It is time.....

My appointment went really well. My ovaries are at rest - no cysts - just the way they should be. I started the first of many injections last night - gotta love the lupron headaches! I will go back in a week to make sure my estrogen is nearly zero so I can then sky rocket my hormones after that! Here's to a bountiful harvest!

Almost time....

We have an appointment on Monday the 29th for a baseline scan. We have to make sure that my ovaries are at rest. If everything looks good, then I get to start Lupron! Bring on the headaches! We are looking forward to getting this process started. The boys keep asking when I will have baby seeds in my tummy again....so cute.

Dominic's new wheels...

After weeks of looking for a new bike on the Internet, Dominic finally made a decision on the new bike he wanted. It had to be perfect....no hand brakes and it must be ORANGE! Just between us, there are not many orange bikes on the market. Mark thought about just painting a different bike! But all of our searching paid off in the end. Here is the big reveal......

Kansas City Day

Dominic and Luke really enjoyed a day at Union Station and Crown Center with their cousins, Danielle and Ryan. We went to a Lego art show (very cool - everything made of legos), ate at Fritz's - they bring our food on a train, and had tons of fun playing on the escalators! The day was topped off with swimming at Danielle and Ryan's pool.

Get out of the water Luke!

Here's Luke playing in a fountain outside of the court house on Addison's Adoption Day. It was all I could do to keep him from swimming!

Trying out Photoshop

I'm trying out photoshop today. This picture should have a subtle "painted" look to it. I'm not sure I pulled that one off or not. When I zoomed in it appeared to have a nice effect - not so sure from this perspective. This program is going to take some practice!

This is one of my favorite recent pictures of me with the boys. It is from Mother's Day - everyone is smiling!

Happy Adoption Day Addison!

It's official! Addison Brynn is now officially Addison Brynn Hays! We are so excited that the legal process is over and life can truly begin. We will forever hold a special place in our hearts for Addison's birth mother. Words cannot express the absolute magnitude of the gift she gave to Sarah, TJ, and our entire family. She is an amazing and selfless woman.

Meds on the way!

All my IVF medications are in the mail. Packages should start arriving in a day or so filled with our last chance of growing our family. I am getting excited once again to start this process and I'm still 20 days away from taking my first of many injections. It is already difficult not to let my mind wander to the "future" and think about all the "what ifs and could be's" of next summer at this time. I know all to well that can be an emotional road to journey down, but one that I take several times a day despite that fact. As difficult as our parenthood story may be, I know there are other women in the world that still have empty arms at the end of the day. I thank God daily for the gift of motherhood.

Mother's Day 2009

Dominic is ALL boy

You know the expression "cats always land on their feet" well this one is also true....

Boys will ALWAYS find the mud.

This was Easter Sunday - not very warm - and the boys decided to play in a mud hole left by the tractor tire. They had a great time until I made them get cleaned up for the car ride home.

Because of our wet spring, the boys have had countless hours of playing in the mud....both at the farm and behind our house in the construction lots.

Here is Luke playing outside on a warm winter day. Yes, he is as ornery as he looks!

Our Journey Continues....

We have officially signed up for IVF #6. I will begin the medications on July 8 with an estimated egg retrieval of July 22. Dominic is very excited - he says he would love to have 4 sisters! We explain that hopefully we will not have 4 babies at once but if we do, there is a chance of boys too! He said that was fine - he just loves babies. Luke says he wants to be a big brother as well.

It is almost hard to imagine now what our life would be like if our angel had stayed with us. We all still miss him/her greatly.

Dominic did say that if we have another baby, the baby should sleep in his room. He would rather share his room with a baby than Luke!

As you can tell, I don't do a very good job of keeping up on this site. I am going to try harder.

We have exciting news to share - our niece, Addison, has her adoption finalization hearing this Thursday! She will officially join our family that afternoon.