A Prayer of Encouragement as We Wait Upon the Lord

A dear friend reminded me of this beautiful prayer today.  It encouraged me greatly as I hope it does, you too:

Ephesians 3:14-21
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Starting BCP today and hoping EA contract is closer to complete!

My favorite family member, Aunt Flow, showed up on Saturday.  This time...I welcomed her arrival as it meant that I can finally start the BCP in anticipation of our Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET).

Still no signed contract with the donor couple, but it is very close.  The attorneys are currently working on the draft and we may even receive it today or tomorrow.

The way I look at it...I have 21 days of the "active" pills to get it all ironed out.  We are so excited to be on this journey.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much because our hearts were crushed at our failed FET this past April (even after the initial +HPT).

So for now...I'm going to keep taking the pill and wait.  I want to take this time to search God's word and get to know His character deeper than ever.  I am still in awe that Embryo Adoption/Donation even exists and feel so grateful and honored that a family would give such an unselfish gift...and more importantly that God chose us to possibly be their parents.

God's timing is perfect!  And for now...I am resting in the knowledge of Him, the great Creator of the universe!  I hope to meet my little twinkle babies some day very soon. 

The nurse said today that she will discuss dates, etc after all of our bloodwork is completed.  I am anxiously awaiting for the snail mail to arrive to see exactly what all this bloodwork entails!  Let the needles begin!

So, it's looking like an October or November transfer date.  All I know is that today...we are one step closer.  Thanks for your prayers!

Got the call...moving forward!

What an exciting day!

We received a call today from the coordinator that the donor family responded and we will now enter the next step...the attorneys and contract.

I've said before that I've had a peace in my heart during this new journey.  I can only explain this peace as God-given, because I JUST KNOW it's not comin' from little ol' me!

We also got a call from the attorney tonight, which was reassuring (she's a mom of twins!).  She walked us through the process of what comes next.  The greatest news was that she said these precious little twinkle babies may be part of our family as soon as 10 days from now. 

So, for now we are just praying for God's timing in all of this.  We can't help but get excited over where He has us on our journey at the moment.

I guess alot can happen in just ten days!  Praising God for His miracles every day!

Yay! We are still a GO!

We just received a call from the coordinator (on a Saturday, no less) that they are still waiting to hear back from the donor couple.  I didn't expect a call on a Saturday, but that just confirms what I thought about how busy they are at the fertility clinic.

She said they had an over abundance of fertility procedures in the doctors office in the last two weeks, which hopefully means that many many couples are getting pregnant!

If all goes well, that will be us in a few months.  I am just praying that this FET works and that the precious twinkle babies stick around.

In my quiet time with the Lord today, He reminded me that He fashioned my heart individually.  This just spoke to my heart because he has also fashioned the heart of our (future) babies.  That just blesses me to no end!

I am so grateful that I am not on this journey alone and that He is leading me every step of the way.

Is no news really good news?

We have been in a holding pattern since meeting with our new doctor two weeks ago and have yet to hear anything from our coordinator regarding the (hopefully, “our”) twinkle babies.

I do have a peace in my heart that no news just means that they are super busy at the doctor's office.  God is definitely teaching me patience in all of this. 

That said, I still glance at my phone (like a teenager) hoping that it will ring!

We continue to pray for our Embryo Adoption process.  We pray that the donor family is 1) able to be reached, 2) still willing to give the precious gift of donating their twinkle babies, and 3) that the next steps go smoothly in adopting them into our family.

Thank you all for your prayers!

Hoop-a-thon or Poop-a-thon?

Last night while my friends rubbed shoulders with a few of the Los Angeles Lakers and UCLA Bruin basketball players at the HDSA Hoop-a-thon,

I was at home potty training a two-year old at our very own Poop-a-thon! And, yes that is a mini-basketball hoop in the background!

First let me explain…while I am truly excited that Little Mister is finally interested in making this giant leap into big boy pants, it certainly doesn’t allow us to go very far from home without a little anxiety (on my part, of course)! Which is why we did not make the 45 mile trek to the north last night. Judging by the poop-a-thon that ensued with Little Mister last night…it sure was a good bet to stick around (Ew…tmi, right?).

Potty training aside, I am really bummed that I missed the Hoop-a-thon event last night becase it was the first appearance by UCLA Basketball Coach Ben Howland since going public with his family’s fight against Huntington’s Disease. Read the L.A. Times article here. The Hoop-a-thon was a fundraiser which raised money for research toward a cure and help for families who struggle with this devastating disease. I hope the fundraiser was a huge success and another step toward a future free of Huntington’s Disease.

Huntington’s Disease is the reason that Tall Man and I went through PGD IVF to conceive Little Mister, which you can read about here. We wanted to ensure that we did not pass on this deadly gene.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting more about Huntington’s Disease. It is just another factor in what led us to PGD IVF and now Embryo Adoption. Hopefully, I will also be posting an update on our current journey with Embryo Adoption. We are in holding pattern until we hear from our coordinator.

Consult with new RE

We met with Dr. K yesterday. I still think it is pretty unbelievable that God used someone in Kansas to get me to a doctor 80 miles to the north in Thousand Oaks! God’s ways definitely are not our ways!

The doctor spent more than an hour talking to Tall Man and me about our “goals” and our issues. We spent most of the time discussing two things…a) FET with donor embryos (our main focus for the meeting and reason we were there) and b) PGD IVF (figured we may as well discuss it since it was the way Little Mister was conceived).

Dr. K said this is OUR decision and we should consider three things in making that decision:

1. Medical – Is what we are doing medically possible?
2. Emotional – Can we endure the roller coaster of emotions in this process?
3. Financial – Do we have the finances to go forward with our decision?

Fortunately, the medical outlook is good for me to carry a pregnancy; emotionally we have God holding our hands and a doctor who is an expert in the field; and financially, well…we don’t want this to break us. All things prayerfully considered, we are going with adopting embryos who are already babies waiting to be born rather than trying again with my (39 year old) eggs and creating more embryos.

Jen was so right. Dr. K is amazing, confident, calm and even gave us his cell phone number. Who does that? He truly cares. We were very impressed.

The best part about our visit was that they have a match for us. Hubby and I are a strange melting pot combination of ethnicities, which ended up making our biological son 25% Asian. Who would have ever guessed that Dr. K would have 25% Asian embies.

We are now headed on the path to adopt them and pray that everything goes smoothly from here on out. God is sooooo in control.

Today I am thanking God for everything and thanking my new friend and sister in Christ for her ministry.