Miracle #2

We were supposed to go in today to do the transfer. I received a phone call about an hour ago, and once again my heart dropped. I figured that all of the embryos had not survived the extra days and they were calling to tell us not to come in. Imagine my surprise when they told us that all five are still alive and growing at the same rate. One is not better than the others. So, they want to grow them out one more day and see if one or two grow a little more. This is another miracle. When we did this whole thing with Sara, only five survived the initial thaw and only two survived the extra days. I know that this is all due to our wonderful family and friends that are praying for us. You have gone above and beyond the call of duty. We have been included in family fasts. Our names have been put on the prayer rolls at the temple. In fact, one of our friends told us that she put our names on the prayer rolls of 49 different temples, from Hawaii to Washington DC (yes, I sobbed when I heard that!). We have had many offers to have meals brought in. But most of all, we have been prayed for and loved. We have felt those prayers and because of that, I have remained relatively calm during this week.
Thank you! Thank you! I wish I could personally thank everyone of you, but please know that you are all greatly appreciated and loved.
I will keep you posted on what happens in the next couple of days.

Miracle #1

We received our phone call this morning. All 5 survived!!!!

We were supposed to receive our phone call at 10:30 and by 11:00 I was a complete basket case, imagining all of the worst case scenarios. The nurses have said that they will never call with bad news. They make the doctor. So of course I was thinking that they were just waiting for the doctor to finish up so he could call me. At 11:10 we got the phone call. I made Rob answer it and heard him say "Are you serious?" in a happy voice. He told me that they had survived. I sobbed. We needed good news at this point.

So, now we are growing out the embryos two more days and we will implant on Wednesday. But we have survived one obstacle.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and your prayers. You are all the best!

***I should point out that usually not all of the embryos survive this next stage. We will only be implanting one or two. I have zero desire to be the next Jon and Kate or Octomom ;)

Ramblings

Thank you for all of the love and support that has been shown to us. I really do have the greatest family and friends!

In my last post I failed to mention that all of Rob's family has been laid off. The company is not doing that great right now, so they all took the hit in order to keep the company alive. Hopefully the contracts will start coming in and the company will become strong again.

I was so glad that I was able to watch the woman's conference last night. One of the things that I remember very vividly was in Sister Thompson's talk. She was talking about her life experiences and trials and she said that thank goodness she had the gospel in her life. Because whether she was a member of the church or not she would still be experiencing those same trials.
Thank goodness I have the Gospel in my life. I couldn't imagine going through these current trials or past trials without my faith and the knowledge that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me. My SIL has this amazing ability to find the good things that are happening during her trials. The other day she helped me to find those things in my life. Thanks for helping me find them, Merf. I would like to share some of those things so that when I can't see the good, I can come here and have a reminder.
We had to start injections the other day. Usually they cost around $150. When I went to the Dr they informed me that they no longer present the progesterone in sesame oil, but in something much cheaper. When I went to pick up the prescription it was only $47. Wow! We were able to save over $100! And my body is extremely grateful that they are no longer doing it in the oil. They shots have not been as painful as they normally are. And we only have to do the shots for about five days, compared to the two weeks that we had to do in the past.
Another tender mercy, as my sister in law calls them, is that I don't have to do surgery. A little over 20 years ago I was run over by a boat propeller that cut my knees. They have acted up in the past, but it has been when I have walked a lot or when the pressure in the air changed. Lately I have woken up with a lot of pain. So I went to the doctor, fully expecting to have my knees scoped and scar tissue removed. The doctor doesn't want to do that at this time, so he gave me a couple of things to try and so far it has been working.
These are just a couple of the tender mercies I have experienced lately. Hopefully the big one will come tomorrow. After all, as the saying goes, "When God closes a door he opens a window.". Please let that window be those embryos surviving!

Enough is Enough

This week has been horrible. Next week has the potential to be either so much better or so much worse. Let me explain.

