I went to church today...

We attend church every Sunday unless we are out of town or really sick. I would estimate that we miss no more than 6-8 Sundays a year.

But I haven't been to church on Mother's Day in over a decade.

Before Leland, we would traveled to see Robert's great-granny for Mother's Day. And then for the past four years we have spent the weekend in Chattanooga. But we had a bit of a change of plans in regards to our Chattanooga trip this year. And here I am home and headed to church on Mother's Day.

Interesting I found myself quite anxious today, though the day proved rather (nicely) uneventful. I hadn't really meant to avoid church on this day for so long, it just sort of happened. And as it happened I felt strange and anxious being in church today. It's a wonder how all of this infertility stuff just seems to dig in and stick with us.

Thinking of you all today - those with blessings to celebrate, those still waiting, those who mourn the loss of a mother or child(ren). May God hold you in His arms today and grant you peace.

Birds and Bees

When I started trying to figure out how to explain embryo adoption to Leland I realized that I could not really explain it with out also explaining reproduction a bit. I found a great book called "What Makes A Baby" (I wrote a lengthy review that you can read HERE). 

Leland understands that his genetic mother gave us an egg, his genetic father gave us a sperm, and that he grew in my uterus. One day I will help him better understand having been conceived and frozen, how IVF works, the adoption process, etc.

This weekend his teacher sent an email home to all of the class. I think Leland may have been a significant contributor. Here it is:

Hello wonderful parents of my afternoon students,

I wanted to let you know that we attended Ms. Cara's school baby shower yesterday afternoon. The students were excited to attend, and along with the baby shower came questions about, of course, babies.

The students discussed it mostly among themselves, and they came up with pretty accurate information. I thought I would share it with you, so you know what they know!

They started by saying the baby was in her tummy, but a student corrected and said it was in her uterus. Another student said it was put there by an egg and "something," and another student filled in the blank that the "something" was a sperm. Then many of them chimed in about the umbilical cord being where the baby's belly button would be. They asked me how it turned into the belly button, so I told them after the baby was born, the umbilical cord would be cut and clipped, and as it healed it would become the belly button.

That was the extent of the conversation—relatively brief and fact-based. There is no real emotion about this stuff yet at this age, just scientific fact gathering.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Warm regards,

Karen