Miracles Can Happen...

I know it has been a long time since I have posted, but I didn't want to jinx myself and what seemed too good to be true.  But today being  Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, I thought today would be one of the better days to bring some positive energy.  As most of you know, I have been trying to conceive and carry a child for 13 years... well, I am PREGNANT!!!!!!

One of our pregnancy announcements.

The other pregnancy announcement.

Let me first start off by saying that I still feel the pain and grief every day for the angels I have lost.  Today of all days, I am thinking about them. It is hard to believe that they would range in age from 5 years old down to 1 year old. All 4 of my angels are still bittersweet blessings for our family, and we will love them into eternity.... and I do know that I will see them again, one day.

The Proof!

And now onto the GREAT NEWS...Surprisingly, last time I wrote here I was only days away from conceiving our little miracle.  We were told that we had less than a 5% max chance of conceiving without fertility treatment... so we had pretty much sidelined trying to conceive for the time being.  We were atually getting ready to begin foster and adoption training.  The crazy thing is that I knew I was pregnant from almost the moment of implantation.  Before I could even get a pregnancy test to turn positive, I was already having morning sickness and my hormone levels were making me pass out.  I had never really had morning sickness with any of my other pregnancies, and the craziness of this time gave me a bit of hope.

7 wk. Ultrasound

12 wk. Ultrasound

We decided to stay pretty quiet with our news for as long as we could, because as many of you know, you don't want to announce the good news and just a short time later have to break the bad news.  We quietly and cautiously told family and very close friends as we entered our second trimester.   They were thrilled, but were as equally caution to keep our news quiet.

18 wk. Ultrasound

  

2nd Trimester

 As we enter our 3rd trimester, I feel that we can now shout it from the roof tops.  We are due with a baby boy on December 28th, and we are so excited that we can hardly control ourselves. Another miracle of this baby is that he is beyond healthy, and is running ahead of schedule.  We were worried that he may have been like me and run the risk of a congenital heart defect, but even his heart is perfect. 

Beginning 3rd Trimester

Now that we are officially letting the world know, I hope to be able to keep you posted about our little joy!  Though lets not forget the little angels that will always leave with bittersweet tears.
We feel so blessed with our miracle, but we also know that he has 4 amazing guardian angels looking out for him.

To everything, Turn, Turn, Turn...

I know it has been a long time since I have even written.  I feel horrible for not posting anything.  Our family has been going though a lot of turmoil over the last few months, and I am only now getting the ability to get onto here and post.  Time doesn't stop for anyone.  To quote the Bible, and the Bob Dylan / Byrds version... "To everything turn, turn, turn".  I guess I should bring everyone up to speed on some of what has happened over the last few months, though there is still no bun in the oven yet.




First off, right after the new year began, we lost one of my beloved furbabies.  I lost my sweet "Rainman" (movie reference there) of a cat name Wilson.  I had him for over 10 years, and it broke my heart.  He was my special needs boy that had always been sickly, and as the Doc had always said...almost seemed autistic.  Health problems or not, he was my special boy...and I still miss him.  This is a picture of him after two two surgeries, so please ignore the scars on his precious face.


Another incident that occurred  over my hiatus was that I can down with a pretty serious case of shingles.  I gave my family a pretty good scare with that one, though it's not the first time we have been through it.  I seem to have absolutely NO immunity to anything Chicken Pox!  I have had the pox 4 times, and this was my fourth bout with shingles.  Let us just say that I am getting pretty used to it by now, though it did take me several weeks to fully recover.

Eleanor Marie, a.k.a Ella

Jasper James, a.k.a. Jazz

I don't remember if I have posted it before, but last year my family took in two neglected dogs from our neighborhood.  A female Shih Tzu that we have named Eleanor Marie, and a male Lhasa Apso that has earned the formal name of Jasper James.  Yes, we must desperately need kids to name our dogs such human names.  But... what can I say?  These are my babies.  We affectionately call them the "twins," because they came to us together and they are practically inseparable from each other.  They are just what is needed to lighten the mood of this house.  Their comical antics make for a load of laughs here.  

Kit'10

They are not the only additions that our house has made lately.  Right after my precious Wilson passed away, we had a kitten that was kind of thrown into our lap.  Our neighbor's outside cat had a litter of kittens, which only one survived.  Because of the cold weather we have had this winter, we took in the momma and baby during the worst of the weather.  And as you can guess... the kitten never left.  He came at a time where I was grieving my Wilson, and somehow  knew how to console me.  So I am proud to introduce our newest any youngest member of the family...Riley Dickon, but known as kit'10.  My husband had named him after our first miscarriage, since he originally had a twin as well.  Please excuse the location of the picture, but he thinks that he must play lifeguard to anyone taking a bath.

Even more has been occurring in and with our family, but for the sake of their privacy, I will not elaborate on here.  Let me just say that it has been a lot to handle in the span of a few months.  On a positive note, our business seems to finally be getting in some consistent work.  Now that our business is starting to support it's own, I have a mind to look for a different career path... one that can eventually lead my family further south, and closer to the rest of our family.

I swear that I am going to really try to set aside more time to blog.  I would like to open this up to more topics that concern all of us... and branch this out to encompass more than just my pain of infertility / miscarriage, and what happens in my day to day life.  I would like to be able to bring in some guest bloggers to post their stories.  Please comment and let me know what you would like to see here.  Thank you to all who have stuck with me to this point, and I want this blog to start involving you more.  Baby dust to all of you, or your loved ones, that are on the same path that I am on.  See you soon.