Rob was laid off this week. I was completely blindsided by this. I'm not naive. I knew that layoffs were happening, I just thought he would be one of the last to go, not one of the firsts. He has his license. He has seniority and it is his dads company. So, I wasn't too worried. This has been a huge trial for me to deal with. I haven't cried this much since we lost Jason, Ellie and Grace. Could be the hormones! And then there is next week.

We are literally putting all of our eggs in a basket (or petri dish) next week. We have 5 frozen embryos left and we are thawing them all. Scary thing is that in order to get Sara we had to thaw 16! So I am praying that we have at least one or two of those little baby seeds (as Rob calls them) survive! We won't find out if they survive the thaw until Monday morning and then we will implant that day if any survive. Ironic thing is that I am supposed to stay completely unstressed during this time. Anyone know how to do that?

So now that I have stated my problems I must list my blessings. I am so grateful for my husband. At times this week I have been completely inconsolable. But he has dealt with it. He even tried to give me a pedicure last night. He is the best!
I have the best daughters. Anna has consoled me so many times by just giving me a hug and kiss. Sara entertains me. She is so funny and just so happy. I love them!
My family. My dad picked so many vegetables for us and my mom taught me how to bottle it. Thanks to them we have a pretty good food storage going on.
And my wonderful friends. They have been such a support to me, just letting me cry on their shoulders.
So thank you to all of my blessings. You are all so appreciated!

***I should add that Rob is okay with this layoff. He is looking forward to finding an occupation where he can use his mechanical engineering degree. His being let go is mostly due to him being okay with it. I know that "the boss" had a hard time doing it and we still love his family very much!

Go Cougars...Jana Does Hair

The girls (and us adults) have been so excited for "Cougars" to come back. Sara has even been learning the fight song so she could be prepared. So last Saturday we headed over to the Clowards to have the first football party of the year. It was a lot of fun, made even better when BYU won the unexpected!
Aunt Jana was came down from Vernal (we're still sad about that move!) and wanted to experiment on the girls hair. First off, I am surprised at how well both Anna and Sara sat still. When I do their hair all I hear is crying and moving around. She must have the magic touch. She did super cute hair dos and it made it a lot easier to get them ready the next day for 8:30 church. Thanks Jana!

Here's Anna showing off her Cougar shirt.Anna's hair in the process. I wish I could have taken a picture of the finished project because it was so cute. Guess Jana will just have to do it again!
Sara was entertained by the elastics. I might have to try that!

I really need to get better about pulling out my camera. The back of Sara's hair was super cute as well. Here's the front.

Weekend Getaway

With Rob working on the basement all of the time, we decided we needed to have a weekend getaway. So where do you go when you don't have any extra money to spare...The backyard! That's right, we had a camp out in the backyard and it was fabulous! We fired up the fire pit and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. We had a great time just hanging out as a family.
Here are the girls waiting for the fire to start. The game of the night was trying to keep Sara from touching the fire!
I had to capture this moment. Sara got her juice and just laid back like she was just enjoying the evening.
Enjoying the hot dogs.

Anna shoved two hot dogs in her mouth at the same time. Silly girl! I'm surprised she didn't choke!
Anna wanted to sleep out on the tent, but the mosquitoes were out in full force. So we convinced her to sleep in her play tent in the family room.
She loved it! Rob slept on the couch beside her and Sara and I slept in our own beds. Anna wanted to watch a movie in her tent, so we put one on and she fell asleep within five minutes.
We had a great time. Can't wait to do it again!

Anna's First Day of School

Anna has been so excited to start preschool. She picked out her outfit and told me how she wanted her hair done. Everything had to be perfect. I got her to calm down long enough to take these pictures.

She also wanted to be in a picture with Sara. This is the best one we got because Sara wouldn't cooperate.
The start of this school year has been a little bittersweet. I have to admit that I cried when Kindergarten started this year. I should have been one of those moms, walking my three oldest to their first day of elementary school. I should have been one of those moms standing there crying as they left their kids in the care of the Kindergarten teacher. Instead, I went and visited their grave. Sometimes life just isn't fair.