I have read some amazing and inspiring stories this week. I have heard from ladies who have been trying to conceive for many years and finally did as well as those who just were unable to have children but they have moved on.
I wanted to make today's post about not giving up. You should never give up on your dream to become a parent but instead find ways to enrich your life while you are moving toward your goal of being parents. You could Volunteer, Plant a Garden, Take up a new hobby or take dancing lessons, the point is that you should find something you enjoy doing that makes you happy. I have been told that some women were very bothered when surrounded by pregnant ladies because it reminded them of what it felt like to not be able to conceive so I suggest finding something that keeps you away from those who are pregnant. (This is of course only if it bothers you).
Infertility can make a person feel extremely isolated especially when you find that everyone in your social circle has children or is expecting . You get together with friends and always find the conversations are just about what the kids are doing and you start to feel left out because you can not partake or even join in on these conversations. I just want to remind you that this does not mean your friends are being insensitive they are just happy parents with curious questions to other Mom's and want some advice. If this becomes a problem for you I highly suggest reaching out and looking for another social circle but do not let go of the friends you have ! Enjoy their happiness and try to understand where they are coming from as well.
Infertility is also a huge strain on a marriage. It can cause so many emotional problems.It leads to questions you never thought you would be asking and sometimes can cause a couple to move to Divorce. I suggest openly discussing what your options are. In order for you both to better understand your options do some research together about different fertility treatments and adoption. Schedule an appointment with a specialist and ask any questions you may have about your options. My husband and I went  through all of this ourselves and that is how we decided on the option of IVF with Blastocyst.  Sadly none of the costs are covered by military healthcare and we have to come up with everything out of pocket. We are currently working on fundraising for this but only have 8 more weeks to raise the rest of the money. I will be doing a Giveaway on the Blog for a share contest soon that will require at least 35 entries and shares of the link have to be public. ( I will post the link at a later date or you can find it in previous posts)
I am looking forward to starting my Journey of IVF. I have moved forward in more ways then I can begin to explain. I have started to Volunteer again, taken up a new hobby and we are looking into adoption once we get our next assignment which we both hope will be stateside. There are so many children looking for a wonderful home! We are looking at adopting a child over the age of 12 months to give us a better chance of finding our future son or daughter <3
Please just remember do everything you can to make your dream a reality!
Silvia

I just wanted to give everyone a brief update. I know its been a bit since my last post.
I decided it was time to focus on creating some distractions in my life. I realized I was letting infertility define me. I was letting it win and just making myself the infertile one. There is much more to each and every one of us then just being tagged with a stigma. I have suggested in the past to find yourself some new hobbies or anything to just really keep busy.
I ended up putting an advertisement up for a dog walking service in my town in exchange for donations toward my IVF costs. I got a client this past week so I get to go and walk her two doggies a few times a week. I chose this because it allows me to get out and exercise (to lose more weight) and I can earn a little money toward our procedure. Our procedure is financially planned for July. We have saved $3500 and raised $855 via Go Fund Me.  Total cost for us will be roughly $9000.
My second thing is I decided to Volunteer and I love it! I get to Volunteer with some amazing people and learn a lot. I walk to the Volunteer position so its more exercise! I got to help out with the Exceptional Family member program this week and really enjoyed coming up with some crafts for those kids to do while they are out enjoying an evening out. I also got to give some advice to young families and really enjoyed myself.
Now the TMI part of my blog updates.
My cycle has changed! I am not sure what is going on but since October I have always had 26 day cycles with a Positive OPK on Day 9. I tested all the way to Day 12 this month and only got negatives. I ran out of tests so husband and I just went with the get busy every other day theory. It is hard to maintain hope after this many years of trying but I figure we may as well continue to try especially since the doctors can not figure out what  the problem is. They said maybe its weight so I dropped almost 40 pounds. I still have 15 to go before we can do IVF.
I will post more tomorrow as I just got done reading a very interesting article published my Popular Science on what may be causing some couples to be infertile.

<3 Have a wonderful Friday!

I am working on a series of articles for Ezines that discuss how female issues are often misdiagnosed.
I use to go visit the hospital every month for almost 7 years with horrid pains in my stomach, side and more! Each time it was the same thing I got told oh it must be part of your normal cycle, here are some pain killers , go home.. well fast forward 7 years and that was not the problem. I suffer every month for 7-10 days of horrid cramping. I use to see it as a sign of failure but thanks to someone I had a chat with I realize this is my chance to help others learn! My chance to help doctors understand and take women more serious in general when we go see them with these type of pains.
I found this interesting article that was written a long time ago but I invite you to go check it out. I think its a fantastic read and holds so true in many cases!

Misdiagnosed

I hope you can learn something from it!

Silvia