Mostly Wordless Wednesday - Makes My Heart Sing

He's been practicing, which is definitely not something he wanted to do before now.

He was always so afraid.

Lately, though, he's changed. He wants to practice.

And when he does, it makes my heart almost explode from my chest in happiness.

My eyes instantly flood with tears.

I bet you can totally understand why when you see for yourself. :)



It makes my heart sing! I'm am so proud of him!!!

Thankful in November

If you’ve been on Facebook or read blogs over the last few days, you know that it is Thankful November. The month when people count their blessings in posts, since it is the month of Thanksgiving.

There is so much in my life for which to be thankful--my husband, my family, my family, my friends, and my life.

And of course, I am thankful for these brothers...

my Sh.awn, my Ja.son, and my Jack.

I am so very thankful for these boys who bring me such joy!*



*Keeping it real by saying they have been know to bring me a bit lot of frustration on some days, too. lol

Thank You, Leslie Brown

I read on MSN that Leslie Brown, the first woman to give birth after IVF, passed yesterday after a brief illness. She was 64.

I guess it's not surprising that I didn't know her name before this, as the news has always focused on her daughter, Louise, the "test tube" novelty, or the doctors, Dr. Patrick Steptoe and Dr. Robert Edwards, who developed the procedure and later earned a Nobel Prize. Leslie Brown's huge contribution as the mother to the first IVF baby* is almost seen as the inconsequential means to an end. She was just the incubator. No one cares about what she had to go through to have a baby, right?

I do.

I've thought of this woman and others like her while I was in the thick of my own cycles. The process of IVF is scary. The scans, medications to inject, retrievals and transfers, hoping and waiting--all of it is such an overwhelming undertaking both physically and mentally. And yet Leslie and women like her bravely marched into the unknown. I can imagine her determination...her need...to do whatever she could to have a baby.  After nine long years of struggle, that persistence to fulfill her desire for a family led her to courageously pioneer an incredibly invasive (and amazing) procedure.

Maybe Leslie Brown didn't think of it in those terms when she consented to IVF. Maybe she didn't question what she was about to do. Maybe she only thought of the end result and tried desperately to ignore the procedure that lay before her. I've felt my own desperation for children so I can certainly relate. (I'm sure many of us in the ALI world can.) The longer it took me to get and stay pregnant, the more intense my desire became, the more focused. Sometimes I think I would have done anything they said I could try.

I recognized that maybe we would all do something similar had we been in her place. I suppose when it comes to clinical trials and innovative techniques and procedures, women still are. However, there is something significant about Leslie Brown taking this huge leap of faith in her doctors and her dreams. She was the first proof IVF could actually work.

I am incredibly thankful to Leslie Brown. Without her paving the way, there might not be the technology needed to help me have my boys.

~~~

*Doctors had tried some 80 times before Leslie Brown was able to successfully maintain a pregnancy. My heart aches for those 80 women. I hope they were able to finally achieve parenthood. More info here.

Tomorrow

So excited for tomorrow. My in-laws are finally getting the chance to finalize the adoption of their little girl. They got the news yesterday afternoon. With only two days notice, we've all been scrambling trying to make the day a nice celebration.

Court date in the late afternoon.

Family (which includes the baby's birth family) dinner and celebration afterward.

Lots and lots of pictures.

Lots and lots of very happy people.

Doesn't it all sound perfect?!

It's kind of silly that I get so emotional when I think about their adoption finalizing, but I do. I almost can't even talk about it without tearing up. The idea of them getting their much wanted, much dreamed about baby after nearly twenty years of waiting makes my heart nearly burst for them.

I said it when I first wrote about this, but I'm saying it again. Sometimes, the universe just gets it right.

Random Pictures from Tonight

This week is shaping up to be a long, hard one. I'm choosing to leave all the crap at work and focus on the three little people in my life...

Ja.son's "towing" the ornament with his motorcycle to the Christmas tree.
Isn't that how all ornaments make it to the tree?
Just walking it over is SOOOO last year...

Apparently we don't feed this boy enough.
He's now taken to eating toys.

This boy just got kissed by his mommy.
He's telling me that my kisses are yucky.
And he's totally laughing about it. :)

They remind me that even when things are tough, my life is very, very good. I am so very lucky.

Thankful

Today the snot has been flowing and all three boys have been miserable. It is now pretty evident that what Sh.awn experienced was either a freakish shunt occlusion (coincidentally timed to arrive just as germageddon has hit our house again--not too likely) or some sort of fast acting nasty virus picked up from some unknown source.

Thank goodness for viruses. I know it seems strange to be happy my kids are so sick, but if given the alternative, I am delirious with joy right now, finally able to really exhale.

Dare I say, I may even have relaxed some.

I know!

Me. The person who is constantly in alert mode. Relaxed.

Relieved.

That is not to say that things around here have been easy. Far from it. I think I had about ten minutes total in which I didn't have a kid on me or touching me is some way or another this weekend. I haven't even brushed my hair since Friday. I've had very little sleep since Wednesday night. There is something...I'm not sure I want to know what...caked onto my sweat pants. Jack spit up on my shoulder (and bit my finger! WTF?). Ja.son is whining from his bedroom as I type this. (He's a moaner and groaner. The WORLD must know how he feels at EVERY moment of the day. lol) There is a pile of Sh.awn's used Kleenexes on the side table waiting to finally make it to the trash.

And still I am happy.

I feel like doom has been averted.

They are sick, but they are whole.

I am so very, very thankful.