Our Journey To Baby Reid

About 3 months ago I decided to open up and share about me and my husband's 2-year struggle with infertility. Making the decision to share about it wasn’t really a hard one because if you know me at all in real life you know I’m pretty much an open book with ALMOST everything. I wasn't always that way but back when I was going through some of the hardest moments in my life, it was the willingness of others to be transparent about what they had been through, that really gave me faith that I could get through it too.

So from the moment, we found out that conceiving wasn’t going to be easy for us, about a year ago, I knew that I would want to be open about it. Sharing this infertility journey is just an extension of the mission God gave me about 6 years ago: To tell my testimony. The circumstances have changed but the mission has not.

So I did it. I wrote a blog about infertility and I shared it. But not without some serious anxiety and uncertainty. I was literally trying to talk myself out of sharing right before I hit the post button (yes I was THAT nervous guys)! 😩 But I’m so glad I did it! The response from everyone was so overwhelmingly positive & encouraging! I literally cried reading some of the feedback. 😭 I believe I counted 12 women who told me that they were going through the same thing and said that it was a blessing to know they were not alone. I mean that in itself was a blessing. It felt like I had accomplished what God wanted me to. To help share his love and light with people. I wasn't really expecting anything else to come out of it. Ken and I were not sure what we were going to do next. We were still hoping God would bless us to conceive naturally even though the odds weren't looking great for it. We were just praying and asking God for our next move.

Then God showed up big time! A couple of weeks later I was looking through some of my prior research for fertility clinics I was interested in reaching out to and scheduling a consultation to discuss our options. On this list, I had also written down some grants for fertility treatments. On the same day that I opened up my notes, I noticed that the deadline for one of the grants was THAT day. So I thought what the heck let me just apply. So after applying on the very last day in May, on a whim, we were awarded an IVF grant with @cnyfertility. I couldn’t believe it! If I hadn't have noticed that the deadline on that day then we wouldn't have even applied. You can't tell me that was just a coincidence. And you really can't tell me being obedient to God when he told me to share my story didn’t open that door. Just read Proverbs 28:20. Things fell into place perfectly in a way only God could have ordained.

But since then I’ve been kind of quiet about what’s been happening. I mean, I’ve shared information about infertility a little here and there. But I haven't shared any actual updates about where we are in our journey to making Baby Reid. So actually we knew what was next and eventually, we figured out when we would actually get the ball rolling. I, of course, have always been willing to share the process. But then came the question of if I was willing to share the journey in real-time. Since we opened up about all of this I have come across some really courageous women in this Infertility/IVF community who are open and willing to share everything in real-time. Like giving daily updates about everything. I mean super raw and holding nothing back. I, however, wasn’t sure if I was comfortable with that. This is my first time going through IVF. I didn’t know how it would affect me, my body, my mental health. I didn’t know if things would be smooth or if we would have complications. And most of all I didn’t know if I wanted to experience everything with no time to process it all in front of the world to see. 😱

So I decided not to share in real-time. I decided that I would rather share things at about a 2-3 week delay because for me that is what is most comfortable. I still think it’s just as important and I intend to be just as transparent but I do think it gives us a sense of peace with doing it this way rather than trying to do what works for other people. I hope that my journey can still be a blessing to other people and I pray that it encourages others to know that no matter what happens in life God is with you every step of the way. And lastly, I pray that when we do get the news that Baby Reid is on the way you will celebrate with us because this baby is going to be the greatest gift God has ever given us.

So yes we have started the IVF process and I have been recording and documenting everything. And starting tomorrow I will begin giving you guys updates on my Instagram and Facebook pages. I do want to emphasize that infertility and IVF are not my whole life so I will not be solely talking about IVF but I do want to share the process, along with other parts of my life. My ultimate goal is to kind of do a short docu-series about the entire IVF process to hopefully bring more awareness to it so be on the lookout for that soon!