12 Days of Giving, Day 5

For Day 5, I was so bummed to have to miss a huge event that my committee for Tippy Connect has been working on since August. Since our sponsorship of Big Brothers Big Sisters ends this month, we decided to put together a holiday celebration and invite kids who were in need of Bigs, along with fellow Tippy Connect members and other people from the community who had an interest in becoming a Big or learning about BBBS, and we held a Holiday Big Drive for BBBS. We put together stockings for the kids and collected games and school supplies for BBBS and the kids. Back in August, Josh and I took advantage of the great back-to-school sales and spent about $30 to get a TON of school supplies. We got all of the crayons you see in the box, along with just as many markers and some other supplies. Then at a few of our Tippy Connect After Hours, we were able to offer free appetizers to individuals who donated $5 or brought a game or school supplies, so some of those supplies are seen below, too. We raised just over $115, so we were able to use that money to buy some more things for the kids. And Josh was nice enough to help us out with the books you see below. They're from the Kohl's Cares for Kids program and they are leftovers, so Kohl's is able to donate them to local kids programs. So it was nice that each kid got to go home with a stocking full of candy and school supplies and also a book, and then BBBS had a lot of games and some books to keep there at the office for when the kids come there.

Josh and I had signed up to go to the Big Drive, but it turned out that it was held the evening of my surgery, so we had to miss it. I was excited to see that it made the top story of our local news, so I got to see how it turned out...a little bit at least. I'm pretty sure we had several people sign up to become Bigs and also someone who was interested in joining the BBBS Board, so I think the night was a real success. Josh and I are considering becoming a Big Couple so that we can spend time volunteering but still spend time together, too.

12 Days of GIving, Day 4

So I have obviously gotten a little sidetracked from doing my 12 Days of Giving. I am still hoping to complete it, I just may have to do a few things in one day...or it may go a little past Christmas. Either way, for Day 4, we chose the Almost Home Humane Society. There are so many needy pets and it's just heartbreaking. We got some things together to take over...and we were sure to even remember the cats! We got some dog and cat toys and treats. Hopefully they'll help out a little bit.

our baby is gone

Sometimes life just isn't fair. We went for our 10 week appointment yesterday and there was no heartbeat. Our doctor said the baby stopped growing at about 9 weeks. I will have surgery on Thursday morning and they will do genetic tests and we may be able to find out what the baby was.

We are hurting so much right now and pretty much just trying to make it through the days but we appreciate everyone's prayers. Please pray for our sweet angel and for our families who are all hurting with us.

I don't regret sharing our news before the first trimester was up. We saw the heartbeat at one appointment and heard it at another and everything seemed to be moving along perfectly. Our baby was loved beyond words by so many people after we shared our news so I will never regret it. I am just sorry that so many people have to hurt with us now. We don't know what happened; I am trying not to blame myself. I try to think that there was nothing I could have done but it's a very difficult thing when your own body betrays you in this way.

Please lift our baby up and pray for peace and comfort for Josh and I and our families. We will get through this together just as we have the past 3 years' worth of struggles.

Jordy's Holiday Party

Shell and Dan had their Holiday party this year and somehow I forgot to take any meaningful pictures. Instead, I have a bunch of pictures of Jenny bopping around the house and popping up in pictures here and there. Makes me laugh so hard!!

Anyway, here are a few that I do have. We had just taken a real picture, but it didn't turn up on my camera, so it must be on someone else's. Instead, I get one of me cracking up at Shell and Jenny.2 years ago, Jace wore this hilarious Women's XXL holiday sweater and it might have been the funniest thing I have ever seen. This year, he and Laura wrapped the sweater up and Shell & Dan's neighbor won it in the gift exchange. Billy won the Snuggie that Josh and I took. I told him to hug the snuggie and this is the look I got:
Here are some more funny pictures of Jenny. Here she is hugging Jace:

And here she is hugging Billy:

Makes me laugh!! Needless to say, it was a really fun night. It was the first time we had seen a lot of our friends since announcing our pregnancy, so it was fun to celebrate with them. I'm just bummed that I didn't get any pictures of Josh and I or any real pictures with friends. :(

12 Days of Giving, Day 3

Day 3 was several months of work coming to an end!! This year, my young professionals organization decided to do a silent auction during our annual gala. I volunteered to chair the committee and it ended up being a LOT of work! I had a few people helping me (1 helped a ton, others, here and there), but essentially, it came down to a lot of work for two of us! However, I think it turned out really well. We got a lot of compliments on the variety of items and had a few really amazing big ticket items including a huge piece of artwork and a party with a private sushi chef. We raised almost $1,000 over our original goal, so I call it a success!

