Off to Australia.....

I dropped Jared off at the airport this last night. Lucky duck gets to go to Australia for a two week visit full of adventures with out me. Wow! That sounds really sad! I am very excited for him!! I wish I could go with him, but the doc recommended that I not fly right now. But I am more than ok with that because I am at home resting and growing our little baby.


We have a couple of friends that are living there for a couple of years attending Hillsong Bible College. So what a great opportunity for Jared to go visit and explore Australia with the guys!! I guess you could say that it is his one last big trip before the baby comes! We are hoping that next year we can take the baby on his/her first trip to Australia. Pipe dream...to take a baby on a 14 hr flight, but crossing my fingers because I would love to visit Australia too!

Pray for safe travels for Jared!!

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!!

05.03

To all of the readers...I am so sorry for the late post!!! We wanted to call as many people as possible before we posted it on the blog! So sorry!!

Jared and I found out on May 3rd that God has blessed is with a little baby!! AHHHHH!! I went in at 8 AM for a blood draw and just two hours later a nurse from NCRS gave me a call with the great news!!! I was home alone at the time and Jared didn't want to find out till later tonight when we were together, so I really didn't know what to do!!! So, I jumped up and down and praised Jesus!! All the glory goes to Him!!

So, now starts the great task of sharing the awesome news with the people we love!! First, I headed out to get baby balloons to surprise Mama Peg. I purchased a mylar baby/stork balloon, pink latex and a baby blue latex balloon. Went to her class room and stuck the balloons into the classroom door!! She knew exactly who it was and what it meant!! It was a great site to see and a wonderful moment! It was so sweet....all of the kids in her class started clapping and said congratulations!! It melted my heart!

After leaving Mama Peg's class I spent some time telling other family members the great news. Then off I went to get yummy groceries to make a romantic dinner for Jared. I couldn't wait to tell him that I was pregnant!! On the menu for dinner tonight...steak, bread, veggies, and of course a chocolate cake! You can't have a Dodson dinner without chocolate cake!!

Candles were lit, dinner was cooked, and I was ready and excited to share the news with him! He got home at around 7 PM (mind you...I found out at 10 AM. Not calling him was one of the hardest things ever!) He walked up the stairs and could tell by the look on my face that we were going to have a baby!! It was the sweetest moment! One that I will never forget!! I love Jared so much and I can't wait to make him a father!! He is going to be the best dad!! We thank God for giving us this wonderful blessing! We are so excited to raise our children to love and praise God with all of their hearts.

Ps. we haven't stopped doing our little dance of praise!!

TWO babies on ice!!!!

I just got the call this morning!!! That the two babies that we didn't put in made it to day five and now they are in a little freezer waiting for us to come back in a year or two and get them!!! GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!

I can't believe it! I didn't think that our odds of viable, fertilized, freezable babies were good! But, God is bigger!!! And now, out of all four fertilized babies...two are in my tummy (growing...In the name of Jesus) and the other two are waiting for us!! AHHHH!! I just can't believe it!! Again, GOD IS SO GOOD!!

It is so neat to see God's hand in this whole experiences. From the very beginning with my first surgery to remove the cyst to the transfer of the embies...God has been beside us every step of the way.

We have six days to go till we go into the clinic for the preggo test (blood draw)! I am so excited! These last couple of days have been rally calm and great. I have such faith and with that comes God's peace!!

Signing off for now....going to take a nap, rub my tummy, and talk to the babies!!

Is it May 3rd yet?

We are now in the "waiting" process. From the day of "retrieval" they have you wait 14 days till they have you come in for a pregnancy test. From today we have 8 days left. The waiting hasn't been that bad at all because Jared has been home keeping my company. Let me tell you ...I was so happy that Avatar came out this past week. We have watched that movie a couple of times!! Great movie!! We'll see how tomorrow goes when Jared goes back to work. Haha! I have some light shopping to do to keep my mind a little occupied, so cross your fingers I don't freak out!

I just want to say that this whole IVF process has really been a blessing! We've had a couple of hiccups throughout the process, but nothing that has stopped it. I wont go as far and say that I have "loved" the process, but with my job being to focus on this and all of the wonderful support, it has been pretty good. The shots weren't as bad as I thought they would be, the meds didn't tweak me out emotionally (lucky Jared), and the team at Northwest Center for Reproductive Science was AMAZING!!!! Oh, I did get a bunch of hot flashes, but oh well!

