ICLW stands for International Comment Leaving Week, and it is something I used to participate in pretty regularly when I was writing on my other blog. Basically, it is a way for people who have/are affected by infertility to network. You can learn more about it here. I stopped participating for a few different reasons, but decided I wanted to give it one more try this month. Funny that this would be the month that my family would actually end up being affected by a pregnancy loss.
Anyway, if you are visiting my blog because of ICLW, welcome! Here is a little snapshot of me, my experiences with IF, and my family:
We started TTC in December 2008 and I was able to get pregnant immediately. Unfortunately, I ended up having a miscarriage at about 10 weeks. Fast forward to spring 2010 with no real success, and I decided to see an RE. I was pretty quickly diagnosed with a chromosome inversion, and my husband and I decided to pursue adoption. We were blessed with a very quick wait to adopt, and we welcomed Jaxson into our family in November 2010. After a month or so, I noticed that I wasn't feeling too well, and was surprised to get a BFP when Jaxson was only six weeks old! We welcomed our daughter, Aynsley, into the family in September 2011. Jaxson and Aynsley are only 10 months apart in age. Since that time, we are taking a break from TTC, and I am sure that we will wait quite a while before looking for baby #3. Right now I am just enjoying my role as mommy to these two sweet kids!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
A Hard Weekend
I have realized that dealing with loss doesn't seem to get any easier over time or with experience. If anything, new loss brings up some of the feelings that you had thought you had forgotten or moved on from.
On Thursday, my sister, Kristin, went to the hospital because she thought that her water had broken. She had been feeling the baby move, so she was stunned to learn that her baby boy no longer had a heartbeat. She had just had an appointment the previous day, and the baby seemed to be perfectly healthy. She was just over 36 weeks pregnant.
When my mom called to tell me the news, I was stunned. This was the last thing that any of us were expecting. Mike and I immediately got ready to head to the hospital, and I ended up staying with her through the night and part of the next day. Fortunately, Kristin was blessed with an "easy" labor. They induced her at about 10:00 pm and she delivered her son at about 4:25 the following morning. She named her son Braxton David Rice. It was very surreal to see him be delivered, but not hear any of the typical sounds that you would associate with a delivery...no heart rate monitoring, no baby crying, no oohs and aahs about this beautiful new life.
What makes this story even more difficult is the journey Kristin had traveled to get to this point. She is expecting her divorce to be finalized any day now, and had chosen to place her baby for adoption. We had just had a family dinner with the couple she had chosen to place her baby with last week, and it had been so fun to see how excited they were...they told us about the nursery, baby showers, and a countdown chain they had. It is heartbreaking that this tragedy has to affect two different families.
Unfortunately, this has not been the only hard blow my family has been dealt this weekend. Yesterday, we learned that my grandpa has been diagnosed with an aggressive and invasive form of skin cancer. We are still waiting to learn how much the cancer has spread, but it sounds like it is not going to be an easy road. What makes it even more hard is that my grandparents live out of state, so it is hard for family to be accessible to them.
It has been amazing to see the kindness and tender mercies that come out of hard times. My family has been so blessed by the kindness of strangers, friends, and ward members. Some of my mom's friends stepped in and set-up meals, purchased clothing for Braxton to be buried in, and made all of the mortuary and cemetery arrangements. My cousin arranged for a professional photographer to come take pictures of Braxton and Kristin, free of charge. Another cousin went to my parent's house and spent hours cleaning, and there have been, and continue to be, many other kindnesses that have been extended to us. It makes me so thankful for all of the amazing people that we have in our life. I am also so thankful for my knowledge of the plan of salvation; even though this hurts right now, it is going to be okay eventually.
On Thursday, my sister, Kristin, went to the hospital because she thought that her water had broken. She had been feeling the baby move, so she was stunned to learn that her baby boy no longer had a heartbeat. She had just had an appointment the previous day, and the baby seemed to be perfectly healthy. She was just over 36 weeks pregnant.
When my mom called to tell me the news, I was stunned. This was the last thing that any of us were expecting. Mike and I immediately got ready to head to the hospital, and I ended up staying with her through the night and part of the next day. Fortunately, Kristin was blessed with an "easy" labor. They induced her at about 10:00 pm and she delivered her son at about 4:25 the following morning. She named her son Braxton David Rice. It was very surreal to see him be delivered, but not hear any of the typical sounds that you would associate with a delivery...no heart rate monitoring, no baby crying, no oohs and aahs about this beautiful new life.
