Just Another Update

Well, we finally have our transfer calendar!  WAHOO!  While we know many who love us and are following our story would like to know our transfer date, we've decided to keep this one, for the most part, to ourselves.  We are so grateful for everyone's thoughts and prayers, but some things you just wanna keep for yourself!  Do you know what I mean?

So, we're back in the waiting mode, but feeling really hopeful.  We are guaranteed two transfers now that we have our third embryo, and we have higher quality embryos than either of the embryos we transferred last fall.

If you would be willing to pray for us (even though we're being stingy the details of our calendar) here's what we need:

• Babies.  Clearly, we want babies.  So if you could be praying for us to have at least twins with this pregnancy, that would be awesome.  We have both always wanted a big family, and our infertility almost killed that dream.  We don't just want a baby.  We want babies! 

• Finances.  Always finances.  Michael just started a new job a few weeks ago.  He was laid off two days before we left for our retrieval and has decided to get out of project management altogether.  So, he's working now in sales for a company that fixes foundation problems.  (If your basement has water in it or has cracks, give Michael a call!)  Anyway, his job is 100% commission now.  I know he will be amazing because he works so hard and puts a gazillion and one percent of himself into his job.  He's a rock star.  But it would just be nice if we could have a consistent income to be able to pay off our mountains of medical bills and sales is hard...especially at the beginning.  Plus, there's more financial commitment that comes with the actual transfer.  If it tells you anything, our Plan A for paying off our debt is to win the lottery. So while you're praying for our finances, could you just pray for my husband?  He's such a gift to me, and has been under a lot of stress with our debt and wanting to be able to provide for us.

• Faith.  Pray that we would continue to put our faith and trust in Him.  This morning at church I wept at the realization that these three babies...the only three babies I will likely ever be able to create with my husband, the most precious things I will ever have in this life...aren't mine. They belong to Him, and somehow He loves them more than I do.  And I have to trust that His ways are best. 

The Place Where Hope Lives

Yesterday afternoon my IVF nurse called with the news we've been waiting for.  The results for our third and final embryo were in.  In my quiet time that morning I had prayed specifically for our third baby, that it would be transferrable and that God would be willing to bless us with our only AA embryo.

Each embryo is graded once is reaches day 5 or 6 which is the blastocyst stage, and AA is the highest grade.  We never even dreamed that we would be capable of creating an embryo of that kind of quality.  So when in June we were told we actually had an AA, we were beyond ecstatic.  When we receive our CCS (Comprehensive Chromosomal Screening) results, we are only told the grades of the normal chromosomes (ours were an AB and a BA, both better quality than what we transferred last year). We had no idea the grade of our third embryo that was being rebiopsied, but I was silently, hesitantly hoping we hadn't lost our coveted AA.

When I answered the phone yesterday afternoon, some of the first words out of our nurse Cindy's mouth were, "Your embryo is normal!"

Our embryo is normal.  We have three.  We have enough for two more transfers.  I made her say those words again just in case I had misunderstood.  My obvious next question?  What's the grade of that precious embryo??

It's our AA.  Typing those words right now brings me to my knees in tears.  Thank you, Jesus.  Thank you for giving us all three.  Thank you that our AA survived.  Thank you for hearing the desperate cries of our heart, Lord, that you would bless us with this baby, too.

In my quiet time, I almost couldn't bring myself to ask Him for that AA.  I was afraid He would let me down.  I was afraid of more disappointment.  I.was.afraid.  But instead of disappointment, I find myself today in the place where hope lives.  Hope for a family.  Hope to be a mom.  Hope for biological babies. Hope to carry my babies and protect them inside my own body.  Hope for answered prayers.

Honestly, this is a strange place, this place of hope.  For the last three and a half years, we have lived in the place of frustration and disappointment and bad news.  I almost feel like a foreigner here.  But it's also a place where fear can sneak up out of nowhere and whisper "what ifs" in your ear.  What if none of these embryos transfer successfully?  What if you are in this crippling debt and end up childless at the end?  What if after this joy of three amazing embryos, you still never get to be a mom?  Satan can turn this place of joy and hope into a place of fear and doubt in an instant.

