NIAW

It is infertility awareness week, and since I haven't written much about it on my blog before, I thought now would be the perfect time.  Infertility is a disease that has affected the lives of 7.3 million Americans, including mine.  You can go HERE to learn more of the facts. 

Some of you know this story, and I won't share all of it, but as I haven't really explained how we came to our decision to adopt, maybe this will help shed some light.  I was officially diagnosed with infertility in Dec. 2008 when I had surgery to remove some cysts on my ovaries.  (Previous to this we had been trying to conceive for about 3 1/2 years.)  When I woke up after surgery, Jacob was standing by me and asked if I wanted to hear the bad news or good news first.  (Not really what you want to hear coming out of surgery, is it?)  I made him tell me the bad news first.  He told me the dr. had to remove my fallopian tubes, but that my ovaries were fine because it turns out there were no cysts!  My tubes were swollen with fluid, a condition called hydrosalpinx, and they were both blocked, and could've caused problems for me later on.  F. tubes are normally about as big around as your pinkie finger, but mine were about two inches in diameter.  They were what the dr. saw on the ultrasound and thought were cysts. 

I think I will always remember that moment when Jacob told me I didn't have my tubes anymore, even though it really wasn't a shock.  We already thought I had scar tissue blocking my left tube from a previous ectopic pregnancy.  But to finally know they were gone, and that my chances of conceiving naturally were zero, was still very hard to hear.  The dr. later said he had wanted to be the one to tell me, but I was glad Jacob was the one to do it.  (He was a good doctor, but didn't have the best bedside manner.) 

I cried a lot over the next few weeks as we talked about our options and tried to decide what to do next.  At first, I researched in vitro fertilization, while Jacob had already decided he wanted to adopt.  I think he'd seen me go through enough surgeries and dr. visits that he was very concerned for my health.  I started to look into adoption as well, which had always been in the back of my mind the last several years.  After lots of tears and prayers, we both came to the conclusion that ivf was not right for us, but that adoption was.  As soon as we decided on adoption, it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.  I felt like I could breathe again!  No more worrying about temperatures, ovulation, or dr. visits.  I started to learn everything I could about adoption and to talk to anyone and everyone about it.  It's amazing how many people have a connection to it.  Now I love hearing adoption stories and imagining what ours will be.  We started the adoption process last summer and were so excited the day we got approved!  Now we are dreaming of the day we get to bring our baby home...     

  Wow, I didn't mean to write this much, so congrats to anyone still reading.  I was also going to share some things I have learned through infertility, but I think I will make that a separate post, because it might be long too!   (And pics of our new house are coming, as soon as I take some.)  :)