Making some progress... Now that the DEIVF cat is out of the bag along with the news about our amazing donated eggs, I can also tell you that we have finally set up our first consultation with the clinic that we’ve chosen in Augusta Georgia.  We’re about 8 weeks out, but that’s perfect for what we were looking for anyway.  We set the appointment for Monday March 21stso we have plenty of time to make our travel plans and more time to take a break before we start.

Last week our donor had a pretty big scare.  She was having intense pain in her uterus and found out she had an ectopic pregnancy and ended up having to have her left tube removed.  I felt terrible for her as I know how hard pregnancy loss is.  She is recovering well because she’s such a trooper and she has an amazing husband, kids, mother, & friends taking great care of her!  Please send lots of good get-well vibes her way!  She has decided that she wants to continue down the donor path with us, despite her current situation.  I am so thankful for that, but I want her to have the time she needs to recover both physically and emotionally so I’m hoping that over these next couple months she will be able to do that.

Since we have to travel to Georgia for this cycle we are trying to figure out the best way to go about it.  We are highly considering taking the bike for this first trip.  It’s about a 12 hour drive in the car so on a bike we will have to add a couple more hours for gassing up, stretching, eating, etc. but we are really hoping to make this work for us.  Any future trips after our consultation would have to either be by flight or car because after an embryo transfer I don’t think the doctor would recommend me being on the back of a bike for 2 days!  We really enjoy traveling on our bike so this would be a good, last hoorah for me before we hopefully finally become pregnant!  We aren’t 100% sure if it will work out but we are going to try to map out a route & see if we can do it.

Now comes the hard part, the lull between now and our appointment.  We’re looking at just under 7 weeks.  I know the time will fly and I’m going to try really hard to occupy myself with other things during that time.  My biggest goal over the next 7 weeks is to drastically cut my spending.  Now that this has become a solid reality for us, I am attempting to buckle down on all impulsive/unnecessary spending.  This means clothes, going out to eat excessively, and other miscellaneous spending.  Luckily we don’t have many commitments at all this month or next that would require an excessive spending.  I think Valentine’s Day dinner is about the only thing we may spend much on.  I’m giving up the Winter Wine Walk (about $25), we are foregoing gifts for Valentine’s Day, and instead of getting a full highlight, I’m only getting a partial.  I don’t want to take all the fun out of life, but there’s certainly room for improvement!

Sometimes I sit back and cannot believe that this is our reality.  It is extremely painful to think that I may never know what MY child would look and be like, that another woman’s eggs will work with my husbands, but mine won’t, that my line of DNA is coming to an end (I have am the only child of my mother & father and only have a half-brother).   It is a very hard thing to work through, but I have felt for a while that this would be the path we would travel.  I will stay optimistic that maybe one day I will have a biological child of my own, but that is of little importance to me now.  Infertility comes with so many emotions, but DEIVF comes with even more and I can see why some may never choose this path if it were the only option.  For now I am welcoming everything about this DEIVF process with open arms and a positive outlook because this may be the only way that we can grow our family and I am so thankful that this is even an option.

I am so appreciative of all of the love and support that we have gotten as we announced our news that this is our new path.  We are so grateful and blessed to have such an amazing team behind us and again, we are so unbelievably thankful for our sweet donor & her family for giving us this beautiful gift of life.
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