Random-er

Anyone who knows me knows I have a tendency to be a little random at times.  A question about shoe sizes in the middle of a conversation on gardening.  A story about high school graduation during a Discovery Channel program on coral reefs.  It's pretty much standard procedure at any gathering.  Megan's good for a laugh or two, just listen closely.
But since Baby Ferg made his/her appearance things are even more random-er as my appetite has now developed its own random gene.  Subway subs, strawberry jello, Arby's roast beef, french fries, saltines, yogurt, barbeque chicken, baked potatoes, hot dogs, pb & tomato sandwiches (love you, mom!) and many more things that have flitted through my mind but escape me right now.  And my appetite seems to have no sense of timing.  I'm eating breakfast foods at 4pm and a baked potato at 10am.  This is normal, I've been told, but I'm beginning to think that there is no 'normal' pregnancy. 
Which is why I'm not really super interested in staying rightontop of every symptom and development right now.  I'm not saying it won't come, but I'd rather just enjoy things as they happen. 
And right now what's happening is that my appetite is being random again.  Time to add to the list...

Good or Bad?

Good = naps, sunny days, windy days, realizing that Baby Ferg is actually happening, having an excuse to lay down for 20 minutes after my shots...
Bad = tomato sauce of any sort and the painful indigestion that follows, the fact that I love tomatoes/spaghetti/pizza, having to make a grocery list of saltines, ginger ale, lemons, gatorade, grapes, etc., eating only an apple for breakfast...
But to finish with some more good:  God's wisdom, God's mercy & grace and of course, Baby Ferg! :-D

BFF!

Baby Ferg's First!
It's our first picture of Baby Ferg.  He/she is about 5+ weeks along and has a very strong heartbeat.

Baby Ferg truly has 'come a long way,' and we want you to know our story.  The August 2011 post explains the journey we've had up to this point.  We hope you will take time to read it and share in our excitement.

**On a related note, only one of the two embryos implanted.  We're sad that we won't get to meet #2, but we know that he/she is in heaven and we trust God's wisdom for our lives.

12 Days

Day #1 (9/17): Transfer in Tennessee *See previous post below*

After the procedure

Our two embryos

Day #12 (9/29): BFP!! 
Despite having hardly any symptoms, my blood test this morning confirmed it.  We're expecting!
How many little Fergusons?  TBD
And we thought the anticipation was over. ;-)

The Prequel

The prequel to what, you may ask?

To a new chapter in our lives.  One that actually started some time ago, but only recently became exciting.

Today is T minus 28 days.  T, standing for transfer.

An embryo transfer, to be more specific.

This is a term that I'm sure not a lot of you are familiar with, so let me start our story a little earlier.

Tim and I have been traveling a difficult and faith-stretching road for about five years now.  A road that has made us trust God and lean on each other more than we had ever thought we could.  A road of infertility.  
In 2006, Tim finished technical school and had started a new job here in Pittsburgh.  I had just left my teaching job and was substituting in the area.  Our life seemed pretty stable and we thought we were ready for some instability.  We had no idea.
After almost a year of trying to expand the Ferguson family, we realized that we needed help.  Medical tests and consultations with doctors gave us the diagnosis: infertility.  But with the serious miracles of modern medicine available to us, we didn't give up hope.  Time went on and our hope started to wane as nothing we tried was successful.  Together, we came to the conclusion that this wasn't what God had for our lives.  We both had a definite peace about pursuing another avenue to have a child.  That's not to say we weren't disappointed.  It's hard not to be when you've grown up with a desire to have an 'ideal' life, only to realize that there is no such thing.  But God is faithful.
We were connected with a local adoption agency, Bethany Christian Services, and had an introductory meeting with a case worker.  After telling her our story, she asked us if we had considered embryo adoption.  I told her that I had read about it on their site.  The rest of the appointment consisted of many questions and many answers and finally a decision to move forward with embryo adoption*.
*This is a new concept for a lot of people, but to make it simple: embryo adoption is just like in vitro fertilization, only the embryo isn't biologically ours.  It comes from a donor couple.  One who went through the in vitro treatment and had leftover embryos after completing their family.
After much paperwork, more doctors' visits and, did I mention paperwork? our profile was complete and we were ready to be matched with a donor couple.  We passed on the first two profiles sent to us.  Of the second two we really felt drawn to one.  We expressed our interest to the coordinator at the donation center and things were set in motion.
In the whirlwind that has been the past two weeks, we've gone from getting our first profile, to having met with the donor couple and drafting the open agreement for the adoption.  Needless to say, we're pretty overwhelmed and excited and...well, there's about a million different adjectives that I could use here.
Yes, that's just an overview.  Yes, this first post is long and yes, I realize that some of you might never come back to read again.  But we want to share our story with family and friends in hopes that God will use it in your lives as much as He has used it in ours on this road of what started out as infertility.  But what is now a road of acceptance and faith.