Here are the only pictures that I remembered to snag at the very beginning of the auction. It looks a little disorganized, but I swear it wasn't! Do you see a very handsome guy in this picture?:

Overall, this was a really fun event. Josh was so helpful and our entire loft was taken over by the 60+ auction items, but I think it was worth it!

12 Days of Giving, Day 2

For Day 2, I supported a great cause, plus got a treat in return! Over the years, I have absolutely loved the concept behind the (PRODUCT)RED line at the Gap, with Starbucks and with Motorola. A portion of the proceeds from RED products goes toward helping to fight AIDS in Africa. On this particular day, Starbucks donated 5 cents for every drink, so it was the LEAST I could do! If you think about the millions of hand crafted drinks they made that day, it was a really big contribution! Plus, I had to indulge in a cranberry bliss bar because it's my favorite wintertime treat from Startucks and we were celebrating because we were on our way home from seeing our baby's heartbeat again! (NOTE: I did *not* have any caffeine, I swear.)

(Top: Wendi, Susan; Bottom: Debbie, Cyndy, Denise)

Also, I wanted to share this cute picture of my coworkers. I took a tray of cranberry bliss bars in and was going to count that as one of my 12 Days of Giving, but Josh said it doesn't count because they're not needy! TRUE! So instead I will just call it a thank you. They were all so incredibly supportive during our quest for a baby, and all told me at different times that they were praying, so cranberry bliss bars are the least I can do to say thank you! They were all so excited about our news!

12 Days of Giving, Day 1

Every year, Josh and I figure out some way to give back during the holidays. For the past few years, we have spent most of our efforts on Jubilee Christmas at church. We usually donate a lot of toys that Josh picks up for inexpensively throughout the year at work and they are used for the "shopping" portion of Jubilee Christmas where the parents get to go in three or four different times to pick items out for their children in addition to the ones that were purchased by a sponsor. In addition to that, we typically select two or three children to buy for, so we get a list of clothing items and toys that they want and we go shop for them.

This year, I was inspired by my friend Laura to take a different approach to holiday giving. Many of my blogger buddies did a similar thing in the month of November where tried to give back in some way every day. I didn't get it together in time to do that, so when Laura told me about her plan for giving back throughout the month of December (I think she's doing every day, which is sooo ambitious!), I decided to get on board! I thought it would be fun to do 12 Days of Giving, so Josh and I sat down and tried to think of some different things that we could do throughout the community. It's been fun!!

For Day 1, we donated to Laura's Christmas Gift Drive. She knew of a family that was struggling this year, so she decided to raise money to help them and shopped at a store that is locally owned (she is in Ft. Wayne) to help out the owners, too. I'm so impressed with her generosity and thankful for the inspiration! This is a great way for us to give back to the community because we understand that we lead very blessed lives but there are so many people who do not. It's something that is on our hearts and we've had fun picking out some of the things we're going to do to give back. Stay tuned for more updates!!

priceless!

6(+) Rounds of Clomid.....................................................$$
3 Rounds of Femara.........................................................$$
4 Months of Acupuncture.................................................$$
Dozens of pregnancy tests & OPKs....................................$$
2 Rounds of Injectable Drugs............................................$$$
5 IUIs...............................................................................$$$
2 Hysterosalpingograms...................................................$$$$
1 Hysteroscopy & Laproscopy Surgery...............................$$$$$
2 Reproductive Endocrinologists......................................$$$$$
Finding out we're PREGNANT after 38
months of trying, and even having basically
scheduled IVF for January...................................................PRICELESS!!!!!

Yes, my friends, you read that correctly! The Wright's are havin' a baby!!!

