Adoption

Well, it has been a long time since I did an update...since we are starting to fund raise for making our dream of being parents happen, I thought I should do an update! Since my last post, we had more testing and the 3 rounds of Femara with the trigger shot...those did help with ovulation but did not result in a pregnancy. We had a meeting with our fertility specialist after the third round to see where to go from there. With all of our other testing coming out with no problems at all, our doctor was surprised that we still were not pregnant. He suggested that our next step be in vitro fertilization (IVF). We also discussed intra uterine insemination (IUI), but he only gave a 20% chance of conceiving with this. With IVF he said about 60%. Both of those numbers scared us a little, coupled with the cost for these procedures. We had talked about adoption before but really wanted a child of our own, we thought we would try IVF, but would need to save money!

Fast forward to Mother's day this year...I was at work, but Trav was off so he went to church. They were doing baby dedications and had a special dedication of an older child (maybe 7 years old?) that had been adopted. At that point, Trav said he felt like adoption was the direction we needed to go. As many of you probably can guess, adoption is quite expensive. We have decided to go with domestic adoption, and really prefer to adopt a newborn.

So we are finally starting our fund raising efforts to be able to make this dream a reality. We are starting a laundry detergent and fabric softener fundraiser. We are very excited to start this process, but are also nervous! We appreciate any prayers and good thoughts you can provide!

Love,

Natoshia (&Trav)

Just a little update

So I haven't been very good at keeping up with this blog, but there isn't much to update very often! I am loving my job as a mother baby nurse. It is so amazing to be able to be a part of such a special time in people's lives. Trav is a lot happier as a delivery driver, instead of working inside the store. We are doing good on the getting healthier thing, too. We have been trying to get out and walk/run, but the crazy hot weather has put a damper on that. But I'm hoping to get back to it once the weather calms down and gets a little cooler. I haven't talked to a lot of people about this next piece, but I just wanted to share...I was diagnosed with PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome)in March of this year. It is causing us some fertility issues, which is one of the hardest things to deal with for us. Most of you know how much I love children and want to be a mom. We have done three rounds of Clomid, which is a medication that causes your ovaries to release an egg. All three rounds were failures, blood work showing no ovulation. So we are on to the next step. We met with a reproductive endocrinologist last week to figure out what that would be. We will be doing a medication called femara, which is similar to the Clomid. I will have an ultrasound to check how my ovaries are responding, if they respond well to the femara, I will do a trigger shot of hcg to boost egg release. I will also be having a test called an hsg to make sure my tubes are open and check my ovaries and uterus. I'm really hopeful that this combination will work for us and we will get our blessing soon. <3 thanks for listening (well, reading), I will update on our progress when I know more!

My First Blog/Happy New Years!

Hello to those of you that will read me! This is my first experience with a blog...so, I hope I will continue to use this as a means of keeping family and friends up to date with our lives as well as just a place for me to share about anything!
I will start with what has been going on for us:
 Tosh: I just started my new job, in the mother/baby unit at IU Health Arnett hospital. Same hospital, just transferred to baby land. I have finally got started on the road to getting where I ultimately want to be, the NICU. I'm also hoping it will guide in the right direction/help me decide about going back to school to get my master's degree. We shall see! I am also still coaching all-star cheerleading for Cheer Alliance Indiana (formerly Cheer Express, we are now part of a larger gym family!). I help coach two teams this year, our youth level 1 team, ages 5-12 and our junior level 2 team, ages 7-14.

Trav: Trav recently took a delivery driver position at Lowe's. He is excited for the change of pace and for being out of the lumber department. He also recently finished his on-line classes and earned a bachelors degree in criminal justice with a minor in history.  So now the job search can begin for a job in the criminal justice field!

I also wanted to share some of my New Year's Resolutions:
1) Get healthier. Lose weight, eat healthier, drink less pop (goal: Stop drinking pop altogether) and more water, get back on track with working out (and stop wasting money by using our gym membership!) *Keep myself accountable for this*
2) Be smarter with our finances. We have been doing very well with saving, but now to focus on paying off our debt. (Stop wasting money...use our gym memberships!) Use more coupons, take our lunch to work, stop eating out so much!
3) Find a church. We will stop putting this off...we did go to one church with some co-workers of mine and enjoyed it but also want to check out some others, too. We need to get on track with our faith. *Any suggestions of churches in the West Lafayette area that you enjoy would be helpful!*

Those are my three big ones for now. And just in general, pay it forward and be mindful of other people, I don't know what their situation is...they may have it worse than I do. Enjoy the little things, and enjoy the life I have. For being 25 & 26, we have a great life. A house, two cars that run pretty well, and the ability to buy what we need as well as things we want. We shouldn't complain, as lots of people/families cannot do this. Let's all work on being more thankful for what we have! I hope to keep myself accountable by blogging about my experiences with keeping up with my resolutions! Especially the getting healthier and finding a church/my faith!

Bella