastocyst continues to hatch out of its shell and begins to attach itself to the uterus
Three	The blastocyst attaches deeper into the uterine lining, beginning implantation
Four	Implantation continues
Five	Implantation is complete, cells that will eventually become the placenta and fetus have begun to develop
Six	Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) starts to enter the blood stream
Seven	Fetal development continues and hCG continues to be secreted
Eight	Fetal development continues and hCG continues to be secreted
Nine	Levels of hCG are now high enough to detect a pregnancy

Naps, Books, and Netflix

Ok our last surrogacy attempt was obviously the first and having nothing to compare it to, everything was fine; but I will say today was so much smoother and easier and just felt better. Hoping that leads to positive results in 12 days! (January 27th is test day!)

Luckily I also had a couple clowns in the recovery room to help me out! (Thanks Eli and Adam!)

So today's been a nice day of rest (thanks to Uncle Nick and Aunt Caitlin for watching the kiddos!) watching some Netflix, reading a lot, and even napping. Plus spoiled rotten by treats!

Thank you for all your love, support, and prayers!

Lucky 13 Pills Per Day

I'm a little late to update here, but it's been a hectic week!  I started a really great real estate training program so I've had class from 9-11 every day AND homework plus balancing my normal duties and real estate clients and kiddos and I've felt like I'm struggling to keep my head above water, but it's good to be busy in my world!  :-)

Anyway, Janaury 7th was an important day for several reasons.  I started the morning at 7:30am at the doctor's office so they could check on my progress with all the estrogen.  My uterine lining was 10.73 and my estrogen levels were at 1550  and apparently that's perfect so YAY!

And then I got to go out with my lovely husband to celebrate our 9th anniversary!  I was craving meat (odd for me, probably all the hormones!) so we went to Fogo de Chao for the first time and then to my favorite date place - Barnes & Noble.  LOL!

Today I got to add several things to my daily estrogen doses: progesterone, steroids, and antibiotics.  A grand total of 13 pills a day + 3 patches!  5 days away from surrogacy!

Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy this diet!  ;-)

http://www.top10homeremedies.com/superfoods/top-10-superfoods-boost-fertility.html

Trusting God that January 15th is going to be successful!

Christmas Fun

My maternal grandmother instilled in me that the 12 Days of Christmas starts after Christmas so we celebrate up to "3 Wise Men Day" (some call it Epiphany) - January 6th - every year.  In fact, the 3 wise men used to bring my brother and I gifts on January 6th bundled in brown paper and left at our front door via their camels of course.

So for us, the tree is still up and the lights are still on.  Luckily, our beautiful 10' 4" tree is still looking pretty good even though we chopped it down in November!   We have had such a fun Christmas season though and I wanted to share some of the great things we got to do!

We visited Crown Center & go ice-skating!  The kids' first time.  Kenzie was not a fan, but Micah loved it!

We had a very wonderful family trip to Branson with my mom & Steve, Eli's parents, and Nick & Caitlin.  We stayed in a cute stone house and saw Silver Dollar City in all its Christmas glory PLUS rode on the Polar Express!

Saw Rudolph musical at the Coterie at Crown Center on December 26th.  If you are wondering why Kenzie is not smiling in this picture it is because she was VERY disappointed that "the Bumble" (the Abominable Snowman) was not present for the photo ops.  He's her favorite... which probably says quite a bit about her little personality.  ;-)

Also, I got to share Advent with the kids with a cool book by Ann Voskamp (one of my favorites!) called "Unwrapping Christmas" - every day was a new Bible passage and reading.  I downloaded the free coloring pages that came with the book and while I read they colored.  We had a blast with it, and it's been so special that they are getting old enough to understand so much and get a taste for why we really celebrate Christmas!  

I know I am forgetting so much, but those were the highlights for our family!

Patches & Pills

Well, we are back in the baby making business! LOL!

Back in November, Natalie harvested more eggs and she & Adam have 6 good looking embryos in the freezer. They upped Natalie's hormones this time and that seems to have yielded really terrific results!

On December 26th, I went in for bloodwork and a scan to check on my estrogen levels and to make sure my ovaries were "quiet." Everything looked good, so I started estrogen patches & pills on the 27th!

Please pray that my body responds well to the hormones! If everything goes well, we'll be doing an embryo transfer on January 15th.