Now, for the sappy part...
We cannot express to you how much we have appreciated the past 3 years' worth of your support, your prayers, your kind words, your thoughts, your willingness to grieve with us, to get frustrated and angry with us, to laugh with us and to lift us up. We have had the most supportive and loving families and friends through this incredibly difficult journey. We have so appreciated those of you who have asked about how things are going, offered support or just an ear and a shoulder. You will never know the amount of gratitude that we have. Thank you!!

We have tried very hard to remain positive through these 3 long years. We always tried (though we can't claim to have been perfect) to be excited and joyful about the news of friends' pregnancies. We tried to see the bright side and tried to remain hopeful that our day would come. We have enjoyed being newlyweds, getting to travel, and truly settling into what we think is a pretty amazing marriage. We enjoyed the financial freedom and the ability to create a stable and loving home for our future children, not only financially, but also emotionally and maritally. But you all know that we had one teeny tiny, yet oh-so gigantic, missing piece, that, as much as we love Kowe and Luke, two little dogs just couldn't fill.

There are few things that will test a marriage like infertility. It is straining in every way imaginable...emotionally, spiritually, physically, romantically, financially...it is not an easy road. But we like to think we did it with a little bit of grace. We have said all along that WHEN it happened, we would know it was RIGHT, and it was perfect. Today, we would not take back one day of our journey....not one day, one tear, one breath, one dollar. Because today, we are overjoyed and humbled that we have been blessed with OUR miracle baby. THIS is the baby that we have waited for. THIS is our precious gift and we can say unequivocally that THIS baby was worth every moment of the wait. Our difficulties have only made this pregnancy that much sweeter. We think we're able to appreciate it on a deeper level, to anticipate with greater understanding of the blessings we have been given, and to celebrate in a way that we would not have been able to do had we gotten pregnant on our honeymoon as we had hoped all those years ago. Don't get me wrong, we would certainly have been overjoyed, but I just mean to say that we are thankful for everything we have learned, the friendships we have built, the support and unconditional love we have seen from others and from each other. We would not have known those things without this struggle. There has never in the history of mankind been a MORE wanted baby! And there have never been two people MORE in love with a little kidney bean-sized sweetheart.

SO....that's that! We're pregnant! Roughly 8 weeks as of this past Monday and we heard the heartbeat tonight. We are due in mid-July and we're on cloud 9!

Pumpkin Carving with my Buddies

Like I mentioned before, Griff and Linc were both really sick this past week. I hadn't seen them in TOO long and Shell and Dan hadn't been out together in a long time either, so I went over to hang with my sicky buddies for a while on Saturday night. You would never know that they were so sick because they were both full of energy and very smiley.

We decided to carve a pumpkin which turned out far better than expected. Here are my little pumpkin carving directors:And here they are with the finished product:

Double Date

This past weekend, we had a double date with Jeff & Laura. Shell and Dan were supposed to come but they had 2 sick little guys. :( There are some advantages to being child-free, we have to admit! First we went to Bruno's for some dough balls, pizza and beer. YUUUM! Then we headed to the movie theater to watch Couples Retreat. However, they were sold out by the time we got there, so we decided to grab tickets for the next showing and then headed over to the pottery place. Laura and I loved it...Josh and Jeff complied. :)Love this pic. (Isn't their bowl great?!) I'm pretty sure Josh was documenting a friendly disagreement and Jeff is laughing:

Here's our pumpkin, I can't wait to see how it turns out!:

Purdue Football Season!!

Here are some pictures from various games through the season. It's been an overall disappointing season, but still nothing beats football festivities.

Shell at the Notre Dame tailgate: Funny times with some ND fans:

They taught us a few fun tricks, as Shell demonstrates: Eric & Danny at the game:

Shell, me, Laura and Jenny @ the ND game

Josh and I at homecoming:

Best picture of the season! This is as the fans started rushing the field after the huge Ohio State upset! We deserved it and it had been quite a while since I was at a game worthy of a field rushing...it felt awesome!!

Anniversary/Work Trip to Philadelphia

In what seems to be a new tradition, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary (Happy Anniversary to us!!) on a little getaway that we combined with one of my work trips. If you remember, last year, we headed to San Francisco. This year, I had a conference in Philadelphia, so Josh decided to come along since we had neither one ever been.

