WHAT A DAY!!!

WOW! I can't remember a more memorable, fantastic day! My wonderful husband threw me a surprise party (I think my mom and sister had a few hands in it as well), and it was off the charts. It took place at Monastero's, the restaurant where Paul's dad has worked for 40+ years. We go there quite a bit to visit his dad, and a good majority of his family's parties are held there. I walked in the front door and the surprise was revealed when I saw my brother and Michael (nephew) walk across the area where I was, running to get out of site and into the room. That's when I really knew something was up.

I was so nervous walking into that room, but it was overwhelming!! There were SO MANY people there!! My family (immediate, cousins, aunts, uncles, and even some from Paul's side...everyone!) and my friends (some close by, some from far away!) all gathered in my honor. It was more than I could have asked for!

A few hours into the party, we got the news we were waiting for: the embryos. There was a message on the home voice mail from the doctor who called to say that we didn't have 18 eggs retrieved but 19, and of those, 16 fertilized. That's an incredibly HUGE number! Now, realize that many of those have to go the entire 5 days until implantation, so it's possible that not all will make it, but I think we have a reeeeeeally good chance of getting a decent number. Last year when we went through this, we had 15 retrieved (not all considered to be mature) and only 6 fertilized. Not so this year--all of the eggs were mature, hence the huge number fertilized.

We'll have 3 implanted next Wednesday. Any leftovers will be frozen (provided there are 2 or more, and it's likely there will be). If we have success and end up with 1, 2, or 3 kids, we'll decide from there what to do with the extras. Paul and I are HUGE proponents of stem cell research, which can only come from embryos such as these. We donated one sole embryo last year, and we'll likely do that again if we have extras. We know what the moral implications are, and how many churches feel about this sort of thing, but it's something we both agree strongly on, especially having family members and friends with cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's, ALS, etc. If our donation can, in any way, help find a cure for one of these, that makes it all worthwhile.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

My amazing husband is about to finish my birthday evening with a bowl of Oberweis ice cream. We stopped on the way home and picked some up. As we say, we won't vote for the man, but we'll eat his ice cream (one Oberweis ran for public office recently, but he's a terrible, unpopular Republican).

Thank you ALL for making today an incredible one that I'll never forget!!