Answers For The Questions

Over the last couple of months, I've shared my concerns and thoughts on some fairly significant issues.  Will we have another child?  Will I go back to work?  What are we going to do about Samuel's intestinal issues?  I realize that unless you've bothered to ask me in person, I've left you wondering in suspense what our decisions would be.  Honestly, the reason I haven't updated you is because we were still waiting for some answers ourselves!

As for the question of whether or not we will try again....yes.  We will.  We even have a timeline set up for when that should happen (and it's not anytime soon so don't get too excited!)  Very recently, I switched to a new doctor - whom I ADORE! - and we talked through my concerns.  We also learned that I have something called a "luteal phase defect" which can be associated with infertility as well as loss of pregnancy (HA!)  He wondered why no one had caught it before now.  Gee.  So it looks like I will be taking the fertility drug Clomid in the coming days in order to correct the issue.  I feel so relieved that we have a course of action!

I will not be going back to teaching in the fall.  It's hard for me to believe that yet another school year will begin without me (not that the world revolves around me!)  I miss teaching those little first graders more than I can say, but taking care of Samuel is far more important right now.

As of last week, I had not heard anything back from Children's Hospital about Samuel's intestinal stricture.  We were supposed to get an appointment with the surgery department, but we were never contacted.  I gave them a call and it looks like the GI doctor and the surgeon decided that the stricture wasn't large enough to worry about....in fact, they may do more damaged trying to correct it.   Hopefully Samuel will eventually outgrow the issues on his own.  For now, we are going to continue monitoring his weight gain and his eating.  Yay for good news!

I'm always quick to share our struggles with you....but I want to be just as quick to share our victories!  So in that spirit, I want to tell you how GREAT life has been recently.  Samuel feels more 'normal' than ever before.  His issues are becoming increasingly less significant by the day.  He has grown up TREMENDOUSLY in the past few weeks and is entering into the long-awaited toddler stage.  We are happily adventuring out of the house as much as we can before the winter-isolation begins again.  Life is SO GOOD.  SO so good.  It's as if we are finally seeing the sun after all of these months.

And you know what?  I'm thanking God over and over and over again for it!