We started the trip off right by visiting the Reading Market and sharing our first Philly Cheesesteak. Here's Josh enjoying a bite:

Then we decided to have a strawberry & nutella crepe for dessert. We always love when we find good crepes because there was a great creperie at the Sandals on our honeymoon, so it takes us back to that fabulous vacation!
Next, we headed to Eastern State Penitentiary. Funny enough, last year in San Francisco, we toured Alcatraz. Maybe it will be part of our annual tradition!

Here is a creepy chair from the barber shop.

This is me being freaked out while listening to the part that talked about ghosts. It was a creepy place, especially considering that this prison was the first to introduce complete solitary confinement for ALL prisoners, no matter the crime. It goes without saying that many a men lost their minds while behind these walls! CREEPY!

Next, we walked to the Museum of Art to do the obligatory Rocky Run up the steps. Here's Josh taking his handsome calves for a quick run up:

And here we are by the statue:

Next, we strolled through the city and found the JFK Plaza, also known as Love Park. A must see while in the City of Brotherly Love, especially while doing so WITH your love!

We ate well. That's for sure. Last year, we did a Chicago Chocolate tour, remember that?, and we have since kept up with Valerie through Facebook and her newsletter and the week before she left, she sent pictures out of a recent trip that she did to Philly where she did a chocolate tour of the city. We (I) jumped on that and we took her recommendation and checked out Max Brenner. Chocolate is their specialty and even the french fries had cocoa in them! I was in heaven. The food was fantastic, the dessert was even better!!

Look at that chocolatey, caramelly goodness! Here you have a happy girl (with Josh's dessert):

And this was my dessert, hot chocolate:

They serve the hot chocolate in these great little cups called Hug Mugs. Soooo warm and comforting!

You can't exactly visit Philadelphia without getting a little history in, so we spent a day seeing the sights. Here is a picture of Old City Hall:

Here we are at the Liberty Bell:

And we had to do Philadelphia's version of a good luck wish, which is to throw a penny of Ben Franklin's grave:

We also toured Betsy Ross' and did a few other fun history-filled things.

Later, we found another of Valerie's suggestions, Naked Cafe. Here, we tried European Hot Chocolate, which is served in these tiny cups because it is so thick and strong. But good! Did I mention we ate well?

We also went to a place called the Magic Gardens. My coworker, Denise, saw it on Samantha Brown's show and we were excited to see it! It was amazing!!! Essentially, it is a work in progress and they are covering everything with mosaics. They have done this in several different areas around the city, giving a facelift to many old and run down buildings and neighborhoods. Pretty neat.

There were all kinds of levels and hidden areas. You could get lost.

Three points if you can find Josh's cute face!:

One night after my conference, we headed out for drinks at the City Tavern. We got this little tester which contains beer made from original recipes of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and Hancock, or so they claim. It was interesting and the beer was surprisingly good.

Another night, we caught a Phillies game. Actually, we were there the night THIS happened, which was pretty funny.

As a surprise for our anniversary, Josh surprised me with this cupcake that should have been ILLEGAL! I think he said it was called something about "my boyfriend broke up with me" because it had every kind of goodness imaginable. Sooo good!

I leave you with what might be the funniest picture of the weekend. I make no secret of my dislike for minivans. I know people love them and they work for a lot of people but I just don't happen to plan on ever being one of those people. Ever. I arranged to pick my rental car up halfway through the trip when I would be traveling on the outskirts of the city a little more. Unfortunately for me, that meant having to pick the car up at a nearby hotel's Avis counter. They only had 1 car left by the time my conference and alumni visit let out, and that car was....you guessed it...a minivan! The girl at the counter and Josh both had some fun laughing at my reaction and immediate refusal to drive the thing. I didn't have much of a choice in the end, so I did it. But I can tell you that driving a minivan in downtown Philadelphia and in the towns surrounding the city (have I mentioned that Pennsylvania has the most narrow roads in America?!) might as well have been the same as driving a bus for me. It was huge. A few tree limbs lost their lives, but no one was hurt by the driving of this vehicle. Except maybe my ego.