Funny, cute little thing...I keep rubbing my tummy talking to my babies!! Telling they to stay in there and how much I love them, and can't wait to meet them! Sounds a little silly...I know, but it is all I can do right now. I want to enjoy this time and not freak out...so for 8 more days (and hopefully 9 more months) I will rub my tummy and talk to my babies as much as I can!!

Baby Embies snuggled nicely in their new home....

04.23

I don't even know how to describe today...eventful. blessed. suspenseful. nerve racking. exciting. important...just to name a few! I couldn't sleep at all last night. I told Jared that I felt exactly the same way the night before we got married! LOL! Well, maybe no exactly, but pretty close. I woke up early and started sewing! An easy distraction to what was ahead.

We arrived to the clinic, so giddy and excited! Both Jared and I couldn't stop smiling! Headed back to get ready for the transfer and to wait for the news of how our embie babies were doing. When the Doc came in and said "I have good news" God's peace enveloped me! It was amazing! As you know, we had four fertilized embryos and out of the four, one of them was great and another of them was perfect! Perfect? We haven't heard the word "perfect" all throughout this process! What a blessing to hear the word "perfect" when referring to one of our embie babies! Doc said that the embryologist rarely gives out perfect scores (on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best) and one embie was a 5 and the other one a 4!! YES! YES! YES! Jared and I were beaming!

We decided to transfer the two best embies and hopefully freeze the other two. The other embies are scored at 3 and we are praying that they grow and make it to day five so that we can freeze them so Jared and I can add to our family in a couple of years.

Jared was suited up in scrubs and we headed to the surgical room for the transfer. Right before the transfer they showed us our embie babies on the TV screen and I started to tear up! I couldn't believe that those little circles of bubbles would turn into our children. How awesome is God!! We were able to watch the screen during the transfer, but couldn't really tell what was going on! Haha! It is hard to figure out what is what on an ultrasound.

Transfer went perfect, had to lay flat for 30 minutes, then we headed home. Pretty short and sweet! Instructions for the rest of the weekend is to take it easy! And that is exactly what I am going to do!

Thanks to EVERYONE for your awesome prayers!! We are so blessed! God is so amazingly awesome, He has blessed us more that we every thought imaginable...All the glory goes to Him!!

"Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge." Psalm 62:8


Here is a picture of our two sweet litte perfect embie babies!!

Just Breath....

04.22


It is the night before transfer and I can't even sleep! My mind keeps racing and thinking about those babies in the petri dish. I thank you Father ahead of time for how awesome and perfect those embie babies are.

I didn't feel so well today, but that was due to me being allergic to the antibiotics that they gave me. I was pretty sick all morning and didn't get my check list done. There were so many things that I wanted/needed to do before the transfer, but I know Jared will step in and get all of the house work done. I just wanted to be a sweet little wifey and have it all done so that he can have a fun/chore free weekend. Oh well! I guess he needs to start some time. And now is as good as time as any!

After I started feeling a little better I needed to get our of the house for some fresh air something to do. It being Thursday night...I guess I already had plans...Date night with Mom (Peg)! We always get together on Thursday night because Jared has poker night with his growth group (church group). We usually do dinner and just hang out and talk. It was a very nice distraction, but you know Moms...as giddy and as excited as I was, so for a good amount of the time we talked "babies". I love our time together!

I am very excited for the transfer tomorrow. We have put all and everything in God's hands. And I thank Him so much for the peace that He has put in our lives all throughout this process! It really has been a great experience. And no matter what happens, I know that some day we will have our family...Why? You ask...because God knows our hearts desires and I know that He will ALWAYS take care of us.

Lord...I LOVE YOU!

4 Embie Babies...

04.21

We got the call today!! 4 eggs were mature enough and ALL 4 eggs fertilized! How awesome is that?!?! 100% success rate which is above average for mature eggs getting fertilized. Blessing!!

Jared and I were chatting about everything that happened and we actually realized that we were going to create babies tonight. Not your normal way of course, but in a petri dish. It all makes for a better story! People don't usually know the exact time that they conceive, but with the IVF process we know each and every step. That is so neat to know that we have created 4 embie babies!! Just keep praying that those embie babies grow and divide like they are suppose to. Healthy embies!! So exciting!

I am so thankful because God has giving us an inexpanable amount of peace all thoughout this process. We are so blessed to have so much support from our friends and family! Keep the prayers going!! Now, all I have to do is rest up and get ready for the embryo transfer!!

This isn't our embie baby, but this is exactly what is going on in that petri dish right now. We get to see pictures of our embie babies on friday!! I can't wait to see this first pictures of our new little ones.