Adios to another year; may 2016 be filled with cheer!
It's December 31st, 2015... New Year's Eve, at least in the US still. The end of another year, another chapter. As much as I'm happy for 2015 to be over in some ways and move on to see what hope and wonder 2016 could hold, I have to pause and be thankful for all that 2015 brought us.
1. We put our house on the market... In a sense I'm not thankful for this as it's somewhat of a dead end and we feel like it will never sell. We've dropped the price a bunch over the year and still no promising deals. Doesn't look like we will be moving any time soon *but* the fact that we put it up and are ready to move when the time comes is exciting. I'm thankful for taking the step so that when it does finally happen some day, we will be starting a new adventure in a new house together. Maybe in 2016. Hopefully soon!
2. I made lots of new, wonderful family memories. I have a lot of family in Florida that I don't get to see much, for obvious reasons (living in NY). My Nanny is near Tampa and she is the only living grandparent left between Scott and I. She's 88 yet has the spirit of someone so much younger. I obviously don't get to see her often but just talking to her on the phone is enough to brighten my day when I can hear her smiling through the phone. We did get to visit her over the summer when we went down on vacation and I'm thankful for spending even just a few hours with her. Even though we get to go to Disney a lot (being vacation club members- one of the best things we ever did years agp because vacations are basically paid for and a given each year) we don't have a car while there and it's hard to make the trip out although I wish I could see her every time we are there. I also got to spend a lot of great quality time with my mom, brother, and his fam in Florida this year. We don't see much of them either for the same reasons but I was able to see them in May for my youngest newphew/Godson's communion and then again for vacation in July. My brother and his fam also came up for Thanksgiving and they hadn't been back to NY since Scott and I got married in 2007. Having them all up here was a blast and we got to spend 3 days together over their visit. I'm thankful for making so many great family memories.
3. We made the scary terrifying jump to IVF. This involved switching fertility clinics (we had worked with a clinic in CT for 2 years for 6 rounds of IUI) for financial reasons because IVF is a big expense, not covered by our insurance, and NY clinics offered a financial assistance program that we were eligible for. We started over in June with a clinic in Westchester, about an hour from home. Over the summer we were able to do an egg retrieval and a full round of IVF. Although that cycle failed, we were lucky enough to send 8 fertilized, good-quality embryos to freeze. The fact that we have those is hopeful for us in that our future baby/babies is/are hopefully in that batch so we don't have to go through it again for physical, emotional, and financial reasons. As terrifying and draining IVF is for multiple reasons, I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to go through it and are now on the other side of the super tough stuff. As much as our fertility journey has been incredibly difficult on us in many ways, we are oddly thankful for it. It's made our relationship so much stronger in so many ways, it's allowed me to gain a lot of support online from the TTC community (I wish Scott could say the same as we still have yet to really get equal support for him), and it's given us 8 extra chances at a baby. Sure it's a lot of money, time, emotion, etc, but hopefully 2016 will be THE year for good news finally. 4 years is a long time and we are simply tired of waiting and trying and giving our all into every step of it. As much as we've waited a long time, we have also come very very far from where we were at the beginning of it all 4 years ago.
A new year just around the corner... 366 blank pages to fill (2016 is a leap year!- Consider that a bonus day I suppose?!). Make each page/day worth reading/remembering. May your glass always be at least half full and may you be filled with inspiration, hope, happiness, positivity, and love in the year ahead!! May good things come to all who deserve it!
As always, thanks for all the love and support along the way. Hoping our time is coming. Please keep prayers and positive vibes coming our way.
Cheers!!
XOXO,
Stace
#TeamRicci
