Team Ricci~ Our Story

Hooray!! FINALLY getting my blog started!! I've been wanting to get this going for a while now but either didn't have the time to figure it out, didn't know what to write, or didn't know how to get started. I think I've finally got it (if you're reading this then I guess I got it!). 

     The thing that really pushed me to get going this week is our struggle with infertility. Many of you know by now that we are having issues in the baby-making department. We're coming up on our 6 year wedding anniversary and were constantly asked by friends and fam when we'd be filling up the rooms in our house. The initial thought was 2-3 years married before trying; then we bought a new house at the 3 year mark and wanted to live comfortably here for a year before going there, so that brought us to 4 years. In January 2012 we started officially trying and it took longer than anticipated, bringing us to 5 years (Sorry Dad R (my father-in-law); we had a deal that there would be a Ricci grandchild in the works by 5 years... we kept up our end on trying, it just wasn't in the cards. At the 1 year mark of trying (as recommended for the "under 30 crew"), we went for some initial testing and found out Scott is infertile. I like to say "WE" are infertile because anyone close to us knows that we are a team, so therefore we are infertile. This has become a huge part of our lives over the past few months and we've been on *QUITE* an emotional roller coaster since mid/late January.  I'll post more about that later, but I wanted this first post to be a snapshot about the story of US and why I'm starting this blog. 

    **(If you made it this far without your eyes burning from reading so much, thank you. :) Writing is my preferred form of communication. I'm Super wordy. Short and sweet is not my style. Sorry but that's just who I am, take it or leave it. Close friends joke that if you get a super short text from me, something is not okay. I send mini-novel texts. I stumble over words when speaking and so this is my strength and my comfort zone... deal with it!)** :) 

The story of Team Ricci

     Scott & I are high school sweethearts… He asked me out on February 7, 1999 when we were sophomores in high school. We had actually met briefly at a bridge dance in 8th grade, and then had a class together in 9th grade but I was FAR from interested (although Scott would beg to differ!). I thought he was cocky and a class clown, I was the quiet goody-two-shoes...total opposites. I was not interested in the least (yet). Fast forward a year and we had another class together, as well as both being on the JV basketball teams, so we started socializing a little more between practices and eventually became friends. I realized he wasn't so bad and we finally fell for each other. 

      These were the days of AOL Instant Messenger (haha, remember when?!) and we would chat on there or through emails, yet I was too shy to talk to him at school and he was worried about what his friends would think. He asked me out (in a note) and I was coached by my friend to play hard to get and insist if he liked me, he should show it at school. Scott swears I turned him down and said I didn't want to risk our friendship, but that was not the intent. 

      We kept chatting online and the winter formal was quickly approaching. That night was monumental because we danced together for 45 mins (starting with one of our fav songs at exactly 11:11, a time where I always make a wish)... it was a pretty magical night and he called me on the phone the next day to nervously ask me if I would ever go out with him. I said I would, he asked me out officially, and it's been the two of us ever since (2-7-99)! Some call it corny and cheesy, I call it lucky. He was my first and only kiss and I think that's sweet. There's a Sweet Home Alabama quote where Reese Witherspoon says something like "You were the first boy I ever kissed, and I want you to be the last." I know it's Hollywood fiction but it's also my reality and I kinda like it. So high school sweethearts we became. 

      In 0ur senior year, 2001, we were chosen “class cuties” for the yearbook superlative. After graduation, I went away to college for 4 years (luckily only 2 hours away from home) and he went to a community college at home, so we got to visit every few weeks or so, and we talked EVERY night (got made fun of for that by a few college friends but I missed him and it helped us make it through). After graduating college in 2005 and moving back home again, we vacationed in Niagara Falls for a few days (1st trip JUST the 2 of us) and while there, in our hotel room overlooking the falls on the Canadian side, Scott proposed (6-24-05)and we were closer to our happily-ever-after!!! We had a lot of fun planning our wedding and were married on July 6, 2007 here in the beautiful Hudson Valley area of NY where we live. We bought the house Scott grew up in as a starter home, lived there a few years, and then upgraded to our dream home in August of 2010, where we are now and plan to be for a while.
     
     Some fun facts about us: We are exactly 9 months apart, to the day… and our birthdays are practically exactly the same, numerically speaking (Scott is 01-06-83 and I'm 10-06-83). We started dating on 2-7 and have found SO many ridiculous connections in our lives to the numbers 7, 27, or 207… it's fun being on Route 207, finding 7 of something, or getting a total of $27.27 at a store, just to name a few. 11:11 became our thing with the whole "make a wish" deal and we now always say "I love you" and make a wish whenever we happen to catch it on the clock. We have the kind of fairytale romance that is rare yet beautiful, and I'm thankful for it each and every day. I obviously believe that true love exists but I do know it's hard to come by, so I never take it for granted. Friends and family seem to put us up on some pedestal of “perfect couples” although I don’t know why~ We argue like everyone else and are certainly not perfect in any sense, just truly lucky in this area for whatever reason. We are best friends first and foremost; we have a solid foundation and a strong loving relationship. We’ve been married 5+ years (but together in total 14 years), we own a beautiful home, and have great jobs… There’s only one thing missing (we didn’t buy a 4-bedroom house for nothing!)…

      The reason I gave all the mushy, corny details about us is that we are “that couple” that a lot of our friends and family truly feels is meant to be together; even we feel that way sometimes and I can’t explain why. (Side-note: I feel like I am coming across really bratty here like “ooh look at us we’re so wonderful”- again I say I promise that’s not me… I actually can’t stand people like that, but when it comes to Scott & I, I feel like together we do just create something special)… Now here’s the dilemma: If we are meant to be, why would God not bless us with an easy path to having children? How is that fair? I understand we can’t have everything, but to be honest we have had our fair share of heartaches, family struggles, family sickness/diseases, and lots of other dark things that I’d care not to share or remember (Just because I choose to focus on the positive, it doesn't mean the negative does not exist). So it’s not like our lives have been easy by any means, we just find comfort in each other and we are each other’s strength and sanity at the end of the day; so why throw more grief at us, as if we haven’t been through enough already? It doesn’t seem fair.   It sucks. It's hard. It's depressing. It's emotionally draining. But it's a part of our struggle and it makes us who we are. We can choose to let it defeat us, or we can choose to stand up, be positive, and fight.