Monday, December 22, 2008

Good Birthday, Great Husband

I turned 30 last week. It's been a really good year, a lot has happened and I'm looking forward to growing into my 30's. Kevin had a couple of things planned for my birthday last Thursday. I knew that we had to be somewhere at a certain time, and when we got in the car and he told me the name of the town, I thought for sure I had guessed our destination.

Highland Park doesn't have much going on by way of nightlife, so I was fairly certain that we were heading to the dance studio for some lessons. While Kevin has this unexplained penchant for dancing (even at the most inopportune times), I am one of those very inhibited people who feels completely self-conscious on a dance floor. When I told him that I "knew" we were going to the dance studio and to please tell me what kind of dance lessons that we were taking, his face said that I had guessed right. He told me we were taking Salsa lessons, and I started to get very nervous. I assured him that I thought it would be fun, but I was just a little tense in anticipation.

We parked and were walking down the street towards the studio and Kevin said, "I just wish you could relax before we go in there." He stepped inside a shop and I followed him in and realized we were in a cute little day spa. When he walked up to the counter and told him that he had an appointment for his wife to get a massage, I was so relieved I couldn't stop myself from crying a little! It was such a nice and relaxing hour, a wonderful surprise and indulgence.

Afterwards we went to a restaurant in New Brunswick called Delta's. They serve true Southern Soul-Food. It was wonderfully fried and familiar. Our favorite was the fried alligator that we had as an appetizer. Here are a couple of not great pictures we took with Kevin's phone at the restaurant.






Sunday, December 14, 2008

Baby on the Way...Really

Most people who read this blog have heard the news already, but I thought I would write an update to our Adoption post from several months ago. After completing the 3-month Fost/Adopt class, the Home Study, the mountain of paperwork, and the Home Inspection, a little surprise came our way in the form of a conversation with our fertility doctor. One round of IVF later and we find ourselves 14 weeks pregnant this week!

Kevin and I had a very definite infertility diagnosis about 8 months ago. We were extremely disappointed, of course, but not devastated. We had confidence that God had a child for us through some means and that it may not be the way we expected. Since we were already underway with the adoption when we found out, we just decided to put everything into that. We were not interested in the costly fertility treatments and we let our doctor know.
We had a follow up appointment with our doctor on the same day as our adoption home study, and we went preparing to close that door. Instead, he offered us an opportunity to participate in a research study that would give us a round of IVF at no cost to us. We were completely stunned and told him that we would talk about it and let him know. I think we both immediately wanted to jump on the opportunity, and that is what we did.

It's hard to describe our feelings on this and explain why we decided to go through with it when we were so sure that fertility treatment was not for us. Maybe having it handed to us on a silver platter was part of the appeal. We had already resigned ourselves to the fact that we would never experience childbirth, and we were sad. I think that if our diagnosis wasn't so certain, it may have been more of a choice for us, but as it was, we decided very quickly that we were being given a once in a lifetime opportunity.

So, no details about the treatment and procedures over the last 4 months, but I will say that I cherished every moment of it, oddly enough. We knew that whatever the outcome was, we would be OK and God would have his way. We consider this whole experience such a gratuitous gift from God, completely undeserved.

Here is an early ultrasound picture from 8 weeks. We are due mid-June. :)


Wednesday, December 10, 2008

O (Silver Tinsel) Tannenbaum

We put up our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving, here it is. Yes, silver all year round, this tree is a Christmas miracle..