Ready or Not, India Here We Come!

T minus 3 days until we depart for India!

I've spent the past few days packing, unpacking, repacking... and drinking wine!

In all honesty, this whole traveling to India for fertility treatment thing is just a tiny bit more stressful than I anticipated. (Or else I have just completely forgotten how stressful it is to undergo treatment anywhere in the world.) Serving as a reminder is the below picture:

Note the waist-high snow, the lack of any visible driving surface, and the complete absence of snow plows. 'Twas the night before my first ever IVF transfer and coincidentally, the night of a historic Nor'easter.

Do not be fooled by my smile. I was, to put it mildly, completely freaking out! Duane and my two brother-in-laws (who had graciously spent the night in anticipation of this storm) were frantically shoveling the driveway so that we could make it out onto the unplowed street, which was located (under normal weather conditions) a good 2 1/2 hours from my out of state fertility clinic. My fresh embryos had roughly another 12 hours to go before they would need to be frozen and the chances of us making it anywhere were lookin' mighty slim.

Nevertheless, WE MADE IT.

Lesson learned. When it comes to building our family, we cannot be stopped! Regardless of whether we have to travel 70 miles or 7000 miles, no obstacle will be too great for us to overcome.

I need to keep this in mind as all of the "what-ifs" slowly start to creep into my head.

I need to KNOW that we WILL have a family.

I need to have FAITH that because of our unending DETERMINATION we will be SUCCESSFUL in India.

And I need to have CONFIDENCE that we have chosen the right road to build our family.

I am, at the moment, working on all of the above.

Because ready or not... India here we come!!!

"We're Headed for Venus and Still We Stand Tall"

"

The official numbers:

11 days until Bar Exam Day 1

12 days until Bar Exam Day 2

19 days until we depart for India

20 days until we arrive in India

21 days until we meet the great Dr. S. herself

23-27ish days until our egg retrieval and transfer

As would be expected, I am full of excitement, hope, anxiety, fear and about a million other emotions at the moment. On one hand, my clinic and the ever popular Barbri bar review course have practically spoon-fed me everything I could possibly need to know. On the other hand, I haven't a clue how it's all going to pan out. Ladies and gentleman:

"  We're headed for Venus and still we stand tall."

P.S. Per the instructions of my $4000 bar review course, it is advised that I spend this last week before the exam "studying." I know, money well spent. Anyways, because I don't ever plan on spending a second summer locked away studying in a windowless room I've decided to heed the advice. So, apologies in advance for my blogging hiatus until July 28th. (Promise to make up for it with all kinds of exciting India-related news during the weeks to follow.)

I'd Choose Them...

You know the old adage "you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family?" Well let me tell you, whoever came up with it, clearly never had a family like mine. They are THE BEST, most supportive, fun-loving group of individuals you could ever meet. And if I had been given a choice? I, hands-down, most definitely, no questions ask, would absolutely positively have chosen the one I've got. As you can see, I had an absolute blast spending the holiday weekend with them!

Supportive sisters!

Trying her aunt's shoes on for size!

Dad being too funny (and subtly poking fun at the fact that his daughters are a bit furry-friend obsessed).

Beautiful night at the Inner Harbor with my beautiful lil sis.

Posing for their next album cover.