Wednesday, July 29, 2009

3 Years Passes Quickly

Today, July 29th, is our 3rd wedding anniversary. We can scarcely believe that 3 years ago we stood before God and His Church to become husband and wife. I had always thought we would have children by now. In the Rite of Marriage, you answer 3 special questions, the last of which is, "Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and His Church?" Both of us answered this question "we will" with a smile. Little did we know that 3 years later we would still be open to children but have none of our own. However, we can definitely attest to God's help in keeping us true to each other in good times and in bad. The longer we wait for children, the more our marriage can grow.

Today is also another milestone: we have filled out our application to adopt from South Korea! We just because eligible today, as that country requires couples to be married at least 3 years. While we still hope to conceive a child, adoption is a new and exciting journey. :)

Friday, July 24, 2009

Catholic Infertility Support Group: SHE meeting TOMORROW!

S.H.E.
(Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth)
An Infertility support group for women from a Catholic perspective.
Next meeting: Saturday, July 25th
9:00-11:00am
Seton Catholic School
1740 Summerhill Dr.
Lexington, KY
Women enduring primary and secondary infertility are welcome.
Our guest speaker is Fr. Steve Roberts, M.D., who used to work as an OB/GYN. Don't miss his incredible talk!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

A Few Photos

Here are a couple photos from our recent vacation:


Shamu @ Sea World



Downtown San Diego as seen from across the bay.


My mom & my little sister (she's actually taller than me!)

Next SHE Group Meeting

S.H.E.
(Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth)
An Infertility support group for women from a Catholic perspective.
Next meeting: Saturday, July 25th
9:00-11:00am
Seton Catholic School
1740 Summerhill Dr.
Lexington, KY
Women enduring primary and secondary infertility are welcome.
Our guest speaker is Fr. Steve Roberts, M.D., who used to work as an OB/GYN. Don't miss his incredible talk!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Back in the Saddle Again...

We had an incredible trip to Southern California last week. The jet lag seems to be clearing and now, back to real life. Yea.

First of all, congratulations are in order to fellow blogger Sew, who just found out she is pregnant after almost 4 years of TTC. What a blessing!! I love how the blogosphere has brought together women enduring infertility from far and near who cheer for each other when a pregnancy finally occurs. Though I hope and wait for the day I could make an adoption/pregnancy announcement, knowing that a fellow infertility sister has succeeded gives me hope.

Second, I have some photos to post from our trip, but the camera is still in my hubby's backpack. I'll post more tomorrow. Ocean pictures guaranteed! :)

Third, we're on the second round of shots. The vacation sort of messed up our timing for the shots, so I'm thinking of holding off on the blood test (it's supposed to monitor how my hormones are responding to the HCG) until next month.

Fourth and finally, please pray for the pastor of my parish. An accusation was brought against him and he has been placed on administrative leave. We are all very sad; he was especially compassionate about my infertility struggle.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Caution: Vacation ahead!

My husband and I are heading to the West Coast for a family wedding and some R&R days at the beach. I am determined to also take a vacation from all infertility stressers...although we did have to pack my syringes and HCG because Peak day has not arrived yet. Go figure. At least I intend to take a break from the thoughts & burdens that infertility brings. yea! See you next week.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Here comes the HCG


At long last, the HCG update. I took this photo before seeing Sew's fabulous HCG photo. Looks like great minds think alike! :)
Just a quick warning to my casual readers: I'm about to talk about my womanly cycle and such. If you're not interested in such details, consider yourself warned. :)
* * * * *

As luck would have it, my first HCG cycle occurred in an extremely stressful period. My Creighton instructor took one look at my chart and asked, "Hmm...did something happen?" "Yes, quite a few things," I groaned. Therefore, my Peak day was way later than normal. Still, we stuck to the system and began the injections on P+3, which for me occurred on Cycle Day (CD) 24. My normal Peak Day occurs somewhere around CD 15.

Mark did the first injection straight into the middle of the upper arm, which hurt a bit more than expected. However, after reading Sew's post and subsequent comments on the HCG shots, the next time Mark injected in the back of my arm. BIG difference; I didn't feel a thing and the subsequent 3 shots went just fine. Looks like Mark could have a second career :)

HCG mostly affected my cycle length: a record-setting 34 days. My average cycles for my entire life to this point have been 25-28. Quite a change. Also, my usual PMS symptom of hypersensitivity was squelched majorly. My one complaint about the shots is that it caused more than a week of "pre-cramps" pain. Normally such pain is a signal that the next period is imminent. However, with so many days of this pain, I couldn't tell if it was due to regular period stuff or (a small hope) that we had actually conceived. To make a long story short, AF arrived and a new cycle has begun.

I think this present cycle, which occurs in a more relaxed atmosphere (our vacation to Southern California occurs during this time), will tell more of the HCG's effect. In addition, my doctor has ordered a blood test after the 2nd cycle. Amazingly, my wonderful blood test buddy is ALSO on the shots, so we have been swapping shots stories and the like. At least my fear of needles has begun to subside.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

A Restful Place


If you asked my husband Mark to give a full account of his mother's extended family, he would say, "Come to my home parish's cemetery." Behind the country church of St. Sylvester's is a modest cemetery dating back to 1886. An array of headstones cover the green hill. Mark can stand in his family's section and point out his grandparents (his late grandmother was buried there a few weeks ago), great aunts and great uncles, great grandparents, and the like. Many of his relatives were born, raised, married, raised kids, and died in the same area. That is so rare in today's society. Heck, I was born in California but married a guy from Kentucky. Our future generations will have to make a wall map just to figure out where their relatives lived and died! :) I mention this as Mark's granny received all of her sacraments and lived/died in the same town her entire life. Wow.

Serenity seems to permeate from this small cemetery.