What makes this story even more difficult is the journey Kristin had traveled to get to this point. She is expecting her divorce to be finalized any day now, and had chosen to place her baby for adoption. We had just had a family dinner with the couple she had chosen to place her baby with last week, and it had been so fun to see how excited they were...they told us about the nursery, baby showers, and a countdown chain they had. It is heartbreaking that this tragedy has to affect two different families.
Unfortunately, this has not been the only hard blow my family has been dealt this weekend. Yesterday, we learned that my grandpa has been diagnosed with an aggressive and invasive form of skin cancer. We are still waiting to learn how much the cancer has spread, but it sounds like it is not going to be an easy road. What makes it even more hard is that my grandparents live out of state, so it is hard for family to be accessible to them.
It has been amazing to see the kindness and tender mercies that come out of hard times. My family has been so blessed by the kindness of strangers, friends, and ward members. Some of my mom's friends stepped in and set-up meals, purchased clothing for Braxton to be buried in, and made all of the mortuary and cemetery arrangements. My cousin arranged for a professional photographer to come take pictures of Braxton and Kristin, free of charge. Another cousin went to my parent's house and spent hours cleaning, and there have been, and continue to be, many other kindnesses that have been extended to us. It makes me so thankful for all of the amazing people that we have in our life. I am also so thankful for my knowledge of the plan of salvation; even though this hurts right now, it is going to be okay eventually.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Bon Voyage!
A few weeks ago, Mike and I were able to escape on a fabulous Eastern Caribbean cruise! The past few years have been crazy busy, so we were definitely ready for some adults-only relaxation. We headed out with some good friends and had such a fun time!
Our first port was the cruiseline's private island, Half Moon Cay, which is in the Bahamas. We were so nervous the night before we landed because it was raining when we left Miami and had been raining on and off all night. Sure enough, when we woke up the next morning, it was raining. We decided that we were going to try and make the most of our time their anyway. Even with the poor weather, the island was BEAUTIFUL...white, powdery beaches, clear blue water, palm trees. Too bad that there was just enough wind to make the rain cold. We decided to still try and go in the ocean and that did help us warm up a little, but it was still cold. We only stayed on shore for about 45 minutes or so before we decided to take a tender back to the ship.
Our next stop was the beautiful island of St. Thomas, which is part of the US Virgin Islands. We were so excited to see that we had SUNSHINE! We decided to take a taxi over to Magen's Bay. In order to get to the bay, we had to drive over a mountain and across the island; the island was beautiful and there were some amazing views, but unfortunately I didn't get a great picture of the landscape.
After spending some time in the bay, we went to Senior Frogs for lunch. Don't you love our fancy hats? After lunch, we walked around some of the shops that were near the port. Apparently, St. Thomas is known for its shopping, but none of us really ended up buying anything.
The views of the port in St. Thomas were beautiful. These are a few pictures that I took from the boat before we headed back out to sea. I loved the turquoise water, sail boats, orange-topped buildings, and lush, green landscape.
After checking out the Capital Building, we drove around the "New" San Juan, and then we went to see where they do cock fighting. Apparently cock fighting is a big sport in Puerto Rico...they have a lot of arenas built just for it. When we got there, there were a few roosters that were out in cages; apparently that means there was going to be a fight that night.
I absolutely LOVED Old San Juan. I am just a sucker for old cities that have tons of character, and that is exactly how this part of the city was. This is an old cemetery that we drove by...apparently it has been used in several movies. It would have been so interesting to explore it more.
I am So. In. Love. with these colorful buildings and cobblestone streets. Lucky for me, all of the shopping that we did was in this area, because I could have spent hours exploring the streets and taking pictures. I loved it!
Our last stop was Grand Turk, which is part of Turks and Caicos. The water here was GORGEOUS! Exactly what you would picture if you were imagining the Caribbean. Once again, we decided to take a tour of the island. The island was a lot different than what I had expected...it was very dry and arid. Apparently the only palm trees are the ones planted by Carnival at the port.
Our tour took us to a salt museum and the island light house. At one time, the slave trade and salt farming were the biggest industries on the island. They still have salt ponds, which kind of reminded me of the salt flats.
The light house isn't in use any more, but the site offered some great views of the water.
