Happy New Year Babies! It's the year of your birth!

I love New Year's Eve...and of course New Year's Day. It's like our once a year chance to "start over", do things we didn't do the year before, stop doing things we shouldn't have been doing the year before, and just generally wipe the slate clean and get out a new you! Except this year was a little different.

2008 was another difficult year for Brian and me. By no means do I claim that we had it harder than anyone else, because trust me, I KNOW we all have issues. But as it relates to getting pregnant, it is a struggle that can only be fully understood by those who have been down that road. I began 2008 right off the bat with two surgeries following a miscarriage. While that left us with some new hope as we ventured into our 4th InVitro, we were devastated yet again when my overly stressed body failed to even produce enough viable eggs to go forth with another IVF cycle.

So we let a few months go by...frankly unsure about how to proceed. I felt like my body had finally given up trying to have a baby, I went from producing 18 eggs my first IVF cycle to 3 that last time....hope was not on our forefront. I don't know what changed down the road for us...perhaps it was going back to church, maybe it was positive thoughts from friends and family, who knows. But something in us said "GO FOR IT....One last time..." So back to the shots we went. This time I only produced 7 eggs. (not great) However, all of them fertilized! (good news) But after 3 days, only 4 of them had continued to divide. (only 4?? NOT great). However, those 4 were the strongest embryos we'd produced so far in ANY of our 5 IVFs. (Ok, looking better!). So anyway, if you recall, even in a normal attempt to get pregnant, each embryo only has a 25% chance at best of turning into a viable pregnancy. So by transferring 4 embryos, we had strong hopes that at least ONE should implant in my newly cleaned out uterus!

Well, the rest, as you know by now, is history. Someone was looking down on us that day because we are currently 22 Weeks and 1 day pregnant with TRIPLETS. That is what you call beating the odds! So, while 2008 started out on a rather depressing note, it ended on the best note I could ever imagine...I am so grateful for everything we've gone through to get to this day.

Though my back aches tremendously with the weight the three babies are putting on it, and though my sleep has already been reduced to a few hours each night, I try and remember what it took to get here and I am reminded that it is worth every ache and pain, and then some.

Life is short. This I think we all know. And I am just so blessed for all the heartache AND the triumph because finally, we are going to be parents!! And when the clock struck midnight and 2009 came in the door, I knew that things were good. This is the year our babies will finally be born. :)

Happy New Year to you all. I wish you all the hope and the blessings that YOU need to make 2009 a prosperous, healthy and happy new year.

Brian, Me, Mom and Dad ringing in 2009!

Sarah, Ami and Anabelle...please notice how BOTH Sarah and I felt it was OK to sport the

1985 leggings once again! Gotta love fashion!

This is Brian and Anabelle (or Brian and his FUN wife!) The Bunches and the Pearsons have a long standing joke that though we each love our Wives and Husbands, sometimes they're not very fun. So, we have traded. Anabelle is my Brian's "fun wife" and he is her "fun husband".

On the same token, I am HER Brian's "fun wife" and he is my "fun husband!" It's good to have friends that are equally fun! :)