good things coming

I decided to make a calendar for all my IVF stuff...separate from my other 'regular' planner. I love altering date books & planners, I've been doing it for years (you can click here for the one I made this year).  Cause the ones in the stores...well, they're kinda boring. You gotta jazz 'em up, right?!

So I found this calendar at Walmart. I went to about 4 or 5 places before finding just the right one. 

I needed something that had enough room to jot down notes but also thin and easy to grab and take with me to dr appts. This one was perfect. I picked up some new Echo Park at the birthday bash last weekend and decorated it up a bit :)

Notice the cover - 'good things coming'. I didn't really want to put 'baby' or something like that on the cover. But this cover makes me smile.

The thing about this whole 'experience' is that it has turned out to be one of the best things that has happened to my family. Funny how God works, isn't it?? 

I spent so much time being sad that He would not give me another child. What I didn't realize is that this journey is 'His' plan. It wasn't mine. But I'm so thankful for it. Because it has brought me and my husband closer together. We've spent months of talking and crying and praying about something that a lot of people don't even need to discuss. The thing is, when you 'decide' to have a baby, and it just happens, that's almost easy. It was for us for our first 2 kids. But now we've had to face things and talk about things that we would have never discussed had this whole infertility thing never happened. And it's made my faith stronger, whatever the outcome ends up being.

Back to the calendar...on the inside cover I added a Maya Road envelope to keep dr cards, notes, etc.

And inside I did some simple decorating. The whole point of this calendar is not just to keep everything straight (injections, dr appts, etc) but to have a keepsake for if/when I do have another baby. And if I do end up pregnant I'll use this calendar as my pregnancy journal as well.

Notice that little baby pic at the bottom?? My daughter cut that out of a magazine today after she saw what I did with this calendar. That girl, she cracks me up. I don't know what she's going to do if we don't have any more children. She's already planning things out. She wants a baby brother or sister (preferably a sister! hehe) soooo bad. I really hope her prayers are answered :)

And another one of my decorated jumbo paper clips

I'm praying I have lots of good news to share & record in this calendar!

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As a side note ~ I've been very open about my IVF journey and plan on doing so in the future. I'm not going to make this blog all about that. And I do realize that some people will probably skim over those posts and I totally understand. But like I've said before, this blog is about everything in my life. And for the next few months, IVF is going to be a big part of that. When we decided to go this route I found a few blogs of women who were sharing their experiences and I found them totally comforting and educational. 

So maybe my little blog will help out someone else going through this, maybe not. Maybe some people will be interested in it simply because they don't know much about it. Let me tell ya, I've learned a lot already! But most importantly, I've always felt I should be honest and 'real' and that's all I can be!