Today I would like to tell you a story, a true story. Some of you may have heard this before. But you can hear it again if you would like. Once upon a time, back in 2014 Scott and I knew we were ready to be parents and wanted to start our family. We also knew that we were ready to be sealed in the temple. Because of that, we knew we would need to take some temple prep classes, and earn our recommends. That would be easy to do. We were ready. However, as far as starting a family...we knew that it would not be a simple process for me. In May of the same year we met with my OBGYN to consider our fertility options. She told us that when my cycle came, we could immediately begin the process. We were so excited. But...May came and went. I didn't have a period. June came and went. I still didn't have one. July came and went, and you guessed it, nothing. At this point, we just figured that it was not our time.
We decided to not stress about it, and hope that the not stressing would help our situation. As August came and my final year of college began, I was offered an amazing opportunity. Student Teaching in CHINA. After talking with Scott, we decided that this is something I should do. We could manage to be away from each other for 3 months. We could Skype and talk on the phone each night while I was gone. In October, as I was preparing for this great adventure something crazy happened. The day that I received my renewed passport, someone called me. It was the Utah Fertility Center. I called them before seeing an OBGYN months ago. They were full. But now they told me that if I was still interested they would love to see me. However, they could not see me until January. I made the appointment knowing that I would be leaving the country in mid-February.
You may remember that I was not having any period, no cycle at all. I was excited for the appointment, but I was not putting all my eggs in one ovary either. October ended, November flew by, and December was quick, busy, and fun. Before we knew it, it was January. It was the morning of our appointment, and you will never guess what happened. My cycle came! The very DAY that we were to meet with the fertility specialist.
AND GUESS WHAT, that day, that very same day, January 5, 2015 Scott and I began our infertility journey. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we did not know how hard it would actually be, mentally and physically. We met with an outstanding doctor, he was kind and very caring. He explained the process very well. "Take some pills that may make you a little crazy (...I was insane), give yourself some shots in the stomach, follow the calendar, take progesterone, get a blood pregnancy test in 2 weeks". Well, after breaking some bowls, gaining some weight, and lots of random crying, some hormonal waitressing of tables, that first pregnancy test was negative.
In February our doctor told us to try again. I was nervous because I knew I was leaving to China the same month. But, I went to the appointment anyway, and I decided not to go to China. I completely backed out. Instead, the college found me a student teaching spot in Payson. Well I started to student teach and after taking the next round medication that makes me ovulate, I wasn't ovulating. Something was going on. I just knew that the pregnancy test would be negative in a couple weeks. However, inside of that stressful time something pretty neat happened. On February 9th, I called the Payson Temple to book our sealing for June 16th. That made the no ovulation situation bearable.
The pregnancy test was fast approaching. When the day came I walked into the doctors office for them to take my blood. I not-so-patiently awaited the phone call of the nurse, who would sound so sad to tell me that my test was negative again, all while student teaching that day. When the final bell rang, I was finally able to check my phone. There was a voicemail. It was the nurse. She was happy. She told me I was pregnant. I was in shock, and so was she. We both knew that I was not ovulating correctly. Something must have changed quickly in my system though. Ironically, if you want to call it that, I became pregnant the very day I booked our sealing.
Fast forward to June, we were sealed and we announced that out baby was a boy. Onward to November and Ryder was born. That is when I knew that God is the one who knows when someone is ready to start a big adventure like this. However, since Ryder (our biggest blessing) was born, we knew we wanted more kids. At least one more. My doctor told me that since we had one child, it would be so much easier to get pregnant a second time. Well, 2 years has gone by. With that, 15 negative pregnancy tests have come and gone. A year of fertility treatments has come and gone. Most people tell us that we may just be a family that is "one and done". Well that is just fine and dandy, but we know that our family is not done. We know that we are missing something. We know that there is a child waiting for us. We also know that this child will not come from me. It will not come from Scott. We are about to embark on a new journey to turn our incomplete family to a complete family. I hope you will join us for the ride.
...Adoption.
