Working out the details. . .

This week we continued to work with the Snowflakes coordinator at Nightlight (our adoption agency).  We are ironing out the details of our legal contract with our embryo donor family.  We are also beginning to prepare for the transfer with our FET (Frozen Embryo Transfer) doctor.  More blood tests and immunizations needed.  Yipee!  But mostly we are just waiting and distracting ourselves with the normal business of everyday life. 

It's official! We've been matched!!!

Dan and I just called the Snowflakes coordinator to accept our match and we will soon be parents to four (6-day blast) miracle snowbabies!  How exciting is that!  God is so gracious to us.  One week after receiving the sad news about our chances to conceive naturally God brings us hope in the form of a perfect Snowflake match.  We are elated and look forward to our transfer which will take place mid-May at the latest.  Thanks for praying for us.  We are so glad to share our journey with you all.  (These are not our blasts- just an image borrowed from the internet.)

A POSSIBLE MATCH!!!

We got a call from Snowflakes today that the first donor family to get our profile accepted us!  We haven't seen their profile yet and are anxious to determine if this family is a match for us.  I'll keep you posted!  Once we are matched it can take anywhere from 1-3 months for the legal paperwork to be completed and the embryos to be shipped to our fertility clinic.  If this family is our match our transfer will most likely be in April, May, or June.  If this family is not a good match for us our profile will go out to a different family on Friday.  I am so thankful for good news after our difficult news last Thursday. 

Love is an ever-fixèd mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken

Today I am so thankful for my sweetie.  We have been married for almost seven years and have been through so many amazing adventures, times of saddness and loss, and difficult uncertanty.  God has walked with us through it all.  Most recently I had laparoscopy surgery because our doctor believed that I had endometriosis and felt that we might still have a chance to conceive naturally.  The surgery revealed that I did not have endometriosis (good) but instead I have abnormal tubes that are contorted and blocked (bad).  Only 2% of women have this, it is not possible to fix, and it means that if we conceive naturally it would be nothing short of a miracle.  We are glad to finally (after six years of having "unexplained infertility") have a diagnosis.  We have prayed specifically for this kind of closure.  The fact that we are so far along in the adoption process has helped bring some hope and comfort in the saddness of this news.  I am glad that Dan and I are a couple that draw closer to each other in times of difficulty rather than letting hard times push us apart.  The lord has been so gracious to us in that. 

Part of our Valentine's message at Grace today came from Luke 11 where Luke recalls a discussion between Jesus and his disciples on prayer:

 ⁹"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
 ¹¹"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

 So today with my parents we prayed to our Father that he would give Dan and I "good things":  hope for a family in the near future, joy in the midst of difficulty, a peaceful heart free of bitterness, patience that surpasses understanding, and trust in the wisdom and goodness of a loving God. 

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!  I leave you with one of my favorite love poems:

Sonnet 116 (William Shakespeare)

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Counting My Blessings

Five "kids"

 

Five "kids" times two!

Five "kids", times two, plus five!

 

Introducing John and Julie Stefan!

This weekend I participated in my childhood friend's wedding.  

Congratulations to Julie and John!