Reflecting on 2017

Hey friends.

I love blogging, even though you’d never know with how little I’ve posted these last couple of months. I have big dreams and goals for 2018 not only for this blog, but also for my life in general.

I wanted to post today, on this last day of 2017, to reflect back on the year and just reminisce on a year that was full of some heartache, however, still amazingly wonderful at the same time.

Life does that sometimes, it knocks you down, and sometimes beats you while you’re down there, but you don’t have to stay down there. You have the ability to choose how you handle all situations. 2017 was the year that we finally achieved our financial goal to do a fresh IVF cycle. We were so expectant and believing that it would work, and unfortunately it ended in a chemical pregnancy.  We were devastated and heartbroken, but grateful that we had gotten a discount, so we had money leftover to be able to do a frozen transfer cycle the next month. Again, lots of expectations and excitement. During this time also, we had to put down our beloved cat who had been super sick. She was one of our first babies and we loved her so. This was a hard thing to do while in the middle of our two week wait. Again, I landed pregnant, but it again ended in a chemical. How much more can our hearts take?

The summer brought on our 9-year wedding anniversary which was absolutely amazing, but it was also full of bloodwork, and a surgery and lots of running and training for Rob. August was our 3rd transfer and again..I was pregnant! We made it to the point where we could hear the heartbeat…actually two heartbeats. Grateful and happy were understatements as nothing could compare to the joy we found in our hearts. However, this pregnancy ended just under eight weeks in a miscarriage of both twins. A D&C one week before my birthday is not really ideal.

Even though we’ve had heartache and gone through some of the hardest moments of our lives, we have had some great ones. We celebrated 9 years of marriage in June. I went to Dallas in October for the Moms in the Making conference. Rob ran his first marathon which allowed us to take a vacation to Washington D.C. and I was selected to be a leader for a MITM group here in Cincinnati. This is just a few of the amazing things that happened this year.

One thing I do know is that through the hardships and downfalls and even the good things….my God and Savior was with me. He was always faithful and helped me through these trying times. I am grateful for the experiences and for who I have become in these trying times.

I would never say that 2017 was a bad year because that makes it sound as if my life is bad. I don’t take things for granted. I appreciate everyday I have and am not one to wish my life away.  You’ll never hear me say “I’m glad this year is over.” or “Man..I’m ready for the next year!” Be happy with the life you’ve given. Good and bad things happen, but how you handle them and work through them is what determines what kind of a person you are.

Joy awaits in 2018 and I am ready to embrace it!