Thankful for blessing EVEN over the toliet!

"I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me VICTORY." Psalm 118

I know... odd title for a blog post! But every morning for the last 6 weeks, I have been singing praises to the heavens over the toilet. Yes, over the toilet! Ben and I are over joyed to announce that we are EXPECTING a beautiful baby in late October.

When I started this blog the intention were to keep everyone updated on our Fertility Journey. However, that hit a snag in mid February. We had decided after our failed IVF in November that we would take a significant break from fertility treatment and just live. Not to mention our finical egos had taken hit. Being the Dave Ramsey weirdos that we are we knew that we would not being going through another IVF without the "funds" being strongly in place! Just like last summer money started to magically appear over the next 3 months. I knew my dad was lying when he told me money didn't grow on trees. :) Hahahahaha but, crazy things were just going our way.

At the beginning of February we knew the time was getting close and I made the phone call to see what we needed to do to get everything rolling. It was simple call when I got my next period...that dates came and went with nothing. In my mind I was thinking my body was back to its old unfuctioning self. However, RMA would not let me rule out the fact that we could be (in a whisper voice) pregnant. Really? Just a year ago they informed us that we had 5% chance of getting pregnant! So....what would you think? My theory sounds way more believable then theirs. After a week of debating whether to take the test or not....I gave in a did it.

Honestly, I had no expectation for the test. But, to my surprise it came back with a positive! We confirmed the next day with blood work.

I heard this song about 3 weeks after we got our exciting news and just felt Gods blessings coming full circle!

GOD IS AMAZING!

IVF Treatment

After deciding to wait until we had our "cash" to pay for our baby or babies. Ben and I enjoyed our summer on the cheap route. Ben spent his free time coaching high school boys in about 6 tournaments and I worked really hard on my tan, spent a week in Atlanta on a Mission trip with 100 high schoolers serving the homeless. We of course spent numerous weekends at the Lake! Looking back GOD was defiantly on our side. My June pay check included a really nice bonus, Ben earned more than expected coaching and got promoted to assistant manager at Baseball Express. Needless to say our goal of having our money in order by Christmas was met in early October!

Wow, it was so surreal! We couldn't believe that we had committed to IVF. After making the our payment to RMA we called the pharmacist to order all of our meds. To my surprise our insurance cover all of it!

After 21 days of shots...Ben really stepped up to the plate and had no problem giving them to me. I did learn that I am pretty tough girl...
Finally the time had come! On November 3rd- we went in for the egg retrieval. We were excited to hear that they had take 11 viable eggs. On Saturday we received a phone call that 9 eggs fertilized. Over the next 5 days we received updates on our "babies". We continued to pray for God to have his way, no matter what the outcome we wanted it to be his way not ours. November 8th was the day of the big transfer! After getting all gowned up I was ready to go. Did you know that it is optimal for the transfer to have a full blatter? Not only is it awkward to be all exposed you also feel like you are going to pee everywhere. Its really not funny but true. After the transfer we were sent home to wait....the dreaded two week wait is awful.
Unfortunately, we received the news that our first IVF transfer was negative. I spent the next 6 hours crying and feeling sorry for myself. 1 Thessalonians 5 16-18 "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances: for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Even though things didn't go the way we felt they should have gone, we are confident in the lords will for our journey.

Enjoy this song/video

Nothing is Impossible

"For I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength. Even so, you have done well to share with in my present difficulty." Philippians 4:13-14

Through you,

I do can do anything,

I can do all things,

For it's you who gives me strength

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Through you blind eyes are open

Strongholds are broken,

I am living by Faith,

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.

I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe in YOU!

In June after my laparoscopy our Doctor presented all the facts for us about our situation and where we stood with our treatment. Coming off of 2 failed IUI's and getting the results of the laparoscopy I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach. Although we were relieved that the surgery went well and they found nothing we were left with very little answers to why the IUI's didn't work. Dr. Arredondo explained that with Ben's morphology issue and my lack of regular ovulating, we'd only have a 5% chance of conceiving on our own. WHAT!?! 5% that is crazy. However, we can do another clomid IUI and that increases our chances to 17% or if we choose to go ahead with IVF our chances go all the way up to 65-70% chance. Sounds like a no brain-er right? That's what I thought, sign me up for IVF.

So it was decided we would do IVF! I gathered all the information about it: cost, process and the details about the actual procedure. We knew that the cost would be the largest factor in whole deal. Sadly our insurance does not cover IVF so it would come out of our pockets. Fortunately Ben and are strict Dave Ramsey followers and when pushed came to shove we knew we did not want to go into debt. The reality was that we wanted to make sure we on God's plans not ours. Having the most realistic, level headed husband I have we both agreed if IVF was what we needed to do to extend our family then we'd have to buckle down and save the money so we could pay cash. I knew God was at work and was incomplete control of our situation. When I thought I couldn't do it anymore this verse and this song would push me, and push me to continue to seek his will for our journey.

I know medically they gave us 5% but through God nothing is impossible!

January 2009-December 2010

To bring you all up to speed on the past 2 years....

January 2009- Started "trying"

July- Noticed things were not "normal"

August - Met with regular Doctor

November-February- Clomid (stimulates ovulation)

January 2010-Hysterosalpingogram (tubes and uterus)

February- Referred to Fertility Specialist (Ben got all his parts checked)

Finally we were given a few answers to why we were having a difficult time conceiving. Turns out I have a difficult time ovulating on my own and Ben has a morphology problem (shape of the sperm). In English we are not good mating partners. Our doctor at RMA of Texas encouraged us to move to more aggressive treatment.

March- Colmid IUI (intra-uterine insemination) Negative pregnancy test

May- Comind IUI - negative pregnancy test

June- Laparoscopy (surgery to determine if I had endometriosis) which I didn't

June- Decided to go ahead with IVF (In-vetro fertilization)

October- Started IVF treatment

November- IVF transfer-negative pregnancy test

That brings the 2 years into view. Of course from there are many emotions to go along with every step of the way.

Meet The Thomas'

"Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." 2 Corinthians 1:4

/0/0/0/0/0/

Well, maybe that's not the best title...but there is a lot you might not know about us. For the past 2 years Ben and I have been on journey we never asked to be on but are grateful for the obstacle's God decided to challenge us with. We are knee deep in the world of infertility. I have been contemplating ways "deal" with this very unfamiliar road we are on and finally at church this past Sunday the path was clear. So I decided to share our journey with you or whoever cares to read about it.

As you all know I very blunt and honest...so please don't hesitate to ask question. We are here to share the good, bad and even our weakest moments with you.