Besides having fun in the ports, we also had a great time on board the ship. There were a ton of laughs, sun, trips to the comedy club, ice cream cones, and of course, karaoke! Apparently we were quite the performs...a day or two after we sang, a group of girls saw us, pointed, and said, "Look, it's the girls from karaoke! That's the one that was so drunk that she forgot the words and fell over!" Funny thing is that unless they spiked the diet coke, we were all completely sober. At least we know how to make a lasting impression, right?
{The Bahamas - Half Moon Cay}
Our first port was the cruiseline's private island, Half Moon Cay, which is in the Bahamas. We were so nervous the night before we landed because it was raining when we left Miami and had been raining on and off all night. Sure enough, when we woke up the next morning, it was raining. We decided that we were going to try and make the most of our time their anyway. Even with the poor weather, the island was BEAUTIFUL...white, powdery beaches, clear blue water, palm trees. Too bad that there was just enough wind to make the rain cold. We decided to still try and go in the ocean and that did help us warm up a little, but it was still cold. We only stayed on shore for about 45 minutes or so before we decided to take a tender back to the ship.  |
| Our cruising group: Kevin and Lori Olsen, Taylor and Ashley Sanderson, and Mike and me! |
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| The girls! Lori, Ashley, and me |
{St. Thomas}
Our next stop was the beautiful island of St. Thomas, which is part of the US Virgin Islands. We were so excited to see that we had SUNSHINE! We decided to take a taxi over to Magen's Bay. In order to get to the bay, we had to drive over a mountain and across the island; the island was beautiful and there were some amazing views, but unfortunately I didn't get a great picture of the landscape. 
After spending some time in the bay, we went to Senior Frogs for lunch. Don't you love our fancy hats? After lunch, we walked around some of the shops that were near the port. Apparently, St. Thomas is known for its shopping, but none of us really ended up buying anything.
The views of the port in St. Thomas were beautiful. These are a few pictures that I took from the boat before we headed back out to sea. I loved the turquoise water, sail boats, orange-topped buildings, and lush, green landscape.
 |
| Headed back out to sea! |
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The sunset was beautiful. I took this picture shortly after leaving St. Thomas, but I'm not really sure which island is in the background.
{Puerto Rico}
Next up was Puerto Rico. This was the island that I was looking forward to the least, but it actually ended up being one of my favorites. Once we got off the boat, we hired a local (Frank) to take us on a tour of the city. It was really interesting to see both Old San Juan and New San Juan from a local's perspective. We all started joking that we needed to buy a vacation home and move to Puerto Rico!
Frank took us to the Capital Building. Apparently they are doing some work on it because it is going to be in a movie. The inside had some really neat and detailed architecture.
After checking out the Capital Building, we drove around the "New" San Juan, and then we went to see where they do cock fighting. Apparently cock fighting is a big sport in Puerto Rico...they have a lot of arenas built just for it. When we got there, there were a few roosters that were out in cages; apparently that means there was going to be a fight that night.
I absolutely LOVED Old San Juan. I am just a sucker for old cities that have tons of character, and that is exactly how this part of the city was. This is an old cemetery that we drove by...apparently it has been used in several movies. It would have been so interesting to explore it more.
I am So. In. Love. with these colorful buildings and cobblestone streets. Lucky for me, all of the shopping that we did was in this area, because I could have spent hours exploring the streets and taking pictures. I loved it!
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| This was what was left of an old chapel that was built in the 1700's. |
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| Kevin and Lori |
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| Ashley, Lori, and Me |
{Grand Turk}
Our last stop was Grand Turk, which is part of Turks and Caicos. The water here was GORGEOUS! Exactly what you would picture if you were imagining the Caribbean. Once again, we decided to take a tour of the island. The island was a lot different than what I had expected...it was very dry and arid. Apparently the only palm trees are the ones planted by Carnival at the port.
Our tour took us to a salt museum and the island light house. At one time, the slave trade and salt farming were the biggest industries on the island. They still have salt ponds, which kind of reminded me of the salt flats.
The light house isn't in use any more, but the site offered some great views of the water.
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| Our lovely cruise ship, the Carnival Liberty. |
Sunday, May 6, 2012
SLC Half Marathon!
P.S. A BIG thanks to Mike for being such a great support and watching Jaxson and Aynsley so that I could spend the time training!
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