But today I refuse to go back to fear and doubt.  Do you hear that, Satan?!  I. REFUSE.  I am letting go of the "what ifs" and the fear of what's to come, if only for a day.  Today I want to rest in this place of hope.  Today I want to cry happy tears.  Tears of gratefulness and joy.  Today we get to truly rejoice in His love and His goodness and His provision in this place where HOPE lives.

We wait in hope for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
In Him our hearts rejoice,
     for we trust in His holy name
May Your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
     even as we put our hope in You.

Psalm 33:20-22 (NIV)

Next Steps

• Wait for CCS results of our last embryo.  We had two embryos come back as chromosomally normal and one that was undetermined.  We thawed that embryo and rebiopsied it to be tested.
• Depo Lupron shot.  We will be extending our transfer calendar this time in order to take the Depo Lupron shot.  This shot should temporarily eliminate any endometriosis in my body to help give our embryos a better chance at sticking!
• An actual transfer calendar.  We have to wait, of course, for my next Cycle Day 1 before anything happens!  Then I'll do the Depo Lupron shot.  If you've watched any of the Inside IVF videos, this shot will be like the trigger shot.  Which is a serious bummer.  Then I have to wait 30ish days before our transfer.  This definitely prolongs our timeline, but hopefully gives us a better chance for success!

Glorified

When we lost our pregnancy in December, the Lord kept bringing the story of Lazarus to me.  I blogged about it here, but basically the entire chapter of John 11 made me mad.
In an effort to be completely transparent, I'll be blunt.  I was pissed.

This idea of Jesus allowing Lazarus - his friend! - to die, watching Lazarus' sisters mourn because of Jesus' lack of action....and then Jesus cried about it all.  The gaul!  HE allowed it all to happen and now He's crying about it.  The first few times I read John 11 in the misery of my loss, I just could not understand how Jesus could behave like this.  I couldn't come to terms with it all.

And then Jesus began to highlight a specific verse in that chapter that I continue to cling to...

When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."  (John 11:4)

There was a PURPOSE in Lazarus' pain, in Mary's pain, in Martha's pain....in Jesus' pain.  It was to glorify our heavenly Father above.  But there was more to the story of Lazarus that I missed because in my study of Lazarus those couple of months, I never read past John 11.  Shame on me!

In my quiet times recently, I've been reading through the book of John starting from chapter 1.  The other day as I read chapter 12 I was amazed by what the Lord showed me.  In chapter 11, Jesus allowed Lazarus to die "that the Son of God may be glorified through" his death and subsequent resurrection.  But I didn't realize how vital Lazarus' story was to the story and glorification of Christ in preparation for His death.  As Jesus continued His ministry into the Passover - that would ultimately lead to his crucifixion - Lazarus' name kept coming up in scripture.

John chapter 12 begins with a dinner in Bethany, Lazarus' home town.  They had a dinner for Jesus that night that included many of the people from the village, honoring Jesus and Lazarus.

In verse 9, the Bible tells us that there were a bunch of Jews that came that night, but not just to see Jesus.  They came to see Lazarus because they had heard of his story.
In verse 10, the Pharisees plotted to kill Lazarus because of his testimony of Christ.  As a result of his testimony many were coming to faith in Jesus.
In verse 17, on what we now call Palm Sunday, when Jesus was triumphantly entering Jerusalem before his crucifixion, the people who witnessed Lazarus being raised from the dead-who knew of his story personally-bore witness to Jesus.
In verse 18 the Bible says that people came to welcome Jesus as he entered in Jerusalem because they had heard about Lazarus' story.  For many, it was because of Lazarus that people met and came to know Jesus.

The pain that Lazarus and Mary and Martha endured was used to glorify Jesus past what they could have possibly imagined.  Because of Lazarus' death and resurrection, because of their suffering, many came to know Christ.

Lord, I pray that you would bring life to my womb.  I pray for the same resurrecting power over my womb as You poured over Lazarus' lifeless body.  Use my pain and suffering to bring You glory and to bring others to know you as their Lord and Savior.  Let my life be a testament to your love and grace and mercy and goodness.

...that the Son of God may be glorified through it.